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Buying a RHD Car - EP.18
Buying a RHD Car - EP.18
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About this episode
Navigating the world of right-hand drive car purchases can be tricky, but Bobby and Aaron share their personal experiences to guide listeners through the process. They discuss the pros and cons of using importers versus exporters, personal sales, and buying directly from Japanese dealerships. Key insights include the importance of due diligence, understanding registration and insurance, and the potential pitfalls of each buying method. Their candid stories highlight the significance of building trust with sellers and the value of thorough inspections to avoid costly mistakes.
Topics:
importers vs exporters
buying from dealerships
personal sales
due diligence
registration and insurance
common issues with RHD cars
trust and relationships with sellers
cost considerations
inspection importance
Buying a RHD Car - EP.18
We discuss methods and what to look out for when buying a RHD car.
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Nissan R33
"...e in Japan at a dealership. So I'll start off. My R33 GTR I purchased through an importer. And as Aaron..."
Car
Alfa Romeo GTV
"...with importer exporter R 33 used an importer R 34 GTV use an exporter. Now for personal sale, I have I ..."
Car
Nissan Gtr
"...e Japanese dealership out. Right. So I bought the GTR from top rank for the specific reason as we cover..."
Car
Honda Civic
"...line, stages, Sylvia, whatever it might be. Honda Civic. Yeah, Honda Civic, whatever the car is, there's ..."
Select text to request an explanation
Yo, I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. Yeah, yeah. And we are the right hand drive guys.
Today we're going to talk about how to buy a right hand drive car through manydifferent examples of what you can do, how you can do it, and how to get itregistered. So Aaron and I both have different experiences buying our right
hand drive cars from using an importer, using an exporter, buying one in theUS personal sale, and buying one in Japan at a dealership. So I'll start off.
My R33 GTR I purchased through an importer. And as Aaron and I were just
talking about some importers have stock and other ones will source a car inJapan for you and import it. Right, right. Kind of like a broker. Right.
And so, you know, it comes off the boat and it's at their dealership waiting foryou. You don't have to handle any sort of real paperwork or dealing with
anyone besides that specific importer/dealer. So I personally purchased my R33 GTR
from JDM Sport Classics, who is an importer located in three rivers Michigan.
And overall my experience with an importer was all right. I went and looked at
the car prior. It was kind of timed like we only got this much time. You know, so
my wife and I went and looked at it. I faced time to Aaron. We did our best with
the limited time that we had, but that was our opportunity to check out the car.
So if you work with an importer who does have US stock, then that is anadvantage, which is being able to see the car before you purchase it. Right, right.
Even if you would have test drive it or pick the car or just a huge snowstorm when we went.
So they're like, you want to drive it? We wouldn't recommend it. You're going to be
plowing snow. And I'm like, dude, if I'm buying this thing, there's no way it's
being driven out there right now. So, but I did get to see it. And it was clean.
There were things I didn't notice. There were things that they didn't disclose.
So, in my opinion, the harder part about an importer is if they have stock,they've already invested in this car and they need to sell it. Right, right. So
that's my negative with it is that not saying that anyone's going to take advantageof you. It's obviously case by case, but they need to sell that car. Right. So they
want to sell that car. So you have to also understand that. And so in my case, I
didn't realize that the car was a full respray. And some of that was what we'll
talk about later, me doing my due diligence. And I would have noticed that on the
placard, on the firewall, that it was a K H three car, but the paint was actuallyCM one white. So that's like, you know, my negative experience, however, you know,
and like one of the like some of the suspension was blown out and stuff, which Icouldn't see because I couldn't inspect the car to that point. Right. However, is
what it is. You're buying a car as is. So with the importer, it was a alright
experience, but you're also paying their markup, right? Right. It's a business. Yeah,
they need to make money. And so they found this car somewhere in Japan,
imported it. Now they're selling it to you. That costs money. Right. So I personally,
me would not use an importer again because I don't want to pay their fee. And I
understand now how to do it in other ways. Right. You know, so using an importer,
basically the car usually is already here or they can find you want. You won't have
to deal with customs, import paperwork, the ports, you won't deal with any of thatwith an importer. Right. Right. We'll walk up. The car will be there. You make your
payment. You're good to go. Right. You will pay for that though. You will pay for
that though. So that's an importer. Next one in my experience list is using an
exporter. And so that's with Trevor from K. Z. Oh, and we've talked about him in an
earlier episode using him major different two major differences between theimporter and the exporter exporter. You're not seeing the car first. Okay. That's like your
biggest thing unless you go over to Japan, you are not seeing that car before you buy itbeyond pictures. Right. So you have to be okay with that, which means you have to work
with somebody that you trust. You cannot, you can, but you can't just work with any
old Joe over there that says that they can export you a car. You might get a car, but
it may not be what you were thinking. Right. Right. You don't know how well they're
going to inspect it. Right. And so you can hire a third party inspector. In this case,
Trevor told me to hire a third party inspector, which was a guy named Nick. Didn't
know some job inspecting the car. He is an inspector and he wants you to buy the car.
