 |
 |
 |
 |
Japanese Imports. 27.05.04
The weird parking mirrors give them away. If you spy
a strange stubby one near the front of the bonnet, or
a perhaps tea-tray sized inverted one suspended
over the tailgate, you’ll know the car’s first owner
paid in yen, not pounds.
Now you know what to look for, you’ll discover the
roads are filling up with used Japanese imports. Last
year, over 55,000 cars made the 6000-mile journey,
up from 30,000 in 2002. Around three quarters are
4x4s, which means that in 2003 just about the same
number of imported off-roaders were reaching our
shore as Land Rover was selling new.
But why is an ever-swelling crowd buying cars that,
in many instances, mirror the official UK model?
The answer, predictably, is value. Check out any
number of the Japanese on-line auctions and you’ll
find used deals that’ll make your eyes water. How
about a 1993 Mitsubishi Pajero (known as Shogun
over here) with 52,000 miles for £3112? Or a ’96
Toyota Celica 2.0 with 46,000 miles for a mere
£1729?
With a favourable exchange rate producing rock-
bottom prices like these, dealers discovered they
could buy them, ship them, test them, pay the VAT
and still sticker them to match equivalent UK cars.
But where the price might be similar, Japanese cars
comprehensively win the spec count. Back in the
90s – when almost all of today’s imports were built -
Japanese buyers were demanding a much higher
standard of luxury than we were getting. This
virtually guarantees you extras like air conditioning
in cars that over here were lucky to get electric
windows.
You’ll also find plenty of diesels, reflecting Japan’s
early adoption of a fuel that in the mid 90s was still
a somewhat off-beat buy for us. So for the first time
you can buy a diesel Toyota Previa people carrier
(called Estima in Japan) that doesn’t drink fuel at
the rate of the official petrol-only version.
So you’ve got this vast pool (Japan is the world’s
second largest car market after the US) of cheap,
high-spec, right-hand-drive cars to choose from.
Good quality too, since the Japanese generally
lavish care on their cars over the comparatively few
miles they cover. All in all, it should add up to a
used-car paradise.
The problem is that Japan is a long, long way away.
This lack of easy contact bred fears about the
provenance of the cars and the supply of parts,
which played into the hands of those wanting to
either prevent or profit from this multi-million pound
business.
Perhaps the biggest fear is that your car will have
been stolen in Japan, then shipped. This concern
was heightened by a BBC Watchdog programme
aired back in 2001 which claimed there could be as
many as 65,000 stolen Japanese cars in Britain.
However this figure was thrown into doubt after
Hampshire Police – a major source of information
for the programme – later suspended two of its
officers who were subsequently charged for taking
part in an alleged conspiracy to profit from owners’
fears.
“The figures were ludicrous”, says Richard Moore, a
spokesman for the importers’ trade organisation
BIMTA. “We proved that there weren’t even that
many cars stolen in Japan over the period they were
talking about, let along brought to the UK. It gave a
totally distorted picture.”
BIMTA does admit around 2000 stolen Japanese
cars enter the UK every year – still a substantial
amount – but the organisation now offers the
equivalent of an HPI check to find out if the car you’
re interested in has been registered stolen.
The other hangover from the early days of Japanese
imports is the fear – fanned by the manufacturers,
says BIMTA - that the main dealers won’t touch
them and that spare parts are hard to come by.
Consequently the insurers turned their back on the
imports, which pushed owners into the arms of high-
risk, high-premium outfits.
The problem hasn’t totally receded either, with AA
Insurance saying they’ve recently stopped covering
Japanese imports, citing elusive spare parts as the
reason. However other mainstream insurers we
called happily quoted on a 1996 Mitsubishi Pajero
2.8. Direct Line even came up with a marginally
cheaper price compared with a UK-spec Shogun of
the same age, while Norwich Union Direct charged
slightly more and doubled the excess.
These days, you’ll be welcomed at main dealers
with as much gusto as anyone else. “Japanese
imports are not a problem for us”, says Craig
Nicholson, master service technician at Motorwey
(corr) Mitsubishi in Putney, south London. “In the
past Mitsubishi used to charge slightly higher prices
for parts, but in the last few years they’ve been a lot
more helpful. We service about two Pajeros a day
now.”
