jimi

Thank you for the information mate.

I am ****ing myself as i am to pick up my first ever scoob during the week,guess what an inport from japan.

WRX v-limited
1996
white
29000k
£10.6k
Some what worried as everone keeps telling me about stolen motors from japan.

Keep up the good work mate,

Cheers jim.

ptholt

Dunno if any of you caught the mirror yesterday, but quentin wilson acting as a dodgy car dealer (which seems kind of ironic) exposed a huge stolen ring of import cars.

It seems the problem stems from some undercover reporting around the southampton area where police stopped and check a shed load of 'import cars' and found over half were either reported stolen from there country of origin, damaged repaired or some other such shady deal.

It would appear the cars are stolen to order un Japan, popped on a ship to Dubai (??) where they have there identities altered and paperwork falsified before being shipped to the uk.

Wilson was apparently offered 40k Jap imports for £20k for him to sell at a vast profit.

The investigators have passed there files over to police who according to the paper will be starting to spot check import vehicles to recover some of the supposed 65000 that have been reported stolen in Japan.

The program is on next week sometime.

It mentioned one vehicle which they tracked as being stolen being sent back to Japan!
Not sure where anyone stands if you've paid out money for one of these stolen cars, i'm guessing you kiss goodbye to it unless you can take the supplying dealer to court ?
Those who have theres on finance may fare a little easier.

I have to say though, It kind of annoys me this, how come our police are so willing to stop imports to look for stolen cars from Japan, yet seemingly do so little to recover stolen cars from the uk ?

Also Mr Wilsons hatred of all things imports kinda winds me up, wonder who sweetens him p to us all paying ott uk prices.......

rocket man

The programme is on BBC 1 Wednesday at 7.30 for those interested. I see there haven't been any responses to my message posted yesterday about North West Imports, but in light of the Mirror article and the forthcoming programme, I reckon I'll be leaving the buying of an import alone until we know a whole lot more about what's going on!

As to how buyers of "dodgy cars" might now stand, that's a legal question about passing of title to goods. If anyone's got any worries, go see a solicitor and get some proper advice.

Octane Man

Quentin Wilson is a Tw@t.. He's so anti Import. Must be getting back handers from UK Dealers to warn people off them.

I'll watch this forthcoming program about imports, so what if they've done a bit of undercover work and got proof. Doesn't mean to say that every Import is nicked to order, I use reliable sources in Japan and trust them. It's a bit more difficult buying over here where you don't know a lot about it's background.

Anyway what a name.. "Quentin Wilson" sounds like he should be on the Antique Roadshow.

O.M.


[This message has been edited by Octane Man (edited 22 July 2001).]

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Not having seen the prog. in question or any of Kwintongs recent slick'n smarmy televisual treats; it would smack a tad of hypocrisy if Mr Wilson has changed sides.
This is the bloke, you may remember, who championed himself on Top Gear as the "Pioneer of the Importing" when he saved something like £7K importing a Rover 200 Vi thingmygog from either Belgium or Holland and exposing the great "Treasure Island" fiasco.
Someone I know reckons that all that Castrol GTX he sticks on his head must have seeped in his ears and corrupted his brains (allegedly)...

Butty

iTrader: (2)

Why does that baldy **** keep harping on about imports, their dodgeyness and always having been wrapped around a bus stop in Nagazaki.
He ought to open his eyes to the far greater problems of crash damaged and stolen/ ringed problems that go on in the UK and its far greater cost- or would doing that story dilute his TV profile as it has already been done by every man and his dog?

Buyer beware applies just as much to UK cars as imports and both carry the same risk of being iffy.

Nick

ptholt

The part that does stick in my throat is the police's attitude (at least the one quoted in the mirror anyway) in that they are now going to be doing lots of spot checks on cars that are non official uk cars (as in those showing declared new at first reg on log book) to see if they are stolen so they can recover them.

But wouldnt it be nice if so much trouble and press went in to stopping car crime in the uk rather than returning those missing from Japan or am i missing the point ?

