Learning how Auctions work
Sample Datasheet for Japanese Auctions
To bid on cars in Japan, you need an account with someone who has a bidding license. If you look back to the video walking through an auction house, you'll see that you need a special license to bid on the cars. There's a number of sites like this. Brave Auto international uses common software that's used to peruse the cars for sale, and J-Cars uses some other software.
On these site you'll see all the cars that are available to bid on. There are starting bids, and usually an average price shown to give you an idea what the car should go for. The average price is very misleading. The average price (depending on the site) is for cars of any grade that have approximately the same milage. Literally, that's cars that are new, to cars that have no front end. Ask your auction agent what the car you're looking for might usually go for. The datasheet shown is a WRX that's in great shape with 120000km, and the average price is says ~$400 which is totally off base.
Average price of 30000yen? Good luck with that.
What does it mean when a car doesn't sell? The starting bid has nothing in common with the seller's reserve price. Sometimes the reserve can be really high (higher than it should be?), but usually it's quite low.
All the cars in the auction are graded, but with varying degrees of negativity. The cars are graded out of 5, with 5 being the best. In general, you'll never see a 15 year old car with a grade greater than 4.
The exterior, and sometimes the interior, are then graded. The interior and exterior get a letter grade, from A to... D? I wouldn't go lower than a C, so I don't know.
Common markings - from Brave Auto International
The datasheet above is 4 B, which is a car in very good condition. The rest of the Datasheet changes from auction to auction. The 'car breakdown' is a very good way of discovering what kind of dings and dents the car has. The common markings can be seen in the picture to the left.
You'll need someone who speaks Japanese to translate the sheet for you. Some auction agents charge for this, some don't. If there's any uncommon markings on the sheet, the auction agent will (should) translate that for you too.
This is just an introduction... I'm sure there'll be more later! There's still shipping, which... well, is kind of a big deal when you buy a car on a different continent.
rob
Ways to know you drive a weird car
The spelling mistake - undeniable proof!
So, I recently put my truck for sale on kijiji.ca (and then linked it in with the classifieds), and noticed something odd. They spelled Daihatsu wrong.
Clearly this problem would never happen with a car like a Buick, or Cadillac.... and both of those words are kind of weird too!
So, being a good citizen of the internet, I made a report of it. Now, for those who don't know... I'm a programmer, and a programmer will eventually get to this ticket. I know that this is a trivial thing to fix, and most people wouldn't want to waste their time on it... but this is a feel-good fix. The perfect way to waste 20 minutes and be productive. Anyway, should be interesting to see how long it will take for this to be fixed.
While I'm on a rant and talking about kijiji... it bothers me when people say their bone-stock right hand drive is 'unique'. Was it a one-off from the factory? Is there no other cars like this in the ENTIRE WORLD? I think not. It's neat. It's different. It's rare to see in Canada. But unless you have done some pretty profound work on it... it's not unique. Sorry.
rob
Canadian Business Journal – RightDrive Inc.
Congrats to RightDrive Inc. for a very nice article on the Canadian Business Journal website. This is a good article for the legitimacy of right hand drive vehicles in Canada - way to go RightDrive!
rob
Great importing discussion
If you're thinking about importing, you need to think about how you're going to buy a car that's literally on the other side of the globe.
Even once you've found a car, you need to know whether it's good or not. Going to go 'kick the tires' is financially not really a great idea. So, how do you know if the car is junk or not?
Turns out that jdmvip.com's members have the same concerns. There's an amazing thread about import houses, and how to import. The thing that makes this noteworthy is that actual exporters in Japan have been giving their advice.
Mark from Brave Auto International, John from TS-Export, and a few other exporters have some very good comments.
It's worth a read, if you're thinking about importing your own JDM!
Importing from Japan – An introduction
I've been driving my Hijet for about 2 years now, and I'm looking for something a bit... faster. I don't need to go 200km/h, but highway speed for extended periods of time would be nice.
The Hijet I bought locally, which saved me lots of pain and headaches with importing. That, and I was not comfortable with the idea of importing a car at that time. Now, I know people who have done it, and I've been bidding on cars in Japan for the last few weeks. I haven't bought or imported one yet, but here's some things I've learned to save you from making the same mistakes.
- You can't low-ball and win. The market really decides how much these cars are worth, and you're not the only person bidding on the car. Ask your bidding agent what the cars usually go for. Some auction websites have the statistics by the model. Look at them and bid accordingly. These cars are NOT being given away.
