RX7 in Montreal: Feedback Please!

[Pastuch]

http://www.japangeneralmotor.com/carInfo.php?link=135

Guys there is a JDM dealer in Montreal that is selling a car for almost zero profit because of the ban on RHD in Quebec.

Please check out the photos above and tell me what you think.

Also any feedback on Japan General Motors would also be appreciated.

Specifications
Brand: Mazda
Model: RX7 Twin Turbo
Year: 1994
Mileage: 59 000 km
Price: $ 7995
Transmission: 5 speed manual
Doors: 2
Exterior Color: white
Interior Color: black
Status: Available

What do you think? If I can get the car for $7000 I think it's a no brainer. I mean even if it has a few issues $7000 is not a lot of money for a 59k RX7 FD.

[Pastuch]

JDM Montreal also has this car which is extremely tempting:

http://jdmontario.com/1994-jdm-toyot...620-p-158.html

This supra is in beutiful condition, it's a standard but it's not the Twin Turbo.

[pkpanis]

Looks great but you should find out if it was ever winter driven because in Quebec, roads are covered with salt which essentially gives rust to any car. I heard this from another thread and also from a mechanic.

[jdmott]

It look ok, but make sure you ask them for a millage KM certificate, because a lot of them are not that honest. We provide our customers with a sealed certificate from JAPAN regarding the mileage and history of the car. To prevent scams and dishonesty.

JDM Ottawa

[dah_hunter]

That RX7 has been rolled back or guage cluster Swap.. thats my opinion..

get the auction sheet for it..

[Mark]

That RX7 has been rolled back or guage cluster Swap.. thats my opinion..

get the auction sheet for it..

Better still...... get a copy of the Japanese D-Reg / Export Cert (not the English translation)...... this will have km's on it.

If you are not sure what I am refering to...... I posted this recently on the Delica forum......... you might find it useful.

__________________________________________________ ____________

Below is just my view on this and is just from my experience and just my opinion, some will agree with me and some will not.

Purchased from Auction – the auctions are the safest method of buying a vehicle in Japan in my experience. The auction network has access to government records such as mileages recorded from Shakens etc and this goes back into the nineties. If you own a 1995 vehicle with 100,000km’s on the clock today and in two or three months time it turns up at auction with 50,000km’s the auction will pick this up via the chassis number of the vehicle. The km’s on the auction sheet will be marked down as not genuine and depending on the auction house, there will be either an * or ? next to the mileage.

If a vehicle has the speedo replaced with an aftermarket speedo and it can be proven to the auction house what the original km’s were before the aftermarket speedo was fitted, the mileage will still be displayed as not genuine but the auction will record on the auction sheet something along the lines of “speedo replaced at 30,000km’s March 2000, currently displays 20,000km’s, total distance is 50,000km’s.
Depending on the auction will depend on how it is written up.

Purchased from Yahoo, Trade Car View, Goo etc – this is the most risky method to buy in regards to mileages unless the seller can provide all service or shaken records. Although with these documents there is still risk.
Even myself, have purchased vehicles from outside the auction network with current shaken and previous shaken. I have then sold the vehicle at auction to find the auction has picked up that the km’s displayed is not correct.
In short, I will not buy vehicles outside of the auction network unless the customer is fully aware that I do not take any responsibility if the mileage is proven incorrect sometime down the track.

New Zealand, one of the pioneering countries for importing vehicles from Japan. At one stage, there were 20,000 vehicles arriving per month from Japan. Back in the early nineties, there were major problems with clocked vehicles being imported. This was not so much the agent (some were to blame) in Japan but more the importer requesting it or even arranging it themselves before the vehicle was shipped.
Things are different now and have been for a while.
New Zealand customs now and have been for a while doing random mileage checks on vehicles that are being imported. If a dealer imports 30 vehicles on one shipment from one agent and NZ customs can prove the mileage to be incorrect on one of the vehicles, NZ customs will automatically impound all 30 vehicles and rule them all as being incorrect. The vehicles are then sold by the government as parts (can never be licensed).
A few years back, this was a major problem and a risk for any NZ importers and to solve this problem the auction system introduced mileage checking to help protect exporters as well as importers in NZ.
Today, you will be hard pressed to find a dealer in NZ who will buy their vehicles outside the auction network. Some will take the risk and still do but not that common.

