jap import
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thebiglad
Well-Known Member
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What I do know for sure is that they are not European spec and one implication of this is that IF you ever decided to move to another european country you would have REAL difficulty importing it into that country.
andymach23
Active Member
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- 265
I was looking at one and was worried about insurance. I spoke to a guy at Tesco insurance who said that as the car was manufactured in the UK it wasn't then classed as an import for insurance purposes. A specialist Landy insurer could maybe confirm this.
Cheers
Andy
Cheers
Andy
pitbull paul
Member
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- 86
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- sunny devon
ive got one myself and ive had no probs with insurance,and parts are the same,one good thing no rust or rot and its a k reg.
pitbull paul
Member
- Posts
- 86
- Location
- sunny devon
Yes the speedo is kmh keep meaning to change the clocks but never get round to it and its been in the country for 3 years,and they all say 200tdi dont have egrs but i took one of this one, got some pics but cant work out how to make them small enough to post on here.
As a guy with his own s/h car sales and apast in R&D and years with Land Rover at both Gaydon and Damson Lane here is my take on grey imports....you can choose to ignore this but it may be of help to someone....I'm sure there will be a mass of replies from those who know for a fact that their grey is a peach.
Firstly, there is a glut of unsold 4x4's at the moment, and it's hard enough to sell the UK models let alone grey's, think residual values.
The only reason you are thinking of buying grey is that you think you will save money, but in the long term I think it's best not to gamble with such large sums and on something you will be putting your wife and kids in, with a past that you can not determine. It's hard to find a straight and honest at the best of times, why make it harder for yourself.
I decline to take any Grey Import in p/x, and so do many of my colleges, if we do we always bid you in the nether regions as we know we will have issues trading the car on as well.
..the biggest problems we have (and you will have) are:-
1/ One can not properly HPI the car back to it's life abroad....so it is impossible to determine if the car has suffered any previous serious accident damage by way of insurance history.
2/ It is difficult to tell if it has been stolen, has unpaid finance, and there are some great stories on 'hot' grey imports being reclaimed on mass doing the rounds at the moment....there are some real, well lets say charactors involved in this game. Also, check the VIN for build date, there is a strange quirk involving foreign cars going into Japan, sold again in Japan and then sold back out again...it's to do on year of manufacture you could end up with a model year 97 only to find it's a MY92 I kid you not...this is very common on grey market Corvettes only easier to rumble.
3/ Most greys are 'clocked' to the regulation 78K on the boats that carry the cars over, which is why most of the service history ends up in the sea and not at the dockside auction...sorry guys but that's facts, not what you want to hear but that the real truth. I spent some time in Kyoto with my old company and Japan isn't the size of the Isle Of Wight, it's a large country and the jap's travel large miles between cities, they have to due to nature of the country. They do service their cars and are very fussy about history and all vehicle documentation so why is usually missing...please don't say "'cos it adds to the the paperwork when they bring the greys into the country".
Simply put: It is impossible to confirm mileage on a grey import (we can confirm, or at least do our best on UK cars.
4/ You must declare to your insurance company that the car is a grey import, there will normally be a premium to pay because of this.
5/ Jap import vehicles will be running a different 'map' for the engine ECU (and automatic trans ECU's), the jap emissions regs are completely different from euro ones, they are more of FTP75 US type reg but they are very very low on NOx, which means they tend to run typically lower boost on turbo's map settings to keep peak combustion temps down...all this need not be a problem but it's nice to know when matching spares.
I paint a nasty picture I know, but this is the ugly and inconvienient truth, most greys are bitter but there are always some sweet ones, as they say, you pay's ya money.....being the boring and sensible type I never buy grey....
PS......my brother-in-law used to import grey vehicles!
Firstly, there is a glut of unsold 4x4's at the moment, and it's hard enough to sell the UK models let alone grey's, think residual values.
The only reason you are thinking of buying grey is that you think you will save money, but in the long term I think it's best not to gamble with such large sums and on something you will be putting your wife and kids in, with a past that you can not determine. It's hard to find a straight and honest at the best of times, why make it harder for yourself.
I decline to take any Grey Import in p/x, and so do many of my colleges, if we do we always bid you in the nether regions as we know we will have issues trading the car on as well.
..the biggest problems we have (and you will have) are:-
1/ One can not properly HPI the car back to it's life abroad....so it is impossible to determine if the car has suffered any previous serious accident damage by way of insurance history.
2/ It is difficult to tell if it has been stolen, has unpaid finance, and there are some great stories on 'hot' grey imports being reclaimed on mass doing the rounds at the moment....there are some real, well lets say charactors involved in this game. Also, check the VIN for build date, there is a strange quirk involving foreign cars going into Japan, sold again in Japan and then sold back out again...it's to do on year of manufacture you could end up with a model year 97 only to find it's a MY92 I kid you not...this is very common on grey market Corvettes only easier to rumble.
3/ Most greys are 'clocked' to the regulation 78K on the boats that carry the cars over, which is why most of the service history ends up in the sea and not at the dockside auction...sorry guys but that's facts, not what you want to hear but that the real truth. I spent some time in Kyoto with my old company and Japan isn't the size of the Isle Of Wight, it's a large country and the jap's travel large miles between cities, they have to due to nature of the country. They do service their cars and are very fussy about history and all vehicle documentation so why is usually missing...please don't say "'cos it adds to the the paperwork when they bring the greys into the country".
Simply put: It is impossible to confirm mileage on a grey import (we can confirm, or at least do our best on UK cars.
4/ You must declare to your insurance company that the car is a grey import, there will normally be a premium to pay because of this.
5/ Jap import vehicles will be running a different 'map' for the engine ECU (and automatic trans ECU's), the jap emissions regs are completely different from euro ones, they are more of FTP75 US type reg but they are very very low on NOx, which means they tend to run typically lower boost on turbo's map settings to keep peak combustion temps down...all this need not be a problem but it's nice to know when matching spares.
I paint a nasty picture I know, but this is the ugly and inconvienient truth, most greys are bitter but there are always some sweet ones, as they say, you pay's ya money.....being the boring and sensible type I never buy grey....
PS......my brother-in-law used to import grey vehicles!
thebiglad
Well-Known Member
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- 7,387
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- Central France
Hear hear !! Why buy a grey in such a weak 4x4 market. Just find a good UK one and negotiate. Private buyers will not want to buy a grey over a proper UK one, when you come to Sell it.
Cheers
Dave
PASTMASTER
Well-Known Member
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- S London
Dealers generally ask for a declaration that the vehicle is not imported when taking one in part exchange.
yes, correct, we HPI anything that comes in on p/x and my HPI check will show any imports et al, it will also show if it was imported from outside the EU...
.......the next one to watch if it's ya monkey....total loss US cars are now coming over to the UK as 'unrecorded' as there is a big market for Chrysler 300 SRT's and new model Mustang's over here.
.......these 'wackers' are peanuts $ in the US as they will have been hit 'very hard'
