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Self Importing an R34 GT-T - EP.31
Self Importing an R34 GT-T - EP.31
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About this episode
Bobby and Aaron dive into the intricate process of self-importing an R34 GT-T, sharing their personal journey from the initial desire to acquire the car to the complexities of communication with their exporter, Trevor from Kizzo. They discuss the challenges of finding the right vehicle, the importance of inspections, and the nuances of wiring money internationally. With insights on the emotional rollercoaster of the search and the satisfaction of finally securing a clean, low-mileage car, this episode is packed with practical advice and entertaining anecdotes.
Topics:
self importing
R34 GT-T
JDM cars
exporting process
communication challenges
inspection process
wiring money
car storage fees
broker recommendations
personal experiences
In this episode we chat about the Japan side of importing a car on your own.
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Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Nissan R34
"...m port. Yeah, we just got back from port with the R34EC behind us if you're on YouTube and if not just ..."
Car
Nissan Gtr
"... that worked, how Dustin Williams was driving his GTR. Right, right. You know, I just was like, well, w..."
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Hey, and welcome back. It's us. I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. There you go. And this is episode 31.
And we're pumped about this because we just got back from port. Yeah, we just got back from port
with the R34EC behind us if you're on YouTube and if not just picture a beautiful R34 GTT sittingbehind us. And so we have obviously covered how to import a JDM/RHN drive car, but now we kind of
want to get into the nitty gritty on how that process really works. And so we're going to make it
like a two episode thing where we'll kind of give you what the introduction and how we got to thecar. Right. And then the second part will be how we actually acquired the car and the
poor clearing process. Right. So today is obviously episode one. And so we're just going to kind of
chat about how this came to be with Trevor from Kizzo. And just, you know, kind of how smooth
that process really went. Right. Yeah. Sounds good. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean about what I think October,
November of last year, I decided I really wanted to import a GTT whether it was for like flip orfor personal use. I just knew I wanted to be able to import one. And I knew that they were
becoming legal and they would be the first R34s to be legal. Right. So, um, and it was actually kind of
weird how I found out about Trevor. There was a, there was somebody I think it may have been
E.R. And they tagged him. Yeah. In a post. And I was like, oh, who's this guy? You know, and I
clicked on it. And obviously he's an importer of right hand drive cars or well, he's I guess technically
an exporter. But yeah, I mean, and so I just hit him up to see what the deal would be how that would
work. And he was pretty much, you know, he's like, hey, this is fine. We do this all the time. We're
getting a lot more requests for these GTTs. But just so you know, you will have to pay some storage
because this isn't going to become legal, you know, until June. Right. Right. You had a few months.
Yeah. Just depends. You know, so I think I ended up paying about eight months worth of storage.
And don't quote me on it. But I think it was $150 a month. So, you know, you added on about $1,000
to the cost of the car based on just storage alone. Right. So he was like, we can find you one. I have
multiple, you know, inspectors in different parts of the country. We want to stay away from Hokkaido
as much as we can because that's where you're going to get a lot of the rust and. Right. Because that's
the North Island. That's where all the heavy snowfall. Yeah. And you know, obviously like in America,
they use same stuff salt on all that on the roads and that just destroys these cars that are alreadyprone to rusting in normal conditions. So. Right. Yeah. Definitely want to stay away from
up north. Yeah. So, you know, he kind of started looking and the way that the process went was he
would kind of send me a link to either Guna or something like that of or the dealer's websitedepending on where it was. And I would have to then say, let's inspect it or let's pass on it. Right.
And I mean, I would say he sent me before we found the keeper who I would say he probably he probablysent me like 15 or 20. Yeah. That's pretty decent. That's quite a bit of cars. Yeah. I mean, and this was
over a few week period or whatever, but he sent me that many and then he was like, all right.
If you want one inspected, there is this low inspection fee. Again, I have inspectors that I work with
in all different places and I can personally go look at it for a bit higher fee depending on where it is.
And so we had found this white one and I was looking for white because I was trying to keep my collectionof white cars. And so if I was going to keep it it matched and if I didn't keep it, oh well, it's white.