Just remember that they're going to be honest, but they also want you to purchase a car.
Right. So, but using Trevor, okay, he is a super honest guy. Like we said in other, in
the other episode. And he will not let you buy a car. That is not what you want. He'll
pass over 100 cars to find the one that you're really into. So if you can find an exporter
that you can create a relationship with, like we both know Trevor now, then you canprobably be pretty comfortable doing this. You know, like I would be comfortable buying
another car from Trevor because the GTT that he sourced for me was an excellent conditionand he downplayed how excellent it was. Right. Right. He was completely honest and up front
with everything about it. Yeah. So that's that trust that makes it easy, right? Right.
So would I purchase from any old exporter? No. Because I really don't want to get like
the shaft, right? Right. But would I choose working with Trevor over using an importer again?
Absolutely. Because I have patients, I can wait for the car. That's the negative. You
got to wait for the car. Oh, yeah. A lot of times with the importer, if it's on like site,
then you can walk away with it that day. Right. Sometimes if you're sourcing one with an
importer, which isn't what I would do. But if you're sourcing one, then you still got
to wait, but you don't got to deal with the port stuff like we said, I'm dealing rightnow with the port stuff from the exporter, right? Because Trevor will get it out of Japan.
It's now my responsibility to feel to figure out how to get it from the port to my house,get it released from port, cleared all that. So a little more work on my end, but the price
is substantially less because you're not paying the importer's fee. Correct. You're not
paying that like you're having to just put in a little more legwork. Yeah, you got to, yeah,
but you also learn you gain the knowledge, which is huge because now after I go throughthis, I could go through it five more times. I could help my buddy go through it like whatever
right? It's kind of pretty simple. Right. So with an exporter, if you can't go to Japan,
you're taking a little bit of a risk. However, you are saving money. And if you find the
right exporter, then it's really no sweat because you don't have to kind of worry about thatam I getting screwed if you have that good relationship. So those are kind of my two experiences
with importer exporter R 33 used an importer R 34 GTV use an exporter. Now for personal
sale, I have I have bought right hand drive cars personal sale, but not anything recent. So
I'll turn it over to you because I know you recently bought your, well, not recent now.
Right. Like two years ago. Yeah, bought your R 32 via a guy. Yeah, yeah. It was on marketplace
actually. And Facebook marketplace is kind of, I don't know, taken over what Craigslist
used to be. I feel like so like back in the day, it would be Craigslist. Now it's kind of
marketplace. So for me, yeah, I went on and I found a R 32 GTST, you know, what I was looking
for a few hour drive from where I was. And I just immediately hit up the guy was like, what's
up? What's up with it? You know, what's the deal? What's the deal? And it was saying clapped
out or can I come get this shit? Right, right, right. Yeah, well, this make the drive back
home. Right. So I hit him up. We talked, I ended up buying it long story short. And yeah,
it was, it was one of those things where looking back now, I would have done things a littlebit differently. And what it mean by that is there was a few things that I was just kind
of like overlooking on the car. One I was excited. Right. That's obviously the hardest part
is like that. And I could see that too, right? Like anytime and not to say it's impulse,
but just anytime that you get your heart and mindset on something and you can't, you can'tsqueeze through those feelings almost. Right, right. You get, you get jaded by it. You got
blinders on sometimes. Yeah. I mean, I did too. When I picked up the R 33, when I was looking
at it, I walk right past the paint lines and stuff, don't even acknowledge the fact thatthere's over spray everywhere. Yeah, just to tell myself, this is the car. So yeah, I
can see that 100%. But, you know, my experience isn't going to be the same with everybody's,
you know, I mean, like I think marketplace or, you know, any online sale where you cango see the car, test drive it, whatnot from an individual is a decent thing to do.
