I accepted orders to Sasebo Japan & my detailer told me I can take my FD with me. Now the only reason I took these orders was to stock up on rare FD goodies, meet some Rotor heads & oh yeah better my career... So has anyone shipped a us spec car to the mother land? I know my car is gonna have to go through a series of inspections i just dont know exactly what . I'm sure i'd have to change my head lights to RHD, I was told i'd have to put on some side markers but after that i dont know what else to expect. the other option would be to store the car stateside for two years & buy a car over there..

Also if you guys know of places to go, & people to meet that would be great as i want to be able to share some great Rotary stories with you guys when I return. I will be stationed there for two years with an option for three.

Idel

 

Take a Corvette with you. You can sell it over there for almost twice as much as you can over here if not more depending on year and model.

Now about your FD, I'm not sure on this but I don't think you can actually take it over there. Something about their laws, but not sure.

 

lol are you serious on this? if you love your FD so much, store it away for 2 years. if not, I'll say sell it. Go to Japan and get yourself a nice 99spec FD or Spirit-R. there's some say that you can even ship it back to The US later and make it street legal.

 

It can cost anywhere from 2k - 5k to get your car in compliance to be out here. It has been done with many cars but honestly isnt worth the hassle. Like the other guy mentioned you can bring a nice american car here and unload it for good money. The older the car the better. Check out www.goo-net.com for japanese cars and you can see american cars too to guage what you can sell yours for here. Also, you can get good RX-7s at auction for cheap. I have stored my FD stateside with my parents for 6 years now. Hope it helps.

Ryan

 

i'd leave my FD here and just buy a whole bunch of parts while i was over there and mail them back here......sets you up for one hell of a project for when you get back!

 

leave your fd at home. with the cost of shipping your car to japan and back, you can pick up an early model fd over there.

 

Well my Detailer told me the Navy will pay to ship 1 vehicle round trip but I have'nt got the specifics on the inspection / parts I have to replace to meet Japenese standards. I've been leaning to storing it stateside but regardless i'd have to buy some wheels when I get there.
Now dont get me wrong who wouldnt want a spirit R but I dont wanna invest in one if i cant bring it back.

(not sure if I can bring a RHD car back if that were the case every military member stationed there wouldve shipped hundreds of Skylines & Spirit R's by now).

I do like the idea of taking an American car over there Just like we would love to have the Spirit R's state side I wonder what is American car is sought after over there

 

The parts that get replaced have to be done in mainland by whoever is bringing it in compliance. You can take cars back but it has to be done in a kind of shady way. It is a niche crowd for american cars here and will take a bit to sell. I have seen old cuda's, camaro's, and so on. I'd say buy an old car you like just in case you aren't able to sell it.

 

Do you know what parts/prices of the parts that need replacement? Whats the shady way to export a rhd?

Idel

 

Buy a C5 Vette or a 03+ Mustang.... they seem to favor these american cars alot, and are willing to pay ridiculous amounts for it

 

Bring a Corvette with you, and when you are ready for an FD again sell the car and get a good condition series 7 or series 8 car.

 

Sounds like a good idea but I'm still trying to find out what inspections/parts/fees I'm going to be dealing with. & whats the shady & legal way to import a rhd? like my original post the Navy will pay to ship 1 car round trip, so if i cant import a Spirit R I'd definately strip that motha I'm starting to lean towards buying & selling a vette or mustang now, but would still like to know about the inspections needed to do so.

 

You're talking a few different things here.

1) Shady way of importing FROM Japan to USA - Disassemble the car and ship it as 'parts'. Pull the motor/trans, pallet it. Pull the suspension/wheels, pallet those. Ship the body separate. Reassemble once it's in the states. As for registration, well, that's when it gets tricky. But there are ways to do that too, albeit on the ill side of legal.

2) As for getting your mindset right about this opportunity. YOU don't have to worry about the inspections, etc once a Vette/Mustang gets to Japan - the buyer does. Just get it there with you as the owner and sell it. Once you have the money from that, you can probably buy whatever car you want. Who knows, maybe even trade it at a dealer for what you want.

3) Once you're ready to come home, you will have to look into options for importing FROM Japan to US. Who knows, maybe it'll make sense to bring home a Japanese classic (Toyota 2000GT, KGC110 Skyline, etc). I think those are easier to bring/register as 'vintage' and again, pull some good money here.

It's all about bringing the supply to the demand. Welcome to global logistics. =)

In all seriousness, you have a real good opportunity here that I'm sure most people in the military overlook, don't squander it.


All the best,

-Matt

 

Good point points Matt I'm not trying to do anything illegal, but I have decided to store my FD for the 2-3 years and purchase a vette or mustang to take with me. Only thing I need to find out now is what changes/parts would need to be made on a LHD car before you can take it to Japan. I have emailed my contact in Japan but have yet to get an answer.
There's got to be someone on this board who's done his already?

 

As for the legal side of things I've got a friend who lives in Yokohama, his wife deals with all sorts of Japanese tax laws and what not. I'll ask her if she knows any specific automotive laws or if she knows anyone who deals with that.

