Ive been in the market for an FD, I could really care less if its RHD or LHD. RHD ones seem to be a bit cheaper and my uncle whos a mechanic put me in touch with a good friend of his (also a mechanic) over in japan. living in Canada the import law is 15 years, I've done a tun of reading and it seems like all said and done i should be able to get a 96/97 (series 7) with low mileage (~40 000km) imported and on the road for ~$12 000.

My contact in japan has a fair amount of exp with rx7's (he owns 3 of them) so i trust him to find me a good clean one)

my question is, is this too good to be true? should i just get a series 6 one over here? (i also looked into insurance and its ~$15 more a month for RHD so thats not a big deal)

thanks for your input
-Rob

 

RHD cars have relatively poor resale, otherwise I think they're great
I've got a mint 25k km RHD FD
Make sure you see the translated auction papers on the cars before deciding which one to buy

 

IMHO, the biggest problem with importing FDs is knowing exactly why the car is for sale before it arrives on the dock.

If you have a contact over in Japan who can assure the car's condition (engine, turbos, interior, etc) and save you money, that's an interesting opportunity. While low mileage does not assure it's free of mechanical issues, it helps.

RHD's do have low resale, but depending on your intended use you could do very well. Another problem with RHD is getting RHD specific parts.

 

Oh god, another week, another "HOW CAN I IMPORT A RHD FD?" thread...

Please, please search. Threads like this are posted on a regular basis.

And since you're in Canada, you would be a lot better off looking in the regional sub-forum.
https://www.rx7club.com/canadian-forum-42/

 

please take a second to read what i actually posted.

it has nothing to do with "how can i" i have the resources to do it. i was just wondering what RX7 club's opinion on RHD cars was, I've talked to a few people in north America myself and they said that from their exp with RHD cars over all it all depends on the car you get shipped over. they said 95% of the ones coming over from japan are **** cars that where driven hard and are more or less at the end of their life, they did say how ever if you can get in the other 5% (not talking RX7's just RHD in general) that its a good solid car.

TL;DR i was looking for your opinion on a JDM series 7 not a how to import.

 

i did. you're not asking anything new.

now you please take a second to SEARCH instead of starting new threads to ask questions that have been beat to death.

 

Might want to make sure your friend passes a Geiger counter over any potential purchases and looks hard for water damage

 

Super low mileage! Performance upgrades! Race ready!

 

Rob is this an auction car, or a private sale? That makes a big difference. I shouldn't have to tell you, but if this guy stands to benefit financially you can't trust him. You should have an independent mechanical inspection performed. I know that might be hard to arrange in a foreign country, but maybe it can be arranged.

Overall my experience is that you are much better off with a JDM RX7 than anything else. The trick is to get one who's owner wasn't a complete dickwad. That means someone who bothered to keep records of oil changes and maintanence and didn't just beat the **** out of the car. Mine came with a maintenance book full of receipts. A decent rotary shop did all the maintenance and so far the car has been pretty reasonable except for small things like shifter bushings. If you have a DIY Japanese mechanic there is reason to be concerned.

 

I also bought a one-owner well-kept JDM car... you can generally tell by the condition and documentation with the car. From my experience, the "independent appraisers" that work for the huge auction companies in Japan are very accurate and nit-picky (almost) to a fault. They definitely highlighted cosmetic "issues" with my car in the report that I never would've found in a million years unless I knew they were there
I'm quite happy with my purchase. I also had to pay a few thousand more than you due to my location. Shipping BC -> east coast isn't cheap. Well worth it though

 

Good older performance cars are cheap here in Japan. Since Shaken can get pretty expensive on older cars. I picked up my FD for just under $5K shipped to northern Japan. The big time auctioners and importers don't mess around when looking at cars. Like was said earlier, nit-picky is not an understatement. The Japanese are usually better with cars then most other people simply because of Shaken.