That's fine. Right. And so he goes and he looks at this white car and I believe it was added dealership
not in auction. And yeah, I mean, it wasn't great. Right. I remember that one. I think he
facetimeed you or the inspector facetimeed you as they were checking it out. And I forget what exactly
was like not wrong with it, but it just wasn't as clean. It just wasn't as clean. It was rough. Right.
It needed a little bit of paint here and there maybe or you know, it just wasn't the clean examplethat you wanted to spend your money on. Yeah. And I remember the miles on it were like mediocre in the
sense of like it was like over a hundred thousand. Looking back, it was probably the run of the mill.
GTT. Yeah. You know, somebody has it over here. I'm sure. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Someone bought that car. Yeah.
So, but right, it was, you know, it was just the average. You know, something, you know, multiple owners,
you know, all that. Yeah. So I was like, man, I can't do it. I just can't bring myself to
wire you this money on a car that I'm not like fully on board with. Right. Right. And that's kind of a
hard thing to do, right? Because like you're excited. You got the money. You want the car. Yeah.
First one they send you. I'm sure it's like, yes, go get it. Yes. That's an R34. Get it. Yeah.
But you got to slow down, right? And you got to, you got to listen to their feedback and actually
like look at the cars and the stuff that they're sending you. So you don't make, you know, some crazy
decision on this car that you might end up regretting. Not saying that they would let you do that.
Because, you know, there are piles out there that are not worth what people are asking. Yeah. And I
mean, I'm sure there was an exporter that would have let me do it. Yeah. Yeah. Because, but I feel like
Trevor kind of, especially. And if you don't know about Trevor, he is an American guy. He's from
Maryland. He moved over there long, long, long, long time ago. And he wasn't, he was an English.
Yeah. I think he moved over there to be an English teacher for us. Yeah.
Like common theme with a lot of the many of a lot of these guys. Yeah. We're like, how many
English teachers are there? Right. But yeah. I mean, he, so you know, not to say that I can trust
an American over a Japanese person. I probably could trust them both equally. But in the sense of
I can communicate with this man. And there is zero barrier. Right. Right. Right.
No issue. Exactly. Which is, which goes a long way. Yeah. It does. Because he can articulate
things to me that a Japanese person trying to speak English wouldn't be able to really. Because
there is always like a little bit of like a barrier there. I mean, because their terms or words they
might use might mean something a little bit else over here. Right. Right.
So yeah. Yeah. You know, things can kind of get lost. So yeah, having someone that's like fluent in
both definitely goes a long way. I feel like. Yeah. I agree. And so, you know, so at this point,
we're traveling around talking about my, yeah, this isn't the one man. You know, it's just, it's just not.
Right. And then, you know, he sends me a few more. And I'm like, man, and it is hard. So let me
get with this. It is hard to communicate in the sense of like, how do most of us, how are most of us
used to getting our communication on our phones? Right. Text message. Yes. Which is this non-existent.
You can't text message a Japanese phone, like straight up, just type in the number. Right. Send the
text. And so this is like forcing us to communicate through Instagram and then WhatsApp. Right. Which
always always sounds, I mean, to me, whenever you see scammers doing things, that's the apps they use,right? They use WhatsApp, contacting on WhatsApp. Yeah. You know, and that's normal to them. But like,
to us where you can text everyone and all that. Yeah. That's like, it's like, dude, just text me.
Yeah. Just text me. Like, you will get straight to me. Like, you know, there's like a wall between
Instagram and you write, like, you get a notification that you don't get like an alert. Right.
I mean, and so this was causing me. And then, of course, as we're all aware, that 13-hour time
difference. Oh, yeah. That's, that's bigger, right? Yeah. I mean, for both ends, both parties.
Right. So like, you know, we're having to talk to each other at like 6.30 AM or like, you know,
whatever 7 p.m. or, you know, those type of things. Yeah. I remember talking to Trevor when we were
there. He was saying that's like a big thing that a lot of people don't understand. Yeah. You know,
that this dude is in Japan. He's 13-hour time difference. Like, literally flipped. Yeah.
