Japanese Car Site

[syeve]

I just found this interesting. Not adding fuel to the RHD fire.

Check out these prices...Skline GTR's for $1,000, MR2's for $900...maybe not a bad idea to start an import biz :) Cost to ship over seas is ~$1,000/car if my calcs are right.

http://www.cwicars.com/

1992 Nissan Skyline
GTS-T Type M

2000cc Turbo, 5-Speed Manual
ABS, 2 Door Coupe
Sunroof, Alloys
Side Skirts, Turbo TImer
Rear Spoiler, Bigbore
M's K&N Air Cleaner
Timing Belt Changed
110,000km

120,000 yen ($1,100)
http://www.cwicars.com/stock737no1.jpg

[SkittleFreak]

Have you calculated customs, loading/unloading, shipping to appropriate, taxes, etc..

[syeve]

Yep, it's all on the site. If you ship it through them it's ~$1,600/car. That includes de-registration blah blah. I bet you could ship them cheaper if you dig some digging.


If it actually is that cheap, I bet we could order a few sweet track cars. I wouldn't drive one on the streets, I can barely drive as is.

[Destinova403]

wow... no wonder we see all those importing companies popping up everywhere... look at those margins.

[syeve]

^^exactly...and just browsing at some of the cars, they don't look half bad. If I could get a 92 GTS here for like $4k that would be PIMPY.

[calgarys_finest]

shipping is 1600 but you may alot more for other things for the exportation out of japan and importation into canada

[heavyD]

Originally posted by Destinova403
wow... no wonder we see all those importing companies popping up everywhere... look at those margins.

Junkyard gold for importers. They are getting better margins than what you would find on domestic used lots by far when you consider they probably have special freight rates and their own brokerage companies.

[SkittleFreak]

Also, Don't you need some sort of licence/permit to import cars?

[Accord_tunerx]

read sig...

[Eleanor]

Shhhhhhh, don't tell anyone ;)

[analbumcover]

Originally posted by syeve
I just found this interesting. Not adding fuel to the RHD fire.

Check out these prices...Skline GTR's for $1,000, MR2's for $900...maybe not a bad idea to start an import biz :) Cost to ship over seas is ~$1,000/car if my calcs are right.


http://www.cwicars.com/shipping.html

Where did you find $1000/car shipped?

[badatusrnames]

Originally posted by SkittleFreak
Also, Don't you need some sort of licence/permit to import cars?

No, but I'm pretty sure you need to hire a licensed customs broker...

[analbumcover]

Originally posted by syeve
^^exactly...and just browsing at some of the cars, they don't look half bad. If I could get a 92 GTS here for like $4k that would be PIMPY.

Pussy
In
My
Pocket
Yo

?? :rofl:

[inline6turbo]

Lol 1000$ for shipping

:nut:

Your 'cals' are way off!

[ottamania]

Originally posted by inline6turbo
Lol 1000$ for shipping

:nut:

Your 'cals' are way off!

RORO is 1k

[SkittleFreak]

Originally posted by analbumcover


http://www.cwicars.com/shipping.html

Where did you find $1000/car shipped?

None of those land in Vancouver either, or quotes to Vancouver.

Just another broker

[bituerbo]

Originally posted by badatusrnames


No, but I'm pretty sure you need to hire a licensed customs broker...

Teh False!
They don't like it, but you can go to any customs office (airport even) and clear anything you like. No fee either, but you do have to pay the duties/tax at this point.

[inline6turbo]

Originally posted by ottamania


RORO is 1k

ya and?
lol

thats just the fee to get your car on a boat!
theres a good 2k on top at least depending on how much the initial car cost is to get it. all those taxes (11% plus the 5% japan tax) and customs and washing and deregistration and omg expenses.

[heavyD]

Originally posted by inline6turbo


ya and?
lol

thats just the fee to get your car on a boat!
theres a good 2k on top at least depending on how much the initial car cost is to get it. all those taxes (11% plus the 5% japan tax) and customs and washing and deregistration and omg expenses.

