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Importing cars from Japan
By John Jones
This is a guide / roadmap to help you understand the process involved of importing a car into the UK from Japan.
It is only meant as a guide and this should not replace any research that can be under taken on the processes themselves.
The reason for writing this guide is quite simple, I myself spent about a year looking and researching all the tasks necessary to import a car and found that there was no one document on the subject that covered off all the options available and the legal requirements needed. This article is my experience of importing cars from Japan and should be viewed as that, but I would hope that there will be enough information contained here to help you import if you so wanted to.
Why import cars from Japan? ...
There are many reasons I have read on the why's and why not's of importing cars from Japan, some of them relevant, some of them not, and a lot of them outdated. For example 'you can buy a car and find out it has been stolen in Japan and it gets impounded' years ago this might have been the case but Japanese exporting and customs control procedure were put in place to combat things like this. The required paperwork needed Japan side to enable a car to pass export / customs controls and be loaded on ship is extremely strict and extensive these days that this sort of thing simply does not happen.
For me, the reasons for importing were slightly different, I wanted the best specification cars, I wanted the hard to get cars, I wanted the different cars, I wanted the modified cars, I wanted to drive them all and experience first hand cars that could not be bought mainly because of price or choice in the UK.
I knew that the cars would be 'rust free' and low mileage examples. My aim was to import a car, drive it for a few months and sell it on which would then enable me to import another different one. This would give me 2 to 3 different cars a year. I was not after making any profit on the sales, although this could have easily been achieved. I was really after a fast turn around to give me the funds for the next import.
Stages to importing ...
- Japan Auction / Exporter
- Bid Price
- Commission
- Shipping
- RO ROF
- Marine Insurance
- Transfer Charges
- Bank transfer
- Receive Papers
- UK Port
- Ocean Freight?
- Terminal Handling?
- Marine Insurance?
- Customs Clearance
- Form C88
- Form C384 – Send to Dover Office
- Form C386 – For DVLA Registration
- Import Duty – 10%
- VAT – 17.5%
- UK conversion
- Speedo Face
- Removal of Speed Restrictor –
- KM converted to Miles (digital) –
- Rear Fog Lights –
- Radio Band Restrictor-
- ESVA Test
Japan Auction ...
The first stage is to source your cars in Japan. You could go straight to a dealer that exports. The problem here is that the car will be much more expensive as the dealer takes a cut and you are reliant on there 'pick' from the auction. The reason I say auction is that all cars in Japan are sold through auctions on a massive scale. These include new as well as used cars, bikes, lorries, etc. By far the best way is to go direct to the auctions. This can be achieved (as there are many auctions) by using an online auction provider. There are a few of these about some better than others but they all will roughly give you the same service.
If you are going to buy just a one off then the company will supply you with an agent. These agents will add on there costs. If you are thinking of importing a few then it is much better, cheaper and easier to have your own account set up. Either way you will normally have to send some money as a deposit to show you are genuine. After all the company is bidding on your behalf and if they had to re-auction because you did not pay the balance then they need to cover these costs.
The process of choosing a car at auctions is as follows …
Join up with an online auction company, Providecars is a good one. Create your account and send a nominal deposit. This is usually 100,000 yen which roughly converts to £500 which is refundable off the total of the car price.
Search through the cars at auctions ...
Things to bear in mind here, on any given day there are 20 to 50,000 cars to choose from. Have in mind what make, model you want as this will greatly reduce your searching / analysis time. The cars are usually sorted by maker. You have a time limit as Japan is 9 hours in front of the UK, so if the auctions start at 9:00 am Japan time then you need your bids in by 11:00pm UK time to make sure the bid is picked up.
Have a limit and stick to it ...
This limit should include the auction costs which vary but an average is 70,000 yen + 5%. Most companies have a calculator on the web site which will aid you on what costs are incurred. Also remember that you will have to pay shipping, vat, duty and registration costs in the UK so add these costs on.