If one, you don't have the patience to source one overseas and have it imported or, you know,if you just don't trust that process, right? But the thing with the thing with finding
cars on the marketplace is that you're going to be paying that little bit extra tax that,you know, they, because they probably bought it from an importer or a dealership or whateverit might be. Yeah, there's, there's a few guys obviously that are importing them themselves,
but like for the most part, right? You're right. They're going to be that price point that's
unless they're desperate, unless somebody came across the hard times. Yeah. Right. That's
true. So, I mean, you, you will be paying a little bit extra, but you will be getting the
car then and there. Like, you know, we talked about you don't have to wait for it. You don't
have to be on a boat. It's already in America. Hopefully registered legitimately. Right.
Right. Hopefully registered legitimate. It doesn't have like, you know, 240 S X vins or
something on it weird. Yeah. You know, this swap. But, yeah, I think that for some people,
that's the move. But, you know, you can't get burned like that because in, and we're going
to talk about this in a few minutes about how to protect yourself in those situations,especially on marketplace when somebody isn't a first time seller, you know, in that sense,right? Right. Right. Because, right, you, you over, over importing and exporting, you can
get burned personal sale and the repercussions for that person are a lot of times less if theyaren't a repeat seller. Right. Right. Because let's just say guy soldier yours, yeah.
Ends up, you know, whatever cylinder three and four smoked, whatever, right? Yeah. He
just disappears. Right. It don't matter. Right. You know, in that sense, you can drag
him through the mud on some groups and whatnot. But like, he don't care, dude, he made it.
That's not even in the scene. Right. He, you know what I mean? Like, he just did it. Yeah.
That kind of happened to me. The car was initially missing a corner light. The guy was like,
yeah, yeah, I got it at my other house. I'll send it to you in the mail. I knew that that
was never going to happen. Nobody sending you nothing in the, yeah. No one's sending you
anything afterwards after the fact. But, so, yeah, I mean, whenever you're buying one on
marketplace, I think it could go one or two ways. Like the car has been in America. It's been in
our hands for however long. It could be modified to a point that's like really nice and clean
or it could go that opposite. You know, someone might have just rigged everything and neglected
maintenance because they couldn't find the parts or couldn't afford the parts, whatever it might be.
Right. Could have been a guy in Elfyrs head. So he just kept going or kept it moving. Right. Right.
And you know, it's just you kind of never know what you're going to get and you just kind of have topay attention and we'll talk about it later, but do your due diligence. Yeah. Yeah. I would agree. I
mean that right. It won't touch on that. And if you, but the biggest part of buying one of these cars
no matter what is understanding what you're buying. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're buying a 90s car. So
yeah. Like that's going to come with some issues no matter what it is. Yeah. No, or where you got it. I
mean, yeah, that so that's a tough part. But would you say that that's pretty much, you know,
personal sailing and not shall just kind of you got to know what you're getting into. Yeah. Yeah.
And be expected like expect to pay a little bit more, you know, like you're going to pay thatlittle bit extra maybe even a little more than a dealer unless you come across that guy that'sdesperate or yeah, you know, he's a good of a rid of his car because you know, his wife's pregnant.
No, he's getting a house. We've always we've always we always see the the examples of yeah, you know,
guys got to sell it. Yeah, got to got to put a grower. It's a priority. Yeah.
