)
has anyone done it? or know anyone who has done it?
im considering it, as i have seen a car i really want, but want to find a reputable company as i have quotes for the same car with a £5000 difference
in price.
and before you say i should buy it from uk, its cheaper etc etc, its a very rare car, under 5000 made ever and is a mazda prototype with only 5 in the
UK...
so any help?
I imported two Mazda Bongos from Japan. The first one was in 2005 (I think!) the other was last year. The first one was bought "off the
boat" which means it hadn't landed in the UK but was on it's way. I bought it at an agreed price from an auction place. They did most
of the import paperwork and I did the UK registering stuff. Very easy to do.
The latest Bongo was bought at auction in Japan on my behalf. But I'm sure I got ripped off! The agent I used agreed to buy the vehicle at
auction and I pay the hammer price. Then I pay the shipping costs direct to the shipping company. The agent gets his £300 up front because he has to
find the vehicle, inspect it and send me photos. If he fails to find a suitable vehicle, (he sent me 4 or 5 every day!) he refunds the £300 whenever I
want. So far, so good. The problem I had was that I registered with an internet auction company and I was sat watching my Bongo go through the auction
and I was chuffed that it sold for just over 1k. The agent had my permission to go up to £3.5k. Funnily enough, the next day the agent emailed me to
tell me I had won the auction.......and the Bongo was £3480.
I was very bemused so I sat up one night until 4am and tried to contact the auction house direct. It was an interesting dozen or so phone calls as the
auction site won't speak to anyone who is not 'a member'. Eventually I got to speak to someone who spoke English and they confirmed
that they couldn't talk to me unless I was a member and to become a member I needed to be a Japanese citizen with a registered business in
Japan.
In the meantime, I had paid for the Bongo and it was on its way to the UK. When it arrived, I paid the shipping company the fees and got the keys to
my Bongo. The Bongo was utterly grotty inside and not as described. The agent said thats what happens when you buy blind.....and that the Auction
price was correct and the auction sites often lose something in currency translation!
What I later discovered, is that there a lots of 'agents' doing the same thing. They have a gaggle of staff in Japan who 'scout'
for vehicles, then buy them, knowing what they can pay and still make a profit. The paperwork you see is the paperwork from the guys in Japan who are
buyers, not the auction house. They put whatever price on the invoice to suit what you're willing to pay!
In short, beware that this does happen.
The shipping company I used was Penguin Shipping and they were excellent!If I'd known about these guys before I'd committed to the agent,
they could have handled everything for me!
Just so I can look at pictures and go "ooh me likey" what's the car?
I'm interested to see it as well, but how could a "prototype" have 5000 made? (or is it "uner 5000" like "you could win
up to £1m", i.e. it could be £10? )
Has it been type approved? If not they can be a huuuge hassle to get registered. I put a skyline through an ESVA (might have changed now) which was a watered down IVA type test. If it's been modified, as alot of jap imports are, you will have to put it completly back to standard aswell as fitting fog lights, speedo mod etc. When i did mine i had to borrow all sorts of bits like wheels and seats from people around the country just for the test then swap them back afterwards.
quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
Just so I can look at pictures and go "ooh me likey" what's the car?
dont get your hopes up too much, and yes, its an ugly duckling but thats not why i want it, i see its potential...
its a mazda az1, or if you want to see how i look at it, an RE amemiya az1
Its different, I like it
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andytakersdad/3125750655/
erm, i liked it better when i only imagined what it looked like... 
love the non opening 'DeLorean' style windows though lol
or is this more what you're thinking?
pk, the company in question that has said they can import one for alot less is autoadvan how they do it is i give them a price for the landed cost,
they go out and find me a car, send me the info on cars and i aprove, they bid, then they send the car over with an agreed landed price. which sounds
a good idea, but at £5000 less it sounds a bit dodgy.
then again the other company might just want to charge me a stupid amount...
Nice, I love AZ-1s, if only I could fit in one. Are you planning on sticking a 20b in it then?
[Edited on 27/5/11 by efiniste]
no engine swaps for this, not until i have used it for a while anyway, not a lot could fit in the 660cc space, maybe make it electric after its become
a bit more fashionable and compact...
so nobody can recomend a company?
i like the sound of autoadvan, so what can i do to check if they are legit? they are too far for me to drive just to find out...
this is the site: http://www.autoadvan.co.uk/
it looks professional enough but doesn’t convince me they are legit and good...
MAnaged to find this thread on another forum. May be of some
use.
Phil
thankyou so much hellfire, exactly what i couldn’t find and the news i wanted to here as well.
thanks for that, you may have just saved me £5k
i have spoken to one of the rare english speaking owners of one of these cars (under 10 i would say) and he said hes 5ft10 and only just can squeeze
inside and cant drive it with any shoes on.
now me being 6ft1 and having rather annoying large feet (you notice it in a mini when you can hit all 3 pedals with 1 foot) this car unfortunatly is
now not an option. so im now on the look out for a small cheap japanese turbo car thats a little bit quirky with a small engine, maybe a kei car...
anyone?
There's always the Daihatsu Leeza Spyder 
Why aren't many Kei cars made available here? I've seen some amazing stuff online yet the only one's you actually tend to see here ae
the awful ones. I love the tiny trucks that meet the Kei requirements (Even though my only real world experience of one involved a dealer getting
ramps out so we could clear a low curb to get of the lot).
For a serious sugestion, how about a Scooby R1? The STi is supercharged and makes 63 hp and is AWD, more powerful than my panda, and lighter.
Prodrives imfamous 'we could make it and sell it for £40k but we won't' P2 was based on it and as were not in Japan you could probably
make it more powerful.
a simple look at autoadvan's site says it all
on there homepage they promise a stock system for may 2010
quote:
Originally posted by MikeFellows
a simple look at autoadvan's site says it all
on there homepage they promise a stock system for may 2010
We do have that class, it's called "supermini"
In that class are the likes of Fiat Seicento and Smart Fortwo