Chris tii
RMS Regular
- Messages
- 1,561
- Drives
- BMW 2002tii
Thought I would set up a thread about my future daily driver. And the unusual way I'm buying it.
So my current car is a Golf R Estate. The car is a lease, and is due to go back at the start of June.
I'm currently selling my house and hoping to get a bigger mortgage, so I want my next car to be a car with no finance. My budget is around £5k. I want something quick, rare, interesting, reasonably big and with 4 doors for the family.
My top choices where either a mark 5 R32, an old Impreza or Evo, a Forester STI or a BMW e90 330 touring.
Then I spotted a nice e39 2004 540i Touring for sale in London on Gumtree. Unfortuately it sold within 5 days. My Dad had a 540i 20 years ago and I still remember the car to this day, I loved it. It ticks every box and its also got a monster 4.4 litre V8! So I decided my next car was going to be a 540i.
The search began, I've got plenty of time so I was in no rush. There where plently of cars within my budget but they where all high mileage. Everything else was either an M5 lookalike or priced way too high. There also seemed to a few low mileage Japanese import 540i's for sale at a few dealers but they where still just out of my budget.
So I came up with a plan, I was going to try and import my own one from Japan!
So last week I registered for jdmauctionwatch.com. A company that gives you access to all the cars at the live Japanese auctions. When you spot one you want to bid on, they send someone to bid on it. If you win, they organise all the transport and shipping to the port of your choice. The amount you bid is the total amount you want to spend for everything.
It didn't take long for the perfect one to come up. A 2001, Topaz Blue, 70k miles, grade 4 (the best grade available for an 18 yr old car) every extra under the sun including a TV, old school car phone, and an electric blind for the back window.
If this was for sale in the UK I think it would cost somewhere between £6500 - £8k. I put in a max bid of £5250. This would be the total I would have to spend including all the shipping costs. Not only would the car be a bargain but Japan don't salt their roads, and with the warm dry climate, their cars are known for being in far better condition than UK cars of a similar age.
I went to bed on Friday while the auction was going live in Japan. When I woke up I logged into jdmauctionwatch.com and clicked on the car. It said the car was sold, but that was it! It didn't say for how much or to who. I emailed to see if I won.
I got a quick response saying we won! The final price was £5440. (The hammer price was £2600). More than I wanted to spend but apparently they have a company policy to go over a little if they think the car is almost won. He also mentioned the car was all the way in Kyushu which means expensive inland transport to the port so maybe this why its £190 over. To be honest, I don't care. I would of been gutted if I'd missed out by only £190.
So thats where I'm up to. Tomorrow I get an invoice for 75%. Then I pay the last 25% when the car arrives in Dublin. With the car I get all the paper work I have to send away to get the V5. Then its up to me to get the car MOT'd and undersealed.
Once I pay the 75% the car is transported to the port and inspected and photographed by their agents in Japan. Then I can track the ship all the way to Dublin, which should take 8 - 10 weeks.
I'll keep this thread up to date along the way until I get the car. I thought anyone else thinking about importing a car from Japan might like to see how the process works. I've never done this before so I'm intrested to find out myself!
So my current car is a Golf R Estate. The car is a lease, and is due to go back at the start of June.
I'm currently selling my house and hoping to get a bigger mortgage, so I want my next car to be a car with no finance. My budget is around £5k. I want something quick, rare, interesting, reasonably big and with 4 doors for the family.
My top choices where either a mark 5 R32, an old Impreza or Evo, a Forester STI or a BMW e90 330 touring.
Then I spotted a nice e39 2004 540i Touring for sale in London on Gumtree. Unfortuately it sold within 5 days. My Dad had a 540i 20 years ago and I still remember the car to this day, I loved it. It ticks every box and its also got a monster 4.4 litre V8! So I decided my next car was going to be a 540i.
The search began, I've got plenty of time so I was in no rush. There where plently of cars within my budget but they where all high mileage. Everything else was either an M5 lookalike or priced way too high. There also seemed to a few low mileage Japanese import 540i's for sale at a few dealers but they where still just out of my budget.
So I came up with a plan, I was going to try and import my own one from Japan!
So last week I registered for jdmauctionwatch.com. A company that gives you access to all the cars at the live Japanese auctions. When you spot one you want to bid on, they send someone to bid on it. If you win, they organise all the transport and shipping to the port of your choice. The amount you bid is the total amount you want to spend for everything.
It didn't take long for the perfect one to come up. A 2001, Topaz Blue, 70k miles, grade 4 (the best grade available for an 18 yr old car) every extra under the sun including a TV, old school car phone, and an electric blind for the back window.
If this was for sale in the UK I think it would cost somewhere between £6500 - £8k. I put in a max bid of £5250. This would be the total I would have to spend including all the shipping costs. Not only would the car be a bargain but Japan don't salt their roads, and with the warm dry climate, their cars are known for being in far better condition than UK cars of a similar age.
I went to bed on Friday while the auction was going live in Japan. When I woke up I logged into jdmauctionwatch.com and clicked on the car. It said the car was sold, but that was it! It didn't say for how much or to who. I emailed to see if I won.
I got a quick response saying we won! The final price was £5440. (The hammer price was £2600). More than I wanted to spend but apparently they have a company policy to go over a little if they think the car is almost won. He also mentioned the car was all the way in Kyushu which means expensive inland transport to the port so maybe this why its £190 over. To be honest, I don't care. I would of been gutted if I'd missed out by only £190.
So thats where I'm up to. Tomorrow I get an invoice for 75%. Then I pay the last 25% when the car arrives in Dublin. With the car I get all the paper work I have to send away to get the V5. Then its up to me to get the car MOT'd and undersealed.
Once I pay the 75% the car is transported to the port and inspected and photographed by their agents in Japan. Then I can track the ship all the way to Dublin, which should take 8 - 10 weeks.
I'll keep this thread up to date along the way until I get the car. I thought anyone else thinking about importing a car from Japan might like to see how the process works. I've never done this before so I'm intrested to find out myself!
