I have just taken a friend out for a blast in my S2000 - ideal conditions, warm, sunny day, airbox off, some country lanes, and finally 9000rpm through an underpass in Croydon

He now needs an S very badly!!!!

He curently has a grey FTO, so is well aquainted with the pro's and con's of importing 2nd hand cars to UK from Japan.

He thinks he knows enough to purchase, ship and import a car to UK, but would like to know roughly what a nice, clean, 2-3 year old S would sell for in Japan - any ideas chaps please?

 

Yen. (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

-Brian.

 

a big pile of them at 190 to the pound

 

I personally imported some cars a few years ago, called a Jap dealer, flew out there,picked the cars myself and he arranged the shipping, etc.

I got the contact through a company called Karman Shipping, I think they may now have a website. If he gets in touch with them they will give hime the phone number of people to contact in Japan, the guy I dealt with was called Kenji, a really nice chap. The guy in Japan will be able to give you a rough idea of current prices for the S2000 over there. The Japanese guy charges comission but considering I dont speak Japanese and he arranged my Hotel, transported me to the auctions, took me out for a meal and arranged for the cars to be transported and shipped I thought it was good value for money. I bought two cars with a total value of approx 13K and I think the comission was about

 

it's as good a time as any to import something, as soon as yen hits 180 and above the import market becomes more active - there are lots of dealers and websites, often deal in one marque only.

sportscar market in Japan is actually pretty depressed - represents less than 5% of new car sales, and Nissan are going to stop GTR this year - also Mazda will be cutting back on the high powered models.

everybody wants SUV - minivan stuff.

not looked at prices recently - but I paid around