kakimoto33

All SEVS compliance cars should have new tyres fitted regardless of the DOT markings if you follow the laws exactly to the letter. It's unlikely for any car coming from Japan to have DOT marked tyres so your best to assume that they are not DOT approved and just allow for new tyres in your budget anyway. Tyres are cheaper in the US but the freight cost would absolutely kill you. Depending on the size wheels your V35 has fitted you should be able to get cheap tyres locally for anything from around $100 to $200 each. Compare that to importing tyres from the US including shipping and you will find that the local tyres are much cheaper.

We would absolutely agree. When you are looking at cars around this price range it's much better to look locally, especially for this sort of vehicle which is not really sought after because you can get some real bargains locally sometimes. Keep in mind that importing a car has set costs regardless of what you buy, so for example if you were given an R33 for free in Japan it would still cost you over $6,500 by the time you get it registered after paying Japanese inland costs (FOB fee), ocean freight, customs clearance, import duty & GST, brokers fees, SEVS compliance, new tyres, roadworthy and registration costs ... and considering there are about a dozen automatic R33's (some turbo and some non-turbo) around already registered in Australia with asking prices around this value then you can certainly get one locally without too much hassle.

The MR-2 turbo (SW20 model) is not allowed for import to Australia with the current laws. The only MR-2 you can import is the earlier AW11 model built in 1988 or earlier, so if you wanted an SW20 turbo then you will have to buy one locally unfortunately.

Using Japanese car dealer prices as a guide you can expect to spend anything from around $18,000 landed and complied upwards for a white Type-R. Black are more rare and therefore tend to sell for around $2,000 more, and other colours like red and silver are very rare and could be a lot more when they are available. Auction prices are always cheaper so you might expect to spend around $2,000 less on average for a decent car (from around $16,000 for a white Type-R) with the occasional bargain around for even less still if you are in the right place at the right time and quite lucky.

Most people are not able to get inspections done so just have to buy based on the photos and information available from the seller ... luckily we are able to arrange inspections for almost any car from dealers around Japan prior to purchase ... please PM me the vehicle information if you wanted us to see what can be done for you?

I could be interested in a copy depending on which sort it is exactly as there have been a few variations on the Greddy copies ... can you shoot me some pictures of it to [email protected] ... thanks!

I am looking for the horn wiring part that mounts in front of the indicator/wiper stalk assembly - you can see it held on with 4 large black screws once the steering wheel is removed ... I need one from a series 1 model ECR33 (non airbag) as this is the only one that I know will work, other R33 models built from 1995 onwards with drivers or duel airbags are different and will not work. It would be best to get one around the South East of Melbourne so I can collect it in person and make sure it's right, otherwise due to the small size it could just as easily be posted from anywhere as long as I know it's the correct part. Please email me at [email protected] to let me know if you have this part including photos if possible ... I am also after a few other small parts from an R33 coupe possibly including rear parcel tray speaker mounts, drivers door power window switches and quite probably a full set of window glass too! Thanks Craig @ J-Spec Imports

We do quite a few personal imports, especially from New Zealand, however it's mostly for people who either don't have the time or don't want the hassle of doing it themselves. If you are a confident sort of person who doesn't mind working out how do do new and unfamiliar things then it shouldn't be too hard to get through it yourself. If you would rather not do it on your own for some reason then let us know and we will be happy to help although it will obviously cost more for our services so it really is your choice.

Car parts are subject to 10% import duty and 10% GST the same as cars when you import them. If you only buy a small value of parts (under $1,000 including shipping costs) and have them posted or sent by courier then they will often be sent directly through without being charged, however any package may still be stopped by Customs and you may be advised to go through a customs clearance process and pay these charges so it's best to allow for them regardless. If you are shipping large quantities of parts that are over $1,000 then you will need to have a customs agent do a clearance entry for you and pay the import duty and GST as well. If you need more information then you should contact a customs agent for more advice.

Regarding the modifications, you should have little or no trouble getting that through as long as it's all legal (ride height, exhaust noise, etc.) and that there is emissions evidence available for that engine here in Australia which should be no trouble as both the 1300cc and 1500cc were available in the locally delivered Toyota Echo. The trouble could come with getting import approval which you would want to do before you consider shipping the car, then once you have the approval there is no way it can be rejected at the port so you know that you will be safe. The problem is going to be that this is a "personal import" laws designed for importing a car that has been your personal vehicle, it's not a company car import law so you would most likely need to prove very clearly that in the business you were a sole trader so anything owned by the business was actually owned by you, or that the business name and your name were one in the same. If it was a proper business/company and you were the sole employee then you will most likely not get approval. You should call DOTARS on +61 2 6274 7506 to discuss it with them as they are the ones who will decide your destiny.

Can you get them in custom colours for the same price? .. I would be keen on a set in red leather for an R33?

Is it a bolt in job with the flanges at each end? What sort of condition, etc.? If it's ok then halve the price and I will swing past and pick it up?

When you had it fitted temporarily was it a nice fit along the side of the front guards and around the headlights ... I have seen some that are really shocking and not worth even trying to make them fit, but if this one is decent then it might be worth having a look at and test fitting before possibly buying?

I am keen on the gearshift boot and handbrake boot if you have a matching one? ... also do you have the sunvisors still? ..

