Importing a car

[Jason_murphy]

Hello

Just after some info on the rough cost of imoort taxes on importing a car. Im looking to import/buy an Ek9, am i better importing or buying private?

Any info would be great

Thanks folks

 

[Simple Simon]

Well it's been about 3 years since I imported my car so costs/exchange rates will have been vastly different than todays market.

But I was in the same position as yourself, never having done it before and finding it hard to get any concrete information. In the end I used Torque GT to import me my DC2 into the country, as have many people on here. They are regarded as one of (if not the) best import companies in the country. They will source and import a specific car for you so theres no competition with any other buyers in the UK once the action has been won in Japan. I would 100% use them again.

As for fresh import vs a car already imported. It all comes down to your preferences for the car and budget. If you don't mind something that might need a bit of work and be a little bit cheaper on the wallet, then a UK sourced car would be your best bet. Thats not to say that all of the cars already in the UK are of lesser standards than one straight from Japan, as many owners over here will have no expense spared on looking after their car!!

I got bored of looking for the right car in the UK that met my requirements so went for a fresh import as there are 10 fold more cars to choose from on the Japanese market (obviously). But with that you have to pay a premium price. Which is understandable with shipping, import taxes etc.

If you want any more info or a run down on the prices etc drop me a PM, I'm more than happy to help

 

[Jason_murphy]

Well it's been about 3 years since I imported my car so costs/exchange rates will have been vastly different than todays market.

But I was in the same position as yourself, never having done it before and finding it hard to get any concrete information. In the end I used Torque GT to import me my DC2 into the country, as have many people on here. They are regarded as one of (if not the) best import companies in the country. They will source and import a specific car for you so theres no competition with any other buyers in the UK once the action has been won in Japan. I would 100% use them again.

As for fresh import vs a car already imported. It all comes down to your preferences for the car and budget. If you don't mind something that might need a bit of work and be a little bit cheaper on the wallet, then a UK sourced car would be your best bet. Thats not to say that all of the cars already in the UK are of lesser standards than one straight from Japan, as many owners over here will have no expense spared on looking after their car!!

I got bored of looking for the right car in the UK that met my requirements so went for a fresh import as there are 10 fold more cars to choose from on the Japanese market (obviously). But with that you have to pay a premium price. Which is understandable with shipping, import taxes etc.

If you want any more info or a run down on the prices etc drop me a PM, I'm more than happy to help

What a brilliant answer. Thanks alot for that mate. I shall give you a pm. I think id rather pay the extra for an original fresh import. As alot of the ek9s that are coming up for sale have engine swaps or very modified. Im kinda looking for a reasonably low milage and un modified one. Just need to get my car sold to free up money and see what inactaully have to spend

 

[fljoshua129]

Depends on what you mean by low mileage. People have unrealistic notions when specifying a low mileage 20 year old car. I'd say 100k miles is pretty low mileage... In this case you could get an ek9 for about Y500,000 which is about £6500 once you get it here.

If by low millage you are thinking under 50k miles... A grade 4 Rx with 47k miles sold for Y1,782,000, which would be about £18k. So anything between those two values really. You have to be realistic, 100k is low mileage despite what a lot might say. Ek9s are sky rocketing at the moment, and will only go up in price. Give it five years when the US can get their hands on them and they will probably double in price. Exchange rates are also not great and shipping is slightly higher at the moment it seems. This is all factored in on import tax and VAT.

 

[Jason_murphy]

Depends on what you mean by low mileage. People have unrealistic notions when specifying a low mileage 20 year old car. I'd say 100k miles is pretty low mileage... In this case you could get an ek9 for about Y500,000 which is about £6500 once you get it here.

If by low millage you are thinking under 50k miles... A grade 4 Rx with 47k miles sold for Y1,782,000, which would be about £18k. So anything between those two values really. You have to be realistic, 100k is low mileage despite what a lot might say. Ek9s are sky rocketing at the moment, and will only go up in price. Give it five years when the US can get their hands on them and they will probably double in price. Exchange rates are also not great and shipping is slightly higher at the moment it seems. This is all factored in on import tax and VAT.

Thanks for comment mate. Ideally i was looking for one under 75k/80k miles nothing crazy low. Was also thinking a price range of maybe £8,500 on the road here (uk) ive seen torque gt have had a few nice ones for around that money. But im unsure if thats before or after all the shipping/tax costs?

Thanks bud.

 

[DMEK9]

Hi Jason,
Welcome top the forum!
I would strongly suggest you ring up T GT and have a chat with Darren there....the prices they quote are with shipping and taxes, UK modifications (speedo/fog light) MOT...etc...included - so apart from road tax that is what you'll pay....I would think a grade 4 Rx with 75/80k MILES will come in around £10k
It does take them time to find the right car and so from the point of me first contacting them for mine it took them 2.5 months to find the car I was prepared to bid on (well them on my behalf).
T GT are notoriously not the cheapest importer but have an excellent reputation and will get a good car for you, that I'm sure about.
Goodluck

 

[fljoshua129]

Thanks for comment mate. Ideally i was looking for one under 75k/80k miles nothing crazy low. Was also thinking a price range of maybe £8,500 on the road here (uk) ive seen torque gt have had a few nice ones for around that money. But im unsure if thats before or after all the shipping/tax costs?

Thanks bud.

£8,500 is a reasonable amount. You could easily get a grade 3.5 for that and have money left over. Grade 4s are not really wort the extra money however it is always worth a go on them as you can sometimes get them for a good price. For example this sold a few weeks ago for £8,700


Grade 4, 75k, and some fancy Bride seats £$£$

I believe Torque GT's prices include everything, I've not ever used them though.

