Japan auction vehicles

[Derek]

Selling prices
October 6th, 2009

Chev Corvette (no. 70687) - 250000 yen
180sx (no. 10084) - 267000 yen
SL500 (no. 70650) - 340000 yen
AMG S600 (no. 70608) - Did not sell. Bid went up to 300000 yen.

[Soren]

Derek - Cool - you're putting some numbers in here! I love it. This will help the uneducated (me) further see what car prices are like for things that possibly we'd never consider. Just for future posts/reference:
Yahoo Currency Converter puts the value of the Chev corvette at 2994.47 today. I'm not sure about what the best converter is, or the most reliable, but this one is easy, and should ballpark well.

What other fees are involved in getting it to Canada?
Broker fee
Auction House Fee
Taxes
Shipping
Insurance
Duty and Taxes
If you could give an idea to us (or perhaps it's just myself that doesn't have these figures at the fingertips) that would help all of us interpret the numbers better as this thread progresses.

[Derek]

You're right. Most people don't have those figures. I might post them in the original post or I might make a new post for them. I think everyone should know.

Keep in mind that different exporters charge different amounts so what I charge may be different from what the next company charges.

I'm all out of time for now though so I'll get to it later. I still have to update my Ebisu thread when the time comes.

[Mark]

Thanks for your expertise Mark.

hhhhmmm.....thank you but I am no expert..... no agent is and even I get some things wrong from time to time. The agent that claims they are the best are normally the worst.

About colour changed cars... What does everyone else think? Being from Canada I rarely find people who truly care if a car has had a re-spray. If the paint is in good shape most people won't care. The only ones who would are people who are looking for a "valuable" or "classic" car which this isn't.

This is just my thinking and how I have always worked and tends to keep me mostly out of trouble.

Dealers - 50% do not care as the vehicle to them is object to make profit off. The other 50% of dealers want a product better than the dealer down the road so they will care.

Private People - there are four types of private buyers.

a) the ones who just want either a cheap vehicle or they are just happy to own a vehicle that has always been out of their financial reach.........I have a Supra RZ..... ok.... the paint or vehicle might be a bit tatty but it is a Supra and I own one.

b) the ones who can not tell a good car from a bad one.

c) the ones who do care and there are a good few of them around........ valuable, classic or just what might seem to you and I as a run of the mill vehicle from a Mini to a Supra...... they are all valuable to someone.

d) the ones who expect the world and in some cases no matter what you do you will never please them.

So....sitting in a office in Japan with a customer on the other side of the world........ you cannot tell wether they are "A, B, C or D" so it is best not to assume they do not care as you will come across the customers who do and it is always best to think of every customer as customer "C".

This is not just for Canada...... it applies to every customer around the world as you have "A - D" type customers in every country.

W is not repaired dent...... well.... yes and no.

W means the vehicle has had paintwork i.e....... normally the panel/s has been painted and this can be from repaired dent, scratch or faded paint. Depending on how good the paint work is will depend on wether it is W1 to W3 with W3 being worse.
If the paint work has a lot of dust in it and looks like an orange skin it will get marked down as "W3". W1 is not perfect and will have tell tale signs but most average people will not notice it. At the end of the day..... the inspector has noticed something which is why he marks down W1 - W3.

Most 15yr vehicles have had paint work of some degree during its life so I am not anti paint work........ well..... I should not be as I own a paint shop here.

But the most common problem is shade difference. The Japanese are famous for painting a door and a guard in the colour taken from the paint code without considering that after a few years of washing, sunlight etc.... the colour of the vehicle has slightly changed. They do not blend onto the next panel and the result is when you look at the side of the vehicle in certain lights the front guard and door are one shade and the rear guard is another. Vehicles like this, I will not shy away from and I will buy them and then repaint the front guard, door and blend onto the rear guard.
We use a special body scanner that measures the paint coloring on the vehicle instead of mixing the paint from the paint code. It costs more this way but the final result is that there are no different shaded panels.
Some people are not worried wether their car has a few different shaded panels but in my eyes....... if you are going to do the job then do it right. This also includes removing fixtures like door handles, body trim and window trims and in some cases even the glass work. This way, you do not have any masking lines which in time tend to peel.

