P38 Monkey
Well-Known Member
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Herewith some notes on my purchase of a Japanese domestic market P38.
Back in early 2021, in the depths of the Covid pandemic, I bought a 1997 4.0SE from Specialist Cars of York, for £6995 delivered. The time from payment to delivery turned out to be a full 5 months of which a little over 1 month was the DVLA UK registration process..
The car was sold as an excellent rust-free example (Japanese climate), low mileage and in very good order.
Due to travel restrictions at the time, I bought it based on the web site listing and conversations with the dealer.
In retrospect, the listing had errors (eg auto seats were actually manual) and omissions (eg EAS system replaced with coil springs).
During the DVLA registration process I was continually lied to. As weeks turned into months with no progress, the dealer blamed DVLA for the delay whereas in fact the car had not even been submitted for its pre-registration MoT at that time. Eventually registration was complete and in fact DVLA had met their time target.
Further delays in delivery were met with more lies from Specialist Cars: they were “putting some miles on the P38 to iron out any niggles and problems”. In fact the mileage at delivery was the same as the mileage listed by the MoT tester.
On delivery, remote locking and central locking did not work as both front door latches were burnt out.
The dashboard was ablaze with error messages and warning lights.
The gear lever knob came off in my hand as it was “secured” by an old wood screw.
Over the next few weeks, I worked to resolve the faults with which it was delivered, in total over seventy of them. The car is far from “rust-free” particularly with corrosion around the rear end. The underside has been sprayed with wax-oyl with no attempt to remove corrosion - just sprayed onto the top of the rust.
Specialist Cars told me that I could get spares at no cost from their approved scrappie: one Shaun Clarke. I sent in a list. Shaun did not have most items on the list, but eventually sent a few oily dirty bits in a scruffy cardboard box. They were all wrong or defunct, so I simply sent them back.
The “3-month warranty” policy document was a long list of limitations and exclusion clauses, in summary totally worthless.
I suppose back in Japan the car had been chopped in for exchange and then dumped out onto auction with nether the seller nor the Japanese dealer doing anything to it.
The “full service history” turned out to be full only up to the 60k miles point, then nothing from 60k to 90k.
On the positive side: it’s probably a bit less rusty than the average UK version, and in the not too distant past it has had a new exhaust, new brakes, refurbed wheels with new tyres and it has done “only” 90k miles.
Right now it is on SORN while I sort out the leaking (corroded) A/C condenser, and de-rust the front end in the process.
I suppose £7k is a lot to pay for a project car, but the fact is; I have bought it, I actually like it and will fix it, with the excellent support of this forum...thank you!
Back in early 2021, in the depths of the Covid pandemic, I bought a 1997 4.0SE from Specialist Cars of York, for £6995 delivered. The time from payment to delivery turned out to be a full 5 months of which a little over 1 month was the DVLA UK registration process..
The car was sold as an excellent rust-free example (Japanese climate), low mileage and in very good order.
Due to travel restrictions at the time, I bought it based on the web site listing and conversations with the dealer.
In retrospect, the listing had errors (eg auto seats were actually manual) and omissions (eg EAS system replaced with coil springs).
During the DVLA registration process I was continually lied to. As weeks turned into months with no progress, the dealer blamed DVLA for the delay whereas in fact the car had not even been submitted for its pre-registration MoT at that time. Eventually registration was complete and in fact DVLA had met their time target.
Further delays in delivery were met with more lies from Specialist Cars: they were “putting some miles on the P38 to iron out any niggles and problems”. In fact the mileage at delivery was the same as the mileage listed by the MoT tester.
On delivery, remote locking and central locking did not work as both front door latches were burnt out.
The dashboard was ablaze with error messages and warning lights.
The gear lever knob came off in my hand as it was “secured” by an old wood screw.
Over the next few weeks, I worked to resolve the faults with which it was delivered, in total over seventy of them. The car is far from “rust-free” particularly with corrosion around the rear end. The underside has been sprayed with wax-oyl with no attempt to remove corrosion - just sprayed onto the top of the rust.
Specialist Cars told me that I could get spares at no cost from their approved scrappie: one Shaun Clarke. I sent in a list. Shaun did not have most items on the list, but eventually sent a few oily dirty bits in a scruffy cardboard box. They were all wrong or defunct, so I simply sent them back.
The “3-month warranty” policy document was a long list of limitations and exclusion clauses, in summary totally worthless.
I suppose back in Japan the car had been chopped in for exchange and then dumped out onto auction with nether the seller nor the Japanese dealer doing anything to it.
The “full service history” turned out to be full only up to the 60k miles point, then nothing from 60k to 90k.
On the positive side: it’s probably a bit less rusty than the average UK version, and in the not too distant past it has had a new exhaust, new brakes, refurbed wheels with new tyres and it has done “only” 90k miles.
Right now it is on SORN while I sort out the leaking (corroded) A/C condenser, and de-rust the front end in the process.
I suppose £7k is a lot to pay for a project car, but the fact is; I have bought it, I actually like it and will fix it, with the excellent support of this forum...thank you!
, its now yours and has got under your skin.
