Japanese imports - effect on insurance and price ?

rodenal

GR was fine for me to, but the Mivec was silly money - even though I could insure everything else at a similar performance level for around half the cost, hence I never bought one

fivetide

Notmyrealname wrote: »

You need to shop around. Wife has a FTO GR, pays £300 a year through Adrian Flux. The FTO Owners club is a valuable source of information, especially for cheap parts - www.ftooc.org

True. Also Mitsubishi did officially import them through Ralliart. Try to get an insurer to agree that though!

My experience is that UK cars are better specced and faster because they don't bother importing all the low spec or base models/special editions etc to the UK market. Jap cars often have a hole cut in the bumper for a foglight or you need to get something wired in. A new import will need undersealing (generally) and an older import will need checking.

also Jap cars while righthand drive run in km so find out when the speedo was changed to miles as it could be reading a lot more 'miles' than it has actually done (or a sharky seller will try to tell you it is all in km when it isn't).

History is usually hard to come by and in my experience Jap imports cost more to insure.

Had a great example once, I had a Toyota Supra. Non-turbo Jap spec only SZ model (3.0 Straight six 225bhp) £700 to insure. UK Spec Twin Turbo model (320bhp sub 5 second 0-60 time) £500. :T

5t.

scheming_gypsy

Notmyrealname wrote: »

You need to shop around. Wife has a FTO GR, pays £300 a year through Adrian Flux. The FTO Owners club is a valuable source of information, especially for cheap parts - www.ftooc.org

you can get cheap parts through any owners club, but insurance companies don't go through owners club when looking for parts. I'm not talking about repairing yourself, but the insurance writing cars off because they only fit new.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

ive seen some parts vary on imported and uk spec cars not many though and mitsi seem to be the culprit for that type of scenario. allthough uk main dealers will stock the parts in the warehouse bar body parts.

specialist import insurers tend to give you a higher price compare to shopping around with local brokers.

28yrs old 1 yrd NCD 1999 toyota glanza V 1.3 turbo import, full comp inurance with ECU mod, turbo mod intercooler mod injector mods £700 per year as supposed to £3k with with highstreet named insurers. quoted oct this year, as was interested in one, that had a knock in piston 1 (easy replacement).

Lum

You will be needing a sensible mechanic if you're going to run an import.

The way Nissan's parts system is set up, is all done of chassis number, so if you ring a Nissan dealer they will grumble and moan and insist that they call you back the next day as they have to look it up on a different system. This system is simply a case of changing a sodding CD on the computer. The part number that comes up will be Japan-only even though the exact same physical part is used on the UK model, and then they'll have to import it from Japan. If it's a large part like a windscreen this can take 3 months.

If you have a sensible mechanic who is able to identify parts on their own, then they should be able to order up the correct ones from a UK vehicle.

My local Skyline expert recently started looking after someone's Nissan Figaro because of this. most parts are shared with the Micra so he just orders those, much quicker and cheaper than that guy's previous mechanic who had everything ordered from Japan via Nissan UK.

I don't know that vehicle specifically but there may well be some Japan-only parts on it. The Japan versions tend to be higher spec with more toys and gadgets, sometimes there are small changes too, such as the side repeaters being in front of the wheels rather than behind, meaning you'd need a different front wing if that got hit.

fivetide

Lum wrote: »

The Japan versions tend to be higher spec with more toys and gadgets

Not been my experience.

As said, things like Supras they only imported the top spec twin turbo and even then they were higher power than the Jap spec versions.

Subaru do similar things I believe. The UK market is much more competitive so you get a higher spec car without all the weird base models or special editions.

Ralliart onyl imported the top spec MIVEC FTOs etc etc. Makes sense for performance models to lead the way as they make more money on them. You need a good margin to offset the import costs for new cars.

5t.

Lum

My experience has been the opposite.

For example my old Jap spec 1999 Subaru Legacy, came with a television, DVD satnav, factory fit HIDs, cornering lamps and a different dashboard with a triple DIN, oh and two turbos.

It's true that there's lots of weird base models over in Japan, but they tend not to get imported. Anyone fancy a 1.8 litre non-turbo 4 cylinder Skyline with 90bhp?

scheming_gypsy

You forgot air con (older models obviously). Pretty much every import came with air con which you didn't get with the UK spec models.
On MR2's you had the turbo which you couldn't buy as UK spec, and also retracting wing mirrors.

Road_Hog

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

and also retracting wing mirrors.

Yep, that's one thing that Jap spec has that isn't usually available on UK spec cars. It's 'cause of the narrow streets in Tokyo.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Lum wrote: »

You will be needing a sensible mechanic if you're going to run an import.

The way Nissan's parts system is set up, is all done of chassis number, so if you ring a Nissan dealer they will grumble and moan and insist that they call you back the next day as they have to look it up on a different system. This system is simply a case of changing a sodding CD on the computer. The part number that comes up will be Japan-only even though the exact same physical part is used on the UK model, and then they'll have to import it from Japan. If it's a large part like a windscreen this can take 3 months.

If you have a sensible mechanic who is able to identify parts on their own, then they should be able to order up the correct ones from a UK vehicle.

My local Skyline expert recently started looking after someone's Nissan Figaro because of this. most parts are shared with the Micra so he just orders those, much quicker and cheaper than that guy's previous mechanic who had everything ordered from Japan via Nissan UK.

I don't know that vehicle specifically but there may well be some Japan-only parts on it. The Japan versions tend to be higher spec with more toys and gadgets, sometimes there are small changes too, such as the side repeaters being in front of the wheels rather than behind, meaning you'd need a different front wing if that got hit.

theres a certain parts manufacturer that specifically makes parts for jap cars and have expanded into the uk parts market over the last few years, they have an online parts portal (subscription only) their portal enables you to put the reg of the jap car import uk REG into it and then it will list everypart from body panels to front headlamp bulbs, and everything inbetween, for that chassis number, most jap parts mainly orientated motor factors have this portal and can tell you wich part you need as if you were calling to find out about a price of a water pump for an escort, its finding that motor factor having that portal and not one that knows of a motor factor that has that portal and have to call you back.

i used this parts portal everyday when i worked in a motor factor.