I thought I would write a review of my experiences with having a car imported from Japan, as it may be of some use/interest to those thinking of doing so. Its going to be a long post, but I wanted to cover everything…..
After spotting a post on here about JM Imports having a white facelift Supra for sale, I sent an email to Jurgen to enquire further. After a few emails and a phone call it was confirmed as exactly what I had been looking for – a low mileage facelift Supra in totally standard condition.
Jurgen was very good at explaining the process with me and confirmed that the car was totally standard, everything was working as it should and that it would have a service & machine polish on collection to make it as well presented as it could be. He pointed out that there was some cosmetic damage to a side skirt but this would be repaired and painted on arrival.
I paid my 50% deposit and began waiting.
The transport ship was delayed en route by two weeks (just one of those things and no blame to JM Imports) but Jurgen kept me updated with news as he got it. Unfortunately for me, I had already booked a plane ticket (based on an agreed collection date) to get to his unit in Newcastle (I’m in the South East) to collect the car before the delay was communicated to him. Lesson learnt, don’t arrange transport to pick up your imported car until its landed in the UK and you’re 100% sure of the collection date.
When the car arrived, Jurgen confirmed a collection date with me and I was able to book another flight.
Car Prep & Extras
I supplied a stereo to be fitted in the car on arrival (Jurgen did this and supplied a wiring adaptor at no charge to me)
Cat 1 alarm and underseal – This cost me £480.
NB - his adverts currently on PistonHeads show that an underseal comes as standard. I assume this is something he has just started doing as part of the package so you may not have to pay extra for underseal in future.
Service – The car had a new battery fitted, and an oil and coolant change.
The cam belt was inspected and reported to be in good condition.
NB - his adverts currently on PistonHeads show that imported cars come with a 1st major service on arrival to the UK. Again, it looks like that’s an updated part of the prep that I missed out on as I didn’t get new spark plugs or air filter which I would assume to be part of a major service. (That’s not a criticism of what I received, just an observation that the prep included now looks better than I had. Good news for those still to receive / buy their cars)
Body work – the side skirts had been repaired and sprayed and the rear bumper resprayed also. These were to a good standard.
The car had been washed.
Rear foglight fitted into rear light cluster.
Tyres – the MOT had an advisory for cracked sidewalls. Jurgen replaced the tyres. New tyres were budget brand manufactured in the 15th week of 2010. Not ideal for a car with this power but legal. I will replace once I find some alloys I like. I’m sure Jurgen could supply & fit premium tyres to your requirements for collection, but there would be additional costs associated with this.
Collection
On the morning of collection it was very busy at JM Imports, with 7 cars being collected that morning. It was also a miserable wet rainy day. Balance was paid, paperwork exchanged and car taken. I’ll hold my hands up and admit to being overly excited about getting my Supra, and didn’t pay enough attention to the condition of the bodywork as I should have – but more on that later.
As I went to drive away, there was a bulb warning light on the dash. A rear brake light was out, so that was quickly changed. Went to drive away again and the bulb warning came on again. Turns out that the car had three bulbs blown and the rear numberplate lights had not been reconnected when the bumper was refitted. All quickly resolved and only a minor inconvenience.
On the drive home, I noticed that the speedo was still reading in KM/H. Part of the prep was meant to include the fitting of a speedo converter. An email to/from Jurgen confirmed that they had forgotten to fit this.
I then noticed that the aircon wasn’t blowing cold. This was annoying as it was one of the things I had specifically asked to be working. The compressor kicked in OK, but the air wasn’t cold. (I subsequently had a regas done locally and it works fine now)
Six hours later I got home without incident and I parked the car up and immediately gave it a wash to clean off all the grime from the motorway journey.
That’s when I first noticed the issues with the paintwork. From a few feet away it looked fine but close up the entire car was covered with water staining marks, that didn’t come off with normal washing.
The best was I can describe it is if you imagine your car had been sprayed with a bottle of lemonade and left to dry. I’ve added some photos below, which you may be able to see the staining in although its hard to photograph easily on a white car. If you look at where the fluorescent light is reflecting you will see some ‘lines’ crossing the reflection. This is the water staining which was all over the car. At the rear of the roof, where it bends down into the shut line for the bootlid, the entire length was rusty. Again photo attached. The rear spats had not been bonded on correctly after refitting and had come away from the bodywork at the rear edge leaving an unsightly gap.
Day 2 of ownership. Went to go for a drive and upon starting the car, I got warning lights for ‘trac’ and ‘abs’ flashing on the dash, and the manu button stopped working. I posted on here and suggested I would get my local garage to look into it. Advice I got was to not do this and to let JM Imports resolve it. Jurgen had just gone on holiday so we emailed each other a few times and he would contact me to sort it out on his return. He also posted me a speedo converter as they had forgotten to do this.
Day 12 of ownership (22nd June). Went to go for a drive and upon starting the car, virtually all warning lights on the dash illuminated. The AA attended and advised that the battery was not getting a charge and they suspected a faulty alternator. I contacted Jurgen again and gave a complete list of all my issues. As the car wasn’t driveable he arranged for it to be collected and transported back to his workshop. It was collected from me on 4th July.
Jurgen resolved all my problems and I was able to take collection on 22nd July – so at this point, since I originally collected the car, I had driven it for only 12 days – followed by 30 days of it being off the road / being repaired.
The issues were diagnosed as being a faulty trac ecu, faulty alarm box and a bad earth on the alternator.
These were all fixed.
The aux belt and tensioner were also changed (you will see from the pic below that this really needed done, and I think probably should have been when the car was prepped originally).
The speedo converter was fitted.
The paintwork issues were also resolved.
The car was machine polished, the rear spats attached correctly, the rust treated and repainted, and the front bumper repainted as the paint was very thin in one area due to over polishing in the past.
The car is now fault free and in the condition I would have expected it to be from the start.
Jurgen has been true to his word and resolved everything without argument.
I understand that Jurgen ‘rushed’ the prep of the car somewhat for me as he was aware it was two weeks late and wanted to let me have it as soon as possible – with hindsight I would have been happier to wait a while longer and have the cosmetics to a better standard from day one but at the time I wasn’t aware of the short prep time.
The mechanical issues were something that could have happened on any car and were not a result of anything JM-Imports may have rushed.
I’m now happy to have the car I expected and look forward to many miles of reliable driving.
Jurgen has sorted all my issues to my satisfaction.
If I were to have another car imported I may look to use someone with as good a reputation as JM Imports, but who was based closer to me.
The fact that I’m at the other end of the country was a bit of an issue for me when problems arose. Also, I would spend more time inspecting the car prior to collection and make sure everything was as it should be as the prep of the Supra was really not up to par. However, as JM is so far from my home, any problems I had found on collection day would have caused more problems for me as I would have had to leave the car and try and arrange collection for another time – along with all the inconvenience that would have caused me with transport.
Overall, I’m happy with the car now and thank Jurgen for having it all sorted.
Yes, some of the issues shouldn’t have been there at all, and wouldn’t have been if the prep was completed correctly, but some issues were mechanical things that couldn’t have been predicted.
Would I buy from JM Imports again? Maybe, if it was a really special rare car, but I would also look at importers geographically closer to me.
Would I recommend JM Imports? Yes I would. I feel the prep issues I had were an isolated instance in this case due to timing deadlines. The mechanical problems could have happened with any importer. The important thing is all were resolved
Photos below (you may have to click on them to get them to open in a bigger size to see the detail...)
