kfgas

No hurdles have needed to be jumped over so far and very straightforward although it is not UK registered as yet as only just sent off the V55 as this cannot be done until the car has a valid mot but can see no problem with this.
Anyway a bit of insight for any one that is considering importing from either Japan or Singapore as I have now done both
Both are pretty easy and if anything it is a simpler process importing from Singapore than when I imported my Nissan Elgrand nearly 7 years ago from Japan which was bought at auction which you need a Japan agent to do for you as only Japanese companies who are registered with the auction houses can bid on the auctions
The agent will bid up to the amount you instruct him to bid on the car that you want to bid on but it is up to you to decide on the maximum bid that you want to place.
When you sign up and pay your deposit they will give you access to all the upcoming auctions from all over Japan.
Prior to bidding they will send you translated auction sheets of any car you are interested in
I used a company called Integrity Exports and they were excellent.
I bid on 3 cars in total, the first 2 I placed low bids as the cars were not quite the spec that I really wanted but worked on the principle that if I got them cheap enough I could live with them and it was good practice for when I saw a car that had the spec I wanted which was quite specific.
Prior to bidding I watched a lot of cars going through the auctions and with a bit of practice you can get a really good feel for what a certain car and specs will go for.
If buying from Japan in my opinion it is a must to buy a Carvx report for any car you intend making a serious bid for, cost is about £20 per report
Your agent will also complete all the export paperwork and arrange transport to the Japan port and shipping to the UK
This is a bit more complicated than buying from Singapore as you need to learn how to read the auction sheets the difference in the various grades and read between the lines where a maybe a good grade 3.5 from one of the stricter graders may be a better car than a poor grade 4 from one of the more lax graders and the maps and be aware that not all auction houses are equal as some are stricter graders than others.
You will also sometimes see the same car sold at one auction house and then reappear at another auction who are a bit lax with a higher grade and sold for a higher bid price which has been bought and flipped.
You will also have far less info on the car usually just 5 or 6 pictures and the auction sheet
It is also possible to buy direct from a dealer in Japan and there are a number of websites that will do this for you.
Some are better than others and you will need to do your homework as some will charge a substantial markup on the dealer price and inflated transport and shipping costs and bear in mind that the car you are buying was most likely bought from the same auctions that you could buy from, given a bit of a tidy up and then sold by the dealer with his mark up on top in much the same way as buying from many dealers in the UK.
In my opinion not the way to go as far better value can be had by buying at auction even if it does mean that you need a bit more knowledge and need to do a bit more work and research yourself.
Whilst buying from Japan is pretty straightforward buying from Singapore is even simpler and pretty much the same as buying from a dealer in the UK apart from these dealers will normally be specialised exporters and will have compounds at the Port of Singapore as once a cars COE has run out it is legally not allowed on the road.
They buy there cars from the general public and not at auction or trade in's and most advertise seeking to buy cars coming up to the 10 year old mark.
You can find these dealers websites on line and the process is pretty much the same as if buying from a dealer in the UK where by they will answer any questions you may have and you agree a price with them direct normally a CIF price which includes the cost of shipping etc to the port of your choice.
Most if not all will have of walk around video plus some where around 80 pictures of the car showing virtually all angles of the car as well as the interior and underside as well as a full write up of the car and they will include the vin so pretty simple to do your checks and get the service history and build spec sheet
It must be borne in mind that if you are looking for a world car like an Audi it will have been made in the same plants as cars destined for the UK although they may well be different in some respects.
As an example is the Q3 I have bought which has the same spec for all Asian countries and North America which is more luxury interior than cars made for the UK which are more sport interior ie S line having full leather seats, a slightly more plush interior, a reverse camera as standard, uprated air con and cooling and a DQ250 wet clutch rather than the DQ200 dry clutch which from what I can make out is a better option.
The best value cars will be 10 years old or just coming up to 10 years old.
The reason for this is that all cars in Singapore are required to have what is called Certificate Of Entitlement (COE).
This is bought when a car is new normally for a 10 year period and can be extended for a maximum of a further 5 years only and after that the car either has to sold for export or scraped.
