Japanese cars... but not Japanese

I have in the past looked at STI's but every now and them a european car that was originally imported to Japan and recently back to UK.

Always look tidy. Especially the underside.

What's the Hassles?

Service History in Japanese?

How tricky is Insurance?

Normally the cars are cleaner on the underside and looked after well.

Service history is normally very limited from Japan aside from the shaken inspections (every two years) kind of like an MOT but more stricter.

I would pull a CarVX report which may give you more info on the car on it's time in Japan

Insurance in normally more money in the UK but I'm a little out of the loop so someone else can speak to that....

Never had an issue insuring an import. Crack on!

Awaits dan at Adrian flux.

I've purchased six Japanese Imports over the years and they have all been relatively rust free and been great cars and 4x4's. They do still rust as they only have a few layers of paint on them but at a much slower rate due to the absence of salt on their roads. Any import will need rustproofing if you intend to use it during a British winter.
Sometimes the spec is slightly different to their uk equivalents e.g MX5's, Subarus and Land Cruisers to name but three I've had. Never had problem with insurance though you may need to shop around as few insurers don't like grey imports. However because that are imports road tax has often been cheaper. Worth checking Shaken reports and service history where possible .
Most Japanese import are much lower mileage than their UK equivalents. Most are genuine but some cars coming in through importers in the Bradford area had been known to 'lose' a few miles whilst at sea on their way to the UK😮.

My old S15 was cheaper to insure the EP3 I had before it 😂 Flux sorted me without any issues.

Greenlight insured my DC5.

If you buy a jap import, make sure you pay for the jap hpi check.

Many imports are clocked and have been damaged in Japan then shipped out, repaired/sold with a clean slate.

Report will include auction sheet, auction photos, any crash damage etc.


I was about to pull the trigger and buy a mint Cayenne Turbo S with 18k on the clock. Report came back with serious accident damage.

I currently have a fresh import V60 T5 as my daily, brought in to the country last year.

I've also had an Alphard that I brought in myself, a DC5 and an imported MX5 so had decent experience with a couple of models.

Theres a steady stream of 'normal' things coming in now, quite a lot of Volvos and Golf GTI's seem to be being listed.

I would go for the import every time, subject to the car VX report etc.

If an auction car I would aim for a 4b but some 3.5's are fine, I think my Volvo was actually a 3.5 off the top of my head but is far better than my grade 4 Alphard was.

My Volvo was like a brand new car on the inside, literally incredible. Outside was far better than any UK equivalent car too.

Service history can be a little bit hit and miss as you are at the mercy of what is in the car at the time of auction but I was lucky that I have full Volvo history, the service book just keeps unfolding.

If bringing in yourself budget for new tyres and brakes at the very least as their tyre laws are 'interesting', my Alphard had a giant split in the rear of one of the tyres.

Possibly likely to need a battery too after the journey.





And the reason you buy Japanese, an 11 year old car:





My Alphard:

Ant1 said:

If you buy a jap import, make sure you pay for the jap hpi check.

Many imports are clocked and have been damaged in Japan then shipped out, repaired/sold with a clean slate.

Report will include auction sheet, auction photos, any crash damage etc.

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I was about to pull the trigger and buy a mint Cayenne Turbo S with 18k on the clock. Report came back with serious accident damage.

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This can happen with cars imported from the US as well. My son nearly bought a Corvette which had been imported to the UK from Germany. But after doing checks it had been crashed ( written off) in US, exported to Germany where it was repaired and ran for 2 years , then imported to UK.