So what will you find at your nearest dedicated
import dealer? The previous-model Pajero is the
runaway best-seller, but there are more interesting
4x4s if you want to stand out. The Toyota Surf is a
tough-as-old-boots off-roader based on the Hi-Lux
pick-up and starts at around £4000 for a fully loaded
1991 diesel. Or if you don’t mind the sniggering, an
Isuzu Big Horn will be better value than the Trooper
that was officially sold here.
People carriers are the second biggest genre of cars
to be unloaded at the Southampton docks but again
there are some names to avoid repeating down the
pub. The Mazda Bongo Friendee sounds like crazed
manga character but is actually an MPV that hands
you a low-mileage, eight-year-old, eight-seater
motor for under £6000. Toyota has the widest range
of MPVs, from the flying bubble that is the Town
Ace (once Jarvis Cocker’s favourite car) to clever
and well-equipped eight-seaters like the Granvia.
But if you’re looking for a seven-seater with attitude
then only the Mitsubishi Delica will do. Forget the
namby-pamby name – this pinches the Pajero’s
chassis to give us the world’s only off-road MPV.
Sports models are the third and smallest group to
make the trip, and are dominated by Eunos-badged
versions of the Mazda MX-5 roadster. Increased spec
often includes air con, leather and even an auto if
that’s your bag. Or there’s the Mitsubishi FTO coupe,
a Celica rival that only briefly came here officially
but developed a strong following thanks to its nifty
handling and striking looks.
So it’s likely you’ll end up with a bargain, but pause
before the snob in you removes those tell-tale
parking mirrors. After just one tight parallel park
manoeuvre you’ll wonder how you ever managed
without them.
BOX
Cars we found
1993 Isuzu Big Horn 3.1 diesel LWB
AKA: Trooper
Price: £4995
Miles: 56,000
Spec: Alloys, ABS, air con, electric windows, nudge
bar
1994 Mitsubishi Delica 2.8 diesel
AKA: Not sold in UK
Price: £4600
Miles: 44,800
Spec: Seven seats, auto, four-wheel-drive front/rear
air con, CD player, four-way sunroof with electric
blinds
1991 Mazda Eunos 1.6
AKA: MX-5
Price: £4500
Miles: 42,400
Spec: Leather, air con, alloys, CD player, automatic
with overdrive
1997 Mitsubishi Pajero 2.8 diesel SWB
AKA: Shogun
Price: £7000
Miles: 36,500
Spec: Auto, climate control, remote locking, CD
player, alloys
a strange stubby one near the front of the bonnet, or
a perhaps tea-tray sized inverted one suspended
over the tailgate, you’ll know the car’s first owner
paid in yen, not pounds.
Now you know what to look for, you’ll discover the
roads are filling up with used Japanese imports. Last
year, over 55,000 cars made the 6000-mile journey,
up from 30,000 in 2002. Around three quarters are
4x4s, which means that in 2003 just about the same
number of imported off-roaders were reaching our
shore as Land Rover was selling new.
But why is an ever-swelling crowd buying cars that,
in many instances, mirror the official UK model?
The answer, predictably, is value. Check out any
number of the Japanese on-line auctions and you’ll
find used deals that’ll make your eyes water. How
about a 1993 Mitsubishi Pajero (known as Shogun
over here) with 52,000 miles for £3112? Or a ’96
Toyota Celica 2.0 with 46,000 miles for a mere
£1729?
With a favourable exchange rate producing rock-
bottom prices like these, dealers discovered they
could buy them, ship them, test them, pay the VAT
and still sticker them to match equivalent UK cars.
But where the price might be similar, Japanese cars
comprehensively win the spec count. Back in the
90s – when almost all of today’s imports were built -
Japanese buyers were demanding a much higher
standard of luxury than we were getting. This
virtually guarantees you extras like air conditioning
in cars that over here were lucky to get electric
windows.
You’ll also find plenty of diesels, reflecting Japan’s
early adoption of a fuel that in the mid 90s was still
a somewhat off-beat buy for us. So for the first time
you can buy a diesel Toyota Previa people carrier
(called Estima in Japan) that doesn’t drink fuel at
the rate of the official petrol-only version.
So you’ve got this vast pool (Japan is the world’s
second largest car market after the US) of cheap,
high-spec, right-hand-drive cars to choose from.
Good quality too, since the Japanese generally
lavish care on their cars over the comparatively few
miles they cover. All in all, it should add up to a
used-car paradise.
The problem is that Japan is a long, long way away.
This lack of easy contact bred fears about the
provenance of the cars and the supply of parts,
which played into the hands of those wanting to
either prevent or profit from this multi-million pound
business.