Ian Griffiths

So Quentin Wilson has highlighed yet another facet of the world of car dealing. I wouldn't say this detracts at all from any other side of the coin - afterall he has once sung the praises of a Dutch import with a 50% saving and also highlighed the problem that UK cars have with damage repair / ringing etc.

I wouldn't say he is anti-anything, just very sceptical about the market as a whole.

I didn't read the article but the police efforts also seem logical, as far as I can read it didn't say they were going to stop checking the histories of UK stuff?

johnfelstead

you think Import drivers dont like the guy. Try DeLorean drivers for size. They have a contract out on the guy. LOL

RonaldoH

LOL@John F.

chiark

Just to put some minds at rest (particularly the EU import owners)...

There's two types of import: "grey" import, and "parallel" import.

A grey import is when a car is imported that is NOT designed to be used within the EU, so doesn't have a certificate of conformity (to EU standards) and all that guff.

A parallel import is when a car is imported that IS designed to be used within the EU. It will have a Certificate of Conformity.

Some of this community, myself included, have gone down the parallel route to save money when buying exactly the same car as you would buy in the UK for thousands more.

Others have gone for the grey route as you will get a better spec car for either less money or about the same as you'd pay for a UK car.

Quentin Wilson advocates parallel imports, but has always been a bit nervous about greys. It appears that he has proof to back his nerves - though he was probably looking hard for it.

Of course, all UK car dealers are scrupulous and honest.

By the way, I heard a spokesman on Radio one this morning stating that "the flow of people importing cars from Europe has almost dried up because the British consumer knows what a great deal they're getting". This was in response to the latest EU report showing that we're the most expensive place to buy cars - again - by up to 50%. Funny to see how some people live in la-la land...

Trouser

John's right.....prosecuted for clocking.. and more than once

Just use good old common sense guys. Pay for an HPI or similar check. You then have recourse should the info be incorrect.

Buy from either a reputable Import dealer, (there are quite a few out there!! ) to ensure provenance or if buying privately, get your local Scooby specialist to check the car for you. If the vendor and their car are genuine, there should be no objection to an inspection at your expense. If there is.... walk away. There's plenty of "proper" cars about for you to spend your money on.

Don't be scared by Import's ladies and gents.. Just exercise a little more caution than normal, then check, check and check again.. and you might find that you too can own a Porsche scaring, fully loaded rocket ship for the price of a Ford Focus!!

Live the Dream!!

Cheers

Paul
TSL Motorsport
Nottingham

Octane Man

Not surprised the amount of Imports coming to the UK with the UK being the most expensive place in Europe to buy a car at the moment.

jaycee

He's got a nerve talking about dodgy car dealers considering he was done for clocking motors some time back!

jaycee

Sorry! missed the post above me!!

DavidBrown

I think Quentin is all for getting a <B>NEW</B> car imported from the continent (same spec etc)

But he's against buying a 2nd/3rd hand car from Japan, that may be on it's last legs, or a cut-n-shut, or whatever, that's not of UK spec.

Seems fair enough to me.

Although, he's a journalist and by definition can't be relied upon to give a factual/objective viewpoint.

TRIGGER

Unfortunately Quentin Wilson is not bothered so much by all things dodgy, but really does have a thing against grey importing - he is always on about it and is always the spokesman (or expert, supposedly) on consumer programs.

Grey imports are just as likely to be dodgy as any other car - it is harder to check as even the best cars come with no paperwork or history - mine actually came with the original Japanese paperwork, which I had a client of mine translate. But if you buy from a reputable importer and one that will still be around next year, there are very few problems.

MattN

I remember the last programme the BBC did on grey imports. Hard Cash.

They had to retract most of it as it wasn't meaningful, correct and all one sided which the BBC have rules against.

One muppet couldn't drive his car cos it was a 'grey' and therfore unsafe!!

I wonder if Mitsubishi will comment this time round seeing as they now import 2nd hand greys????

It would be good to have a big company saying,"not all greys are bad" in fact most are good (maybe better than UK cars!!!).

Wilson is a cretin, ill informed and a common criminal. We need a pro-grey celeb to counter his arguments, as they seem to influence the minds of most car buyers. Maybe we can get VBH to say go grey, then we all would!!!