I am currently in the process of buying myself a 1992 JDM FD and was wondering if anyone here would be able to help me out a little bit. I was wondering if you could tell me what kinds of things I should look out for, certain things that I should make sure I get, and what things are worth paying extra for.

Any information is greatly appretiated.

Thanks.

 

I'll help you......buy a car here. You can look it over in person and it will be LHD.

 

But the price difference is massive. I have done a bunch of research and looking around, after all fees I will be able to get a FD with 45,000km, auction grade 4 with a couple of aftermarket goodies for around $6,000-$7,000 CAD.

 

Most of the U.S. third gen owners won't know a clue about this, because it's nearly impossible for them to get a JDM FD, and the modifications which are required quickly make them much more expensive than the LHD counterparts -- unlike canada, where we can import and register them without modifying. y

You should bring this to the Canadian section, as it will be filling up with RHD FD owners over the next year as the frist productino run of FD's becomes 15 years old. Many people have posted similiar threads, and a few have even popped up on the classifies already.

But generally, everything in the LHD faq holds true for RHD's. However, i wouldn't buy anything on "spec" -- pay the extra 2-3k and wait until one of the larger importing firms has brought it over, and had it pass OOP. Only then go and have a look at it. Don't buy anything from auction.

 

That's not true.

You may be able to purchase a car, from aution in japan for that. I also don't beleive you will easily find a grade 4 1992 FD, grade 4 is essentially brand new.

PM me if you like -- I live in Calgary -- , i did alot of reasearch into this, and opted for a LHD one instead, because of a number of factors.

 

Football, which importer are you going thru?
Things which are worth paying extra for should be based on your preferences, the first few RHD FD's are just enterign the market so no real guideline as to who'se paying more for what options.

Also, some places such as www.tyeeimports.com actually carry inventory in BC, so that way you can look at the car, drive it home and register it just like any other vehicle, which might be something to look into.

Have your rep in japan send you tons of highres pics including pics of the under carriage so you can see what quality it really is in.

My friends and I have had nothing but good dealings with Adam @ FEAST Auto Export, and Tyee Imports carries stock in toronto so not much can go wrong when buying from them.

If you don't mind (you can PM me if you'd like) how much did you manage 2 grab the car for?

 

sounds like a good deal, but how much will it really be after u ship it over and paperworks and total fees before it gets to your garage??

 

In Canada there is no significant paperwork or fees to drive a RHD that is over 15 years old.

Shipping is probably about 2,000, and there is a 300$ or so fee to have it registered, and after that it just has to pass a provincial safety inspection inspection (if brakes, suspension, steering and lights work, and your generally good to go).

We have none of the hassles that the US guys do to register a JDM car, once it's over 15 years old, it doesn't matter.

We have no smog legislation in Alberta, but you are required to have a muffler.

 

^ RORO fee should be included in his purchase price. (roughly 1200$).
after that he has some random fees to pay (100$ in paper work, 200$ for A/C tax as i recall, 100 bucks for OOP inspection, then GST (get your importer to write you an invoice for a lower amount i guess..otherwise it'll be the 6% GST. then another 500-800$ to transport ur car to calgary (if you want to have some fun drive it back )

best of luck, let me know how it works out.

 

Wow...alberta for the win!

 

I think its 100 for tha A.C adn 209 for the RIV or something like that.

I'm not sure how, statistically, the JDM cars have faired on OOP (out of province) safety inspections. I've heard stories of guys getting great, and flawless JDM 300xz's, Skylines, Mr-2's etc.. and i've heard stories of guys getting total POS's.

Yah, RORO (roll on, roll off -- aka, not in a container) on a ship is a good deal.

It's not a bad deal, but i'd guess that a good 50-75% of the cars that are bought via japanese public auctions and import brokers are going to be more trouble than their worth, and that initially cheap price of 10k, will be 20k pretty quickly.

I guess we won't really know for a year or two, what these cars are like.

Again, i'd stick to my suggestion of paying and extra 4-5k and getting a good RHD JDM FD that was from a dealer stock, and not at auction.

 

HAH! yah, you should see some of the FC's around here.

Daily drivers that make your eyes water and ears bleed if you happen to be behind on on a cruise.

 

^ haha i know the feeling...if you're ever in toronto gimme a call and you can try out some of our track day cars. Old people curse my very existence and teenagers take videos with their cellphones lol

i agree with crymson that you shouldn't look for the cheapest FD that you can find in Japan, afterall, the saying of buying the best FD you can afford still applies on that side of the pond. Having said that, while a 10,000$R32 GT-R may be a pile of sheize, the FD's did depreciate more than the Skyline GTR's so its not inconceivable to find one in good shape for 10-12 plus various fees. If you spend in the 12-15$ range you can get a really fantastic example which is very clean and mechanically meticulous. It also depends on the reliability of your broker/dealer, look for someone with lots of positive refferals in the car community.

other good sources for import information are www.gtrcanada.com those guys have a section dedicated to the complex legalese of importing these cars (thank you very ****** much D.O.T) and you will find a lot of good info. Remember a bunch of this stuff may not apply to FD's such as the headlight issue. Because the car was exported, the lights all around will probably be DOT spec since it wouldn't make any sense for mazda to make two versions (factory retooling wise).

Overall, it should be easier to bring in an FD than a GT-R in my humble opinion.

 

i bought my rhd fd here in texas, pretty good condition. interior perfect. suspension was fitted with hks hiper d's. mazdaspeed odometer. got it for cheap~!

 

^ interesting, what's the process for clearing a RHD FD into the US?

 

There is no process. His car is not legal here. Cheap, but you can't legally drive it here nor insure it. Good thinking!

 

I haven't bought one yet, but through the research that I have been doing here is how my costs should break down.

The FOB price (everything payed for including broker fee, auction costs, costs of paperwork to clear car for exportation and everything else needed to ship the car out) is going to be around 400,000JPY which is approx 3800 CAD. I will then have another $800 +/- CAD to pay for shipping, around $500 in duty fees, $100 for A/C charges and I am expecting probubly another $500 worth of random expenses that I won't know of. So that makes it worth around $5700 CAD. My gf works for West Jet so I will be flying to Vancouver for $20 to pick up the car and spend around $100 on gas to drive it home. So all in all I think that purchasing a car will be fairly reasonable. And the 400 000 JPY FOB price is going to be for a grade 3.5/4. I am going to be most likely buying the car from www.japaneseusedcars.com. For anyone that doesn't believe me on this price you can go through that web page and browse through previous auctions and find out what the FOB price is of cars that have sold in the past.

 

I've browsed that site many time and 400,000 yen FOB seems to be about the absolute LOWEST they go for. I would expect to pay at least 650,000 yen for a grade 3. Pages 43 - 51 are generally the 1993 and 1992 FD's.

I'm not saying you CAN'T get an FD for 400,000 yen, but I would be utterly stunned it if it was in any condition you'd want. I'd be more than happy to eat my words once you get it to calgary, because if what you say is true, then i'll sell my LHD and get myself 2 RHD's.

 

haha. Well I will let you know how things go. I also had a guy at Reddex.net quote me between 6200-7200CAD for him to broker the deal and have the car cleared through customs and waiting in vancouver. I am going to probubly be fairly patient and wait out the auctions til I get a good deal. I will keep you informed on how things go.