Priority. Whatever it might be. Yeah. But don't let that blind you to the fact that that car might
be a little bit messed up. Right. He may have some of his excuse stuff that he never finished,
but he doesn't want to disclose. Right. Yeah. So moving on. So we did importer with my R33x
porter with an R34 GTT personal sale with the R32 GTST. Yep. And so the fourth
option that we're going to cover would be purchasing from a dealership in Japan.
And you can do this, which I did with the R34 GTR. Okay, so I purchased it from top rank. So you can do
this in multiple ways. Okay, you don't have to use top rank, you know, you could hit up garage
defend. Right. You can hit up a global. Right. You know, you can go through some of these super
reputable skyline dealerships. And you know, there's other ones obviously for for super is for Honda's,
you know, but obviously us to have our experiences skylines. So when it comes to the Japanese dealership,
okay, a dealership typically has cars on lot. Okay, because otherwise we're, I mean, a dealership
can be an exporter. That's part of their business, right? Like so when we talk about these things,
an importer slash US dealership, right? Those are kind of like the same thing because no matter
what they had to import it, right? But an exporter in a Japanese dealership sometimes are the same
thing and sometimes they're not. It just depends, you know, sometimes you have to use an exporter
to get your car that you bought at the Japanese dealership out. Right. So I bought the GTR from
top rank for the specific reason as we covered in a previous episode, we intended on going to Japanin driving the car. So if you purchase from a Japanese dealership, chances are they've gone
through the car to an extent they've pdied it. It's ready for you in the sense of generally mechanically
and you know, the way that it looks. Right. They've gone through it. Right. Especially if it's been
chucking. Right. Yeah. Well, for sure. Yeah. If you're going to drive it over there like we did
and it goes through those inspections, then you know you're good mechanically in that sense. You
know, yes, there could be some little issues. These are as Aaron said, 90s cars, you're going to have
little items. Right. You know, however, with that, right? I purchased this from top rank and we
went over there, we jumped in the car, we drove at 5,000 kilometers, we never blinked and I. Yeah.
It's not a single issue. We had too much tire pressure and that was it. I don't even think we
checked the oil. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe didn't even have oil. We ran like it did, but that's the
thing, right? If you did this with an exporter, a, you wouldn't be able to drive the car over there.
Right. Right. It would not have gone through some of these little checks that a car from a dealership
has. And so therefore chances are the cars find anyways. Yeah. But it's kind of like re-assurance,
right? Especially if you want to drive it over there. And that's like the difference, right? This,
this is why I paid a little more for my R34 GTR was to have that reassurance of it's going to beregistered inspected over there and I can drive it. Right. I know I probably would have bought
the car through Trevor if I just wanted it to sit in the storage and then come over here.
Right. You know, which would have been just fine, but in order to kind of achieve the dream we
needed to be able to drive it over there and like do what we did. So, Japanese dealership,
I recommend in a few situations. I recommend if you're looking for a specific car. You want to
respect to you want to M. Specter. You want any of these type of things. I personally, me would go
through garage defend top rank. One of these companies who that's their thing, right? Like they source
these beautiful limited cars that they don't want them to have accidents. They don't want them to
have a repair history because that just reduces the value to the end consumer, you know, in that sense.
So, maybe if I was looking for a special model out for sure, go through dealership and pay the littletax to make sure I was getting one of the clean ones. Whereas you get Trevor to go through the
different, you know, auctions and stuff and it really is kind of hard to fully understandwhat that car has been through or who's it was. Right. You know, that type of thing. So,
you know, with the dealership and exporter, that's really like a preference thing and what yourplans are with the car. But me personally, I would never not buy a car direct from Japan again,
unless it was a special circumstance. You know, unless it was some super unique car that was
already here and you couldn't really get over there anymore because they were all scooped up.
Right. You know, those type of things. So, that's my opinion on the Japanese dealership.
Great experience. Yeah. Top rank takes care of me really well. Like I just said,
I sent a set of LMGT4s over there. They're getting some Yokoan Matthias put on them and they're
setting them up on my GTR. I'm not even there. Right. I'm paying for it. Don't get me wrong.
Obviously, just like you would anywhere. But like, that's super convenient that I can like send
over these wheels that I want and they'll swap them out and get everything all set up.