Different. So, you know, he's texting you at 8 AM. But here, it's like 9. Yeah. So it's like,
it's 9 p.m. 9 p.m. Yeah. Exactly. So he, his beginning of his work day is like the end of my day.
Right. And beginning my day is the end of his day. So if you're not, if you're not on schedule with
each other, like, days can go by and nothing gets accomplished. That's literally what would happen
because he's trying to stay up really late to get a hold of me. But he's messaging me on Instagram.
And like, those notifications aren't coming through. Right. So like, yeah, then all of a sudden,
I'm like, Hey, what about Trevor? And I go and look back and he sent me fucking six cars.
Like, shoot. Yeah. I go and look and he's like, No, that one sold. That one's gone. Yeah.
He's like, You want me to look at this one? I wouldn't recommend it. I'm like, Damn, dude. Like,
but so that's part of it. Yeah. You have to be aware and you gotta be aware. You can't get
frustrated with these dudes. Like, some of them are staying up until 10, 11, 12 p.m. at that point,
just to communicate with you because they want to make this happen for you and themselves. So
you really can't get frustrated. At least this is my experience with Trevor. Yeah. Yeah.
You definitely got to keep that in mind when dealing with anything overseas like that. Like,
yeah, there is a huge like on top of the language barrier. There's also a little bit of a time barrier.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And so, um, basically, you know, I kind of started getting like a little
discouraged because I'm like, man, like between everything we're talking about right now,plus like not being able to find like that car that I really want. Then you're like, Damn,
I should have got that white one. Yeah. I'm like dang, this is tough. So then all of a sudden,
he's like, Hey, this one I found one that's at, um, I think it was Motorsports rabbit.
You heard that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Rabbit. Yeah. I think so this car that he shows me,
it's not an auction. It's at dealership. He says we've worked with this dealership many times.
Yeah. I've seen him post a bunch of them. Yeah. We do. They do not put out junk. You know,
it's whatever you could compare it to garage defend or whatever on a lower scale, right? Right.
So, um, I'm like, All right. Well, black. I'm like, man, this really isn't what I wanted. He's like,
it has 34,000 kilometers. I'm like, what? He's like, you said 340,000? Yeah. I'm like, you mean 34,000 miles.
He's like, no, that's like 17,000 miles. Yeah. And I'm like, dude, no, I'm like, that's a
car. Yeah. I'm like, no, dude, there's no way he's like, no, this thing matches. Like this thing is,
it, he's like, it's everything is completely clean and brand new on the car. Yeah. And it's only got,
you know, 34,000 kilometers. And so I'm like, I'm like, you know, at this point, I've already spent
the inspection fee twice. Right. So I'm starting to feel like, I'm blowing through, you know,
and it's, it's not a ton. I think it was the equivalent to 150 bucks. Right. Not bad. You know,
but after three times, yeah, you're like, you're up to 500, right? You know, so, but when he said
the 34,000 kilometers, I was like, all right, let's just check this thing out. Right. You know, and
so he sends Nip on Nick. If anybody knows Nip on Nick, he's, uh, he works for Zap Auto. And, um, he's
like a character. Yeah. He's like, he's a character. Yeah. I remember that video. Yes. And, and, but, um, you
know, I have sense become like friends of them on Instagram and like chat with them and stuff.
The guy's funny. Like he's, he's got a unique like personality. And then his style is like 90s coke
dealer. Like he's Australian, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He does jumpsuits. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Like, but then like when he doesn't have the hat on, he's got like frosted blonde tips. And like,
right, right. You know, it's like, it's super cool. But to roll up to the club, eh? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so, um, yeah,
the pretty much Trevor's like, all right, I'll send my guy. I'm like, all right, send your guy. I'll pay
the money. This one's got to be worth it. Right. Um, so like, I think it was three or four days later.
