Drop Your Pants - Some Import Dealers Got Raided This Week...

[Iron Chef]

It seems someone at the Office of Fair Trading had enough of the complaints....

In a combined effort involving NSW RTA (or whatever they are now), NSW Office of Fair Trading and DOTARS inspectors over from Canberra, three or four of the 'allegedly' worst offenders got hit VERY hard.

They were mostly looking at Elgrands and Estimas, both of which are meant to be complied and registered as campervans, then they can be engineered and converted back into people movers. The list of breaches included:

- vehicles that had paperwork submitted to get a compliance plate without ANY work being done. Not only weren't they converted to camper vans, they didn't have anything done on them at all, like not even child restraint anchors, and were being sold in this state.

- vehicles being advertised/sold as 8 seaters when they're not/can't be until after they're registered

- vehicles being advertised for sale on a dealer's yard in an unroadworthy state

Rumour has it that dealers were literally registering them without bothering to comply them, and leaving all the seats in without spending the money on getting an engineer to sign off to make them 8 seaters again. Imagine where it would leave the owner of the car if they had 8 people sitting in a car that they later found out was only licenced to seat four...

Fines are in the tens of thousands, and one or two of the workshops may lose the right to comply those models, or even lose their RAW status.

[DRIFTT]

Good to see, lets see what happens in the other states in the coming weeks as Campers and converting to full seating capacity has been a sore point for years.

[ARTZ]

Doesn't surprise me really...have been to a few import lots and just thought "really" at the state of some of the cars there...

Driving them often confirms initial doubts as well..

It seems to me alot are merely money grabbers taking advantage of a scene that they lost any real interest in long ago..

Next in line will be the euro scene, it seems to be trendy atm and with the price of s/h parts for euros being ludicrous, it wont be long before it is taking advantage of as well with these dodge dealers selling nothing but polished turds...

i guess it is hard to blame them in a way, with the associated costs that come with getting these cars road legal in this country hardly making it worthwhile anymore..By all accounts you are probably better spending your $$$ on a mint condition falcodore for half the price .sad but true

[Longz]

name and shame these shops !

[Humbla]

Very easy to guess one of them,i test drove a 33 there many years ago.It had great big brand new blinger rims on it,Took it for a test drive and it drove like a death trap,rims were put on to cover some thing dodgy up,was'nt just a wheel alignment prob either.Got out of there real fast.Have been past there heaps in the past few weeks heaps of el grande and the like there,hope they were one that got reamed.

[carizma]

As a dealer who also does compliance on Elgrand's and Estima's, I think there might be a bit of mis-understanding here. Firstly the term "campervan" only means it requires a small box containing a $10 Bunnings stove and small fire extinguisher and for 4 of the 8 seatbelts to be removed.

Secondly most dealers will register a car when its sold so hence the seating capacity can only be changed after registration so they would be 4 seaters on their yard. This is not illegal at all, in fact after registration according to the Vic Road's guide lines the extra 4 seat belts can be re-installed without an engineers certificate as long as its noted that passengers of under 38kgs use those seats ie they become childrens seats.

Anyway as with anything, do your homework before you buy, in Victoria if you buy an Elgrand or Estima and it was promised that it would be registered as an 8 seater just make sure that the blue modification plate has been fitted to the vehicle showing the seating numbers, this also the case in Queensland and I believe NSW will soon introduce a similar system.

[BakemonoRicer]

LOL

Wont mention names but I think I know who would of got hit....

Anyway, Eddie Macguire is cool and Brett Lee's bowling is incredible.

Meh, Id never buy from a dealer anyway, most of them are out to make a profit and they can make a higher profit importing repaired vechiles than they can 4.5 vechiles which comand a premium in japan

[180fan]

Was bound to happen sooner or later, given the condition of some of the cars i have seen at import dealerships, as well as the attitudes of some of the salesmen i have talked to.

Were they all Parramatta Rd dealerships?

[GTR-N1]

Not all. Caringbah too.

Others will be visited this coming week (esp by DOTARS) even if they don't sell Estimas and Elgrands, just to ascertain if everything is kosher.

[Iron Chef]

As a dealer who also does compliance on Elgrand's and Estima's, I think there might be a bit of mis-understanding here. Firstly the term "campervan" only means it requires a small box containing a $10 Bunnings stove and small fire extinguisher and for 4 of the 8 seatbelts to be removed.

