Buying an IMPORT secondhand car – any riskier?

We need to change our car (old diesel) for a ULEZ compliant car. Looking at a petrol Passat estate (TSi engine, auto) and / or 5 Series BMW (petrol, auto). Both are around 2008-2011, low miles look very very clean … and both are imports.

Appreciate that secondhand there’s an implicit risk – is buying an import any riskier, and if so, why and what to look out for?

Not especially fussed about buying import, simply for the same money I’m getting much lower mileage and v sparkly. We’d be keeping it for 10+ yrs.

Cheers

Are you buying direct or through a dealer/ trader ?

Which market is it being imported from?

Something to be aware of – insurance could well be more difficult. A lot of companies simply won’t touch an import so I have found I frequently need to use a specialist. Not usually overly expensive but a bit of a ballache if you like to shop around.

Worth checking the exact model was also sold in the UK too. If it was, that simplifies other stuff. If not, you may find some spares are harder to come by. When I had my Legacy if I wanted any of the original suspension components I had to ship from Japan or go for aftermarket upgrades. Same with someone bent the front bumper, cost them a great deal more because the part required was not available to the UK market.

We’d be keeping it for 10+ yrs.

You’d be keeping a 14 year old car for 10+years. Really?

If you are concerned, many other cars are available.

petrol Passat estate (TSi engine, auto

I have 1.4tsi DSG(auto) in a Leon estate. Apparently the 7-speed gearbox in our car is the one likely to implode any day.

Up until that point, I am thoroughly enjoying the petrol compared to diesel and the auto. Quick enough, lots of MPG’s (more than our old diesel Volvo v70) and quiet. It does start to struggle loaded – Spain with 4 of us, boot full and three bikes was notably slower – compared to a nice torquey diesel.

Next door has a Superb estate – it was cheaper than Passat, bigger, better equipped and seems faultless.

Spain – Basque and Picos 2022 by Matt[/url], on Flickr

Buying an import of some special Japanese market only sports car I can kind of get.

Buying an import of a bog-standard estate car, err, nope.

Thanks – imported from Japan and then buying from a dealer.

Believe they are both same as UK spec models.

Yes to a 14yr old car for 10 yrs … we’ve been lucky so far that it works for us, previous car to this was an old Passat that we had for donkey’s years. My motorbike is old, and going v well .. kinda like the solidity of some of the older stuff!

And not esp concerned about it going for an import, just never done it before so checking if there are likely pitfalls or unexpected surprises! And the cars I’ve looked at, just seem like a better deal of money vs condition vs mileage.

Which market is it being imported from?

Important point that is!
Many trim pieces and suchlike are handed based on drive side and what spec is imported to each market.
Some specs don’t even exist, or they have the same name, but different content.
So you may have to order spares from the home market if you have a bump.

I used to have to order wiper blades for my UK spec car from Germany when i moved to Sweden. As the Swedish parts organisation only held about 2 pairs in the entirety of the country. Funnily enough, a VW.

An ex colleague in the UK had a car imported from Japan (same brand/model name, same basic form) but lower and wider, took months to get a new windscreen from Japan…

I’ve seen quite a few cars like that coming in – it was right in the era of mostly diesels being sold here, while Japan bought petrols. Anything 2007 or later and petrol is ULEZ compliant (euro 4 equivalence is assumed), hence decent demand here for reasonably priced petrol cars. Mileages tend to be lower in Japan although check via paperwork (auction sheet/export cert/service history) or BIMTA that it’s legit. Insurance can be a pain although many mainstream ones are OK with imports these days, my Stepwgn is insured with Admiral.

japanese imports are (in my opionion) extremely likeley to have been clocked. All the import sites seem to have cars that you’d normally expect to have large miles, have a lot of wear and tear, yet surprisingly only 20,000 miles on the clock (with zero paperwork to back them up). Bongos are a particular case in point.

So I’d basically say the big risk is that its been massively clocked, and you’re really buying an overpriced 100,000 mile car that’s had a good hoover

You may want to check that the specific cars are ulez compliant, while the model/year for a U.K. car might be, gray imports from outside the eu tend not to be. Afair.

We’ve got a Japenese import. No issues. Insurance is actually quite cheap, maybe as it rare-ish and not driven by youths. Not everyone will insure it though, and I have seen on forums that other people find it expensive. Harder to shop around maybe. No issues getting spares. Our MOT guy always says he can’t get parts from the usual suppliers but they are readily available from specialists on-line. Car was super clean despite its age, almost too good for us. This is our second. Kept the last one for 10 years (really)

Thanks, re ULEZ, I popped the registration numbers into the checker and came up clear – presumably that’s good enough?

Do japanese market cars still have very poor anti salt measures or is that a thing of the past?

yeah if they come up clear on the website you should be fine.

Link the cars here, someone will give you a view of them

As tj says, Japanese cars often wouldn’t be undersealed so worth checking for that

I was just about to say the same re underseal. There might be other spec differences such as fog lights missing and different frequency bands on the radio.

