Real JDM import costs...

[gtrbubba]

If Terra2imports are to be believed, it costs between $4,000 and $5,000 -plus- their $1000 fee to import a JDM vehicle.

Obviously, the make/model vehicle itself is somewhat moot, and the Canadian tax/duty will be proportional to the selling price, but it won't be a significant amount.

Either these numbers are wildly inflated, or there's a lot of JDM dealers that are essentially giving their cars away!


What gives? Are they completely nuts, or do the Montreal and Toronto JDM guys ship their cars by rowboat?

[MikeRWK]

They float them over on rubber dingys, mine had a fish in the muffler.

[archaeic_bloke]

ugh, damnit.. i JUST typed a whole long explanation and comp froze before i hit "post"... anyways heres a quick explanation.

i know this because ive spoken to a lot of the jdm montreal shops about how its done, and seen first hand a few container deliveries.

heres how it works in Canadian $ for an example lets use a GTR:

$5,000 - $6,000 = initial cost of GTR at Auction grade 3.5 avg.
$1,500 - Japand export papers, fees + canadian import fees, taxes, duties
$2,000 - shipping container on a boat from Japan to Vancouver BC.
$2,000 - Shipping container on a train from Vancouver to Montreal/toronto

but heres the thing... each shipping container usually holds 4 cars... that brings the cost of a gtr from auction to: $7,500... which correlates to the recent Montreal rock bottom pricing... you see the guys here are just trying to recover what they paid (those cars that don't have license plates or inspections yet)

another issue lies in the problem that when you first import a car.. if you don't have all the correct papers that you need, they'll hold your car in an impound lot... at $100/day!!.. so ya.. that adds up too.

how ever ... i was at a shop last summer when a container came in... holding SIX cars... they were all attached in weird orientations hanging by chains in the container...most of them once taken out had crazy body damage... an integra type R with a crushed roof... a 300ZX with smashed hood, roof and fenders etc.. it was a sad sad sight..

was also fairly scared by the shop owner who was less than pleased with the way his merchandise arrived... lol

but yea

[MikeRWK]

Mine has some minor paint damage and a barely noticeable dent, it sucks cause i was in alberta when the car arrived.

[Phastwon]

I doubled the cost of my car in getting it here. You can probably do a little cheaper, so say $9,000 for everything all in.

[gtrbubba]

Sample "markups" from various dealers (real!)

OK, I've managed to categorically cross-reference two cars from the Japan auction sites to dealers in Ontario.

Here's a list of the car, auction price, and the dealer "markup":

JapanPower '92 GTS-T - $1,644 - $5,236 ($6,900 asking)
Tiger '93 GT-R - $4,102 - $5,249 ($9,350 asking)


I have yet to find a cross-reference for any Montreal-based cars, but it's quite tough as the two tools are limited to Oct-Dec 09 (USS) and Jan-Mar '10 (others).

GST is a pass-through for the dealer, so the importation costs are probably close to identical for any R32. Local Japanese delivery costs may change a bit, but it's a pretty small amount.

Where this info is useful is if you can find the car you're looking at at a local dealer on the Japanese auction site(s), then you know how much leverage you have in negotiating a price.


FYI, due to early Feb. haggling, I got my "markup" down to $4,500. :biggrin:

[slipperj5]

wow you guys are paying a lot of money for your cars to get here lol. Now i know my car was a gts-t but still, I paid 5500 dollars, give or take a couple bucks, for my car to get here from japan. That's including the cost of the car. Now I did all the contacting myself and paperwork myself but still. That's pretty pricey.

[gtrbubba]

wow you guys are paying a lot of money for your cars to get here lol. Now i know my car was a gts-t but still, I paid 5500 dollars, give or take a couple bucks, for my car to get here from japan. That's including the cost of the car. Now I did all the contacting myself and paperwork myself but still. That's pretty pricey.

Actually sounds about right. GTS-T's are worth squat at auction (maybe $1500, in good shape with low mileage), so it makes sense that you paid around $5,500.

It seems that most importers can land a car locally for as little as $3,000 (far less out West) if they pack a 40' container full!

[dah_hunter]

If you get the 4 cars for free:
Container $3500
Exporter Fees $600 a car (Paperwork Etc)
Customs Fee's $300 a car (In Vancouver if you do it yourself)
(If using a Broker its another $200 a car)
Unloading Fees $250 a car.
So we are looking at over $2000 for a free car.. and these are very low Numbers..

I wish i could get for (Far less then $3000) but sadly that's not possible..

If im mistaken and someone can prove me wrong, then I hope they do so i can correct the error in my ways and make lots more $$$..

[Boyscout]

both my cars had vertical swirl scratches on the rear bumper above the exhaust and the same spot on the other side. always wondered where they cam from.

[gtrbubba]

...

I wish i could get for (Far less then $3000) but sadly that's not possible..

If im mistaken and someone can prove me wrong, then I hope they do so i can correct the error in my ways and make lots more $$$..

In "land a car...". I wasn't including the purchase price, just the transport/import costs.

Also, it seems possible (but perhaps not a good idea) to pack five/six cars into a 40' container!

Another way to effectively lower the cost is to import clips along with a whole car, as three front clips only take a bit more space than one whole car, but have trivial paperwork costs, as well as not having minor shipping damage be a huge issue. (I'm pretty sure that this is the way that a lot of import shops spread the import cost of their cars to the point where that it seems that they can't be making much of a profit on the cars...)