I’m looking at importing a 4wd Hiace from Japan and considering using Brave Auto International
I’m wondering if anyone has used this company as an export agent and if they are reliable before I had over a wad of money to someone in Japan. His fees seem reasonable as other Australian agents seem to have a lot of extra fees on top of their basic agents fee.
I’m very wary especially if I don’t inspect the vehicle myself. The owner is a Kiwi and exports a lot of vehicles especially high end cars.
I agree with this. I followed OP's link and there is no Australia local office so you are up the creek if it arrives at the dock and you don't know you need to get all the clearance and compliance etc done.
What was the compliance fee? I was going to ring around for some prices over $2000 seems a lot to inspect a vehicle and stick a compliance sticker on.
Depends. On passenger vehicles they might need to install anchor points for child seats.
It was about 2.2k
The issue is under SEVS (which doesnt apply anymore) the licence fees were very expensive which reflects in the fee.
I haven't kept up-to-date with temporary compliance.
Its not just putting a compliance sticker on lol, the hint is in the name - compliance. They also need to make the car comply to Australian standards, this can mean changing globes, installing anchor points or different seatbelts, removing seats etc. All depends on the vehicle.
I’m looking at importing a 4wd Hiace from Japan
Why?
Some people are just into self abuse and decide to grey import. It is what it is.
Maybe it's the fun of trying to insure it?
That is only part of the fun
the fun of finding parts, especially the 4WD
Any imports I've had havent been substantially harder than local models?
I personally wouldn't go through the hassle but the cars released in Japan nearly always had higher spec levels.
Though the difference in spec levels are not much now but 20-30 years ago it was a huge difference.
Go back even further to the Aussie Holden Gemini we had here with the single cam carby fed 1.6lt motor but in Japan they had a 1.8lt Dohc fuel injected motor more power and better economy.
cars released in Japan nearly always had higher spec levels.
Not in crash tests.
Cant get 4wd versions in Aus. They arent available from toyota australia. Only way to get one is to import, or purchased one locally thats been imported by soemone else.
It’s cheaper
Have you looked into insurance for this?
What about a Delica?
I found that is is about $400pa more expensive than a local distributor car of the same value.
Some insurers try to have a laugh. $4k to insure a $30k car. Found the insurance is about same as an Atto 3 for my area.
The owner is a kiwi and exports a lot of vehicles especially high end cars
Kiwi's have opened up their import laws and seems to be more with the times allowing a lot of imports from Japan. It seems to be a lot more difficult here in Australia especially when insurers seems to be in bed with importers (and representative office of manufacturers / panel repairs etc)
a lot of imports from Japan
Some imports from Japan would not meet Australian Design Rules…
The first rule of Australian Design Rules club is that we do not talk about Australian Design Rules
"some"
There is a lot of Japanese cars that go to rest of the world that we don't get. We're just a dumping ground for dirty emissions vehicles.
It's also about safety in collisions.
Japanese design rules are not as strict as ours…
@jv: Okay you are obviously pulling all our legs and out of your depth.
Why is there tiny Honda S660s driving around if they are not safe.
Think our conversation is going to end here because obviously you are sending everyone down a rabbit hole and you're the king rabbit for that small hole.
Okay you are obviously pulling all our legs and out of your depth.
Nope, they skimp on safety to reduce the size and weight of the cars.
In many countries, they do not comply to the minimum standards, therefore you only see them in Japan.
NZ has always been very open to imports because they don't have a local manufacturing industry.
Toyota ceased production in Australia in 2017
With COVID and not having to go into the office the politicians could have relaxed the laws by now given the higher productivity
I mean there's an unspeakable amount of laws that just faded into irrelevancy over time, without any real incentive to go back and rectify or strike out those laws they just sit and simmer. I read about one in Adelaide that specifically notes that trading with a pirate is illegal.. There are some wonky ones out there.
Maybe we should have a sticky somewhere - J-Spec, Prestige Motorsport (not the new Melb outfit that happens to have a similar sounding name), Iron Chef or Import Monkey. These are tried and tested.
Side note: saw a Qld company is converting Aus delivered Hiace to 4wd using 200 series landcruiser parts and a custom front subframe. Full time 4wd aussie delivered hiaces.
Mainly for mine companies that want a 4wd 12 seater but woukd make gor good camper conversion.
Sounds expensive all round.
Bus4x4 are doing it from $54k + the car.
Bus4x4 …
And incredible uncomfortable for long long long trips.
OK for miners for a 20 minutes trip but not for travelers for 20 hours torture.
Think Mercedes-Benz Unimog: unstoppable but unbearable.
Only people doing that are the ones forced to comply with arbitrary rules like must be an australian delivered vehicle. You could buy two 4x4 hiaces out of japan and bring them into the country for the same price as getting one converted.
Maybe, but arè the japanese delivered 4wd hiaces lifted and running a low range transfer case?
They are lifted yeah, how much do you value a low range transfer case at? If thats a necessity then a Delica is probably the better option anyway.
@doobey1231: Except you cant get a new delica.
Not that id be buying a new van and sepsnding $50k on a conversion, but be a birlliant camper van for remote touring
@Euphemistic: Yeah that sorta goes in line with my "arbitrary rules" comment. I mean there is obviously a market otherwise they wouldn't be doing the conversions - makes sense for a mines vehicle. But for someone going remote and touring the country, there are dozens of better options out there that wont cost the equivalent of a second car to get running.
@doobey1231: Maybe, but you wont get many vans wirh true off road cred (low range and good clearance)
I am after a specific type of Hiace van, and I’m a tightarse hence cutting out the middleman used car dealers. I don’t mind doing the paperwork and organising customs and quarantine. I owned a Japanese import previously and will probably just get 3rd party insurance which I had previously.
What specifics do you want that you can't get locally?
They don't sell the AWD version here for example
AWD dx or supergl, with windows, white diesel grade 4 or higher with low km and no rust.
whats ballpark for costs for these ?
Ive got an ACR30 estima - second owner in aus. Would love to get another import - you get so much bang for your buck
Perhaps you do, but those unfortunate of us that do not read/understand Japanese characters will find it impossible to cope with its infotainment and the lot.
Is that your case?
Need to change the stereo out anyway if you want it to function with Australian radio bands, pretty simple in most vehicles.
It could be the radio/stereo.
But then the whole infotainment unit will/could still be in Japanese characters.
Experienced (almost) this with a Leaf. The UK made one has all languages but the Japanese one only has Japanese. Buyer beware.
Stereo = infotainment unit. Hiaces are about as basic as they get. If you’re in Sydney I can sort out the Japanese characters in your leaf as well, if you still have it.
@doobey1231: Thank you but I never went ahead with the Leaf.
Too many "unknowns" for an unseen second hand (third? fourth?) car.
Cannot accept why a UK made Leaf has all lingos but a Japanese doesn't … brings the awful feeling: what else is not there too?
@LFO: Japan is a very insular country as well as a very by-the-book country. If they see no reason to put the English language into their locally delivered vehicle then they wont - and fair enough, Japanese is still very much the dominant language there and will continue to be, There is no benefit on Nissans behalf to do it so they wont. Although this is a downside, there are bonuses too, Japanese vehicles are often more fleshed out and feature packed over our locally delivered variants.
I used Jspec imports - would recommend. Fee was around 1k everything included getting the car on the boat.
He linked me with a local compliance workshop who handled everything once off the boat - but that's a separate fee.