Tweet
Japan Power In Ottawa got a new shipment of cars in the last few weeks, and I took the opportunity to cross-reference them with the actual Japanese auction sales. (mostly USS auctions)
These guys need to make a buck, and that's fine, but the most disturbing issue is that they arbitrarily increase the profit margin on -all- Skylines, even if another car (a Supra, for example) had exactly the same auction price!
For example; they have a white '92 GT-R and a black '95 Supra. Both sold for Y355,000 at auction, yet the GT-R is priced $1,500 more! Even worse, is the little Pulsar they have, also sold for Y345,000 and they're selling it for $2,877 less than the GT-R!
You'll notice that the gross margin on the R33 GTS-T's is about $1,000 less than the GT-R, what the hell gives with that?! The R33 is a bigger & heavier car!
The other issue is that they jack up the margin on the R33 GT-R (about another $1,300 in pure profit on the R33, over the R32 GT-R), even though there is no difference in import costs for pretty much any of these cars. (they are probably packed 4-5 to a container, and it's volume, not weight, that's relevant)
If anyone is interested, I have the auction summaries, photos and inspection sheets for all the cars listed below. There is no question that each and every one of them is exactly the same car at auction as shown on J-P's website.
It'll be a bit of a mess in raw text, but here's the breakdown (the last number is gross dollars over cost, which technically should be the same for all cars, given the import method, and economies of scale):
Year Colour Model Mileage Yen $ $Ask Diff.
--------------------------------------------------------
1991 Grey GT-R 168713 345000 $4,233 $10,500 $6,267
1992 White GT-R 130679 355000 $4,355 $11,000 $6,645
1994 Black GTS-T R33 (95) 87243 196000 $2,405 $8,000 $5,595
1993 Black GTS-T R33 (94) 156801 275000 $3,374 $8,900 $5,526
1995 Silver GT-R R33 V-Spec 96227 730000 $8,956 $17,000 $8,044
1993 Black Supra 183449 182000 $2,233 $8,000 $5,767
1995 Black Supra 77580 355000 $4,355 $9,500 $5,145
1991 White Pulsar 99948 345000 $4,233 $8,000 $3,767
Y345000=$4232.81 Cheque rates for 21 May 2010
Obviously, what allows these kinds of prices is perceived value. A little Pulsar simply won't fetch close to $10k, no matter what condition it's in, nor will a N/A Supra ($9,500 is quite optimistic for the '95, even though it's clean, but R-rated, hmmmm....)
The bottom line is that armed with this info, you'll be in a much better bargaining position if you're looking to buy!
FYI, I got my GT-R at about $4,500 over auction cost. I might have been able to push harder, had I been aware of margins, etc. back then. (I'm guessing that around 3k over cost is as far as you could push them if they -really- wanted to move a specific car, like in the dead of winter!)
Thanks.
These guys need to make a buck, and that's fine, but the most disturbing issue is that they arbitrarily increase the profit margin on -all- Skylines, even if another car (a Supra, for example) had exactly the same auction price!
For example; they have a white '92 GT-R and a black '95 Supra. Both sold for Y355,000 at auction, yet the GT-R is priced $1,500 more! Even worse, is the little Pulsar they have, also sold for Y345,000 and they're selling it for $2,877 less than the GT-R!
You'll notice that the gross margin on the R33 GTS-T's is about $1,000 less than the GT-R, what the hell gives with that?! The R33 is a bigger & heavier car!
The other issue is that they jack up the margin on the R33 GT-R (about another $1,300 in pure profit on the R33, over the R32 GT-R), even though there is no difference in import costs for pretty much any of these cars. (they are probably packed 4-5 to a container, and it's volume, not weight, that's relevant)
If anyone is interested, I have the auction summaries, photos and inspection sheets for all the cars listed below. There is no question that each and every one of them is exactly the same car at auction as shown on J-P's website.
It'll be a bit of a mess in raw text, but here's the breakdown (the last number is gross dollars over cost, which technically should be the same for all cars, given the import method, and economies of scale):
Year Colour Model Mileage Yen $ $Ask Diff.
--------------------------------------------------------
1991 Grey GT-R 168713 345000 $4,233 $10,500 $6,267
1992 White GT-R 130679 355000 $4,355 $11,000 $6,645
1994 Black GTS-T R33 (95) 87243 196000 $2,405 $8,000 $5,595
1993 Black GTS-T R33 (94) 156801 275000 $3,374 $8,900 $5,526
1995 Silver GT-R R33 V-Spec 96227 730000 $8,956 $17,000 $8,044
1993 Black Supra 183449 182000 $2,233 $8,000 $5,767
1995 Black Supra 77580 355000 $4,355 $9,500 $5,145
1991 White Pulsar 99948 345000 $4,233 $8,000 $3,767
Y345000=$4232.81 Cheque rates for 21 May 2010
Obviously, what allows these kinds of prices is perceived value. A little Pulsar simply won't fetch close to $10k, no matter what condition it's in, nor will a N/A Supra ($9,500 is quite optimistic for the '95, even though it's clean, but R-rated, hmmmm....)
The bottom line is that armed with this info, you'll be in a much better bargaining position if you're looking to buy!
FYI, I got my GT-R at about $4,500 over auction cost. I might have been able to push harder, had I been aware of margins, etc. back then. (I'm guessing that around 3k over cost is as far as you could push them if they -really- wanted to move a specific car, like in the dead of winter!)
Thanks.
)
Comment