Nick could make it down there. Check out the car. And he sends me the infamous video. Yeah. The, the,
the video that just like really set it off on the car. And yeah. Basically, the guy is in front of
of the car. And he's like talking about how he just showed up with the car. Yeah. And it's freshly
polished and it's fucking sex. Yeah. And he's doing all this and he's on the car. And he's like,
it's flawless. And he sees this little kind of, I'm not sure if it's a deposit or a knacker or
something on the door. And he's like, this car is fucking flawless. And then he goes up to it and
he starts picking on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, scatting it with his nail, like trying to see, because
it seems like it's on the surface. Right. Right. But like, it also seems like it's like a
Nick. So it's like indented. So it's weird. And it's still on there. And like, I was literally
feeling like, yeah, yeah, I was good. I was good. I was like, do chill. Chill. But it's like, yeah,
like it is like, it's weird. But so this video got really popular because it's just the way he
presented the car. Yeah. But he wasn't lying. Like the car is fucking sex. Yeah. It is, it's sitting
behind this is dirty from poor. It's got probably sea water on it, all kinds of stuff. But like,
I can you can tell once this car gets polished up, like it's mint. Yeah. And black paint like is
definitely hard to keep clean. Right. And when you do get next year, they're showing up like crazy.
Right. And it it's meant like not even behind, you know, like, uh, whatever that's called, where the
tire chips the stuff on right, right? Like a road spray stuff. Yeah. Like there's not even any of that.
So yeah, Nick inspects it. He says, this is the car to buy. So I'm like, oh, day. All right. You
know, now I'm like, Hey, what's what's up with the bumpers and side skirts? Like is that like a,
you know, what what kid is that? Is that name brand? Is that whatever? And they're like, that's
genuine Nismo. Yeah. And I'm like, holy moly. It's got 34,000 kilometers. Yeah. genuine Nismo,
genuine Nismo body parts, recarosc and BBSs. Right. I'm like, what's the price? Yeah. And he tells me
and again, this is last November, October, November. So this is not, you know, May prices. Right.
This is. And so, you know, I don't really need to disclose what I paid for it, but let's just say
it was an awesome, it was, it was way too good to pass on. So how much? Well, do this way. How much
more was it compared to the white one that was beat in the beginning? Couple thousand. Yeah. Like,
not much. Not much at all. No. Like it wasn't, there was, it was not a spread. Like it was just like,
it was still within that normal price range. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm like, what is wrong with it?
Was it like, yeah, blood? He's like, no, like everything's good with it. Like, everything checks out.
So I'm like, all right, let's do it. If it's gotten Nismo body parts, BBSs and it's actually clean
and low mileage, yeah. The only, the only like weird thing that we both noticed was the engine
cover being missing. Yeah. Like that's it literally everything else kind of
somewhat makes sense in is in place, you know, but like the engine cover being missing was justlike, right. They do know it'll change in like, spark plugs and forget to throw back on, you know,
but so I couldn't really raise an eyebrow at that. I was like, all right, let's do this. So
the process after that is like pretty simple in the sense ofnow you need to put down the deposit right until they get the car. So you go to the bank, you wire
Trevor to deposit money. Is it is there any kind of weird thing to wire money to another country
like that where there's a different currency and all that? Nothing weird with the bank. You just
send it over and a lot of time. You have the same routing and account. Yeah. Well, it just depends on
how much the company does business in America. So they could have an intermediary bank, which is like
a US bank that then forwards it to their international banks. That makes it easier for like a domestic,
it's a domestic wire at that point. Right. And so some people like, I honestly can't remember
which Trevor had, but like in the other setup, you're wiring it and doing an international wire.
And you have to have more information and have a swift code and it has to be like approvedin everything like because international wires are very much targets of fraud. So they there's
a lot of extra info and you have to have like the invoice. And so, you know, I really can't remember,
but it all went smoothly. They got him the money. Right. So he had went and he had somebody pick up
the car, purchase it, bring it to stacked. Right. And so at that point, I get a bill for the stack
storage fee, the transport, those inspections. I get and then the balance of the car.
So at this point, you're like paying for everything up front, right? Like in the sense like,
paying for the car or paying for the inspections. And so it's really seen it. Yeah, yeah.
No, I haven't seen it just taking taking the work on neck in and Trevor's like word for it, butat this point, I'm pretty confident because I can tell that Trevor is like a meticulous type ofguy and that he really wants to create relationships. Yeah. So like, I'm super comfortable at this point.