Normally only very high value cars are extended for a further 5 years with the rest being worth relatively little and far less than what the same car would be worth in the UK.
The cost of a COE is extremely high with the current cost for a Q3 for 10 years being approx £80000 although this can vary as they are auctioned with a limit on the amount available which has pushed prices up by quite a margin in recent years.
This is on top of the cost of the car plus tax plus road tax and a very stringent Periodic vehicle Inspection (PVI) every year for cars more than 3 years old which from what I read is far stricter than the UK MOT.
Hence most cars in Singapore are bought more as a status symbol and do very few miles and are upkept without regard to cost
The car I have bought is a good example of this having done only 39000 in 10 years (which is about average although it is possible to get a car with far less) and has a full Audi main dealer service history
From buying the car whether it is in Japan of Singapore the process is virtually the same.
From the Singapore dealer you will receive e-mail copies of the Singapore Land Transport Authority Deregistration Certificate, 3rd Original Copy of the Bill of Lading and there invoice
From your agent in Japan you will receive e-mail copies of the Japanese Export certificate, 3rd Original Copy of the Bill of Lading and there invoice.
You will be sent the details of the ship and the ETA that the car is booked on and once the car is loaded on the ship you will be sent the the paper copies of these and also the 1st and 2nd Original Bill of Lading.
Both times these have been sent by DHL and have arrived within a couple of days of the car being loaded on the ship.
You can then follow the ship as it makes it way to you which takes a couple of months or so to get here.
This time with the Q3 the ship was slightly delayed due to not being able to use the Suez Canal but as I was following it this was not a problem.
There are a number of websites that will give you an exact location of the ship at any one time and it's next port of call etc
Although it is possible to do it yourself on both cars I have opted to use a port clearing agent to sort out paying the import duty and vat and obtaining the Nova as it is only about £150 and both times this was completed within a day or so with them paying on your behalf and then billing you for the cost.
To do this you need to send them a Original copy of the Bill of Lading which itemises what you have paid for the car and shipping etc as the cost of import duty and vat is paid on the total amount including shipping.
With the Elgrand I had it picked up from the Port of Newcastle and trailered to me as for some reason it was quite a bit cheaper to have the car shipped to Newcastle and even after paying for it to be delivered to me I was about £300 better off.
I arranged this through Shipley who I have used a number of times before for a variety of deliveries.
This time for the Q3 I hired a trailer for a total cost of £67 including vat and went up to Port of Bristol with my son in law to pick it up with his Q7. Including picking up the trailer and the car took about 2 1/2 hours.
I have insured the car on my current multi car policy from the Vin and have paid £74 fully comp including windscreen cover and coutesy car for the next 97 days up to the policy renewal
To be sent to DVLA with the completed V55
£55 Registration fee plus relevant years road tax (in my case for the Q3 £190)
The original copy of either the Export Certificate (if imported from Japan) or the original Deregistration Certificate (if imported from Singapore)
These show all the cars details including make, model vin, engine number, date of 1st registration , colour, cc, original reg no etc
Photocopy of Driving Licence or other proof of identity and address.
Proof of Purchase
Proof Of Insurance
MOT Certificate
NOVA
Both cars even after paying for all the related costs were considerably less than what I would have paid in the UK with the Q3 I have just bought being well under half the cost of a comparable UK car with the same miles
For me less hassle than driving to view cars with very nearly all done on line and even the bit of work that I done checking the car over and topping up the oil and coolant were not particularly hard work and done on my drive. I have also since it was mot'd given it a polish and wax.
Of course this will not suit every one as you will need to pay for the car, shipping, import duty, vat, UK port fees and clearing agent, transport to you from the port, mot. (plus possible work on the car), insurance UK registration fee and a years UK road tax etc.
The dealers in Singapore will not offer finance or obviously a trade in.
Other potential downsides for some will be that the car will possibly have a lower resell value but as it is intended as a long term buy for my wife and will only likely do 3000 miles a year or less this is not really a concern for us
I also quite understand that some would rather see and drive a car before buying it but if you are thinking of importing a car either from Japan or Singapore it is not really that difficult,