JDM CAR Auctions - Be Careful

[AZCrewdog]

I am curious why you did not search this forum prior to buying a car. The vendors and enthusiasts here want nothing more than help others avoid the situation that you ended up in. I am just an individual who has imported three cars in the past. I had purchased another car, but it was a similar situation as yours and I had the importer send it back to auction to be resold taking a loss. The crux of the matter is that one needs a reliable exporter who is honest and ethical. There are so many moving parts to this whole process and if the exporter messes up or does a poor job it can make for a bad day for the individual buying a car.

Also, almost all forums require links for users to post photos. I did a cursory google search and you will need to use a free picture hosting site like the Postimages to create a direct link to then post within your reply via the options on top. These are the steps you need to take to upload a photo: Get the direct link url>Click "insert image" in the reply box>Select URL tab>Paste Link>Click upload.

As it stands did you end up getting this car? Was it sent back to auction? I hope that in the end it all works out for you.

EDIT: I tried my own steps and managed to upload an old photo showing my LS400 and Celsior parked next to each other.

You guys were not on my Radar. I used Minitrucktalk for what little information they had on importing a car. In hindsight, I was uninformed and should have spent more time researching the JDM Auctions. No I did not send the car back. I did consider cutting my losses and "Parting it out" to the highest bidder. I am way over my head with corrosion mitigation and will never recoup my losses. "In for a penny in for a pound". I've been pretty vocal about it on other forums in the hopes I can create enough awareness that maybe Auction Sales will decrease and they will clean up their act

[jdmvip]

Either way I think it's always a great reminder for people to see other members' experiences because things haven't magically gotten better over the years IMHO and you have to be very careful about how you buy at auction.

I hope you can still try to post the auction sheet and tell us what your Exporter told you about the condition and translation.

[AZCrewdog]

Please give me step by step instructions how to post my Auction sheet. I've done "Quick Upload" then selected the photo and click upload and the photo goes somewhere but I can't find it.

[AZCrewdog]

Ok, my uploaded images are in "Hosted Images". So how in the heck do I attach it to a post??????

[JDMAZ]

You guys were not on my Radar. I used Minitrucktalk for what little information they had on importing a car. In hindsight, I was uninformed and should have spent more time researching the JDM Auctions. No I did not send the car back. I did consider cutting my losses and "Parting it out" to the highest bidder. I am way over my head with corrosion mitigation and will never recoup my losses. "In for a penny in for a pound". I've been pretty vocal about it on other forums in the hopes I can create enough awareness that maybe Auction Sales will decrease and they will clean up their act

Did you end up getting the car delivered in the end?

EDIT: You can always keep it as a parts vehicle and then get a better car to import since you will find it hard to get parts for that specific vehicle.

[AZCrewdog]

Will someone p-l-e-a-s-e tell me how to get my uploaded pictures from this sites "hosted" photos which i uploaded and can't figure out how to get them in. A damn post!!!!!

[jdmvip]

Posting it for you as you did upload successfully, I will embed it here for OP:

1126066e22c64da6a5.jpg

[jdmvip]

So it is a grade 4 but the auction sheet clearly indicates rust in two areas as S3 which is one of the most severe types of rust. I don't believe the auction house is at fault here at all, the pictured rust is exactly what I'd expect to see.

The real question is, did your Exporter translate or advise on the vehicle and what did they tell you? I'm assuming they didn't tell you anything since you are surprised at the rust.