Tradecarreview

[terreneuve]

Anyone have good or bad reviews on this service.

Mark is on holiday I would normally go through him!

[jdmvip]

It's not really a service but more like a market place with many Exporters. We have a few threads on here that talk more about it but generally there are good and bad experiences to be had, it depends on the Exporter in the end.

[terreneuve]

I probably should broaden my question.

Tradecarreview hold your funds until the car is shipped apparently. Wondering if process works. Tried search function but not many hits.

I was curious if anyone had experience with this.

Bought a lot of cars in Japan over past 6 years and had bought 10 cars through Sastrad by that point. Last 2 bad others were great. Still screwed me big time on last car .

Before him the old autosquare which were awesome!

Thanks for your reply!

[jdmvip]

I haven't heard feedback about that but if they do what they say I imagine the service works though TCV has had a bad rep from the start. From what I recall reading they basically say once there is proof of shipment they release the funds (and they admit whether or not the vehicle is good/bad misrepresented is not their issue or intention of the service). It is a good idea to do, but there are ways to scam the system if Tradecarview does not take steps to verify the BOL is real or for the car claimed (or in other words if a fraudulent/fake/forged BOL is used as proof which is also an issue I have seen in general even outside the Japan car world).

Autosquare had a good rep, they did come back but it is not clear how the service has changed or even if they are the same people/company based on some old threads here.

Sorry I know the above may not help a lot, but I think with recent events we're all a bit nervous. I have been let down by people who seemed great over the years and with good reviews (although sometimes if you PM people who review they tell you the real story but would always deny it in public).
Another thread I suppose but I've always asked our members to be honest on the forums with the reviews and report any problems (eg. I think we would have known Sastrad is going down awhile ago if people had posted sooner even for what they thought was minor).

[jono395]

I hear , tradecarview.. and goo net are only good search engines... and better if you view the car personally. ? you can only buy from goo net, if on the Japanese browser, to get the garage details

[jdmvip]

Definitely on those sites buyer beware just like eBay there are many horror stories I've personally seen and that you can read on the forums here. They are not all bad but it is often hard to find good and honest info about a certain dealer/company.

If you'd like to buy without being in person I'd only use the auctions and trusted company.

[Snowbreeze]

I've bought 2 cars through Trade Car View and definitely don't recommend it. It's all Japanese dealers that buy the cars from auction and try to make a big profit. Sometimes you can get good deals, but for the most part you're paying the same or more than you would through an Importer/Exporter but it's shadier.

Japanese car dealers aren't exactly known for being honest from what i've heard. There is no unbiased mechanic that does an inspection and they don't generally provide auction sheets so the only info you're getting is what they choose to disclose. I bought a 98 sti (cost me around 8.5k all in) and the clutch was completely toast when it got here. It slipped at 3k rpm. The other car i bought was a 95 wrx ra and they chose not to disclose body damage and the car had a bad throwout bearing. I emailed the seller and the site but never even got a reply. I should mention i bought the cars from different sellers.