Japanese Imports - Too good to be true?

Definitely true that Japanese imports are less likely to have immobilisers.

Some things you need to be aware of before buying:

1. While many Japanese imports come with an immobiliser, thieves and joyriders can still target them because they may think it hasn't an immobiliser. They can still damage the car breaking into it before they realise that the car cannot be taken without the key. Damage can include breaking windows or bending door frames to gain entry.
2. Thieves also target the catalytic converter on hybrids (import or not) as the materials used in them is quite valuable. There are lots of cctv videos on youtube of thieves cutting the catalytic converter off within 5 mins.

So if you park your car on shared space or somewhere unsecured such as on street parking then I'd seriously consider the above before buying.

There are some hybrid models that are preferable to cat thieves, they do contain more precious metals , I disturbed a thief in the act having a go at a brand new transit , I took their reg & rang my local garda station , they didn't want his reg & said they'd send a car , it never arrived !

Possibly, some cars the cat is underneath, some it's in the dowpipes which you'd need to get under bonnet to get at.

You took the words out of my mouth, I have a Honda Insight that is 13 years old, have it 7 years and have put seventy thousand kms on it and not one thing has gone wrong. Has flown through every NCT. As Hellrazer says use only the specific Honda hybrid engine oil and Honda filters and it will give no trouble.

Colleague of mine has dabbled in imports and was telling me about the Japanese Audis alright on TCV so I had a look and there looks to be some great cars - mostly petrol of course but that's to be expected (and I didn't think an A8 would look good in white, but I learned something new!)

Prices look good too but how does it work out in the end after import taxes, VRT (especially if the variant isn't sold here) and insurance? Is it really just spec you're benefitting from now, or is there still value to be had?

The other issue of course is trade-ins. I have no interest in private selling and would need to be able to swap from the current car to a new one. Are there many non-main dealers bringing these in?

What is your budget? Maybe you might get more options or better value.

Buying a Honda Fit and limiting yourself to non hybrid isn’t a great idea. There are 500 Honda Fits here and only 50 are non hybrid.

I haven’t heard of any of them giving trouble with the hybrid system. If your limiting yourself to non hybrids you’d be better off looking at something else like a Toyota Vitz or Mazda Demio or something

i had a fit hybryd for about 4 years, and got up to 300k km in it, super reliable, got about 5l/100km out of it, loved it, but, needed something bigger in the end.

if you get one, service it at the intervils, the cvt oil changes are every 50k km, bit expensive, but not hard to do, every 100kkm spark plugs need to be changed, theres 8 and iridium, which is expensive.

apart from that, most reliable car ive owned, no issues, solidly built, hybrid battery is fine, its not really a risk of theft, the toyota prius aqua / c are tho, id avoid them.

JDM AuctionWatch.