Yeah, and it's super cool that you can drive it. Yeah, that's the top rank is I think the only
dealership that is offering anything like that right now. Yeah. So, you do pay for it. Yeah.
Don't get me wrong. You know, the shuck in and like the plates and everything you pay for all of it.
Right. Right. But if that's what you want to experience, like that's the experience.
Right. Like us having the R34 GTR over there compared to not our experience would have been
way different. Like way different. Like us showing up in a car, even though it looks like a rental
because of the Wawa plates. Right. Us just showing up in a Japanese car in R34 GTR at that change the
way that we were received from the locals, from the shops that we visited, like across the board plusjust the experience of like hammering down these highways. Right. Right. You know, and just like.
Yeah, just the personal experience. Yeah. It was like a really great time. Like I wouldn't take
that back for anything and it was well worth the money to have it shut in and all of those type ofthings. You know, so I mean, I still haven't gotten the ETC card bill. The toll card bill. I'm like
waiting for that. I'm still getting hit with those. Yeah. I'm like waiting for that. Like, but still,
again, like, it doesn't matter. You would have paid those tolls if you would rent it a car, you know.
Right. So yes, fully agree. Well worth it. Definitely something I'll never forget. Right. Like,
I mean, once this car comes over here and it's here, I've driven it on the Wangan on the C1 loop.
Right. I've driven it through Togay. Right. And now I'm freaking driving it on our crap roads. Yeah.
It's 95 with it. Yeah. I mean, old 95. So, you know, that's the thing. So you can do it anyway. Right.
Like you can do it anyway. But now to really get down to the nitty gritty, you can do it anyway.
You want, but you need to be safe and smart about it. Yes. Definitely be smart. Yeah. Because you can get
burned. These cars burn so hard. Yeah. And these cars are not cheap. Like if you're comparing these
prices nowadays to like what you can buy otherwise, like, don't do that because you're going to,you're going to hurt your own feelings. Oh, for sure. Like, you know, purchasing some of these,
you know, for, for example, so let's get into that really, really, really quick, right. So,
here's the thing. Okay. So when I bought my R33 GTR from JDM Sport Classics, this was in 2019.
Yeah. 2019. Okay. The average R33 in Japan was going for between 30 and 45,000 dollars,
you know, in Japan. And JDM Sport Classics had my car listed for $44,000. And to me,
that was like holy crap dude. Like I think I remember I like jumped right on it because of that price.
I was like, dude, holy crap. Like what's wrong with it? They obviously say, oh, nothing. You know,
nothing, you know, and to be fair, like there was nothing wrong. Yeah. Yeah. It was just what I'm
looking for compared to what they're selling. Yeah. There's a little gap there. And, and I'm not fully
realizing it because of like we talked about the whole bright shiny R33 GTR. And it can be worn.
Right. Yes. Exactly. So I purchased it. They end up refunding me $4,000. So I ended up getting it
for 40 because I'm like, Hey, this is a respite. You didn't disclose that. Hey, these,
tains, these shocks are blown. Like you didn't disclose that. And in a miracle, they refund me $4,000.
Yeah. Which is, yeah, I've never heard of that. That's what I'm saying. So now I have a $40,000
R33. And this is like the day before the prices start skyrocketing. It was kind of wild. And so,
you know, that was great. Now that $40,000 GTR probably would go for 5560. You know,
just in the way that it was. You know, so I got super lucky there. But I did have to pay for it with
all of the little things that we end up finding along the way. That you don't even, you know,
that JDM sport classics, unless they rip the car apart, they really wouldn't even have necessarilyrealized, you know, like, but they didn't miss some obvious stuff too. Yeah. No, they didn't. But so did
I. So that's like buyer's ignorance, which is what we're about to get into, you know, with with the
exporter. That's great. Because you're getting it at the cost. Right. You know, like I paid $32,000 for
the R34 GTT and, you know, plus, of course, the shipping, which is $1800. Once it gets over here,
you know, those are going for easily 40 to 60,000 bucks all day here. You know, so,
so now that you're hearing this, you know, there's some price gaps here. And would you say that your
personal sale was about what they were selling? Because from what I remember, Japanese classics
and Duncan at that time, like your car was like these cars were like kind of bumping. Right.
