Well I think mr. Wilson would be amazed visiting Russia that same year especially Far East region. Remember the episode when he sold Lada to the Russian dealer? That was one of last waves of soviet cars return. The real hype started in early 90's Vladivistok city where JDM cars arrived. Of course we also had crushed cars, the milage was inaccurate, etc, but in the end most of the buyers won the game getting highly reliable and durable car for an attractive price (especially big saloons like Toyota Mark II/III). Spare parts weren't big problem too because Japan wasn't too far from Vladivostok.
In a word. Yes Japanese imports are 100% worth it a majority of the time. I can understand the presenter’s hesitation though, UK’s domestic market was going down the shitter at this point
That "horror story" about having to buy 4 new alloys for the 5..... Standard practice these days when buying your project to replace the previous owners anyway 😂
Thank god for the internet, else we'd still be relying on Quentin's opinion - couldn't be further from the truth, especially so a few years later. I've had a couple of import MX5's and they were far less rusty and better specced than UK MX5's I viewed at the time once they were about 13-14years old.
To be fair back in the 90's, grey imports were an absolute nightmare. You couldn't just pop to Google looking for a parts code, it wasn't possible to check cross compatibility and you were at the mercy of main dealers who would either refuse to help or gouge you to death for parts that were vastly overpriced. In today's world it's simple. I have a grey import from Japan, I can pop online and find what I need, there are enthusiast forums and even charts of compatible parts/cross compatible alternatives. I now buy most of the parts that aren't available in the UK via a wholesaler in Japan, who speaks English and bills me via PayPal, couldn't really find that 25 years ago.
BBC propaganda Video to me Import from Japan, you get Rust Free example, maintenance on my old Hondas is the easy part, keeping Rust at bay is the hard part. Basically just yrying to put people off getting better spec'd cars than UK got for decent price and Rust Free but we'll just point out the bad parts because were BBC
Of course it is. Quentin wilson can’t speak much to the integrity of imported cars given the fact he was convicted for clocking local market vehicles when he ran his dealership
Are those Mazdas and other Japanese imports gone up in price recently? I had a look and they are suddenly more pricier than I remember. It shouldn't be so, considering the abundance of numbers that can still be imported as we wish.
@@jeff4362 Yes the asking prices (private sales) have gone a way up over recent years. I guess any car to survive this long will be a good one due to either a total restore or enthusiast taking care of them. Also maybe people wanting to get into classic car ownership this is a good route. Some of the older stuff (pre 80s) has gone bananas in regards prices! Buying a Japanese import from this era you're not dealing with huge corrosion issues, and in my opinion, early to mid 90's Japanese engineering was at the pinnacle of car production. Some of these models were ridiculously reliable at the time... and still are.
@@CathalCoolkirky Yep. Quite a shame, they technically shouldn't be expensive because they are not rare. Anyway, I wonder if it's somehow cheaper to get a fresh import from Japan than buying privately here?
Hi Gareth.. That is interesting.. I didn't know it was 40 years in UK. It's 30 years here in Ireland thankfully ;) there are some interesting cars now availing of the 56 euro a year tax. If you have say a 3.2 liter engine and it's 29 years old the motor-tax is an eye watering 1809 euro per year! Then when she turns 30 it's only 56euro.... phew.
'can't get parts' no longer applies thanks to Amayama or Partsouq, or living in a different grey import country where the dealers actually want to help instead of being a dick about it.
Always nice to hear, thank you! Please know there are a lot of other uploaders who've uploaded classic top gear content, I'm trying to fish out the bits not available yet on yt! :) Just in case you want even more old top gear content hahhaha
You have to be extremely careful buying Japanese imports, they might look great value when you buy, but will lose their value like girders, and the second brick wall you will hit when you come to get these serviced, is that many official UK dealers may refuse to touch them, or if they do offer to service it and agree to this and some official UK dealers will happily service your Japanese import, you could have a fair old wait for parts to arrive from Japan into the UK dealers direct from the factory, plus you may not be offered a courtesy car because you bought a Japanese imported car, even specialists who sell and service Japanese imports could have problems getting original official manufacturer spare parts from Japan.
Canadian here, I’ve always sold my Japanese imports for more than I imported them for (minus the safety fee) did my own work on them though, mostly same spec as LHD models
@@roddydykes7053 Not necessarily the same. As the video says, many things are different from UK specification cars i.e. fuel filler, tyres, engine management systems, lights, speedometer, etc but you do get more extras as standard on the Japanese spec RHD imports.
