The Introduction Thread

[Ghastly]

Name: Ghastly, Mario when offline or IRL
Location: Texas, USA
Current Vehicle: 1995 EJ18 Impreza L sedan currently going through the process of becoming a project and swapping powertrain from a JDM 95 impreza to make it a fun daily since the trans is on its way out. It made it to 225k miles lived a good life i suppose. 18 Subaru Wrx Sti Limited that i drive when i want to
Job: Work as a parts specialist at a Honda dealership..yes i know wish it were a Subaru one for the employee discounts
Other info: Cars, videogames, my dogs and my lady are usually what keep me entertained, its nice to be here and look forward to getting to make online friends as i go!

[shibuya_racing_club]

[QUOTE=dah_hunter;142]Please Post Info about yourself so we can get to know each other.

Name: shibuya_racing_club
Age: 21
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Job: Small scale operation but exporting JDM cars to the US and Australia at the moment. Once an order comes in we source from local auctions, dealers, and private owners and ship overseas. We handle everything so the price is quite affordable. Service is quick and personalized as well. Message me if any of you guys are interested.

[Ozrein]

Name: Ozrein (Jeff)
Location: BC, Canada
Current Vehicle: ‘91 GMC Syclone, ‘12 GMC Canyon, ‘07 Toyota 4Runner V8 (wife’s)
Job: Structural Design/Drafting
Other info: I’m starting the research to buy a Toyota Crown Estate, preferably one with 4WD/AWD. Glad to have found this forum and will be reading a lot. I may be lurking mostly and not post much though.
Anyone with experience with a JZS173W is welcome to PM me, I’d be happy to hear about other people’s experience with them. Looking for a reliable large-ish wagon with RHD and I would prefer AWD for winter use, I’m hoping the Estate will suit my needs.

[steveo1115]

Welcome, where in BC are you from?

[Ozrein]

I'm in the lower mainland.

[ALPORTE]

Name: Alporte
Age: 40-1
Location: Vancouver Bc
Current Vehicle: 2003 Toyota Alphard
Job: Transportation Controller
Other info:

[jdmvip]

Ozrein welcome first of all the Crown Estate should be a reliable and useful car. Let me know how the search goes and if you need a hand.

Alporte how do you like Alphard? I have been considering one, which model do you have?

[Ozrein]

Ozrein welcome first of all the Crown Estate should be a reliable and useful car. Let me know how the search goes and if you need a hand.

Alporte how do you like Alphard? I have been considering one, which model do you have?

Thanks for that. I'm actually going to look at a 2wd Estate this weekend just to see one in person and check it out. Plus my wife wants to see it before we start looking seriously for a 4wd version.

[jdmvip]

I hope it goes well. Yes the wife's approval is usually fairly important!
Personally I would prefer the 4WD version and if that doesn't work out have considered a Nissan Stagea or Subaru Legacy? Both excellent AWD too but definitely the Crown Estate's a very upmarket in this category and look very sharp.

[Ozrein]

I hope it goes well. Yes the wife's approval is usually fairly important!
Personally I would prefer the 4WD version and if that doesn't work out have considered a Nissan Stagea or Subaru Legacy? Both excellent AWD too but definitely the Crown Estate's a very upmarket in this category and look very sharp.

Hi, yes, wife's opinion is quite important. A happy wife is a happy life, right?

So the good news is that she loved the car. We took it for a short drive and it felt great, it reminded us both of driving our Holden Commodore wagon when we were in Australia. I'm just going to have get used to the turn signal stock being on the opposite side again, lol.

I've looked at some of the other options out there and the Crown Estate seems to offer the best all around for interior space, overall size of vehicle and, most importantly, reliability. We have been Toyota fans for a while (even though I'm more of GMC guy, having owned a Syclone for about 17 years), but Toyota (and specifically the 1JZ) are well known for their reliability. So I think we'll be moving forward with sourcing a 4wd Crown Estate.

There's a local company in the lower mainland that offers JDM imports and they seem to be willing to work with us to find and import a Crown. From my research and their (rough) estimate for pricing, they may end up being a bit more expensive than doing this by myself, but they would provide all of the work required to register the car plus they offer a 1 year warranty on their cars.

They seem to be good, although if anyone has recent experience with Velocity Cars in Burnaby, BC, I would be happy to hear any good or bad experiences folks may have had. I'll be speaking with them more later this week. I read a few threads about them on the forums here but they all seemed to be a few years old.