I got mine for a couple grand cheaper than what they were going for at the dealerships landedin America. Yeah. So you, you got a bit of a deal. Right. It was a little modified, but it did need
somewhere. Right. Definitely. That's, that's one of those things, right? Like again, with the
personal sale, you might have a guy that just wants to offload it, but there might be a reason.
Right. You know, so, um, and then with the, the Japanese dealership pricing wise,
like could I have gotten a better deal on an R34 GTR? Absolutely. Right. Absolutely could have had
Trevor. Like I said, find me one for a really a better price. However,
would I have been able to do what I've done with the car already? No. I, it would have just been sitting
either in a warehouse or in a parking lot somewhere until December of 25. So that's the thing. There
is like a little tax on being able to enjoy the car there, but that's, that's all in your plans,right? So moving on, the biggest thing like we said is being safe because whether you're spending,
you know, whatever, 32 on a GTT or over 100 on a GTR, you need to be safe because you can getscrewed on any amount of money. And let's be real. None of us can afford to just throw away money
on a car. So what would you say, probably the number one thing when you go before you,
before you even commit to anything, before you put a down payment, before you even check yourbank account, what do you think you should do? Hmm. Well, first thing I would do is whatever car
it might be, whether it be a skyline, stages, Sylvia, whatever it might be. Honda Civic. Yeah,
Honda Civic, whatever the car is, there's info out there about it, right? So I would find the common
problems, the common, the common areas where the things like to rust, like, like, yeah, the R33is a 34 is a, the strut towers rust out. Same with the S15s, the strut towers rust out, like the
rockers, you know, all these popular spots where, you know, if someone's not taking care of thecar that's going to rust out, that is the main thing that I would look for is like rust and justanything obvious like that. Yeah, those common, common issues. So figure out what model you want,
right? So let's just say in Aaron's case, he wants an R32 GTST, okay? And he also knows he wants
a four door. He doesn't, he doesn't, he's not messing with the coups, okay? Cool. Where four doors
rusting? What common issues are the RB20s having? Right. What, you know, exactly where it didn't,
and now you need to geo locate where you don't want a car from, right? Like we don't want a car
from up north. No, we don't want a car from anywhere where they treat the roads at all. Right.
Or they have consistent moisture like that. However, obviously, Japan is an island. You do get a lot
of moisture north and south just for different reasons. Right. Right. So sometimes it's unavoidable.
But stay away from the rust because once you're cutting these struck towers out, once you're doingall that, once you're back in America, dude, you're so pissed. Yeah. And it's a lot of money. Yeah.
I mean, if you don't have like, you got to source those parts. Right. Right. If, and if you can't
source the parts, you got to have, you know, a sheet metal guy fab something up. Right. And that's not
what you want. Right. Right. It's really not. I mean, especially if you're trying to keep things nice
and keep it original. Right. Like the best thing to do is start out on a good foot and not have something
rusted out. And because I mean, those examples are out there. But it's times are getting desperate.
Oh, yeah. For sure. And you got to think you have, you know, whatever guy over in Japan that,
let's just say he's exported a hundred cars now. Right. And now these are slim pickings. And
it comes across one that sat on the bottom of the ocean or whatever, you know, and, and well,we can get it through and we can get it across the ocean and whatever, right? Like not saying he's a
crappy business person, but maybe he's not staying true to his ideals because times are tough,right? Right. That that happens in almost every industry. Yeah. Literally. So beyond, you know, knowing
the flaws of the car beyond knowing where it came from. Now you need to actually know now this is the
point when, okay, you have either, you know, Trevor has a car for you that he's willing to inspect.
Okay. Or you found one at JDM sport classics or you found one on marketplace, right? Now you need
to know about this car specifically. Right. Exactly. What's up with this car the best that you can.
