I honestly wasn't too picky as to weather or not it was a Type V, I just lucked out at the auction. And not sure which boat sorry. I live in greenwood. Hopefully get it in time to go to a few meets this summer.

 

Oh no worries, I just thought maybe our cars were traveling together! haha

 

Who did you go through to get your forester?

 

Also interested in what broker some of us maritimers have gone with for importing. I know there are some good/worse. I'm looking at importing now and would look to heard about good experiences!

 

I went through Brian at B-Pro auto for my S2K, so far so good. He always answers my questions, was patient with me when it came to bidding on a car and never complained about the mass amounts of auction translations I requested. He has a lot of good reviews too and has really been great so far.
I won't recommend him until the whole process is complete though.


I tried importing through JDM connection at first as well, he wasn't great to deal with, constantly would refer me to his websites explanation of the process if I asked him a question about it. There were other minor things that kind of bugged me but the thing that finally made me switch; the last email I sent him went something along the lines of "Okay I'd like to place a deposit on the one in your Japan stock to have it inspected." I got an automated reply letting me know he was out of office for the next two weeks, no warning and we had been talking all day. I essentially told him I wanted to buy a car from him and he told me he'd reply in two weeks, which by the way he never replied to my email. So I wouldn't recommend JDM connection.

A friend of mine imported a supra through the guy at JDM Connection, everything went great until the end and then it got messy, he would for that reason never recommend them to anyone. He wrote a pretty lengthly review on his website but overall the car came in fine and is a good car, but customer service was lacking.

To summarize, in my opinion, don't go through JDM connection. Sorry for how poorly written this is, I'm doing two things at once right now lol hope this helps you a little bit.

 

This is my 4th import thus far. The Forester I went with a exporter right out of Japan. SastradKK he is actually one of our sponsors from our JDM community, JDMVIP.com. This is my first time using a exporter, so far so good. I like the fact that the person I am dealing with lives locally, so he has his people inspect the cars before bidding. It can be a longer process for importing, but imo you get more detailed information about the car you are potentially buying.

Previously I have gone through William @ JDMconnection with zero issues. I bought two vehicles from him. The evolution I purchased was from his stock out west. I paid for it and it was shipped right away by train. It arrive here in Moncton within a week. My Integra which I still currently own, I bought right out of auction in Japan. Was a long wait time but everything went good. I even called him over the phone several times and he was very helpful with any questions I had. I would recommend William any day to someone. He is also another one of our sponsor for are JDM community.

 

What kind of costs are involved after the auction price (exporter/shipping/fees) out of curiousity.

 

Yea, I've heard plenty of good things about Will, just myself had a bad experience. So I personally wouldn't recommend him.

 

It can range depending on where the car is located, and if it is legal to import. If it isn't 15 years or older you have to pay to have it stored in Japan until it reaches 15 years. It is hard to say a price because it varies. I can give you a rough idea what it cost me for my Forester.

Shipping is over $1000, paper work and brokers are close to the same price. Export/import fees are also around the same price. Usually you ad between $3000-$4000 on top of your auction bid. Also since our dollar is so horrible it cost us more.

Importing is still a very cheap route to get a excellent low mileage vehicle imo.

 

What did you get for an ETA on your forester?(If you're shipping to halifax) And when did it leave Japan?