Hi All,

New member here having recently purchased a STi at Japanese auction!

I have always been a fan of the Subaru and the distinct 'scooby rumble' through my teenage years, but equally, always knew the JDM STi's were far superior and that trading the rumble for the twinscroll was something I may have to consider. I have watched over the last 5 years the price of both the imports and UK cars continuously rising, so after about a year of looking at both blobeye and hawkeye UK and JDM STi's, I finally managed to find one that I really feel is worth while.

I didn't want the headache of going through the whole import process alone, so decided to get in touch with Ozz at Harlow Jap Autos (HJA) - predominantly as it would be the examples they would have to offer that I would want to buy so felt they knew what a good scooby looked like!

I had been monitoring the Japanese auctions and dealer sites myself since just before Christmas, as-well as letting Ozz know what I was after and my budget. One car really caught my eye, and after sending the details through to Ozz, he had his team in Japan go and check it out at the auction, sent me through a load of photos, and that night I gave him my maximum bid...(which I then increased and increased again). But boy am I glad I did.

It was a Thursday (18th Feb) evening, and there I was counting down the minutes and eventually seconds to when the car was going through the auction (1:36am UK time) with fingers and toes crossed, waiting for the confirmation from Ozz as to whether I was the successful winner - Which most thankfully I was!

The car itself is an auction grade 4B 2006 Subaru STi Spec C (GDB RevG - Hawkeye) in WRC Blue Mica with just under 74k kms. As good as factory original other than genome exhaust and genome boost gauge. Oh and a rare factory option front bumper/lip!

It ticked every box for me - Blue, BBS wheels, Spec C, under 60k miles, genome goodies.

Pretty much a sleepless night but to say I am over the moon is an understatement. As soon as the photos came through, I was able to find with the vin plate info to tell me that is is only 1 of 271 of this chassis code (RevG), 1 of only 115 finished in Blue (white there is 129 and black 27), but better still, only 1 of 22 (out of the 115) with the trim code and option code this has (now you can see why I increased my max bid twice!)

With the whole world pandemic currently, I always knew that there was the potential for a small wait for it to be loaded on to a boat and make its way over to the Uk. Fast forward 4 weeks and I finally had confirmation that it was being loaded on to a boat on the 23rd March. At this point, I could start planning and preparing myself for it not to be here in the UK and registered until middle to end of May... Not so bad, as long as it is here just as the warm weather starts (and lockdown restrictions relax!).

I found a site - marinetraffic - to follow the boat as it travels half way around the world across from Japan, to America, down through the panama canal, couple more stops on the east coat of America before then taking its long sail over to Germany before then finally reaching the UK. There were a couple of delays on its travels and the ETA in Southampton of 8th May soon passed to which at this point I had not heard from HJA of a revised ETA. After a quick chase up, the new arrival date was given to me on the 12th May saying it was now due to land at Southampton on 25th May.

Another week passes and I wanted to see what HJA were experiencing having the imported cars registered etc with DVLA to start planning how long after the 25th May it is likely to be before collection can be arranged. It was at this point I received the ultimate shock!

I woke to a text on Monday 17th May explaining that there has been a mix up and my car wasn't actually on the boat i had been told it was and to what HJA were aware at the time, was still sitting in Japan! . Speechless!

I have been following this boat around the world on marinetraffic.com since 23rd March when it left Nagoya (or to what i was told it had) only to find out 8 weeks on/1 week before being in the uk, that apparently the car was taken off the boat in Japan without them knowing until now... after a couple of emails back and forth, and being put in touch directly with the exporter that HJA use in Japan who then gave me apparent reasons of why this has happened, they have now arranged transport to move the car to a totally different port in Japan, and get it on a boat which will now leave Japan on the 25th May and ETA to Southampton of 22nd July

Absolutely shocking.. and strange how it took 4 weeks to get the initial space on a boat after winning at auction, to then being told the car was on a boat when in fact it wasn't which took 8 weeks to realise, then somehow manage to get a space on a boat within 48hrs of this mishap rearing its head.

19th feb purchased .. arrival to uk 22nd July (hopefully)... duration: 22 weeks. Lets hope for no more delays, and I am hoping the process to register the car etc once its here in the UK wont be too horrendous.

Currently sitting here waiting for confirmation from HJA to say it was actually loaded on the boat yesterday which I am hoping will be confirmed soon....

I will upload some photos from the auction for the time being...