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Japanese Import Car - Garage might be trying to sell me a 2013 car but claiming it as a 2014

  • 09-10-2023 9:28pm
    #1
    aoraki
    Registered Users Posts: 132 ✭✭


    Hi,

    I am currently looking at buying a Japanese import car. The local garage who specialise in Japanese imports got some new stock in recently and I test drove a car that they are saying is a 2014 car. The car appears to be in good nick from what I can see and has low mileage. I decided to go ahead with the purchase and put a holding deposit down while they go about getting the car registered, NCT'd etc.

    In the meantime I was wondering if it was possible to get vehicle history on Japanese cars and I discovered the CarVX.jp website. I entered the Chassis number that the garage gave me and the website displayed some basic info (such as Make, Model, Year) to make sure it was the same car before you purchase the report. The make and model matched but the carvx.jp website showed the year as 2013/7 and not 2014.

    This struck me as concerning and I went ahead and ordered the full report from CarVX. Does anybody have any experience using this website, is it accurate? Could they potentially have the year wrong? I haven't purchased a japanese import before. To be clear the dealership in question has been around for as long as I can remember, they seem to be up front in my dealings with them and have a decent reputation from what I can gather. They claim they only import Grade 4 cars and above.

    But I would be curious to hear people's thoughts on this. I'll know more when I get the full report. But would this be a major red flag if the car is 2013 and they are selling it as a 2014 (my thinking on this is that if they are misrepresenting the year, what else are they misrepresenting)



Comments

  • #2
    Atlantic Dawn
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 83,858 ✭✭✭✭Atlantic Dawn
    M


    The build date on the VIN is just that, the date it was built, if the car gets registered on 1st January 2014 it's a 2014 car for registration purposes, if it gets registered on 31st December 2013 its a 2013 car. Plenty of cars on roads in Ireland would have been sitting in compounds for months to be sold in January of the following year.

    I wouldn't worry about it at all, full report will mention 1st registration in Japan as being from 1st January 2014 onwards.



  • #3
    aoraki
    Registered Users Posts: 132 ✭✭aoraki


    Thanks for the reply, that makes sense (and sets my mind at ease!). I would have been very surprised if the garage in question was trying to falsify the year especially when people can verify that themselves using vehicle history websites like the one I used. Japanese imports is their bread and butter and anybody that I know that have bought from them seem to be happy.

    I’m curious to see the full vehicle history report, if nothing else to reassure myself that I’m not buying a banger!

    Post edited by aoraki on


  • #4
    User1998
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,244 ✭✭✭User1998


    The export certificate will show the year and month the car was registered. Tell the garage to show you that if your concerned.



  • #5
    aoraki
    Registered Users Posts: 132 ✭✭aoraki


    Got the detailed report today, including the assessor reports from the Car Auction in Japan. It's exactly like you said @Atlantic Dawn, the car was manufactured in July 2013 but was first registered in Japan in Jan 2014.

    I'm glad I got the report, the car history and the assessor reports look very clean. I'm reassured that everything is above board. Looking forward to getting the car now.

    Thanks for your help!



  • #6
    eamonnq
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,012 ✭✭✭eamonnq


    Check with your inusrance company if they will insure a Japanese import, you might be ok if you are just changing the car on a policy but most providers that I have tried to access a quote from wil not insure Japanese Imports. I had to use AXA but they are twice the price that I had been paying, but I need to shop around a bit and see if i can get it cheaper, but a lot of the companies just say that they don't insure them at all. Must be a lot of business for the ones that do, with the amount of Japanese imports on the roads these days.



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  • #7
    aoraki
    Registered Users Posts: 132 ✭✭aoraki


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121222912#Comment_121222912

    I had no problem with insurance. The car passed it's NCT in Ireland, has no mods and has an alarm and immobiliser installed. No issues at all.



  • #8
    eamonnq
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,012 ✭✭✭eamonnq


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121223085#Comment_121223085

    Thats strange, nearly every company I contacted said that they don't insure japanese imports at all. I had thought that there would have been no issues due to the amount of these cars on the road here, but I will contact a few more and see if they can at least quote me.



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