Q: If I purchase a vehicle that is "On Offer" or "Purchase to Order", is it insured?
A: Yes, click here for a copy of an actual insurance certificate for the marine portion of the trip.
Q: When will the vehicles listed as Japan Stock be arriving in Canada?
A: They won't be unless purchased. The vehicles that have been acquired for stock in Japan are sitting in the partner lot in Nagoya. They are on simultaneous offer to a network of dealers and private collectors mainly in New Zealand, Australia, the U. K., and Canada.
Q: If I need to wait for a vehicle that is listed in Japan, why would I benefit by paying you the extra $750.00 for your fee? There are lots of JDM sites listed in Japan already, I could just deal with them directly.
A: Correct. When we set the fee at $750.00 it was because we wanted to have the lowest fee to attract potential customers, and still give out a phone number without demanding a $1,000.00 deposit first - based on 2 low res pictures of a vehicle sitting in the breezway of USS Auction in Nagoya or Yokohama. The logic is we should be able to offer the client cost savings as well as convenience, but that the former alone should at least equal the fee:
Can you do it yourself? Of course you can. If you wonder, ' what are the advantages of using a Canadian Middleman,' here’s basically what is on offer for $750.00:
- Money transfer. Because Mountain Parameters has a wholesale foreign exchange currency account set up, they save the client up to 2% on the cost of purchasing and transferring their funds to Japan. It is also more convenient to the client who does not have to make all the funds transfer arrangements and go through the post 911 money laundering security rules that pertain to these transactions now.
- Mountain Parameters set fee of $750.00 is not ‘padded’ to cover exigent circumstances that only pertain to some vehicles such as Ad Valorem taxes, duties, of fees.. For example, some importers set the landed cost of a vehicle before it arrives in Canada, therefore they must plan for the event that perhaps Canada Customs will order a soil test, which adds $150.00 to the costs. Because they charge a set fee, when that soil test is not ordered, their profit margin just increased $150.00 beyond their minimum set margin.
- Brokerage. Mountain Parameters is a Canadian registered broker, and co-ordinates the Vancouver based brokerage for the vehicle on behalf of the owner.
- Drayage services. If you do not live in Vancouver, then once your vehicle is cleared, arrangements must be made for it’s secure storage until it is ready to transport to your location. Prior to departure in winter they are double checked to ensure winter transport will not result in damaging the vehicle.
- Freight. Mountain Parameters has established a relationship with their car carrier that ensures a number of protocols and cost factors are adhered to. This results in a number of advantages to the client because again, the cost savings are passed on to the client. On average the client will pay at least $100.00 less for the cost of haulage to Calgary than if they made the arrangements themselves.
- Compliance Parts. Mountain Parameters has established a wholesale account for the purchase of JDM parts from a major supplier in the lower mainland. When the compliance parts are ordered and purchased prior to the vehicle leaving the lower mainland, not only the actual wholesale cost price of the parts are passed on to the client, they are placed in the trunk or back of the vehicle so that they arrive at the same time as the vehicle and shipping is free. This in turn means that in most circumstances the client can get his conversion completed and the vehicle in for inspection in a timely manner before his 6 day transit permit expires. The average savings for a RHD drive vehicle that requires a headlight, daytime running light, and high mount brake light conversion amounts to around $200.00, and the savings are even more if the client wants to proceed with the often recommended replacement of the filters, timing belt, water pump and associated parts.
- Free technical support. If you are doing your own conversion or hiring a local mechanic to do it for you, there is no cost for getting Mountain Parameters technical support. For example, as they have already done Land Cruiser HDJ81 and Delica conversions, they can suggest the best way to wire the DRL or high mount brake light modules, rewire and install the eCode headlight pods, assess whether the tires need to be replaced for DOT compliance, etc.
- Conversions. If you prefer, for a reasonable fee, they can take possession of the vehicle for you and arrange to complete the conversion and inspection as long as you can pick it up in the Calgary, Banff-Canmore area.
- Mechanical. Calgary customers will have access to our private mechanic who is experienced in diesel and enjoy paying trade price rather than retail for their required mechanical work, plus cost + 10% pricing on parts for the life of their vehicle.
The fee that is levied by Mountain Parameters results in you having someone in Canada that is working on your behalf. It is not just aimed at giving you more convenience and piece of mind that your vehicle is less likely to receive damage or receive the unwanted attention of vandals or thieves after it is removed from the bonded warehouse, it should also result in you actually saving money over doing it yourself.
Q: I'm nervous about handing my money over to someone I found on the internet.
