So is every Golf, polo for sale Japanese now?

 I don’t imagine they get the best of care?

Those famously sloppy unfastidious Japanese!

just for balance I was collecting my car from a service when 2 Jap white Golf petrols from 2016 arrived, they were mint, I even had a look underneath and it was spotless.

I was told the cars are graded in Japan, if a dealer buys the top grade that will arrive if not it won’t be.

I saw someone driving around in a ****-coloured Renault Lutecia that still had 'Renault Japan' stickers on the back of it. Then realised there're actually at least 2 ****-coloured ones out there, because I saw the second one without the sticker.

I had to wonder why they're here.

I suppose the Shaken test really does cut like a **** razor. They still have value here, but they've fuckall in Japan. With used car prices as high as they are it makes some sense to stick 'em on the boat.

I just wish our high road tax and vrt didn't stop the importation of the really interesting European brand Japanese import. Some of these vehicles arrive in the UK and lack of service history aside . The condition and spec of these vehicles is incredible . Check car warehouse Cleveland if u want to see its another world

Yep . Don't think any manuals in Japan

If you think the NCT is stringent, you should see the Japanese equivalent (shaken). I'd have no qualms, on the maintenance side, with buying a Japanese import. I would be wary though of a few things:

FM radio issues (I'm old fashioned)

Parts sourcing (less of an issue than in the past wave of imports)

Kanji in the interfaces

looking for a corolla estate at the moment, so many jap imports, square rear numberplate ( some front as well) gives it away I think. also quite a few have a c badge on the front and not a toyota badge.

don't get me started on Japanese writing on the displays.

they do have alarms and immobilisers and the radios can be easily replaced. They are standard sizes. Or some can be reset.

I’ve been looking at second hand cars for a while now. Looked at lots of Japanese imports

no Japanese imports in general. I’ve looked at a few… including corollas

so all imported Japanese corollas?

Possibly.. but to say they come with alarm and immobiliser is false. A lot of dealers aren’t even fitting security or radios hence why they are still being stolen. If you search price low to high you can see a lot of the lower priced ones won’t have push button or any other visible security systems. Its possible they are doing it without a push button but thats usually the most common method.

How are insurance companies insuring cars with no security device ?

I think it's only certain models. Even then you could just install a 3rd party one.