I'm like, hmm, what can we look for next? Right. You know, like, but not because like, but you know,
so I'm just excited. And so right, I have everything paid for everything like, ready to go.
I do ask him, though, I'm like, hey, like I plan to come to Japan in April. I'd like to see the car.
And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's that stacked, you know, you and then we'll take care of you.
And I'm like, okay, cool. I want to drive the car. Yeah. And he's like, no. And I'm like, what do you mean,
dude? What do you mean? Dustin Williams gets to drive his car in Japan. And he's like, yeah, like,
I'm not so sure how they're doing that. And I'm also not so sure that it would be worth it for you
to like kind of pay all of these fees for a one time drive while you're here. He's like, if you
were here long term, maybe, right, you know, you could figure that out, but like to drive it for a fewdays while you're here, like, you're going to pay way more. You have to go through shuck in and all that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, so I was a little bummed, of course, just because like at the time,
I didn't fully understand like how that worked, how Dustin Williams was driving his GTR. Right,
right. You know, I just was like, well, what do you mean he could do it? You know, and so,
but he did say, yeah, no, come on down. You know, you can check it out. You can see it in person. If
it's something that you want to put back on the market because you're not happy with it, you'd havethe opportunity to do that. Right, right. You know, and at that point, it wouldn't really make sense
because I've paid pre-paid a lot of things. Yeah. You know, pretty much I've paid for everything,
but shipping. Yeah, because since it's not shipping yet, the quote wouldn't have even been accurate.
Yeah. But yeah, I mean, it was cool to know that like it was, you know, that's when I really,
I think, like, relaxed in the sense of, all right, like, I can go see the car if I want. That's no big deal.
And like, that's comforting. Right. You know, right, right. Because yeah, I mean, especially at a
place like stacked, it's like a very rapid old company. And I had heard of it a lot of people know
about. Yeah. And I knew other people that had been like dealing with them. So. And so basically,
at this point, car sitting there, you know, it's, it's all good. I don't really have to think about it,
you know, because this is like December. Yeah. Like I know that this car is not eligible till June. So
like I got six months of just like, totally in my thumbs waiting. Right. Right. You know, in hindsight,
I end up actually behind a GTR and getting it registered. You know, like, you know, so it was like,
I figured out how you can do that if anybody wants to know. But it's kind of a waiting game at that
point. You have to be patient. Yeah. And I think like being able to distract yourself while you're
waiting and not going crazy, definitely for me, not ordering a single thing for the car. Right.
Because I don't even know yet. Right. Right. If I order anything like I'm kind of wasting my money
because the car is not in hand. I don't know what it truly needs. And if, you know, like what we
ended up talking about, I could have had like a whole front mount setup sitting here. Yeah.
Now I'm kind of second guessing whether I even want to do that. Right. And you know, I would have had to,
you know, so when we talked with Richie, you know, and he's talking about stacking these parts,that's kind of a different situation because this has been his dream car forever. You know,
so he knows all the parts that he's wanted to put on it forever. Yeah. Which he's going to do,
regardless of the condition, like if it's using quality or not, he's going to put these parts on.
He's going to make it sick. Yeah, because that's like that was his dream, right. And so where I did
pick this up to potentially flip it, I didn't want, you know, you get somebody who doesn't want thatfrom around, didn't want that bumper trim, didn't want, you know, and so I'm thinking about it in thatsense now, like if you're not going like heavy with it, you know, if you're not trying to make thisthing have power and you might resell it, what's the point of strapping these extras on that somebodyelse maybe will take off. Right. Right. Keep it original, you know. So basically, what do you get a
little fly? Yeah. He's got to fly targeting him. Yeah. So basically at this point, you know, it's coming
up to, you know, February, March, you know, we get into April. In March, Trevor had gone there
to check on the car. He had gone to stack because it was sitting in their main space. Right. Which,
you know, stacked would be posting pictures of their, you know, warehouse. And you would see the car.
