Be very very careful buying a second hand jap import car mate, unless you have a lot of free coin or possess mechanical skills.
Japanese renew their cars at a faster rate than aussies because they have to pay huge inspection fees on vehicles more than 3 years old. This results in heaps of second hand cars that end up getting shipped off to places like oz. Many of these jap import cars have been sitting in a warehouse or yard for months and sometimes years, and as a result almost every seal in the car is susceptible to drying out and cracking.
Result, fluid leaks from the motor, power steering, coolant, dodgy turbo seals, air con seals...you name it.
Also as the owners know they are going to offload these vehicles within three years, and the price of maintaining a vehicle in japan is very expensive, most don't bother with servicing...many don't even change the oil for years
They can also be a bitch/expensive to source parts for
You might get lucky, and you sound like a young fella that has obviously made up his mind and will not deviate...but if you want my advice stick to something that has been Australian since new if you want to avoid heartache.
At the very least compression test anything before buying.
My second car was a soarer. I got it checked first, but it still broke down pretty much as soon as I got it out of the place. The alternator wires were ****ed and it drained the battery as quick as you could say, `Geelong premiers - 2010`. I was constantly having problems with the seals on the radiator, and the ball joints all needed replacing.
I had a friend who had a Celsior which is pretty much a four door Celsior, and he didn`t know much about cars at all. His ball joints were so ****ed that one of his front wheels came off as he was driving down the highway. This is fairly common with imports too. I was watching that NZ highway patrol show and some kid was smashed up on the side of the road as the wheel had just come off on his brand new import.
As Mancey said, it leaked like a siv from a million and one places and as soon as I fixed one leak, it started leaking from somewhere else. My driveway looked like the floor of a mechanic`s shop and pretty much everywhere I stopped it, it would leak something. Most of the Soarers and Celsiors that are in Australia are about 20 years old and have been sitting around warehouses for **** knows how long. Yakuza groups in Japan are also getting charged on a regular basis for importing cars to Australia as parts which saves them a shitload of money. They then slap the cars together in backyard garages and sell them as the real deal. It is no wonder that many, many things can end up going wrong.
I never had any money for two years as I was spending it all on this car. I imported some parts from Japan, but where I could get away with it, I would buy from the wreckers in QLDs who had a fair few half cuts. It was often hard to find a mechanic who were really good with imports and unless I arranged parts myself and made sure the mechanic knew this, they`d always try and import the parts from Japan which is expensive... I got the Soarer in the first place because I wanted an import but wanted to get somethign different to the standard Skylines that are ridiculously common now, but it just made it hard to find parts.
I spent heaps on it, but as I got it without compliance and did things on the cheap I ended up making my money back when I resold it. It was a great car when it was running properly though, don`t get me wrong. All I`m saying is, be prepared to spend a heap of money on it and if you don`t know what you`re doing, you`ll get taken for a ride. That said though, I know a few people (very few) who have bought imports and had no problems at all with them. By all means, take your chances, but be prepared for a bumpy ride, and I`d suggest knowing a fair bit about cars before you consider doing it.
) for a brand new Mazda 323 Astina in 2003, which was a fantastic car that never gave me a problem in the 2 years I had it. Sold it in 05 to move overseas and I haven't owned a car since.