For the importing a RHD car from Japan to America...in a somewhat...shady yet...'legal' (I use the term loosely) Matt's right sort of. Import piece by piece then re-assemble. As far as registration goes I knew a guy who brought over a R34 Skyline piece by piece (Took him about a 10 months all together). Of course no insurance company would touch that so he has bought a crappy 91' 240SX and switched...more then a few things around between both cars. He did in fact get pulled over in the Skyline and when asked by the cop what type of car it was, his response "An extremely modified 240sx", and of course he had all the 'supposed' paper work to supplement that claim.

 

Bring a corvette and all the rx7 parts needed to convert a right hand drive to left hand drive and also your vin plate. Sell the corvette, buy a spirit r and convert it to left hand drive and put your vin on it and bring it back with you as if it was the car your brought over there.

Might work....lol

 

Your sponsor in Japan most likely won't know what needs to be done. Usually it is change the headlights out if they are fixed or readjust them if they are. Add side turn signals. Emmissions test it. Check overall safety of car. After that they will sign off on it and you are free to pick it up. There could be more to the process but the cars I have seen done it is mainly the headlights since the pattern for driving on the left side of the road has the higher cutoff on the left vs right. The one guy was right about the shady way of bringing cars back but you can do it in the same container too. The old cars here cost a mint so you better start saving if you want to get one. An early 70's GT-R will fetch 70k plus here, Toyota 2000GT's are usually in the 6 figure mark. Bad *** cars though Even 70's 240z's will fetch 30k plus all day long here. The older the car here the harder it is to find since they go through cars fast and junk them after 5-10 years of usage or let them rot away in their yards and not sell them to anyone. Also, if you are bringing an old car to sell you need to get the inspection done so you can get a japanese title for the car so it is transferrable to the new owner.

 

Actually considering the age of a USDM FD, I believe you will most likely have to replace the engine. I believe this is one of their emission checks. Not sure on this but it is what I heard.

Of topic, what command you going and what's your rate?

 

I've been here in Japan for a while, I'm about 3 hours away from Sasebo.

If you're going to sell an LHD car here there is a market for that, but I would stay away from trying to drive an LHD car in Japan. The driving situation is quite different and the roads are quite small, it may be a bit much to get used to. there are places I drive where you have to fold in your mirrors to get the car between 2 concrete walls, literally 1 or 2 inches on either side.

Additionally, SOFA cars are required to have what they call a "Y" license plate. Doing the registration to take a japanese licensed car to a Y plate isn't hard, but transferring a Y plate to a Japanese license is both a pain and expensive. You may be able to let the buyer worry about getting the registration though.

I recommend just buying an old series FD, you can get them for $5-$10k depending mostly on how good the body is. I see beautiful FDs all day but pop the hood and it's a frickin mess under there, so just buy one here, bling it up, and sell it to another SOFA person for a small profit when you rotate.

 

Lots of good info here keep it coming guys.. WICKEDRX7 You know your from Chi-town when your talking abought swaping VINS lol.. MAXBOOST I'm leaning towards leaving my FD behind because my Sponsor hasnt been any help. I've spoke with several guys who've been there & they said the same about adding side markers changing headlights to RHD & something about the reverse lights i'm not sure.
Is'nt the US more strict on safety & emissions than Japan anyways?

I'm considering buying an 05-06 GTO, 86-87 Buick GN, C-5 maybe C-6 Vette, 73 MAZDA rx2, I was Told Harleys are highly sought?, Cobra not sure a good year cause i've only owned suv's & Rotories my whole life. SUggestions would be Greatly Appreciated..

@ hondasr4kids:
I'm Heading to the USS Patriot MCM7 & i'm an MN. By the way congrats on the new FD.

 

03-04 cobra would be pretty sweet, they've held their value here pretty well and I'm sure it would be snapped up pretty quickly over there. Maybe an LS1 camaro/firebird or 99-04 Mustang as they're getting cheap here. The GTO isn't a bad idea either.

 

KKMpunk
Thanks for the Years I dont know **** about american muscle. I was considering the GTO since they 're been used in the drift world, I've always liked the WS6 firebirds so we'll see. Just trying to figure out what I have to do to get it ready for Japan is the Million dollar question.

 

the 03-04 cobras, dubbed terminators, are the supercharged 4 valve 4.6L V8s, they're beasts, if you get a GTO make sure it's the 6.0L and not the 5.7

*checks location* yeah, muscle cars are popular here.

 

Im also going to Japan but down in Oki. Becarefully what ur detailer tell u because personal property thats in charge of my pack out said I could not take a car. They would store 1 car for free but I couldnt take it. What part of chicago are u? I just left up there. I was in A school, PTS forced me to convert.

Anyway even if I could take my FD I dont think it would be worth it.

We should link up when we get over there. They might be parts in your area I may want n vise versa.

 

Cool. I'm an AO1, being in the Navy for 15 years.

I have a friend that came back from Atsugi about 2 years ago. He took a Corvette (2004 Z06) and sold it for a good chunk of cash. Bought a Skyline GTR(R33) took the motor out and sent it home as parts with his house hold goods paid by the Navy. He is in Florida now driving his Skyline as a kit car. I would do the same thing with a later model FD.