Auction Sheet – if you think requesting the auction sheet is going to prove either the mileage or condition then you are very wrong. Blank auction sheets for all the auctions are available and simple to get…… even I have them here.
Because I also sell at auction, I have blank auction sheets in the office. Blank auction sheets are easily obtainable from the auction as they are available over the counter and at some auctions they are just sitting there for you to take.
Sound strange……. not really but might do to the outsider.
As a seller, I am allowed to fill in certain parts of the auction sheet such as make/model, spec and any selling feature like “remote starter” for example. The auction sheet will then be placed in the vehicle and sent to the auction and the auction will then do their checks (mileage) and the inspector will then inspect the vehicle and will fill in the rest of the auction sheet. The inspector will only fill in the bare bones when it comes to spec like E/W, A/W, A/C, PAS. If the vehicle has expensive aftermarket suspension the inspector will only write down aftermarket suspension. It is up to the seller to write the type of suspension etc.
Now…. If I write on the sheet that the vehicle has “HKS Coilovers” as a selling feature and the vehicle only has standard suspension, the buyer can claim to the auction who in return claim to the seller.
Once I wrote down Merc 500SL and the vehicle was sold. The next day the auction contacted me to say that the vehicle is called SL500 and the buyer wanted to make a claim and if I remember correctly it cost me 50,000yen for having the model name written around the wrong way. I am sure the auction only gave the buyer 30,000yen refund and kept 20,000 for themselves.

Service Books – a lot of service books get lost over the years which is why you find a good percentage of vehicles do not have books. The Japanese also use service stickers that are placed in the door jams, glove box etc. Each time a vehicle is serviced, the servicing shop will either place the new sticker next to the old, on top of the old or remove the old and replace with the current one. Some owners do not like the service stickers on their vehicles and will remove them.
A percentage of vehicles will come with service books that only have a few stamps in them and the rest is blank. This does not mean the vehicle has only been serviced twice, it just means the service booklet has not been stamped every time.
Normally due to manufacture warranty, the service booklet has to be stamped which is another reason why in some cases some vehicles will come with a booklet but with only a few stamps in it……i.e.…. While the vehicle was under manufacture warranty.
If I purchase a vehicle with a booklet like this, the booklet goes in the bin which might seem strange but there is a very good reason. This stops the next person (normally the importer) from filling the rest of the book in to meet the mileage on the vehicle. It is not hard to get a Japanese worded stamp and away you go….. stamp, stamp etc.
Although it is my duty to protect a customer I also have to protect myself as well. Naturally, if an importer (not saying they would do this but I have been around for awhile) imported a vehicle, decided to change the mileage and then stamp the book to make it look more genuine and were got caught in their country doing this, naturally they are going to say “I brought it like that from Japan and it came with a full service history” and now the problem filters back to me.
Blank service/inspection sheets…….. you can buy these at a number of outlets here……. the same places the service shops get their stationery. They are even sold at the auctions for dealers with service shops to buy.

Some vehicles will come with full service records but it is not that common….. maybe three out of ten. If a vehicle does and I believe it to be correct then I will offer the vehicle out with the full records.

Buying a vehicle with or without shaken – domestic dealers want vehicles with current shaken where as importers(most) do not care as the vehicle is cheaper. It is not cheaper because the vehicle will not pass (some do and some do not), it is the shaken test that costs the big money where this test report is not needed for overseas so what is the use of paying extra for a vehicle with a current or new shaken. Most vehicles between shaken reports have not done huge amounts of km’s…… most have done less than 10,000km’s. The cost of a shaken is not determined by the km’s on the car but the age of the car.
On average……. 50-60% of vehicles I buy (1yr to 20yrs old) will have current shaken and the rest will be either due or just expired.
Any agent selling a car that offers a service where they will arrange a new shaken or are authorized to carry the inspection out, you need to really think a little harder….. what a coincidence that their vehicle they are selling comes with all the shaken reports and now a new one.
As an importer, you can decide to only purchase and import a vehicle with a current shaken, it is completely up to you. For run of the mill and newer vehicles where they are a dime a dozen to chose from this is fine. But, when it comes to 15yr vehicles, trying to find a good clean Spacegear is not easy at the best of times and if it must have a current shaken then you are really limiting what is available.

D - Reg / Export Cert – since late 2007, the Japanese version (not English translation) official D-Reg/Export Cert now records shaken inspection mileages but only from 2004 on. The shaken report is due every 2yrs so you will find some vehicles will display 2004 report and some will not start until 2005 reporting on the D-Reg / Export Cert. Once again, this has been put into place for NZ importers although it is a major benefit for any importer.
If the vehicle you import does not have mileage listed starting from 2004 or 2005 or even 2006, this means it has not had a shaken since then and these are the vehicles when it comes to 15yr old examples that you have to be careful of and that they are not just some old thing pulled out of a field and placed in the auction. Today, if the vehicle you import either comes with the old style D-Reg / Export Cert with no mileages recorded or the new style has no mileages recorded then you need to start asking why not.

