Question about cars in Japan

Nephew

I realise that nearly all Japanese imports here are clocked, I often see the likes of a 1998 honda civic advertised with 30,000km, they should try to be somewhat more imaginative. Anyway, I was browsing this site earlier www.japaneseusedcars.com and I stumbled upon this

So why do we recommend buying a Japanese import? Because Japanese imports are good value.

Cars in Japan are generally not driven as rigorously as cars in Ireland and are generally kept in better condition. They are often cheaper too.

Sometimes cars imported to Ireland are resold by the original user and although cheaper, have lost the Japanese careful owner status.

GOOD VALUE : Cars lose their monetry value rapidly in Japan. A 5 year old car is worth only around 30% of it's original value. Why? The 'shaken' road worthiness test is extremely expensive, coercing Japanese owners into buying a new car-leaving a large pool of high quality, low cost cars for export.

GREAT CONDITION: Another effect of the Shaken is to make sure cars are kept in tip-top condition. Add to that the low mileage due to congested roads, and the pride Japanese take in looking after their vehicles and what we get is great looking cars!

Is it actually true that cars depreciate rapidly in Japan or just bull by the website to lull people into thinking that they're great value importing a 'low mileage' car.

colm_mcm

it gets very expensive to keep a car once it gets a few years old. Also new cars are quite cheap over there, given how much they get for them at auction relatie to how much they are new, it's more attractive to buy another new car.

KTRIC

same with motorbikes in japan, they have unimaginable amounts of the just sitting there waiting for export to the US and Europe. I've seen the pictures and its mind blowing.

bazz26

I think the Japanese version of the NCT is also very stringent especially emission testing, so it makes more financial sense to go out and buy a new car.

Dublinsausage

Nephew wrote:

I realise that nearly all Japanese imports here are clocked,

Is it actually true that cars depreciate rapidly in Japan

You are located in Kenya, then no big surprise that cars are clocked.

Normal for a car owner to keep their rig for 5 years max here in Japan

JHMEG

Maybe Dublinsausage could confirm the low miles (kms) thing. Is it true that there are loads of genuinely low miles cars, largely cos of congestion and tolls?

I know it's commonplace for average or high miles ones to be clocked on their way here or after they've landed, but having said that a careful shopper should be able to get a genuinely low miles car if they go about it the right way?

Dublinsausage

The road infrastructure here is getting better but that is not the whole reason for low Kms/mileage . After 3 years use of a new car we then have what is called " First Shaken " I suppose you could liken it to NCT . First Shaken is then good for another two years , after that it is not worth to keep a car because of the cost of the 2nd Shaken which is almost one third the price of a new car.

People usually trade in the old car at this stage hence the big industry in auctions for export. Before the Internet most cars were shipped to China , Russia, Pakistan, India etc.

It seems to me that having a car in Ireland is like a ball & chain around a persons neck , I'm hoping to return to Ireland in the next year or so and have taken a great interest in what's going on over there. BTW I am a bidder at auction here.

I do not want to go off topic here but may I ask , What is involved in NCT ? I used to live in London and know about MOT .

bazz26

Dublinsausage wrote:

The road infrastructure here is getting better but that is not the whole reason for low Kms/mileage . After 3 years use of a new car we then have what is called " First Shaken " I suppose you could liken it to NCT . First Shaken is then good for another two years , after that it is not worth to keep a car because of the cost of the 2nd Shaken which is almost one third the price of a new car.

People usually trade in the old car at this stage hence the big industry in auctions for export. Before the Internet most cars were shipped to China , Russia, Pakistan, India etc.

It seems to me that having a car in Ireland is like a ball & chain around a persons neck , I'm hoping to return to Ireland in the next year or so and have taken a great interest in what's going on over there. BTW I am a bidder at auction here.

I do not want to go off topic here but may I ask , What is involved in NCT ? I used to live in London and know about MOT .

Check out www.nct.ie

Dish

Dublinsausage wrote:

BTW I am a bidder at auction here.

I do not want to go off topic here but may I ask , What is involved in NCT ? I used to live in London and know about MOT .

Firstly, u bid on cars over there? So if I was to ask you to find me a car you could? I was on www.japaneseusedcars.com and saw loads of cars for so cheap that over here being sold for 20-30000!

NCT is similar to the MOT. Lights, emissions, tyres, etc!

tuxy

Did you add 21% vat then 30% vrt (on top of the price with vat) + shipping costs to your calculations?
Yes it's possible to save money importing cars. But not as much as you would think from looking at the prices in yen and not calculating all the costs of getting it on the road over here.

Dublinsausage

Dish wrote:

Firstly, u bid on cars over there? So if I was to ask you to find me a car you could?

Yes I live and work here and have access to all the auction houses right across Japan,

But let's not hijack this thread, The title is ''Question about cars in Japan'' Maybe a new thread with a title **Questions About.... etc etc would be more appropriate,


I was born in Bishop St Dub , Dragged up in Ballyer , Hoping to return to my roots.

Dish

tuxy wrote:

Did you add 21% vat then 30% vrt (on top of the price with vat) + shipping costs to your calculations?
Yes it's possible to save money importing cars. But not as much as you would think from looking at the prices in yen and not calculating all the costs of getting it on the road over here.

The site do that for you! Like it has shipping costs and taxes but no vrt just! If you jjust get the right cars you can make serious money out of it! I know a guy that does it! Has 2 Type R's sittin outside his brand new house!