BIG AMBITIONS
HOW TO IMPORT YOUR DREAM CAR!
If you’ve been reading my previous articles, you’ll know I recently imported a rusted and bashed-up S14 Silvia to New Zealand. Bringing it up to compliance standards was going to drain the wallet heavily, so what did I do instead? I imported another S14 Silvia. The … exact … same … one — nearly. Ever wanted your dream car, but couldn’t find it on Trade Me? Another option is importing it from Japan, yourself. In this article, I’ll reveal how easy it is to import your dream car, bringing it right to your home. Plus, I’ll spill the beans on how much it costs to import it all by yourself.
Over my four-year period in Japan, I fell in love with the S-chassis — specifically, the S14. I couldn’t see myself driving another chassis anytime soon, so I put the word out to a couple of my contacts in Japan that I was looking for another S14 Silvia in white. That’s the first step: finding a contact. Once you’ve found a reputable contact or exporter, you’ll need to tell them exactly what you’re looking for. It’ll be their job to scour Japan and find your dream car. For this task, I chose Jordan Tweedie from Tweed-autogarage. After a few months of him sending me links to cars that matched my criteria, we finally hit the jackpot and found the perfect one.
For reference, the exchange rate in May 2022 was about NZ$1 to ¥126. Jordan’s fees are clear-cut and fair. Before inspecting any car, Jordan sent a Paypal request for $1265 as a deposit. We started off with a $245 inspection fee, plus petrol and tolls. This set me back a total of $525 as it was a fair way out of town. Jordan took a bunch of photos and videos, test drove the car, checked the compression on the engine, and even video-called me afterwards to let me know the condition of the vehicle. Spending $500 to know you’re not buying a lemon is worth every penny. With complete certainty, I can tell you this was no lemon. I’ve never seen an S14 with non-bent jacking points — amazing! If I didn’t end up buying the car, my deposit would be refunded minus Jordan’s inspection fee plus petrol and toll costs.
Basically, it was a 1998 Nissan Silvia S14 with an SR20DE engine and five-speed manual; low kilometres and no rust. I spent an hour or two deciding, and then told Jordan to purchase the car for me. The actual car cost was $15,815 — not bad, right? I transferred $25,000 from my bank to Jordan’s bank in Japan, with the agreement that he would return any that wasn’t used.
Jordan’s company, Tweed Auto-garage, has a flat fee of $1265 for exporting your car. That’s a fair deal considering how much I pestered him with messages every day until my car arrived. Here’s where you can choose one of two routes, and where Jordan’s service really earns a gold star. Either he will transport your car to the port, where it will be picked up by the shipping company, or he will bring it back to his workshop, where the magic happens. I chose the latter.
THAT’S IT!
EASY, RIGHT? I USED TO THINK IMPORTING MY OWN CAR WAS IMPOSSIBLE, BUT NOW I DON’T — AND I HOPE YOU DON’T, EITHER
Just $665 later, my new S14 was sitting at Tweedautogarage, ready to undergo some work. I purchased some brand-new Work wheels, and a full Car Modify Wonder body kit. These two items are costly to import to New Zealand due to size and weight, so I took the opportunity to have them installed in Japan. Upon purchase, the S14 didn’t have desirable wheels or a nice front bumper so I biffed them. I decided to keep only the rear bumper and side skirts. I had Jordan purchase some other goodies but had him ship them in a box separately, along with all the small parts from the car that are easy to steal. Do not forget to do this, because they will be stolen. Gear knobs, gauges, dash cams, and so on, will not be there when you receive the car.
Jordan charges 10 per cent on top of the cost of the part plus an hourly rate to fit any parts. Since I had a car fail on rust once; I didn’t want that to happen again, so I asked Jordan to remove any surface rust before he sent the car to the port. All the work Tweed-autogarage did to my car set me back about $4750. That includes purchasing and fitting a new body kit, wheels, and tyres; buying a new gear knob, wheel nuts, indicators, and grille; removing all the small parts from the car; and sending everything over in a secure box. Obviously, you could save a few grand and miss this step if the car already has everything you want. I had a plan, though. I was going to transfer this new body kit and this set of wheels to my rusty drift S14, which was already sitting in NZ, and put the OEM aero on this one.
The next step was getting the S14 to the port in Japan — another trip on a car transporter, which cost a nice $600. This is where things can get tricky; some cars are too low to get on the boat, or even commercial car transporters. Jordan raised the front of my car up as much as it could go so it wouldn’t get damaged in transit. He then dropped it at the port and sent me photos of it sitting there, waiting for its first, and hopefully last, boat ride.
A couple of weeks went by and I finally got an email from Autohub saying my car would arrive soon. I filled out the information required by Autohub and paid the very hefty 15 per cent GST, which was $2490. Then there was the shipping and BAF surcharge of $2300. Another couple of days rolled by, and I finally got a call from the truck driver to say my new S14 would be delivered in a couple of hours. You have the option to get it delivered to a compliance centre, which most people would do. However, I had it delivered to my home as I needed to do some work on it before I took it to a compliance centre.
The last piece of the puzzle arrived a day after the car — a special blue export certificate that you must protect at all costs; this is the documentation you need to comply a car in New Zealand.
That’s it! Easy, right? I used to think importing my own car was impossible, but now I don’t — and I hope you don’t, either. When you have a great contact like Jordan, the process is as smooth as butter and you don’t buy a lemon; it’s happy days galore. If I had chosen option one and had Jordan take the car straight to the port, without buying any extra parts, the total car cost would have been about $23,000 landed in NZ. That’s a pretty good price in today’s market for an extremely clean S14 with low kilometres. Option two cost me about $26,000 in total. Remember, this includes the cost of a brand-new, genuine Car Modify Wonder body kit and a set of Work wheels plus other little bits and bobs. While it may not be absolutely the cheapest way to import a car, it is the best way to make sure you import your dream car. There’s no way I’d be able to buy anything like this on Trade Me for $26,000 — enjoy!
I FINALLY GOT A CALL FROM THE TRUCK DRIVER TO SAY MY NEW S14 WOULD BE DELIVERED IN A COUPLE OF HOURS