Finding a reliable exporter

[Carnut]

Hello all,

I am considering to buy a Toyota Hilux Surf or Land Cruiser Prado (model years 1996-2000 in both cases) for private use, to be imported into The Netherlands.

Currently I am in the process of finding a reliable exporter. The past few months I've been browsing many forums and websites, and it has become clear that this is a bit of a mine field. Plenty of horrorstories to be found. Some help & advice from experienced importers would be greatly appreciated :-) .

So far I contacted the companies listed below, which seem to get good reviews. I corresponded by e-mail only, and asked quite a few questions.

1) Torque GT - Very swift to respond, very friendly, they really make an effort to provide comprehensive answers;
2) AutoAccess Japan (Stuart Mckean) - Same as above, but I didn't find many reviews from unbiased sources;
3) Brave Auto (Mark Bremner) - I sent an e-mail twice, but did not receive any reply;
4) TS Export (John Hawes) - No reply received from John either.

Apparently 3) and 4) are too busy, or perhaps they prefer to serve business customers with repeat opportunities. I can understand that, but it would have been nice if they had shown the courtesy to let me know.

Has anyone been dealing with 1) or 2)? I'd very interested to hear about your experiences. Obviously, information on other recommended exporters is very welcome as well.

Thanks in advance !


Regards,
Frans

[rhdgc8]

Brave Auto is one of our reputable sponsors. He resides in Japan, so maybe it is the time difference as to why you haven't had a response back. Did you email directly or via PM on this forum?

I haven't dealt with either 1 or 2 that you listed. There may be some other members that have.

[Mark]

We received a lot of new messages from new customers during Dec and before you know it Xmas was upon us and could not reply back to all of them unfortunately. Plus the normal spam attack so some messages may of been deleted if not from a known customer of mine.

[Carnut]

Brave Auto is one of our reputable sponsors. He resides in Japan, so maybe it is the time difference as to why you haven't had a response back. Did you email directly or via PM on this forum?

I haven't dealt with either 1 or 2 that you listed. There may be some other members that have.

I e-mailed Mark directly, and sent him another message yesterday. I’ll try a pm as well.

[Mark]

I e-mailed Mark directly, and sent him another message yesterday. I’ll try a pm as well.

Have now found your email and replied.

I see you are using "hotmail" and may I suggest that you consider changing to "gmail" becuase "hotmail" emails tend to get blocked or marked as spam by a lot of servers these days due to it being the most used address for spammers.

[Carnut]

I received and replied to your message, thanks Mark.

[rishu_pepper]

Piggybacking on this thread.

Hi Mark I've been trying to reach you on email. Not sure if it got sent to your spam (I use gmail). I'll PM you as well. Looking to start an import process. Thanks!