Right. Yeah. Like, you know, so what do you do in America when you're thinking about buying a car
or you go to a dealership and they have a used car? Well, they have a car facts, right? And that kind
of tells you the vehicle history. So Japan also has that, don't they? Yeah. It's, well, they have
something like it. Well, right, right. The car VX car. It's C-A-R-V-X. Yeah. And that pretty much will
bring up you put in your van, you pay like 35 bucks and it'll bring up any time that car has goneto the auction. Yeah. So you know the pictures or it's been registered too, right? Like it's
registered. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much like everything. Right. And then also the most important.
Right. Is the auction it will show you the auction sheet every single time it went through. It'll show
the pictures where like I'm sure everyone's seen the pictures of the car sitting in the base.
You know, they have the front three quarter and the rear three quarter picture. They'll send that
with it. The interior pictures literally everything. All the auction info they'll they have it.
So you pay this money pay a little bit more to get the inspection sheet translated. Translated. Yeah.
And that will tell you everything about this car. That's either going to make or break you in the sense
of like you're either going to be like smiling or you're going to be crying. Right. Like in my case,
whenever I bought this car, it had been completely color changed. And the guy that I bought it from had
said, Oh yeah, they did that in Japan. And his reason behind saying that is because the stickers,
like like the fuel grade sticker on the inside of the gas door wasn't painted over. Just stuff like
that. I'm like, Okay, yeah, whatever. Sure. I guess this was painted in Japan. I pulled the car VX.
It was not painted in Japan. Right. It was definitely painted in America after it was exported.
Ends up being a Dodge color code. Yeah. Yeah. It's literally a Dodge color code. You know, so like
and the the auction pictures kind of told a story of the car too. I was like, this had to be in a
drift car back in the day. And yeah, in the auction pictures, it was flat black, had a body kit.
You know, yeah, it was it was definitely a drift car. So for, you know, and I'll tell my story real quick,
we didn't we did not like these first two transactions, my R33 and his R32, we did not do our due diligence.
No, we were way too fresh. Yeah, we, which is what we are super pushing to you is to just do your
research and have patients. These cars are amazing. Once you get in it, you'll be very happy. But if you
don't do your due diligence, that happiness may come to an end. And you'll be paying for it for
years on end if you keep that car. Exactly. So which we kind of are. Yes. And so I bought my R33. I had no
idea about car VX send through the car VX. Get it back. Get it translated. There's just, it's just
everywhere. It's just like this car is screwed. This car is screwed. It's screwed. It's screwed. You
know, and so, you know, if you saw my car right now, you would never think that. But like
as Aaron and I just look over the car, even as recent as last night, we're just, the cars up onthe left, we're just walking around looking at and he's like, Hey, was this panel replaced? Right.
And I'm like, no, no, that's how it is. And then we go and look at the other side. And clearly,
this panel had been replaced. I had my fenders rolled and it showed them too. And so the whole,
you know, rear quarter of my car has been cut and replaced. You know, and I would have had no
clue at JDM sport classics. Right. And it's been two years or so. And I still knew but didn't want
to like admit it to myself. But then like seeing it and not being able to deny it was very like,
oh, wow. Yeah. Like I don't have this flawless GTR that I thought I was going to have. The driver's car.
But now, you know, right, I'm driving it. So these are stories of us just not doing our due diligence,
but having to deal with the consequences. Right. Right. Exactly. I think we were a little bit too excited
on the front end. Yeah. You know, we were still fresh at that point. You know, these were our first
cars like that that we bought in, you know, almost 10 years. So getting back into it,
looking back, I would have been more patient. Yeah. Definitely would have been more patient.
Definitely would have done more research. And yeah, maybe low ball the guy a little bit more.