Independent Mileage Inspection – there are companies here that do mileage inspections and charge between 15 – 30,000yen for the service. Until late 2007, this was their claim to fame as there was not guaranteed way to 100% confirm the mileage on a vehicle outside the auction purchased from a private person or dealer/agent. However, now with the mileages being recorded on the D-reg / Export Cert they are slowly losing their fame…… why pay them 15 – 30,000yen to confirm the exporter/importer has not tampered with the mileage when the mileage is now on the D-reg / Export Cert.

Vehicle condition – no two vehicles or two owners are the same. There are many different reasons why two identical vehicles can be different on condition in such as wear points like seats, steering, peddles etc etc. This does not automatically mean one has done more km’s than the other even though both vehicles display the same amount of km’s. I have seen vehicles that have done 100,000km’s but look like they have only done 50,000km’s and in return I have also seen 50,000km vehicles that look like they have done 100,000km’s.
Naturally, if you are looking at a Delica with 50km’s on the clock and very worn steering wheel you would start to ask questions. Although saying that, the seller might of replaced the steering wheel with some fancy wood one when he first brought the vehicle. He has then decided a year or two later to sell the vehicle but has kept his fancy steering wheel back. If he still has the original he will refit that but if he does not he/she will replace it with any old cheap thing. So, sometimes things like this happen and sometimes it does not. There are other ways to tell so in a case like this you look a little further.

Low Mileage Vehicles – here in Japan… you can buy super low, low, average and spaceship km vehicles. Just because a certain country does on average 20,000km’s a year does not mean every other country in the world does the same. For people who have been to Japan will understand why there are so many low km vehicles but for people who have not spent time here……. you will never understand why.
I live approximately 30km’s outside of Nagoya which is not far. Luckily for me, I do not have to travel to Nagoya for work but there are many people who do. To go from my house to Nagoya or near Nagoya in rush hour would take me……..hhhhhhmmmmm…. maybe two hours on a good day. If there is an accident then be prepared for a long drive. It would cost me fuel and then road tolls and the road toll alone on a return trip would be 3,800yen per day. Via train, it would take me half the time and a fraction of the price and I get to read a book at the same time.
There are also many other factors as well such as parking problems to name one of them.
Japan has one of the best public transport systems I have ever seen and it is well used.
But, you can also get high mileage vehicles but these tend to be vehicles that are company cars opposed to privately owned vehicles but you will still also get the private person who will only drive his/her car from point A all the way to point Z.

Highway Toll Readers – you will start noticing more and more JDM vehicles turing up overseas with automatic toll readers which is called “ETC”. ETC has been around for a few years now and originally it cost around 50,000yen+ for the system to be installed. Today, it can be installed for 15,000yen and it is even being installed on motor bikes.
Because a vehicle has ETC does not automatically mean it has been driven everyday or every second day on the highways for 20-100km’s. I can go from my house to 10km’s away and have the choice of using the highway/express way which is quicker or take the longer route (stop / start).
Now, the main reason why every Tom Dick and Harry are having ETC fitted is due to the cost as it is now far cheaper having the automatic system (ETC) than paying cash at the booths.

Anyway, so in short……are there vehicles in Japan with tampered mileages? The answer to this question is yes. Are there domestic (sold new in Canada) vehicles outside of Japan with tampered mileages? The answer to this is also yes. Are there agents or dealers in Japan tampering with the mileages? The answer is yes. Are there domestic dealers or private sellers outside of Japan tampering with the mileages? The answer is also yes.
This goes on in every country around the world however it is not a common practice and not every second, third or even fourth vehicle on the road is driving around with a tampered mileage…… far from it.
There have been some rotten eggs exporting vehicles to Australia plus a few other places (some of us know which company is the main rotten egg although they have cleaned up their act since the mileages are now on the D-Reg / Export Cert) but people should not judge every exporter or importer the same as there are some good honest exporters and importers in every country.

At the end of the day, it is the exporters responsibility to ensure or do their best to ensure that the vehicle they export is not one of these vehicles. But unfortunately, not all exporters look after their customers interests in this area and it is for you the importer to work out who is the good, the bad and the ugly.

Cheers

MB..

[dah_hunter]

Thanks Mark for that informative Post..

:-)

[jdmvip]

+1 BraveAutoJapanIntl and hunter.

These are the things I've been talking about for a long time and most Exporters have "skirted" the issue until this post when I've tried to get some real honest answers and thoughts from different Exporters on this.

The question is, how would someone like us Gaijin get a copy of the D-Reg and Export certificate?

I think that is one of the most honest and detailed posts I've seen. I'm glad you mentioned the "service booklet" issue because it's funny that so many people in Canada keep getting low mileage cars with service booklets when I've never seen these kinds of vehicles going through auction (except R grade cars).

[jdmott]

Brave Auto, I really appreciate your honesty, and I have to say a big number of JDM customers all around got scammed in slimier stories. Thats why we guarantee our services and honesty with all JDM enthusiasm and we prove it with official papers and receipts ..