You’d be keeping a 14 year old car for 10+years. Really?

It’s normal. Check your privilege.

It’s normal. Check your privilege.

its a long way from normal. The average age of the UK fleet is between 6 and 7 years, which would suggest the average car lasts 14 before being scrapped – if you trim off the long tail of really old cars (which will affect the average quite a lot) its probably more like 12 years. Buying a car at the age that most cars are scrapped and keeping it for a further decade is unusual – how many Y plate cars do you see on the road today?

I suppose running an old car depends how good you are with the spanners. A lot of stuff will wear out on a car past 10 years old. DIY not too bad for parts only. Garage prices may become uneconomic.

It’s normal. Check your privilege.

Normal to see a 24 year old car on the road ? A car from 1998….

I do my own tinkering and tend to give up on dailys about 15 years old….. They tend to have mig wire sills – wiring issues , wiring gremlins and parts that need fixing that are hard to find/expensive.

Cars that are too old are not cheap

It’s normal. Check your privilege.

It’s not normal, and might be false economics. He was just trying to make sure they were thinking that through fully.

What’s it even got to do with privilege anyway? Some of the wealthiest people I know have on average the oldest cars because they can afford to fork out for big repair bills.

We’ve got a Japanese import Nissan Cube.
Bought from a dealer in London who just does Japanese imports.

It had a fairly good mileage and looked it too. Around ten years old but it was immaculate. The engine bay was so new looking.
It didn’t have a fog light fitted but had a fresh mot. This shouldn’t have happened essentially. I fitted one with a kit, despite dealer offering.

We had to get specialist insurance and it was a little more than you’d expect of a similar UK car but not crazy.

So far, its been mint.
I think the Japanese Market tends to be kinder to their cars maybe.

Thanks – imported from Japan and then buying from a dealer.

Believe they are both same as UK spec models.

As said before they may not be undersealed, if they’re not then budget for that. Our road salt kills Japanese cars.

Belief and reality are also often very different.

It’s a bit of to and fro with road salt vs underseal- some japanese market cars are just as well undersealed as UK ones, some aren’t. But, few imported japanese cars will have seen salt like UK cars do. (it’s not that they don’t have rusty cars, they just usually get scrapped instead of exported, it’s not worth the hassle to do the paperwork on a shitbox and put it on a roro) I have a 2004 Subaru that was imported in IIRC 2017 and it’s like a 5 year old car underneath. I had a 2006 UK subaru and it was like a shipwreck underneath. Buy on condition as ever.

Most cars will be broadly the same but sometimes will have some randomness to catch you out like speed limiters, or in my case the ****ing window controls are different for ABSOLUTELY NO BASTARD REASON and they always break. Also, japanese fuel is a bit different to ours so they will sometimes be tuned/mapped for that.

The biggest everyday drawback is generally just that you can’t read the service history. Things like recalls can be tricksy.

A lot of stuff will wear out on a car past 10 years old.

Which is when they become affordable to the rest of us. Average age of a car on UK roads has been rising steadily since the crash of 2008, because of affordability. Again on this forum the repeat of the “spend more money to save money” approach is quite aloof and detached. I mean, with cars as with homes, it’s true… but some people seem to want to stay oblivious to the fact that having that choice is a privilege.

As well as rust prevention, you may need to budget for a new radio . IIRC When I was looking at Jap imports 10-12 years ago, the head units wouldn’t tune to UK frequencies, so needed to be replaced. ie. ours goes from around 88-107 FM, theirs might be something like 103-120 FM

some people seem to want to stay oblivious to the fact that having that choice is a privilege

Equally I think it’s never been more true that older cars don’t have the same longevity…

My 2011 SMax is feeling it’s age and 100k mileage far more acutely than the 2004 and 2005 Mondeos that we had that hit similar mileage about 10-12 years ago. A replacement exhaust will cost well into 4 figures (and a terrifying amount of a dpf/cat involved), a clutch/dmf the same, the economy is worse than it’s modern equivalents …

I can’t imagine this car will see the 170k that the earlier of our Mondeos did. Too many big lumpy bills and too many expensive and complex components that are not DIY friendly.

Corrosion for me is the killer of cars, both ours are 18years old with 300k miles between them.
Our Volvo and Peugeot are both galvanized and in the Volvo’s case extensively undersealed but even so keeping the ravages of salt at bay is a constant battle and I’m super anal about washing underneath and yearly topping up of Dinitrol.
Any older UK car is going to need underside attention/rust removal/protection anyway so bringing in a Japanese car that doesn’t necessarily have UK spec levels of underseal wouldn’t be an issue (for me)

How confident are you that it’s genuinely an import? I remember reading on here years ago about written off transporters being exported to Ireland then re-imported with low miles and a clean history. Not sure if that applies to Japan imports but you can imagine a situation where a dodgy car sits in a lockup for a few months whilst it’s paperwork gets laundered overseas

Average age of a car on UK roads has been rising steadily since the crash of 2008, because of affordability.

don’t forget that figure also includes every classic car, which is a huge number, which tend not to get scrapped so they’ll just keep getting older every year. I’d actually say it’s more common to see a classic car than a 20-year-old daily driver these days (which do exist obviously but I would not say was “normal” – people who are struggling financially don’t want them as they’re too expensive to keep on the road).
I know loads of people on modest incomes who have a normal car and then 1 or more classics as it can be a fairly cheap hobby. So when you see a statistic that says 20% of cars on UK roads are 13+ years old, that doesn’t mean they’re all daily drivers, I would bet a lot or even the majority are 2nd cars.