Right. Try to save a little more. Yeah. And so when we're talking about like importers and
personal sale, especially, right, these two, another asset that you can use is Facebook groups toverify whether this seller or this importer is legitimate. Right. There's literally a group called
I got screwed over by JD, JD, importers or something like that. You can find it. But yeah, that group alone
is it's worth worth a lot, especially for importers because there's somebody in there who's dealt witheverybody. Right. You can just search the name in there and it'll either pop up a thousand good
things or a thousand bad things about it. Like it's kind of crazy. But the that that community is
ruthless. Oh, for sure. So do not get on their bad side. Right. And and only ask legitimate questions in
the sense of you searched, you couldn't find anything about it. Then ask because these guys hear
the same thing all the time. Is JDM sport classics any good? Is JDM sports? Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. They've already answered that question a million times. So use the Facebook groups
if you can, but just, you know, kind of sort through the answers to make sure that you're gettinglike what you're looking for. Yeah. So, you know, we're going to wrap this up. But lastly, we just
want to talk about registration and insurance, right? If you get it imported by, if you have an
importer, a lot of times they'll handle the registration for you for a fee or give you all of thepaperwork in order to go to the DMV and be successful there. If you use an exporter, you're going to need
to find a broker and you're going to need to get some help getting all of that paperwork handledand getting the car released and all of that. You can do it on your own, but no matter what, you're
going to have to have a bonded agent to escort you through the port. Right. So you're going to need some
help no matter what. But generally, you should walk away from there with all the paperwork you need
for the DMV. Right. It shouldn't be any more work. You should have all your paperwork in order once you
receive the car. Yeah. So in that goes the same for the Japanese dealership. These personal sales,
it's going to be hit or miss. Right. You could have one that never got it registered, one that has a
Vincelop, one that's legally registered. Right. It goes anywhere. So just make sure you understand the
registration situation prior to giving anyone any money. Yeah. It's okay if it's not registered. Right.
Just know you got work to do. Yeah. And then unless you're in somewhere weird like California or
even Maine, like shouldn't be any issues. Right. You maybe got a pass, a car, and stuff. And
you know, there's only certain models in Maine that they're even looking at, which we live here inDonem fully understand yet. Right. But when it comes to registration, just understand what you're
up against. And then insurance for me was pretty easy. I know, I think it was kind of for you. You just
got to pay for it. Yeah. I know we do use American collectors. I do not use Grundy. Grundy. Yeah. There's
Grundy. There's Haggardy. There's American collectors. There's quite a few insurance groups out there
that are going to handle these cars. And generally there it's value based. So like, for example, my R-33s,
I have value based insurance on $80,000 for it. So if that car gets totaled, I'm getting $80,000. So I pay
for that though. Right. Right. My insurance is not cheap. It's on a sliding scale. Right. Because I
want to get my absolute max replacement value for my car. Right. So just realize, you know, with these
cars, like you do need to ensure them, right. Progressives not going to ensure it. USAAA is not going to
ensure they're not going to you have to have specialty insurance because whether you want toadmit it or not, this is a specialty car. Right. So this is kind of our just, it's just this was just
a knowledge based on purchasing a right hand drive car. Right. I mean, you need to do, again,
that we're due diligence. You need to do all of your research. You need to watch YouTube videos.
You need to read on forums, even from back in the day. You just need to understand what you're doing
because there's nothing worse than buyers or more. Right. Become obsessed with it before you even buy it.
Right. Yeah. Know that car inside and out before you even see it. Right. That way there's no
surprises and you're not upset and you're not bitching online about how you got screwed by a shadyimporter. Right. You got this rusty hunk of whatever in the garage. Because it is also your responsibility
to do this. Right. Yeah. A lot of people go in there and cry about how they got screwed over by a
shady importer, but come to find out they did zero due diligence. Right. They didn't pay for an
inspection. They didn't pay for the auction sheet. They don't know what car VX even is. Yeah.
Which I get we were green too. We were new too, but we've learned and that's why we're putting this
out here so that hopefully we can just save you from having an R33 GTR with panels replaced andresprite that you think. You know. So that's kind of the thing. So if you have any questions, you can
always DM us, email us whatever and we'd be happy to help guide you the best that we can whereno means anyone important or special or have any sort of credibility beyond the fact that we'vedone it multiple times. Yeah. You know, it's gotten better every time in my. Yeah. For example,
you know, like better experiences every time. So, you know, for today, I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. Yeah.
Make sure to follow us at our HD GUIS. And until next time, Adios. See ya.
Yeah.
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