dazzerbone Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 just wondering, say bonsai for example, on there site you can see the auction starting price. when they eventually win the auction for say £13000 how much do they add on to ship the car over, do all the paperwork, sva test etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lomoto Posted January 6, 2008 Share Posted January 6, 2008 I think you'll find that is TOP SECRET but as a guess about £2-3K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Lover Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 I've dealth with Bonsai quite a lot. generally speaking, about 65 percent of the final bid price is for the car itself and japanese auction/agent fees. The other 35 percent covers bonsai fee, shipping, import duty, VAT, SVA test, MoT and DVLA registration. I now buy direct from japan as its cheaper and saves loads of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glastoveteran Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 I'm in the process of importing with Bonsaicars at the moment having won an auction. It's all still at the early stages and the car is still in Japan but I've made the main chunk of the payment. This is a pretty useful guide which outlines the costs: http://www.epoi.com/faq.html Add on to that the Bonsaicars fee of £695 + VAT and that's pretty much everything covered. Wise folk on here may be able to give you much better advise though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Lover Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 Is this the 1st time you've imported using Bonsai? If so, you'll need the patience of a saint. I have imported 3 cars with them in the past and the shortest time I had to wait was 4 months. They are good people but just very busy (because they're so popular I guess!). Anyway, good luck with the import. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glastoveteran Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Thanks JDM, I'll lower my expectations in that case! Have you found their prices to be accurate or have they mysteriously crept up? I have done all my sums and it looks like the final on the road price is about £2k higher than my bid price and I'm still waiting for them to comment on it. Am I right in thinking that import duty is calculated as 10% of the purchase price PLUS shipping, and then VAT is 17.5% of the purchase price, shipping and the import duty? If so then I'm going to be paying a lot more than planned... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixy Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 I'm surprised that you don't have a fixed price you are paying to be honest. When I had my car imported we started at the final price I was preparted to pay and worked backwards from that - therefore the importer new exactly how much he had to bid with at auction after deducting all the costs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Lover Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Thanks JDM, I'll lower my expectations in that case! Have you found their prices to be accurate or have they mysteriously crept up? I have done all my sums and it looks like the final on the road price is about £2k higher than my bid price and I'm still waiting for them to comment on it. Am I right in thinking that import duty is calculated as 10% of the purchase price PLUS shipping, and then VAT is 17.5% of the purchase price, shipping and the import duty? If so then I'm going to be paying a lot more than planned... Thats correct - the tax bit is a real pain in the wallet. The overall final bid price should be accurate as the Yen does not fluctuate so much in the space of 24 hours. Currently though, importing from Japan is costing a lot more as we're suffering from the weak pound - its 216 Yen to the pound today, and when I last imported it was 231. That in itself can make a big difference to the total cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glastoveteran Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 I'm surprised that you don't have a fixed price you are paying to be honest. When I had my car imported we started at the final price I was preparted to pay and worked backwards from that - therefore the importer new exactly how much he had to bid with at auction after deducting all the costs. That's exactly the way it's supposed to work with Bonsai but for some reason my own calculations are coming out higher and I'm waiting for their response as to why. I'm just hoping I've got something wrong, and if I haven't I'm not really sure where I stand as the price won't be quite as good as it was. The overall final bid price should be accurate as the Yen does not fluctuate so much in the space of 24 hours. Currently though, importing from Japan is costing a lot more as we're suffering from the weak pound - its 216 Yen to the pound today, and when I last imported it was 231. That in itself can make a big difference to the total cost. I actually did get stung by that as well. The exchange rate dropped sharply overnight between me checking it and making the transfer, and as a result I've just got to accept the additional £600 for nothing. Shame - the yen was around the 250 mark in July! I really hope this doesn't turn into a horror story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Lover Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 I actually did get stung by that as well. The exchange rate dropped sharply overnight between me checking it and making the transfer, and as a result I've just got to accept the additional £600 for nothing. Shame - the yen was around the 250 mark in July! I really hope this doesn't turn into a horror story. Bonsai are long established so don't worry too much. From my experience, if you agree a maximum all-in bid price and your bid is successful then you will not pay a penny more apart from the extra due to currency fluctuations. Just out of interest, which Z did you get in the end? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glastoveteran Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Roadster ver-T, June 2007 (new model), 3000 miles, Grade 5, Night blue, white / grey leather (can't remember the official name), 18" standard wheels , tiptronic. Similar to this: http://www.nissanusedcars.co.uk/control ... tID=531019 To an importing expert such as yourself (), what price do you think is reasonable, both in terms of the total cost to import it and then how much it might be worth once it's in the UK? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Lover Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Its difficult to guess without knowing the yen price of the car i.e. your initial down payment. But anyway, just suppose you paid 3.1 million yen, then at an exchange rate of 220 my guess is the car will cost about 20,000 all in. Does that sound anywhere near your max agreed bid? If so, it'll be a very good deal compared to UK equivalent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glastoveteran Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Well that makes me feel better, and I should just stop worrying I think. Max agreed bid was £18,600 but having been stung by the change in exchange rate that will be over £19k now. Yen price was 2,995,000 and at the slightly worse rate of 217 to the pound so still a bit concerned that the total is going to be a fair bit above the agreed maximum, but I'll trust Bonsai for now. Cheers dude, I'll get some pics up when she arrives p.s. that equivalent UK car for which the link didn't work was £29,850. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Lover Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 imo thats a great price for a 2007 roadster - even with a less favourable exchange rate. The most frustrating bit will be the waiting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbryder Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 I posted my full cost with Bonsai about halfway down this thread: http://www.350z-uk.com/forum/viewtopic ... sc&start=0 /D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P444UL Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 I'm researching the imort route at the mo Currency trends can be found here http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=GBP&to=JPY See below 5 and 1 year trends with a 3 month trends The single year trend is not in our favour as were getting less JPY for our GBP A good site for currency and banking news: http://www.currencynews.co.uk/forex/jpy/ Want to get more in depth? Google "Forex news" for currency news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H5 Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 Predicting currency movements!? Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glastoveteran Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 I posted my full cost with Bonsai about halfway down this thread: http://www.350z-uk.com/forum/viewtopic ... sc&start=0 /D Thanks that's useful to see, and also good to see that Bonsai haven't put any of their prices up in 18 months. Which of those costs includes the shipping - is it to ITS MARITIME UK along with the duty and VAT? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Lover Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 Yes, you pay one lump sum to ITS Maritime. This covers Shipping, Shipping Insurance, Import Duty, VAT and a dubious 'car clearance fee and payment processing charge'. Once you've got over that hurdle its on to the SVA... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P444UL Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 Predicting currency movements!? Good luck! It was part of my research. Just sharing it.. I'd be trading currency if I could do that Its impossible to predict whats happening in the short term but in general over the past year the trend is downwards. Somthing to bear in mind. The short term changes are more to do with luck than judgment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chalupa Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 sorry to bump into your thread. would it be cheaper or faster to just import directly from a Japanese company themself, such as www.japanautodirect.com? A few of my mates in Canada use them all the time. How long does it shipping from Japan to SouthHampton take anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinmac Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 Hi bud and welcome to the forum, stick a post up in the intro section so we can a proper hello.. Think the standard import time if buying from an importer is about three months. A few guys on here have done the whole transaction themselves though and as far as I know, JDM Lover is one of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glastoveteran Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 How long does it shipping from Japan to SouthHampton take anyway? Shipping itself is about five weeks give or take a day, and possibly also depends on which port in Japan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 Can you not use people like MoneyCorp to fix the rates, that way you know what price you will be paying in yen. Used them when buying french house as the rate they get is usually better than using a high street bank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glastoveteran Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 Can you not use people like MoneyCorp to fix the rates, that way you know what price you will be paying in yen. Good advice. I'm kicking myself for not having researched this properly before I made my payment. I just had to watch the rates spiral downwards whilst waiting for my funds to transfer from one account to another before I could make the payment. Even fluctuations on the day meant that the price I calculated at the time of making payment had increased by £300 by the time it was actually processed a few hours later. Total amount ended up being £800 more than it would have been on the day before, but I guess you win some and lose some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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