Secondly most dealers will register a car when its sold so hence the seating capacity can only be changed after registration so they would be 4 seaters on their yard. This is not illegal at all, in fact after registration according to the Vic Road's guide lines the extra 4 seat belts can be re-installed without an engineers certificate as long as its noted that passengers of under 38kgs use those seats ie they become childrens seats.

Anyway as with anything, do your homework before you buy, in Victoria if you buy an Elgrand or Estima and it was promised that it would be registered as an 8 seater just make sure that the blue modification plate has been fitted to the vehicle showing the seating numbers, this also the case in Queensland and I believe NSW will soon introduce a similar system.

This is correct. There's nothing wrong with converting an Estima, Elgrand or any other van already here from a camper to a passenger van once it has been registered. The RTA tried to somehow put a stop to it but were successfully taken to court by import car dealers to keep it going, maybe that's part of the RTA's frustration lol

Not all RAWS with Elgrands on their schedule were pinged - there are many who are also doing the right thing (like the workshop I use to do them in Sydney) who were left alone.

[SecretR33GTR]

Yes we all know the industry needs a desperate clean up.

One of the issues is people want cars at such cheap prices that certain dealers licensed and unlicensed dealers are buying wrecks in japan cleaning them up and passing them off as good cars with the super sales pitch. I know I would not buy a repaired write off from Australia so why do consumers buy Japanese write-offs ?

On a recent visit to a well known suspension shop in Sydney I was asked to look at an evo 8 that was there and give my opinion. Well the answer was "how the hell is this registered ? Let alone complied? ". The car had the OSR inner and outer guard replaced and the OS b pillar had been repaired plus the floor had clamp marks from the puller. The owner of the car was advised to take the car back or go to consumer affairs but he was embarrassed as he said he was a second year mechanic and thought it was ok when he looked at it. The clincher was he had owned the car for only 2 weeks and wondered why the car drove funny. The AYC pump had been disconnected as it was faulty.

The worst dealers are the backyard boys and the guys who pretend to be private seller - dumping their rubbish on the private market.

[Miguelone]

I thought cars weren't allowed into the country if they're found to be a repaired vehicle in Japan? So how do all these dodgy cars come in?

[BakemonoRicer]

I thought cars weren't allowed into the country if they're found to be a repaired vehicle in Japan? So how do all these dodgy cars come in?

Dealerships own the compliance workshops, which is why so many vehicles sneak through.

Edited June 12, 2012 by BakemonoRicer

[maclarenf1]

The worst dealers are the backyard boys and the guys who pretend to be private seller - dumping their rubbish on the private market.

saw few of these so called Private sellers when i was looking for R34 GTR's - they will have same ad for long time in car sales and in fact are not selling even the car on the Ad.. when i called up the first answer is. we can import one for you with exact spec for even cheaper + compiled too...

[Iron Chef]

Aaaaaand another three dealers raided yesterday too!

[Bodella]

Still focusing on the vans?

[Iron Chef]

Yep.

[Chris Rogers]

wonder when they will head this direction. I know of two that would cop it very quickly. one south and one north and not only on vans..

[SecretR33GTR]

Concerning compliancing and dealers who own them.

It comes down to the this - the public are only buying a few cars so bad dealers buy rubbish.

Ok look at the numbers on a good R34 GTR - car cost between 35 - 40k in japan, shipping & duty/gst $7k, compliance 2k, tyres 1k, rego 1.5k plus say $500 for detail or any touchups. So at best around $47k but for this u will get a car with history with around 60 km's.

So how do u buy a car for $45k at certain dealers ? With 30km's and zero history ?

Well the answer is u can't.

I am actually looking at a NUR M right now in Japan and it will owe me close to $70k which is a car with books and 42km's on her. Just need to convince my wife that I need a third GTR in the home.

I'm pretty vocal about the issues with GTR's as I actually love the cars and hate seeing rubbish passed off as a good car - it just devalues the good cars in the market.

Yes I have sold a couple of cheap GTR's and forum members will tell u I go through every fault in the car with the buyer - why ?

Well I'd rather have someone comeback for advise,help or even to chat about their cars than come in upset about their ride.

[iwanta34gtr]

Out of interest, I went and had a look at a BB R34 Vspec GTR at a dealer in Sydney last week. I found it on carsales.

The salesman assured me that it has 28,000 genuine KM on it. However the seats, carpet and body looked like they had done alot more.

Quite upsetting - especially for the trusting person that ends up buying it, not knowing it's probably done atleast 10x what is on the odometer.

This dealer seems to sell a lot of GTR's (including Nurs, Mspecs - etc). Majority with very low KM and painted chassis rails.

Long due for a review I reckon.