Yeah. In the background. And also, I think in one picture, it was this car in Richie's type R,
literally right next to each other. Yeah, which is wild. Which is kind of crazy to think. Yeah, like
two dudes that know each other in America, their cars are over there sitting next to each other waiting.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He ended up getting his like quite a bit earlier than me, which is
cool. But, um, so Trevor sends me some pictures, you know, shows me that he was getting it started
up and letting it run so that it was not just getting stale, you know, whatever. I mean, it wouldn't
find. Right. And I knew it was 17,000 or miles. Yeah. It's fine. It's been sitting. Yeah. So, um,
but now it's kind of time to start thinking about shipping, thinking about paperwork, thinkingabout how all of these things are going to come together. And this is where people get freaked out,
right? Yeah. Yeah. Because it's daunting. It's like, you know, what I've learned is nobody
likes to do paperwork. Yeah. Like literally intimidates. Yeah. It is because you're like,
dude, if I screw this up, is it going to get rejected? Whatever. Right. They're going to send
us straight to the crusher. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And so like Trevor makes that very easy. Yeah.
And he makes it like comfortable. Right. You're, you're filling out very minimal, um, paperwork on his
end. Yeah. He mainly handles it, you know, uh, he's done a time and time over. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And
he gives you everything you need, right? So he got everything set up. And basically at that point,
you need to find a broker, which I think will cover in the next episode. But what exactly is a broker for?
Well, the broker is who helps you handle everything on this side of the American side on the Americanside of things. So that way, you're not like guessing which paperwork you need trying to get access
to the people that you need to send it to. Right. Like all of that. Like these, the brokers have those
ends and they have those relationships. They've been doing it because they've done it every day. It's their job.
Yeah. So, um, you know, and that was also easy. Trevor recommended me a broker and, um, you know,
I, I hit them up. And so, but on his end still, um, at this point, we're getting ready for shipping.
You know, he's, he's getting the car prepped. He's getting all the paperwork prepped. He is
making sure that we have a lane for shipping. Right. And that he's not dropping it off at port
60 days prior and then having it get destroyed. Yeah. You know, he's, he's making sure it's getting
dropped off at port and it's getting on the boat shortly after. Right. Um, so, so pretty much he's like,
gets me the fresh quote on shipping. Uh, shipping was 1800 bucks. Yeah. Um, that gets it from, uh, you
know, where it was at to the port where I select. Yeah. I could have, and, and so that was obviously
shipping to my port of select my selection of the port. That was what Osaka to New York.
It was Osaka to, yeah, to New York. And so that's $1800. I obviously could have chose a different
port that could have been plus minus, you know, whatever. But for us in our first time, New York made
sense. Otherwise, it was Baltimore. Yeah. Which they had given me that option. I was like,
but then you got to go to Baltimore. Yeah. I know exactly. Yeah. I mean, I want to go to New York,
but I don't want to go to Baltimore. You know, so I'm like, all right, New York will do it. And
so I selected New York. He was like, okay, um, now we need to pay for shipping, you know, and so
then I have to go back to the bank. And so this is part of like for me, the hassle is the wiring
money. Yeah. I was going to say, so you had to wire him, dude. And then the bank people are like, well,
why are you wiring this money to Japan? Right. And I'm like, why are you asking me why I'm
wiring money to Japan? There ain't no tear. It's there. Right. Right. They're like red flag. This is
fraud. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, no, this is a car. Like, yeah, yes. No, it's a freaking skyline.
So I have to have this comment because I end up having to wire for this single car three times.
So I end up having this conversation. And you know, it maybe would have been with the same person
had like my bank not been going through managers and stuff at the time. Right. Right. So I have three
separate people. I have to explain the right hand drive. Yeah. Have you seen fast in the furious?
You know, the whole thing and then they get it and then they lay off. But so the wiring part for
me was kind of the hassle. But basically, you know, Trevor gets it to port. And at that point,
when he drops that port, he then goes and overnight all of the original copies of the paperwork to me.
And my shift knob. Yeah. I'm like, what? And then I go and like we were talking about earlier,
he had messaged me three times. Yeah. I hadn't seen it. He's, he's like, Hey, a bunch of shift knobs
were stolen at port. So I took yours off and sent it to you. Yeah. And I'm like, oh my gosh,
dude, this cost you extra money. You could have just kept that. I have like eight different shift knobs.