That only applies to a person trying to bring a car themselves. These companies have people in Japan working for them and ship multiple vehicles. They buy a bunch of JDM junkers for $1000 each and have them shipped together in batches and with everything spread out averages to $3500-4000/vehicle that they flip here for $8-12K to the kids. If the margins were low they wouldn't be in business long.

[inline6turbo]

I was only arguing the 1000$ shipping expense which you just agreed with:


averages to $3500-4000/vehicle

So... yea you're right :)

[heavyD]

Originally posted by inline6turbo
So... yea you're right :)

I know. I hear it all the time especially from women.;)

[analbumcover]

Originally posted by heavyD


I know. I hear it all the time especially from women.;)

haha bullshit

not because you are wrong

but because women will never admit they are :devil:

[heavyD]

Originally posted by analbumcover
but because women will never admit they are :devil:

Ha ha ha. It was tough to type that with a straight face lol. I've never won an argument with a women according to her even if I was right most of the time.

[calgarys_finest]

some of the other fees are for exporting marine insurance, container packing, export agent fee, shipping agent fee,
inland transport cost and shipping fees

and importing some would be gst, pst, air conditioning fee, destuffing cost, port fees, customs fees, documentations fees and inspection fees. all of those add up quite fast.

your 1000 bucks (which is cheap) can turn into 4000 pretty fast and your 1000 dollor car just turned into 5-6k. The higher the cost of the car the more the other costs raise too.

[stinky_1]

let me know when your $1000 skyline gets here. I would love to go in a ride in it:thumbsup:

As already noted by a few, the cost of the car is REALLY not the high part. What you are NOT looking at is that they will tack on an "agent fee" to the cost of the car. So, "yes" you can buy the car for $1000. Then pay another $1000 for the agent fee. Usually this will include the costs to get it to the dock and sit there.

Then there is shipping. which if done by roro is another $800 - $1000. Then you can do customs yourself, so you save $250. BUT, you still have to pay the taxes, AC tax, and all that fun stuff.

Now you have a car in vancouver for around $2800 - $4000 (depending on which options you chose).

So, are you gonna move to vancouver so you dont have to ship it here, or are you gonna bring the car here?

If you have it shipped here look at another $1000. If you can convince hansons to rail it over you will pay $650. But they dont want to deal with them anymore.

OR, you could fly out, pick it up and drive it back. But since it has been sitting in a japanese scrap yard for the past 10 years waiting for a dumb canadian to buy it how well do you think it will get through the mountain pass? (sarcasm intended to play on the assumptions of the uneducated) Doing it this way "could" cost you around $500 or less. If you do it on the VERY cheap, you could greyhound yourself out there for $100. Then pack a bunch of sandwhiches so you dont buy any food, and just cover the gas to drive it back ($150). So you COULD get it to calgary for around $300.

So, now you have a car for $3300 - $4500.

Now what??

Well, now you need to OOP it. SO, the OOP costs you $130 up front. They tell you what all fails, then you need to fix that. IF you are mechanical, and can do the repairs yourself you only have to buy parts. These guys you bought the car from wont deal on parts, so you have to go local. Or find a new source from japan. In my experience you will have around $300- $1000 worth of parts you need to buy. It is VERY rare for ANY car to pass an out of province inspection without needing something. Even a year old car will usually fail on some point.

So, now your car is $4000 at the VERY cheapest, to $5000.

Now, Lets have a look online and see what a skyline is being listed for

Going price is between $5500 - $8000. So, they may not be "losing" money on the sale, but they are certainly NOT getting rich off them.

At this point, unless the car you want is UBER rare, the BEST place to find a good quality JDM car for a reasonable price is the bargain finder, Usedcalgary, Kijiji, or even on the Beyond FS section. Its difficult to get a car into canada, and in to Calgary AND through an OOP for less than $5500. And beleive me, I have CERTAINLY tried.