- Check the auctions daily. Cars being auctioned off the next day must be registered by about 10pm (or something). Because of the way the time zones fall, check every morning at breakfast. I had to limit myself to doing the check once a day... it's highly addictive. It's like Kijiji on some wicked drugs.
- Know what you're bidding on. Depending on your bidding agent is, they'll look for the car for you, and email you the day before with the cars you might be interested in. They'll translate the auction sheet for you and tell you what they think. If you want to annoy them you can ask about other cars too, getting the sheet quickly translated. The auction sheet is relatively simple to understand if you take a look at it, and can usually save an email to your auction agent.
- Follow the process. If the bidding agent requires a deposit, don't try to bid on a car without one. That makes you stupid. How many 16-year-old wanna-be JDM owners contact them a week, without the money to back their claims. To transfer money the cheap way takes about a week to push through paperwork. If you want to bid on a car, you almost need your deposit in place first - otherwise the car will come and go and you won't be able to even have a deposit ready.
- Be patient. This is where I'm really weak. I know what I want, but want to bid on everything on the site. A good car in the right condition will come up. If you're looking for an STi, don't bid on some other random vehicle... you'll win it and be disappointed. Stick to your guns.
Well, those are my insights for right now. As I keep going through the process I'll keep everyone updated.
rob
Installing Daytime Running Lights on a Hijet
Hijet side marker - has two lights, one for marking, one for signaling.
Up until now I haven't had Daytime Running Lights on my Daihatsu Hijet. If your vehicle was manufactured before January 1st 1990 you don't need them.... It's a 1990 Hijet, so I figured it fell under that category. If I had the original import paperwork I wouldn't have to explain and prove it to the authorities that be.
But... I finally proactively broke down and installed DRLs. And, like most everyone on Earth, I'm cheap... and wanted to do it for free... so I did!
The Hijet (and all minitrucks) are painfully simple. It really reminds me of working on my classic VW Beetle. Two relays and simple to understand!
Fuses in the Hijet
Ok! The Hijet has two lights in the corner housing: One for signaling, one for being a side marker. I made the side marker light come on when the ignition is on. I used the ACC circuit to do this. To make things painfully easy, I used the wire that goes to the cigarette lighter, and spliced from that.
First thing to do... take out the ACC fuse. There is a cover on the fusebox that pops off... squeeze the sides to pop it off (you don't need to undo the screw). The lower right fuse is the one you want to remove.
Now, behind the lighter you'll see two wires. Use a multimeter to see which one is 'hot'.
Good. put that to the side for a moment. Remove the amber housing to get to the wires behind it. You also need to remove the vent that is inside the cab behind the headlight to run the wires. Do that now.
Remove the side marker.
The vent to remove, note the wire going in behind it.
The vent removed, you can now see the back of the headlight.
Now, figure out which wire is the hot wire to the marker light, and which is the ground. The easiest way to do this is to turn on the side markers, and shove the lead of your multimeter into the backs of the harness clips. My control (hot) wire was green with a red stripe, and the black was ground.
Testing the wires in the housing.
Now, run a wire from the hot wire on the cigarette lighter to the control wire of the corner marker. I used the existing clips and hacked my wire on there, leaving the original wire.
My hacked in wire.
Make sure everything is wired in tight, put your fuse back in and turn your key!
Now, something happy happened. Since I left the original wire, when I hacked in my new hot wire from the cigarette lighter... both the corner markers come on! Huzzah! That means you only need to do this process to one of your corner markers.
Done!
Funny notes: you can really see the poor job that was done as an aftermarket paint job.... oh well.
Serious note: now that I know this, a better way to do this would be to find the wire that runs to the corner marker by the fusebox. I don't have a wiring diagram, and this was easy.
Rob
Daihatsu van being given away!
Guy's Garage Daihatsu giveaway.
A radio station in Winnipeg has a Daihatsu Atrai as a prize in a radio giveaway! As a Daihatsu owner, I think this is pretty cool. The contest is called 'guys garage' and is a yearly contest where listeners call in to get 'keys' that may or may not start the vehicle that is being given away. In years gone by it's been a Porsche, or sporty car... this year it's a Kei class!
This really goes to show that right hand drive is a staple in Canadian motoring now. It's mainstream. It's not going anywhere. Canadians like a deal, and you can get a great JDM that's in great shape for a great price... why would we not do it.