 

[Jason_murphy]

£8,500 is a reasonable amount. You could easily get a grade 3.5 for that and have money left over. Grade 4s are not really wort the extra money however it is always worth a go on them as you can sometimes get them for a good price. For example this sold a few weeks ago for £8,700


Grade 4, 75k, and some fancy Bride seats £$£$

I believe Torque GT's prices include everything, I've not ever used them though.

Perfect bud. Have happyily stretch my budget a little bit for the right car. So a grade 3.5 is still a good car then, im new to all this imort stuff and tryna learn abut about it lol. Ill give torque gt a call at somepoint. I have a big holiday to vegas coming up so after that ill start seriously looking

Ive got a few plans for one. Once i get one.
Recaro pole positions, some coilovers, spoon steering wheel and then just take it from there. But i plan on keeping the b16 in it as there are so many with b18 or turbo. Modfier a wee bit but still keep reasonably oem.

 

[Jason_murphy]

Hi Jason,
Welcome top the forum!
I would strongly suggest you ring up T GT and have a chat with Darren there....the prices they quote are with shipping and taxes, UK modifications (speedo/fog light) MOT...etc...included - so apart from road tax that is what you'll pay....I would think a grade 4 Rx with 75/80k MILES will come in around £10k
It does take them time to find the right car and so from the point of me first contacting them for mine it took them 2.5 months to find the car I was prepared to bid on (well them on my behalf).
T GT are notoriously not the cheapest importer but have an excellent reputation and will get a good car for you, that I'm sure about.
Goodluck

Thank you!

Yeah im going to give them a call after my holiday and have a serious look and decide what im gonna do. Because ive only heard good things from them! And thats good because I wasnt sure if it was £9k then they add shipping and tax into it. So thats good. How do you like your car? Was it as they said it was etc? Is it easy to get parts for a 9? Like servicing part etc?

Cheers

 

[sh3lldon]

my EK9 arrives monday i used torque GT I also bought my DC5 from them although the DC5 was a fresh stock import they had rather than selected for me

the ek9 took around 2-3 months to find Darren at torque is excellent and very helpful, they are perhaps not the cheapest but for example we saw a car which fitted spec and looked good we agreed a price to go to the next day I was informed the guys had looked and decided it wasnt a good example so had not went for it, pretty sure other importers would be alot less likely to do that

Mine is a 2000 grade 4 with 65k on the clock in miles and with Torque GT and their people in japan i am confident i will be very happy with the car

remember there are a lot of costs on top of the purchase price figure at both ends for example shipping and import VAT etc torque ask for an outline budget and then work that figure to include everything including all fees taxes etc

the comment with 75k miles grade 4 at around £10k seems about right to me knowing what i paid

lastly do not get too caught up on auction gradings these are not an exact science and are at the discretion of the guy doing the appraisals, with a company like torque they have contacts who inspect the cars prior to bidding

 

[DMEK9]

Thank you!

Yeah im going to give them a call after my holiday and have a serious look and decide what im gonna do. Because ive only heard good things from them! And thats good because I wasnt sure if it was £9k then they add shipping and tax into it. So thats good. How do you like your car? Was it as they said it was etc? Is it easy to get parts for a 9? Like servicing part etc?

Cheers

I absolutely love it...and I'm in the OEM+ train of thought too..
Forgot to mention, you also get undersealing for the price agreed, I upgraded mine to sills off bumpers off etc etc..
My experience with T GT is much the same as @sh3lldon 's, Darren is sound and the car was as they said, and their folks in Japan have a good look over the car prior to bidding......tbh its bl00dy exciting knowing you are going to bid at an agreed price and wake up in the morning wondering if you have won or not!!!!
good luck!

 

[xoKirstyox]

I can vouch for torque gt too, they imported my ek9 a couple of years ago now. It is the second one I have owned and I was being super fussy lol!

It was scary trusting someone else's opinion and committing to buy a car without having seen it yourself, but it was definitely worth it when I went to pick it up.

They would answer all my annoying questions promptly and would always get back to me asap if they didn't know the answer. As previously stated they do cost a little more and waiting for the boat seems like a age but well worth it.

I'm sure with some patience there would be some excellent examples come up for sale here too

 

[fljoshua129]

Perfect bud. Have happyily stretch my budget a little bit for the right car. So a grade 3.5 is still a good car then, im new to all this imort stuff and tryna learn abut about it lol. Ill give torque gt a call at somepoint. I have a big holiday to vegas coming up so after that ill start seriously looking

Ive got a few plans for one. Once i get one.
Recaro pole positions, some coilovers, spoon steering wheel and then just take it from there. But i plan on keeping the b16 in it as there are so many with b18 or turbo. Modfier a wee bit but still keep reasonably oem.

Yeah grade 3.5 are usually good condition, the odd small carpark dent or scratch. As said above, the grade system can vary from auction houses, some places may grade a car as a 4, and others a 3.5. You often see cars that hop about auction houses having slight variations in their grades, but any reputable import company will tell you if it is a good car or not. It's just not good business for them not to, and in Japan they will give the importer every detail on damage and rust etc. Grade 4s will always demand the higher price though, and you have got to ask yourself is a Honda really worth 10k. There are a hell of a lot of better cars out there for that sort of price.

I'd definitely stick to your budget and go for a 3.5. It doesn't cost anything to bid on cars so it's always worth throwing one on a grade 4 just incase not many others are bidding on it.

I'm sure with some patience there would be some excellent examples come up for sale here too

This! They are few and far between these days, but you do get some good condition OEM 9s up for sale in the UK. Plus you save money because you are not paying the 'Fresh Import' tax.