I can use, you know, but whatever good on him, right? He was protecting me. Yeah. That's pretty crazy.
That stuff that small or simple gets stolen, right? Yeah. And that's another reason why we couldn't
fill a car full of parts and send it over to you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause that's what, and you know,
rewinding a little bit when we were in Japan and did check out the car. Yeah, we're thinking,
we're gonna fill his full new trunk. The trunk's going back. Yeah. No, nothing. Not a single thing.
But, you know, that was a testament for me, like of the caring that Trevor had because,hey, man, that car sold. He's been paid. Right. It don't, it's just, I mean, it don't matter. Right?
Like my shift knob gets stolen sucks for me. But not when it comes to that, dude. Right. He's not
letting me lose, which was cool. Yeah. You know, that was something I walked away from my experience
with Trevor and Kizu was that I wasn't losing. Yeah. Yeah. It speaks on this character. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
It's like, that's a solid and nobody wants to lose, right? Right. Like it, but a lot of times you lose.
Right. You know, it may not be a major loss, but like, I don't feel like I lost on this car at all.
Yeah. And I've been walking around saying it. Yeah. I won. I won. You know, because like,
get the lottery. I'm like, you don't get this for? Yeah. You know, but you just don't get those
experiences like in the car game all the time. Right. Right. Because, you know, there's usually always
just a small loss that you have to take, whether it was, you know, that rush you didn't see or thatpart that need to be replaced or the wheel curved or whatever. Yeah. No. Dude, these wheels are man.
Yeah. Yeah. You get them. The only damage to the car was us, which we'll talk about in the next
episode. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, that was pretty much the outbound from Japan process. You know,
it really wasn't, wasn't horrible. I think I did need to just sign two pieces of paper for them.
Yeah. But yeah, when he over nighted me that, everything was in this like really nice,
clear protective like envelope type thing. Yeah. Like every piece of paper was straight, not
crinkled. Like, it was like really awesome. And it included a bill of sale and an export certificate
and certificates of origin and all kinds of in like duplicates of everything. Yeah. Yeah. Like
official duplicates so that you could take it to your town office. So you can have them look
that, you know, when you're clearing port. So that was really cool for for me to have it be such a
smooth experience on the first time. Yeah. Almost like almost spoiled it, right? Because I'm like,
I either got to work with this man every time or like I need to get used to it not being like that.
You know, right? And and that is, you know, real quick before we end this out. Like that is, you
know, I love top rank, but to compare the experience between top rank and Trevor, obviously top rank,large company, global, so to speak, yeah. Yeah. And so it definitely was not as like personal
in the communication was more far and few between, right? You know, because you are dealing with
two different sets of people. But for if I wasn't trying to have the car registered in Japan and
be able to drive it there, I absolutely would have bought my GTR through Trevor. Yeah.
Instead of top rank, just because that real personal experience like with that smaller guy. Yeah.
Like was like night and day for sure. Absolutely. So of all the things you had to do to get it on the
boat. Hardest thing was what wiring the money, wiring the money and then like dealing with,
you know, dealing with finding the original car. Yeah. Yeah. Like finding the car is the hardest part,
right? And then yeah, like the biggest hassle was wiring the money. Right. Which wasn't even that bad.
It wasn't that bad. It's just one of those things you're like going into your bank for a third time,
trying to send money to Japan. Yeah. But like overall, I would say yes, like getting it to and on the boat
was like probably the really the easier process. Yeah. And we'll talk about in the next episode the
waiting for it, tracking it, like dealing with the broker, like making likethat's definitely the harder part because you have to like assume the position of the importer.
Yeah. Yeah. You got to be important. You are the importer. Right. At that point in your name is on
all those papers as the importer. Right. And so we'll get into that on the next episode and kind of
just, you know, lay that out so that there's no confusion. And maybe our experience compared to yours
will be different, but you'll at least have maybe some guidelines. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So we
appreciate you guys listening as always hit us up at our HD GUIS. If you got any questions,
Instagram, YouTube, whatever. And we'll be back next time with how to clear it out of port. Oh yeah.
I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. See ya. Peace.
[Music]
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