Anyway, cudos to Winnipeg's Power 97 for auctioning off a very cool Daihatsu!
rob
Ford goes global – what it means to us
A Focus 3-door? Impossible!
I originally made this post for tunedtech.ca, and thought I'd cross post it here too. Check out the original here!
Ford, though born in Detroit, has not been good to the North American market. It's a name ubiquitous to the North American auto market, but has not sold it's best cars here. Sure, we've had various Mustangs, F-150 pickups and other big, fuel-hungry, V8-powered high-end Fords on the market... but we've been not seeing the other side of the market. Ford has not sold most of their high-end small cars in North America. This has (presumably) been done so the Mustang does not have competition from its own badge.
Maybe you, much like me, did not know that this has been going on for years! We missed out on the good years of the Ford Capri, which is not the same car as the Murcury Capri (which was just a low-end 80s Mustang). The Capri is known as a respectable 80s sports car, only available in right hand drive. James May even took one out for a spin in the 'Rear Wheel Drive Challenge' on Top Gear. It broke down... but it remains a good example of a good-looking and good performing car produced by Ford that was never sold here.
A Ford Escort Cosworth rallying
Then, there's the Cosworth-tuned cars. The Ford Escort Cosworth and the Ford Sierra Cosworth. The Escort Cosworth was a homologation car (much like the Subaru WRX STI or the Lancer Evo) to qualify the car for racing in various race leagues. It was a high-power 4-cylinder that remains highly desirable to this day. The big 3-point functional spoiler and turbocharged engine have gone made this car go down in history as one of the best sporty small cars in history. Here in Canada, the Escort was a family eco-box with as little flair as possible, and shames the roads to this day.
The Ford Focus might seem like a strange thing for this site to focus on (pun intended), since it's a mediocre eco-box family car in North America. But that's the thing... in North America it's lame. Check out the lead image... that's a Ford Focus RS... this last year's model. Ford stopped selling the Focus 3-door in North America in about 2004... but it only got better overseas.
The original GT40
And lastly... the Ford GT40 - the original GT40. The Mustang is the flagship of Ford North America.... the GT40 would run laps around the Mustang... and was rarely manufactured in LHD. The GT40 was a thing of beauty, intended to compete with Ferrari and other supercar manufacturers. But, the year was 1966... the musclecar era of North America was budding, and this car would have never fit into the Ford niche they were creating at the time.
The European Ford cars are so good that TopGear.com has a tribute to them! Check it out. There's lots of great photos of great cars... that were never available on Ford's native soil.
Overall, yes, I'm looking forward to Ford going global. That is, as long as it means North American Ford gets better... not European Ford getting worse!
rob
Russians loading up on RHDs from Japan post-tsunami
The recent earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan has had caused some strange market behaviours. Some people are trying to play up the rarity of the RHD market, while... apparently Russians are buying cars out of Japan like they're going out of style!
I found an article on Financial Times that vehicle exports from Japan to Russia have gone up 10% since the tsunami. Note that Russia drives on the right side of the road, therefore driving LHDs. So, RHD grey imports are as much an anomaly there as it is in Canada!
Clearly I'm not up on my rules and regulations on Russian vehicle imports, but a quote from the Financial Times article:
The Russian government has tried to clamp down on the used-car trade saying the clunkers can be dangerous – and wishing to boost sales of Ladas and other domestic models.
The authorities even tried to restrict right-hand-drive vehicles and impose import tax on second-hand foreign cars. But the measures that prompted violent street protests in Vladivostok in 2009...
Clearly us Canadians could learn a thing or two from the Russians. "You can take our grey imports from our cold dead fingers!"
Disaster in Japan
I'm sure that almost everyone has heard about this now... a major earthquake, and then tsunami (caused by the earthquake) struck Japan yesterday.
Cars ready to ship from Japan destroyed by the tsunami
I was wondering how long it would take an enterprising person in Canada to bill their car as 'more rare now due to the disaster in Japan'. Answer: One day. A fellow from Sudbury thought it'd be good to update his ad to include the disaster in Japan (link).
Due to the recent disaster in Japan, there are even less Skyline R32s left, which makes this car rarer and worth more. GTS-4 is the hardest Skyline to find, check for yourself.
To this I say: Have some class. Don't try to make a quick buck quoting this disaster.
You can (and should!) donate to the fund to rebuild Japan at the Canadian Red Cross.
Rob
Photo from cbc.ca via STR/AFP/Getty