The average age of the UK fleet is between 6 and 7 years, which would suggest the average car lasts 14 before being scrapped – if you trim off the long tail of really old cars (which will affect the average quite a lot) its probably more like 12 years.

How much of that low average is down to the rise of leasing and short term ownership models? We usually buy a 2-3 year old car and keep it for 10 years but I’m always amazed at the amount of people driving new or nearly new cars.

So when you see a statistic that says 20% of cars on UK roads are 13+ years old, that doesn’t mean they’re all daily drivers, I would bet a lot or even the majority are 2nd cars.

Of course there are classic cars lovingly kept running (and I’m glad there are) but if you think that the rise in running older cars in the UK is due to that, well, that’s exactly what I’m talking about, isn’t it.

people who are struggling financially don’t want them as they’re too expensive to keep on the road

Of course they don’t “want” them… but they have to drive them. You’re ignoring the limited choices available for millions of people in the UK. And more people have been moving into this situation every year since 2008. Yes, it’s more expensive to run an older car. No, that doesn’t mean that people are mostly running them for fun, they are doing so because they can’t afford to spend money to save money.

i accidentally bought an import car once. It was a 2006 golf TDI that I bought in 2009. it was ridiculously cheap and had no service history, but seemed good so i took a punt on it. Didn’t know at the time it was an import, and nothing was flagged up when I insured it. It was only when buying wipers that i decided to look into WTAF was going (wiper blades completely different from UK spec) – turns out it was originally from Malta. It then developed ‘hot country’ issues – aircon compressor seized and laquer started to flake quite early. We didn’t do anything about those issues and ran it for 8 years with nothing scary happening. Suspect I was lucky, and knew I was taking a risk, but it was 20% cheaper than all the others on the market. Still surprised that there was no questions on the insurance though.

maccruiskeen
Full Member
We’d be keeping it for 10+ yrs.

You’d be keeping a 14 year old car for 10+years. Really?

I get this has been challenged already, but there’s nothing wrong with this in the main – Euro 6 onwards cars are about as good as you’ll get from a using it where you want point and have decent enough engineering that they remain relevant.

ALSO – people that buy cars every 3 years – why it’s environmentally unsound -fi you think you’re helping the planet, you’re not.

Average age of car fleet is not 6-7 years. The EU median is 12 years, (JRC report) – it’s expected this will rise to well over 15years come 2030.

Of course they don’t “want” them… but they have to drive them.

My car is 15yrs old – I bought it at 13yrs old and I choose to drive it everyday and will keep it till it falls apart around me.

It’s probably cost me a couple thousand in repairs in that time.

I still wouldn’t buy an import of a bog-standard estate though. There are thousands of UK cars on the market.

I’ve looked at similar cars OP (in fact, I suspect you’re looking at 2 cars a dealership in Bradford has at the minute who do a load of imports from Japan?). The 1.4TSI Passat interested us when we were looking earlier in the year and weirdly there were more imports than UK versions available at the time – odd that such a mundane car is seen as worthy of being imported. Same with some Tourans etc the same dealership were selling. That said, they all looked immaculate and had mega low miles vs UK versions which mostly looked like they’d been used for taxi work and were diesels.

In terms of anything to be scared of, Japan (I assume we’re talking Jap imports?) uses KM so need to make sure the car has been converted to miles. I think VW stuff is easily converted using the MFD but the analogue speedo dial may show KM as the “main” indicator still. Then theres the radios – a lot of VW Jap imports I’ve seen have had horrible cheapo Chinese head units fitted. A genuine VW RCD330 is only a couple of hundred quid and supports Car Play/Android Auto depending which model you get. There are UK sellers on eBay which cost a bit more than ordering direct from China.

Apart from that, a Passat should be pretty much identical to a UKDM car. I’ve done a fair bit of research into buying a JDM Passat R36 and at no point in my research has anything been mentioned about consumables like wiper blades etc.

Underseal – if you’re bothered, just get it done. Not expensive…

“Check your privilege” is priceless 😄

Care to elaborate?

Not particularly, because you’re an expert arguer.

But yes I’ll elaborate as far as that was a rude thing you said, to a decent member of here, for no reason at all other than to take another opportunity to look awesome.

Telling Maccruiskeen he needs to “check his privilege” is genuinely hilarious – and had you spent any time treating this place and its people as the community it is, rather than a playground of arguing with people that say something that has the slightest window of opportunity to take the wrong way, you’d realise.