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You see these from time to time. Anyone here have one? Usually see older models - just curious what is (was) the purpose of such involved importation. Currency F/X at the time?
I now you can't always generalize, but how are these cars vs. a Canadian or US counterpart?
I've extensively worked on two Japanese imported 928 S4 and my thought are the following. Aesthetically the cars were in nice condition and had relatively low miles BUT because of the low miles, hardly anything was done as far as mechanical maintenance over the years on them. Lot of important immanence intervals were never met because of the low mileage but all these parts have aged out over the years. Therefore, tons of differed maintenance was required on both of these cars when they arrived to Canada and continuous repairs were needed for years to come.
No, all of them were Japanese spec LHDs. Apparently it's a status symbol to have a LHD car over there so, as far as I know, all of the 928s were LHD in Japan.
Japan imported a lot of very nice expensive sports cars in the late 1980's.
Their economy was flying high. Money was abundant to indulge in everything luxurious.
My 964 is from Japan.
It is LHD and before it was exported to Japan from the Porsche factory, the owner sent the new Porsche directly to the Strosek factory where an additional DM$40,000 was spent on upgrades.
The Strosek factory is incredible. When I purchased my 964 in 2005 I wrote to them to ensure that my car was indeed upgraded at their factory.
They wrote back with a letter confirming that my car was one of 26 that they "built" in 1990 and they also sent me a copy of the original invoice !!!!!
I have not investigated how the Japanese imports are in general as I purchased mine on a whim without doing any research.
I will echo what Imo000 has stated that they tend to have low miles on them.
When I purchased mine in 2005 it had 35,000 km.
Every document that came with my car was in Japanese. All the receipts, manuals etc.
I had to purchase a new 1990 911 owner's manual in English.
It was a very complete car with original tool bag, air pump etc.
One other thing all of the decals in the car are in Japanese so that may bother some people.
Lots are popping up these days because those cars are getting extremely difficult to insure and register in Japan. It's actually cheaper to get a LHD Euro from Japan than it is from Europe where certain models still hold value. As mentioned before just watch out for "too good to be true deals" and expect maintenance to be due.
We have a client that imported a Euro spec M3 from Japan. Body condition is like new but fluids were all original , rubber lines and the like. Once he started driving it daily the leaks and age started to appear. The good thing is you can still buy any Porsche part, with Euro spec E36 M3 that's not the case..
If it were me I would take the trip to Japan and view the car myself. Bring back two! Container pricing is roughly the same for 1 car or two cars or even 3..
01-25-2018, 01:43 PM
PCars imported from Japan