Perhaps the biggest fear is that your car will have
been stolen in Japan, then shipped. This concern
was heightened by a BBC Watchdog programme
aired back in 2001 which claimed there could be as
many as 65,000 stolen Japanese cars in Britain.
However this figure was thrown into doubt after
Hampshire Police – a major source of information
for the programme – later suspended two of its
officers who were subsequently charged for taking
part in an alleged conspiracy to profit from owners’
fears.
“The figures were ludicrous”, says Richard Moore, a
spokesman for the importers’ trade organisation
BIMTA. “We proved that there weren’t even that
many cars stolen in Japan over the period they were
talking about, let along brought to the UK. It gave a
totally distorted picture.”
BIMTA does admit around 2000 stolen Japanese
cars enter the UK every year – still a substantial
amount – but the organisation now offers the
equivalent of an HPI check to find out if the car you’
re interested in has been registered stolen.
The other hangover from the early days of Japanese
imports is the fear – fanned by the manufacturers,
says BIMTA - that the main dealers won’t touch
them and that spare parts are hard to come by.
Consequently the insurers turned their back on the
imports, which pushed owners into the arms of high-
risk, high-premium outfits.
The problem hasn’t totally receded either, with AA
Insurance saying they’ve recently stopped covering
Japanese imports, citing elusive spare parts as the
reason. However other mainstream insurers we
called happily quoted on a 1996 Mitsubishi Pajero
2.8. Direct Line even came up with a marginally
cheaper price compared with a UK-spec Shogun of
the same age, while Norwich Union Direct charged
slightly more and doubled the excess.
These days, you’ll be welcomed at main dealers
with as much gusto as anyone else. “Japanese
imports are not a problem for us”, says Craig
Nicholson, master service technician at Motorwey
(corr) Mitsubishi in Putney, south London. “In the
past Mitsubishi used to charge slightly higher prices
for parts, but in the last few years they’ve been a lot
more helpful. We service about two Pajeros a day
now.”
So what will you find at your nearest dedicated
import dealer? The previous-model Pajero is the
runaway best-seller, but there are more interesting
4x4s if you want to stand out. The Toyota Surf is a
tough-as-old-boots off-roader based on the Hi-Lux
pick-up and starts at around £4000 for a fully loaded
1991 diesel. Or if you don’t mind the sniggering, an
Isuzu Big Horn will be better value than the Trooper
that was officially sold here.
People carriers are the second biggest genre of cars
to be unloaded at the Southampton docks but again
there are some names to avoid repeating down the
pub. The Mazda Bongo Friendee sounds like crazed
manga character but is actually an MPV that hands
you a low-mileage, eight-year-old, eight-seater
motor for under £6000. Toyota has the widest range
of MPVs, from the flying bubble that is the Town
Ace (once Jarvis Cocker’s favourite car) to clever
and well-equipped eight-seaters like the Granvia.
But if you’re looking for a seven-seater with attitude
then only the Mitsubishi Delica will do. Forget the
namby-pamby name – this pinches the Pajero’s
chassis to give us the world’s only off-road MPV.
Sports models are the third and smallest group to
make the trip, and are dominated by Eunos-badged
versions of the Mazda MX-5 roadster. Increased spec
often includes air con, leather and even an auto if
that’s your bag. Or there’s the Mitsubishi FTO coupe,
a Celica rival that only briefly came here officially
but developed a strong following thanks to its nifty
handling and striking looks.
So it’s likely you’ll end up with a bargain, but pause
before the snob in you removes those tell-tale
parking mirrors. After just one tight parallel park
manoeuvre you’ll wonder how you ever managed
without them.
BOX
Cars we found
1993 Isuzu Big Horn 3.1 diesel LWB
AKA: Trooper
Price: £4995
Miles: 56,000
Spec: Alloys, ABS, air con, electric windows, nudge
bar
1994 Mitsubishi Delica 2.8 diesel
AKA: Not sold in UK
Price: £4600
Miles: 44,800
Spec: Seven seats, auto, four-wheel-drive front/rear
air con, CD player, four-way sunroof with electric
blinds
1991 Mazda Eunos 1.6
AKA: MX-5
Price: £4500
Miles: 42,400
Spec: Leather, air con, alloys, CD player, automatic
with overdrive
1997 Mitsubishi Pajero 2.8 diesel SWB
AKA: Shogun
Price: £7000
Miles: 36,500
Spec: Auto, climate control, remote locking, CD
player, alloys