A: No kidding, imagine that! For the same reason we're not about to post all our banking info, references, DUNS number, business license, etc., to make it nice and easy for the guys in Holland to expedite identity theft. However, before you hand over a plug nickel, you can expect to receive all that you will require and more to perform a due dilligence reference and credit check on all aspects of our business. At no time will you be expected to make a leap of faith with regard to financial matters.
Q: Are the vehicles in as good a shape as they appear?
A: No vehicles that have every sustained accident damage will be acquired for Japan stock or brought to Canada. Many buyers do not realize that there is no protection against this practice and in fact there are a few dealers we've found that regularly sell accident damaged vehicles and do not document the fact in the vehicle description. However, a big red flag, the price they are asking is unreasonably low. Every attempt to document flaws in the vehicles is made. While that works well for the body, you may reasonably expect to deal with issues that would not be uncommon for a 15 year old vehicle as well as compliance modifications. Even though most of the vehicles are well below 100,000km, mileage in fact is not the issue, age is. You will need to change the headlights from RHD to LHD, all fluids, filters, timing belt, water pump, balance bearing, and probably the tires at a minimum (the latter because they may not be DOT compliant). Other common items are the hood and trunk hydraulic struts may not work well in cold weather, the battery may also may be too old to perform well in the winter. A tune up will be indicated. In Delica's the dashboard indicator lights are often burnt out and typically not replaced by the original owners and they are hell to start in cold weather until they get a tune up and possibly new injectors. On Land Cruisers (which start like a dream in cold weather) it is recommended you replace the crankshaft 4-5 and big end bearings. Also on that vehicle, you may find that when it arrives, due to sitting in storage for so long, the injector pump is dripping diesel fuel due to a shriveled up 25 cent 'O' ring that will cost hundreds of dollars in labour to replace and that you may as well do the TBelt and Water pump at the same time. In other words, if your budget doesn't stretch to an additional $2,000.00 to spend after the vehicle has cleared customs and been delivered, you probably should not be buying until it does.
Q: Most of the Import sites say 'JDM' vehicles are the perfect 'dream' vehicle because the mileage is so low. Is that true?
A: No. They are a good and reasonable alternative because the mileage is so low. The body and interior show little signs of wear relative to North American counterparts, but the drive drain is still 15 years old regardless of mileage withal. In the words of our parts supplier, 'A JDM vehicle can bury you financially in labour costs if you don't turn a wrench yourself, bury you financially if you don't buy your parts at wholesale, and most importantly, have a diesel-capable mechanic friend or co-worker that works off the grid for $50.00/hr.'. Driving a JDM is a lifestyle decision and not for everyone. It can be addictive. In our case it was the HDJ81 Land Cruiser that did the trick, after only 100km I'd pull up beside a Hummer and look down my nose at him with an involuntary derisive smile pasted on my face. If you live where the streets are slick and the snow is deep, and you've never driven a 4.2l Turbo Diesel 'Crusher', you'll never know how sweet driving can be.
Q: What are the risks of doing it myself?
A: Complaints run the gamut. The most important part is finding a real good agent in Japan. While some may simply take your money and disappear, that is not common. More common are Japan based agents who do not ship often to Canada so it is hard for them to find space in a shared container going to Vancouver, thus a long wait. Next, the way they pack the container. A very common complaint is the vehicle is unstuffed from the container in Vancouver with shipping damage sustained enroute by the vehicle hitting the other vvehicles or the sides of the container during rough weather. Another problem is documentation. If all the export documents are not prepared correctly, they get rejected by Canada Customs. If you exceed your 5 day grace period for storage at the container terminal while you wait to get your paperwork corrected and resubmitted from Japan, you start to pay $200.00 per day (minimum) while you wait. Once the vehicle arrives in Vancouver if these problems are not present, then a good customs broker with a background in this type of import can ensure your importation goes relatively painlessly. Last is integrity. For some reason our partner once sent us a BMW that slipped through the cracks with cigarette butts in the ashtray. Another time, the windshield washer resevoir was frozen solid and the coolant level was only good to -15C. While that may be common for many, we can't claim it doesn't happen. But we complain loudly when we see that happen in the hopes it will not be repeated, and our partner does listen.
Q: What can I expect to go wrong that is common to JDM Vehicles?
A: Generally, expect injector pumps on all diesels to start leaking fuel and you will need to replace your old rubber seals and O rings with Flourel or Viton. This is a well know issue affecting all diesel engines prior to 1996 due to the introduction of Ultra Low Sulfer Diesel fuel which pollutes less but does not have the vital lubricity components of the previous fuel fomulations. See the following for more information and recommendations for additives: Lubricity Additive Study Results Each of the other models have particular quirks of their own. Some we know about, some we're still finding out about. If it is something we know about, we're happy to share it with you.