Unfortunately the Toyota Celsior is not allowed for import to Australia because they were sold locally as a Lexus LS400. There was a lot of them imported a few years back under the "15 year old" import laws which have since been replaced by the "1988 and older" rules which excludes the Celsior as it wasn't built that early. Your only option would be to purchase one that is already in Australia which was imported before those laws changed.

That car would have been imported a while back when they used new semi-random 17 digit VIN numbers for imported cars ... a number of years ago they changed to the standard 6U9000XXXXXXXXXXX format ... in any case you should be looking for the original Japanese VIN number stamped on the filrewall to run it through FAST, it will be something like BCNR33-00XXXX

Wow, what a random comment ... who said anything about Nankang tyres?

I completely understand you wanting to buy through an importer in Sydney so you can meet with them in person so by all means try to do that if possible, otherwise you would be far better off letting us help you from here in Melbourne and having us arrange inspection of the car rather than buying without inspection through someone in Sydney ... as long as you choose a good one then the importer in Australia will be the least of your worries, it will be the car condition that is most critical so you need to make sure that is right before you buy. To be honest I don't expect the car and/or seller to be genuine as 95% of cars listed on TradeCarView are dodgy in some way, so if you do consider buying this car then I would strongly suggest that you only buy through someone who can arrange an independent inspection of the car. I hope it will help to see the auction report for the car in their photos but for your own sake please DO NOT buy this car based on the auction report alone, because there is a very real chance that the seller is not trying to sell this car as pictured, they could just as easily be offering a totally different R34 and just used these photos as a "sample" or tool to help them secure the sale.

Typically TradeCarView is not a good place to find decent cars as most of the dealers listing cars there lie about the car and it’s condition because they know it’s all individual buyers overseas so by the time you know they have lied it will be too late to do anything. We try to counter this by checking all cars in person before buying however most sellers on TradeCarView will not allow us to check the cars which only makes us think that they are being more dishonest. It’s common for sellers here to list rubbish condition cars at low prices but make them appear to be excellent condition, or simply take photos of cars they don’t even own and list them for such a cheap price that someone would buy without asking too much – these are scams. You have to be very careful when buying from TradeCarView and make sure you ask all the right questions, which in many cases will be just too hard for the dodgy sellers to answer and still get the sale so many will simply not reply to you. With this specific car we have actually already looked up more information and the history for someone and found that it’s a 25GT FOUR model (2500cc non-turbo 4WD) with automatic transmission. It went through auction in mid-December 2008 which is around 3 weeks after this seller listed the car on TradeCarView, so that means they already owned it then and tried unsuccessfully to sell it at auction. The good news is that it was given grade 4 at auction which means the car should be in decent condition and is most likely worth looking at assuming you are keen on the 4WD model and that the seller is genuine!

With any luck it's just a case of it having the HCR32 body tags stuck on the BNR32 body, although I can't imagine why anyone would do that ... in any case just let us know if you need any more answers or help with anything there.

They should not be on the same car ... I assume the 6U9000BNR32309534 is on a seperate VIN plate fitted for Australian compliance (and probably later swapped by someone dodgy to another car) and the HCR32-259470 number is on the factory build plate along with the other details given in the first post. If the BNR32 number and HCR32 number are both on the factory build plate then there is even more weird things going on here. Quick questions: - how many doors does this car have & what colour is it? - what is the VIN number stamped into the firewall by the factory?

VIN:- 6U9000BNR32309534 This is an R32 GTR chassis number as recorded on the Australian system (original Japanese VIN with 6U9 and some 0's in front to make it 17 digits) and it belongs to a crystal white coloured May 1994 built GTR so it could well be a V-Spec model although it appears not to be from what I can see so far. HCR32-259470 This is the Japanese VIN number from a November 1991 model GTS-T (a gunmetal grey coloured 4 door sedan with automatic transmission to be precise) ... this build date means that it's not allowed for import to Australia (mid-1991 to mid-1992 are not allowed for import) so there is a chance that it was imported illegally or was found to be a non-importable model once it arrived, and then may have been re-identified with a wrecked GTR's compliance information. rb20det 1998 This is an R32 GTS-T engine code and cubic capacity ... does this car actually have an RB20DET engine (2000cc single turbo) or an RB26DETT (2600cc twin turbo) as it should if it were a GTR? I would strongly advise you to look into this further before doing anything ... something is seriously wrong with the details you have given here. Check what VIN number is listed on your invoice and also what is on the import approval and/or compliance paperwork that you should have recieved with the car. I can check more details for you if required and give some advice on how to deal with it if necessary so please feel free to email me with any more details at [email protected]

Agreed, best to see photos to help work this out for you .. of course you are welcome to blur out some of the chassis number digits but make sure we can easily see the problems you are talking about ... then you should be able to get 3 good opinions from all of us experienced importers

Where did you buy the car and more importantly does it have an import approval? ... also keen to know how the VIN has been tampered with so I can advise further?

I agree completely Nigel, there are too many dodgy exporters who do not care once they have your money which is why you must get someone to check the car well and/or make sure you are buying from a reliable and trustworthy source, or at least have the car independantly inspected before buying to make sure you don't get something unexpected.