I know there is a guy in usedcalgary trying to say he can get you a car for $4000. But he is either lying through his teeth, or he is NOT including actually making the car legal in his price.

My general rule of thumb is to take the FOB value of the car (NOT the auction value) and add $3000 to it. You will be in the ball park for the FINAL cost on getting it here and legal. and I have done this more than a few times. I keep a spread sheet of ALL the cars I have a part in so I can keep track of this sort of thing. If your not buying my story come on over and I can show it to you and walk you through the process.

[stinky_1]

should also point out, that ANY used car dealer in japan could NEVER match the volume that a new car dealer does in shipping. With Mazda scooping up a LOT of roro spots you would have a hard time convincing the shipping company to give you a break on the price for your 10, 20, 30, or even 50 vehicles, when they already have a boat full of 1,000's of New vehicles.

A container costs around $5000 to ship, and you can fit 4 vehicles in there. So in a container it will be around $1250 each. BUT then you have to pay a destuffing fee at this end, and usually warehouse storage fees. Those add up to just over $500. So the shippiing method is MUCH safer, and your car will USUALLY come with everything still on it. But you add another $800 to the costs.

If you go roro, expect ANY boost gauges, shift knobs, and nice stereos to go missing LONG before you get your car. For some reason the guys in the shipping yards have sticky fingers and the ONLY way to get their hand off the boost gauge is to remove it from the car.

[nbaker00]

I know nothing about importing from Japan so I can't confirm the following. I did look at my friend BMW 850 which he imported from Japan and he told me after all his shipping and duty and messing around he was into the car for only $2600:eek:

[stinky_1]

I find that talking with people about how much they paid to import the car they tend to leave stuff out. If you want to know what I am talking about ask an SUV driver how good their gas milage is. They tend to round UP for how far they went, and round DOWN for how much gas it took.

Same thing with importing. They dont include the cost to get it to calgary. And then they forget to mention the entire OOP process. I had a discussion with a guy where he was saying that he knew a guy that could get ANY car I wanted from japan for $1500. I said, sure, but its still in japan! He said it didnt matter.

If we could all buy stuff and have it magically appear where we are it would be great. My brother has 20 acres on the moon too. He bought it for $10. Does that mean that he can buy 20 acres in calgary for the same $10?? Not really.

If anyone says they have a car in calgary and it cost them less than $4500 AND its registered and driveable I would call BS on him. And then ask to see his paperwork.

"IF" he got the car for FREE, and the guy in japan that looked after shipping it to the dock owed him a favor so he covered that cost, then MAYBE he could get the car for $2500. Otherwise, there is some funny rounding involved in his costs.

[syeve]

yah, looking into the prices of shipping and costs a little more a landed skyline for $4k is a little on the low side. I just thought it was crazy how cheap they are acutally selling IN Japan. Some of the cars look really nice to me. Might just pick up a landed one here, for $6-7k and $5k in engine upgrades I bet you could make a pretty sweet track car.

[stinky_1]

what you need to realize as well, in japan a student working part time at Mcd's can walk in to most dealerships and buy a car. They will finance just about anyone. So the demand for a "used" car in japan is relatively low.

In the end, an imported vehicle is really a VERY small portion of the cost. But you have to still consider those costs as adding to the "investment" into the entire vehicle. Fortunately even after your done paying all the incidentals most of these vehicles are still good value. You will find the guys with the "junkers" are the ones that are buying the $500 skylines, and bending laws and rules to get them in for under the $4000 mark. In the long run though these cars eventually cost them MUCH more money.

If you are seriously looking at importing a vehicle let me know. I can set you off in the right direction with contacts and more accurate numbers. You can see my spread sheet that I use to track ALL my incidentals. If you were just curious then at least now you know not to believe everything you see or read. I encourage you to NOT believe me and do some digging for yourself. I bet you will find I speak the truth in the end.