Car identification - Nothing to do with model railways

[Kickstart]

I strongly suspect that there are, or have been loads of owners who have/had no idea that their second, third or forth hand MX5 was in fact a Eunos.

A friend of ours bought one in blissful ignorance. She had no idea it wasn't an MX5, despite the badges saying otherwise.

Keith, it may be possible that those rusty MX5's .....weren't, so to speak?

 

Possible, but the UK ones seem far from immune. Including the series 2 cars which rarely seem to be around as cheap imports.

 

All the best

 

Keith

[Ron Ron Ron]

.....the series 2 cars which rarely seem to be around as cheap imports.

I get the impression that "grey importing" of Japanese used cars largely died out some time ago (with the exception of certain performance models).

Was it a 1990's phenomena ?

I would imagine that series 2 imports would be quite rare, if not non-existant.

However, I'm not challenging anyone's general observations or opinion about "rusty" Mazda's. I'm perfectly happy to accept it may well be the case.

[Kickstart]

Hi

 

Does seem to have died off a lot. Possibly down to a lousy exchange rate over the last few years, and possibly down to less interesting Japanese models.

 

Seemed to start with bikes in the late 1980s and was very common in the early 1990s. Cars seemed to come along later.

 

I still fancy an MX5 as a next car.

 

All the best

 

Keith

[spamcan61]

Most Japanese grey imports I see these days are MPVs, even then they're probably 90s rather than 2000s; apart from odd Nissan GT-R.

[Oldddudders]

My vague recollection is that the Japanese imports used to appear in bulk via Ireland, and I wonder if the price took a hike when Ireland joined the eurozone?

[Kickstart]

Hi

 

Still seemed to be quite common 5 years ago. Changes to registration rules probably didn't help about a decade ago. But with the pound worth about 2/3 of what it was a while ago I suspect flogging them to Aus, NZ, HK, etc, is now far more profitable.

 

All the best

 

Keith

[Horsetan]

My vague recollection is that the Japanese imports used to appear in bulk via Ireland,.....

 

I used to spend a fair amount of time in Ireland between 1998 and 2003, and remember seeing quite a few dealers around Dublin with compounds full of JIS-spec cars just off the boat. Mitsubishi FTO coupe and Galant VR-4s, as well as people carriers seemed to be common.

 

I never quite understood the point of a (Sunderland-built) Nissan March / Micra being shipped back from Japan to the UK, though.....

[spamcan61]

Funnily enough saw 2 Figaros today, maybe they're all migrating down south now they're getting old.

[PhilJ W]

The Figaro's were imported and completely rebuilt by a British company for resale, making them in effect new cars except that they all bore age related registrations (to get round crashability regulations). The name of the company concerned escapes me at the moment. Incidently a lot more 'classic' mini's went the other way to Japan under a similar arrangement, perhaps thats why you see so few nowadays.

[steve1]

I seem to remember there were quite a lot of 'grey' bike imports at the time too. V-Maxs maybe?

 

steve

[Kickstart]

I seem to remember there were quite a lot of 'grey' bike imports at the time too. V-Maxs maybe?

 

Most of the grey imports were from Japan (ver strict MOT), which meant an odd selection. Due to licencing rules anything more than 400cc was difficult to get on the road hence not common. Loads of 400s and 250s though. Think a lot of the 250s went to Aus and NZ where they were learner bikes, while there was a more limited market for them in the UK. Also there was a power limit on these bikes (45hp for the 250s, think 60hp for the 400s), so were restricted compared to equivalent UK models (not that there were many beyond the RGV250 and KR1).

 

Further the next class up was 750cc and these were limited to 77hp. You don't want a Japanese market 750! Anything larger than that was in very limited supply in Japan (from memory for a bike above 750cc to be sold in Japan it had to be an import).

 

All the best

 

Keith

[R A Watson]

I get the impression that "grey importing" of Japanese used cars largely died out some time ago (with the exception of certain performance models).

Was it a 1990's phenomena ?

I would imagine that series 2 imports would be quite rare, if not non-existant.

However, I'm not challenging anyone's general observations or opinion about "rusty" Mazda's. I'm perfectly happy to accept it may well be the case.

I worked for a Datsun/Nissan dealer on the parts side from 1976 - 1986 the main problem was the importer (Nissan U K) was not allowed under their contract with Japan to stock parts for vehicles they did not import, or suport warranty unless the vehicle owner could prove that they purchased the vehicle new in the country of original import.

 

This meant that support for the "greys" was virtually impossible through the franchised network. This situation was only altered with the imposition of E U competition legislation