Vehicles that are wet always look nice in the paint work and it is very difficult to see wether the paint is good or the panels are all the same shade. So, when ever you see a Grade: 3.5 or 4.0 at auction and it has some "W's", look to see if the auction photos where taken when the vehicle was wet as and you can then add another "1" to the "W".

Vehicles like..... Celica, R33's...... if they have "W1-3" on the rear guards you are guaranteed the vehicle will have a blend line half way up the "C" pillar as there is no break in the panel to mask to.

Colour changed vehicles........ personally I do not like..... nothing worse than a white MR2 for example that is red in the engine bay and in the front.

However, we do on average two colour change vehicles here a month for local customers and it brings tears to my eyes when they turn up with a vehicle that still has the factory unmarked paint and they want us to change the colour to what ever is in fashion. But at the end of the day....if they want to pay me a lot of money to do it...... then we will do it.

Currently.......flavor of the month is "Matt" black and the last one we did was Audi RS6 Bi-Turbo in this colour with a slight pearl. Super expensive car with perfect metallic black paint work and chrome fittings. The customers request was.... body to be Matt Black with see through clear coat (stops finger prints on the matt black without the gloss look ) and all chrome work including the exhaust tips to be black.

Last month was a late model Hummer changed from white to gold with a chrome kit added ......... I must admit.... it did look good when finished. The Hummer is owned by a tune shop and it will be in next years Auto Saloon.

Any way.... some photos....

Cheers

MB..

Hummer finished..... I have some real good photos but cannot post them until mid Jan after the Auto Saloon.


RS6 striped down with original paint.




RS6 sanded back and being masked up.
Bobby-san.... Japanese but trained in NZ in paint & panel for 11yrs, been with us for six years. NZ produces the best painters I think.


The primer on the roof - the customer asked us to remove the factory roof rails.


Finished product which included us tinting the front and rear lights.





One happy customer..... and 700,000yen lighter in wallet.

[Derek]

I'm glad you weighed in.

I misunderstood what your point was on the painting. I assumed that you meant that you won't show colour changed vehicles to customers. My point was that if you don't do that you may be disqualifying vehicles that the customer would consider.

I didn't understand. Of course, you would want to know if the customer would consider them before suggesting a vehicle to them. If you don't know your customer, you are just guessing what they want.

On this thread I will be showing accident repaired vehicles and other vehicles that I would not consider myself just cause some people like that or would like to see some of the vehicles they would never ask their exporter to see.

Also, that is great stuff on your body shop. I'm glad that the shop is getting good business. I would love to be in the position to own a body shop. Hopefully some day.

RS6.... Wow. Not really into the matte black but it is definitely attention grabbing. Great work, it looks well done.

[Soren]

Mark - I forgot to post regarding the last one you made with all the pictures!

regarding the paint - I didn't know you did this as well - that's really amazing! As you were describing the flat black, I sort of thought.. ugh.. no way, but wow - it actually looks really good. I guess I'm reacting based on all the flat black 240's that I've been seeing (or civic/'tegras) and they look horrible. The only thing is the grille - I don't like it dark like that - just me, but I'm not the one paying your bills! Thanks for showing that all off!

[Derek]

Prices
October 8th, 2009

GTR (65001) - Only bid to 50000 yen so it didn't meet the reserve.
Cappuccino (20) - 345000 yen
Land Cruiser (25287) - 990000 yen
MR2 (25787) - 400000 yen

[Derek]

October 14th, 2009
USS Yokohama

Mitsubishi RVR
Neat car but this one is rusty
4G63 Turbo 230hp 4WD





Toyota Starlet GT Turbo
850kg 130hp 1.3 liter turbo

[Soren]

I'd say that the last two are definitely different, I can't see myself driving either. I remember the starlet as one of the cars I couldn't wait to get rid of in the Gran Turismo Video game series! Dang starter cars!

[Derek]

In Gran Turismo I used to only drive the underpowered crappy cars and try o win with them.

I played through GT4 once without buying any cars. Just going with the ones I won. That was fun. Yes I am a nerd.