Thanks,
I started this thread to pass on my experience and ended up pretty much being told my opinions are wrong. I did say the intention was to be constructive and avoid a row. Not offended or upset but while I could engage fully, I really can’t be bothered.
Have fun yaw’ll.
Being completely honest effem, having re-read your posts I am at a loss as to what your objective was here. You have said very little about something and then appear to have gleaned some pleasure from something else. A mystery to me but apparently not to you:-)
Whatever turns you on I guess
Shame really - but I don’t think your post was in vain, it seems to have unearthed the fact that there’s only a very small number of Eunos importers (maybe just the one) who are worth considering. I think the only downside of the thread is that people who have no knowledge of uk importers, and therefore unable to read between the lines, would find it ditfficult to benefit from.
There are few importers full stop. It was only ever a business worth carrying on when exchange rates were favourable, and attracted a lot of chancers.
My first import; when I didn’t know any better, brought from a back street Belfast garage, somehow he had managed to slip my Roadster away from Dublin on fake ZZ plates, and then wanted my driving licence so he could take it back and get it registered properly (so he could get it under 50 cars per year rule). He went to prison for MOT offences.
Another importer, in Northern Ireland, known to club members there, got thrown in clink following a raid on one of his addresses, uncovering a people-based part of his import business.
The RUC, as it was then, often served warrants of behalf of the Gardai, to people who had unknowingly brought an import that was owing Irish VAT
Over here; one MX5 specialist received a 2 year suspended sentence at Crown Court for clocking offences. He’s still trading, maybe he is a reformed character.
There was that Warrington importer who disappeared over night leaving customer cars to be seized by creditors.
Quintin Wilson did his TV investigation, and alleged organised crime links to the import trade.
The import trade has changed; a lot of the criminal mob have gone, moved on to whatever other trade takes their fancy in the proverbial Peckham. The trade remaining seems to be diversitying, with more non-Japanese cars being brought in from Japan (old Jags and Daimlers seem to be spectacular bargains, W8 Passats less so). Maybe it will mature to the level the rest of the classic car import trade; quit just considering Japan as a source, because it offers a seemingly easy ROI (buy car, ship car, sell car), and consider other sources (one MX5 dealer seems to have imported to order an Australian spec car, which is interesting because the price of a decent NA in Australia is around AU$4-6k, and you could probably get a verified service history with that, plus accident history that doesn’t need a translation). Will MX5s ever be routinely imported from US dry states? I suspect not, because the sun absolutely ruins anything made of plastic, like seats, roofs, bumpers, but who knows.