Q: How can a 15 year old truck have only 47,000km?
A: Yes... we get asked this on a number of occasions.
The problem here is that customers around the world tend to base vehicles from other countries on vehicles in their local market.
For example.... if I went on the Canadian Auto Trader and looked for a 15yr vehicle I would find rather a large percentage that have done around 200,000km's if not more. As I come from an automotive industry were 80% of vehicles 1yr - 20yrs only do low mileage (below 100kms) and if I had no concept of overseas markets my first question to a person in Canada, UK, Australia would be...... 200,000km's..... has it been used as a taxi as 200,000km's is rather high.
Unfortunately, some customers once explained will understand this, and you will also get the others who will not.
Now... in Japan you can buy a 15yr vehicle with low km's and with rather high km's (the other 20%). In every industry you will have the crooks and you will find that there are either accident/repaired or mileage tampered vehicles ending up on the Canadian market and other markets around the world. Fifty percent of these vehicles is the exporter and the other fifty percent is the importer doing it.
It really comes down to who you are dealing with....... there are the good guys and not so good.
Q: Are you the best on the 'net'?
A: Not at all. We may be the cheapest in terms of broker to broker fees ($750.00), or 'In Stock' margins. We have integrity. Demographics may factor into it for some clients. Someday we'd like to be the best. But there are other importers, especially on the West Coast, who have been at it longer than us, and have stronger value added products and services. If you want to call and ask, we can tell you who we've heard good things about. We're more tailored for someone who is not afraid to turn a wrench themselves. In so doing, they are not paying someone else to add value to the vehicle before it is sold. The best example is the immaculate Land Cruiser with 94,000km we first sold. We sold it with a leaking injector pump, a heater fan that squealed when cold, other minor issues, and a T-Belt, tensioner and waterpump in the boot ready to be installed for $16,000.00 + GST. The buyer drove away with it knowing he was facing another $2,000.00 worth of required maintenance. One of his first planned stops was Pro Active Auto in Calgary to deal with the fuel leak and have the big and bearings assessed (a known weak spot with this model vehicle). However, given that vehicles that have already had all that maintenance done to them sell for around $24,000.00, he was very happy with his assumption that he had saved $6,000.00 by taking on the post compliance maintenance chores himself.
Finally on this matter, from our partner in Japan:
"Although some Japanese owners keep service records the problem is that we do not know at the time of buying the vehicle from the auction weather it has books. Once the vehicle sells at auction, it is up to the seller to forward the books to the auction to be then forwarded onto the buyer which sometimes takes 2-3 weeks. It has only been recently that I have started advertising the vehicles with books but in most cases the vehicle arrives with us, listed on the site and then we receive the books. If we receive books for the vehicle they will be placed in the glove box but half the time I forget to update the web site. Thinking about it.... your L/C had books which were placed in the glove box.
I have been doing this for a long time as you know and you can tell weather a vehicle is genuine or not. There is no use dealing in the non genuine vehicles as although you can bet most of your competitors on price it soon catches up with you. There is currently on a couple of chat forums where one Japanese export company is receiving a hammering (good job) from customers. The internet can now make you and break you. Unfortunately, these agents once they have burnt most of their bridges over seas simple change names and start again tomorrow but cannot obtain "jp" on their websites. I think I have said to you before..... one sign of this is "jp" at the end of their website/email. Only Japanese registered companies can obtain "jp". "
How to buy...
In Stock: Vehicle is in Canada.
In Transit: Enroute from Japan via container.
On Offer: Has been purchased and is in partner lot in Japan. Vehicle has 'made the grade', and was not sent back to auction in Japan once aquired for stock. (On average 10 vehicles per month that were originally aquired for stock are sent back to auction because they are not deemed suitable for export). Vehicle is targeted at dealers in New Zealand, Australia and U.K as well as Canada, and is not scheduled for shipment to Canada unless purchased accordingly.
Purchase to Order: Fee based service where Japanese partner bids on clients behalf at auction in Japan. Not many people use this service due to all the unknows and risk.
Each method has advantages and disadvantages. If we invest the money to aquire a vehicle and get it going to Vancouver, then the client pays more based on a sliding scale of the progress. Use the sidebar menu to explore the costs and risks associated with each method. Please feel free to phone at any time, you are not required to make a deposit before you are allowed to gain phone access to a live voice. If you get voice mail, don't hang up, leave a message, your call will be returned.
