Choosing A Supplier

 
If you're like me and have decided on getting a car from Japan, then your next step is to select a suitable supplier.

There are a few options available and they fall into the following categories...

  1. Go to a private seller via Auto Trader etc
  2. Go to a UK based dealer/garage who might have one or two import cars on his forecourt.
  3. Go to Dublin auctions yourself.
  4. Go to a specialist importer based in the UK/EU.
  5. Go to an exporter based in Japan.
If you found this page then chances are that you've already scoured the web for any suitable websites. I'll list a few links later on for you. I spent a few months keeping an eye on websites, mailing lists and discussion forums. Lurking like this can provide a lot of information and contacts. Luckily a lot of potential suppliers have websites and email addresses, so this is normally the first point of contact. I emailed quite a few suppliers to see what kind of deals and cars they could provide.

I went to see a few local garages/importers, some were helpful, some were not. The quality on offer did vary somewhat as did the prices. I did however manage to test drive a FTO GPX manual.

Looking at UK garages, you know fine well most of them would be getting them from the Dublin trade auctions. Some UK suppliers however source their cars from Japan, which is certainly better in my book eg Orient Vehicles.

However, some claim to go over there themselves or that they have agents over there, however, to this particular cynical consumer, I know that a lot of these will be dealing with one the of the many trade exporters over there.

If you're anything like me and want the most for your money, and you don't want to have lots of middlemen adding their cut/margin to the price, then why not go direct to the source and deal direct? Most of the exporters in Japan I contacted will deal quite happily with an individual looking to personally import a vehicle.

However, if you're like me and want the minimum of hassle ie you don't want to deal with any of the importing issues such as registering the car, SVA/MOT, conversion work yourself then you need to find a suitable supplier who will either a) put you in touch with suitable agents to carry the work out for you, or b) they'll do it all for you.

So with all this in mind, I narrowed my choice down to a few suppliers. One supplier, Torao, is purely an exporter and you'll have to deal with conversions etc yourself after picking the car up in Holland.

One supplier, Quantum Imports, will get your car into Holland for you to pick up, but will give you suitable contacts in the UK to carry out any work for you.

The final supplier, Newera Imports, will get the car into the UK for you and take care of everything else.

As you can imagine, Newera, got my vote. I emailed them several times with various questions as well as speaking to them on the phone before finally committing my order to them.

I'm sure suppliers get a lot of enquiries from potential customers, but if they can't be bothered to respond or aren't particularly helpful then vote with your feet! It's your hard earned money after all!

[Home]