What does JDM mean?
JDM stands for Japanese Domestic Market. That is, cars that were built in Japan for its VERY fussy home population. While some JDM cars have a UK equivalent with a different name (the Mazda Roadster is pretty much the MX5) or have been sold here in the past (like the Toyota Previa, now imported as the Estima), there will always be  differences between a JDM model and a Euro-built version. Build quality, materials, features and even overall dimensions differ. All are invariably better on a JDM version.

Is it a 'grey import'?
Yes... If you like! New and prestige car dealers love this term as it suggests that there's something shady or not quite legal about importing a vehicle that challenges their stock for luxury and value. In fact, since the decline of the British manufacturing base, most of the cars on our roads today have been imported, and these are no more or less grey than those brought in by small enterprises like ours. All must have an export cerificate, proof of duty and VAT paid, a NOVA letter, an IVA if less than ten years old and an MOT before being issued with a V5C and a registration plate. At this point it's as black and white as any other car.

 

Don't be shy about asking your JDM dealer for any or all of these if you have even the slightest doubt. You may also want to look at the auction sheet which shows the car's grading.

Why buy a JDM car?
Japanese imports offer something special: Unusual, attention-grabbing motors free of rust, often with exceptionally low mileage, treated with lifelong care in a country with the strictest car safety standards in the world - and all for the same price as a scratched Vauxhall. The provinces south of the Kanto Plain, where we buy, are warm and temperate and the roads are not salted. Japanese families value their cars, drive them rarely and change them often. Most of the cars we purchase have had one owner.
 

Many Japanese MPVs offer supreme comfort and a high driving position which, along with automatic transmission, makes them perfect for drivers with mobility or movement issues. The easily-stowable third row of seats in MPVs means a family man can swap from kids to cargo to camping in moments.

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How will I get the spare parts?
Most JDM vehicles use engines well-known to (and respected by) UK mechanics, like the Mitsubishi Mivec or Honda Vitec engine. Many parts such as filters, wiper blades and ball joints will match other models in the brand. The batteries used by JDM cars, once hard to find, are now available everywhere and even things such as new wheel sensors, which must match the model (and wheel) specifically, can be easily found on Ebay or through specialist online suppliers/breakers such as Mitzy Bitz. The only real problem comes when you break something big on the outer shell, like a headlight or a windscreen. At this point you may need the help of the community groups set up in the UK for each car. We've detailed these on our BEST SELLERS page.

​​Will my family be safe?
The Japanese Shaken (their version of the MOT) keeps a cradle-to-grave file on every vehicle to which every garage must subscribe, making it practically impossible to interfere with a car’s true mileage or hide any repair work. Every fault, from pinhole dents to replaced panels, shows up on the auction sheet when it goes up for sale.

All cars are strictly checked and graded. We buy only 3.5, 4 and 4.5 grade cars (good, very good and excellent). These cars generally fly through their UK MOT, needing only adaptations such as rear fogs for UK roads.Where work is needed, we always pass the paperwork on and inform you before sale.

All of our family cars have at least five airbags, rear cameras and immobiliser systems (unless noted otherwise), and are built by brands at the cutting edge of passenger safety.

 

The Japanese auction system sells 77,000 vehicles every week, each one carefully inspected and graded. The cars are further inspected by our own agents before purchase.

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Are all JDM cars petrol automatics?
The vast majority of the cars we sell are petrol-driven and either fully automatic or automatic / CVT. You would need to go back to the 1990s to find a basic Japanese diesel car, and almost all domestic models have automatic transmission - even those with lots of grunt like the Lexus LS or even a 1992 Nissan Gloria Gran Turismo V6 Ultima. Only those cars built specifically with racing or time trials in mind tend to come with manual gears.

Petrol still has the bulk of the market today. Although Japan makes plenty of good hybrid models it has not embraced full EVs the way Western governments have, preferring to look at a wider range of options in forestalling climate disaster. Japan is much further down the road with making a viable hydrogen engine than we are, while the newest Toyota and Mitsubishi MPVs now come with a green diesel option. This is cleaner than petrol but unlikely to win any converts on these shores since our government has put a lot of money into telling us that diesel is the Devil's wee. The Japanese Kei car - 660cc, tiny, capable of getting to the shops on a teaspoon of fuel and taxed accordingly - is another Japanese innovation that should have caught on here, but didn't, because our leaders just don't have the vision to consider multiple solutions to a problem. (Ask us about Kei cars and vans if you like the look of them! They are super cute, incredibly economical and we can source them.)

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Do they need any modifications for UK roads?

Japan drives on the left, like us, and their regulations are strict enough that your import should need very little doing to it. It must pass an MOT before it can be registered, so be assured that it is UK road safe if it has a plate. Japanese cars have no rear fog, and this must be fitted to pass MOT. It's worth checking that this has been done.

 

It is not a legal necessity to switch the speedo to mph if the car is at least ten years old. However we ALWAYS switch or modify the speedo to mph and we always underspray the vehicle to protect against UK road conditions. Most of Japan is temperate/subtropical and they do not salt their roads, thus their domestic models have no underside protection.

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When shopping for a JDM car you may read / hear all sorts of nonsense from the seller about the underside not needing any underspray because it doesn't have any rust, or something about underspray invalidating the maker's warranty / not being advised by the manufacturer. Some even claim that underspray is used to HIDE rust. Be in no doubt: a JDM car HAS no manufacturer's warranty to invalidate, as makers give no advice on cars sold outside their intended market. The underbelly of your perfect car WILL start to oxidise quite quickly if not protected. Anyone selling a JDM car who is not willing to undertake this task is either lazy, uninformed or just trying to save themselves a few quid.

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​​​​​​​​​​Will anyone insure it?

In a word: Yes. Someone definitely will! Just ten years ago anyone with so much as an unusual exhaust had to go to the supercar insurer Adrian Flux. These days the 'High street' insurers have realised how much cash they were missing out on and most now offer cover to some people and some JDM models. We offer suggestions for each car in the BEST SELLERS section but it really does depend who you are, what your job is, how your driving history stacks up and how close your operator is to their Christmas bonus. Be assured you WILL find two or three options for each model, and a price not TOO far off what you'd pay for something far more boring.

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What is the road tax like?

Road tax is sometimes a bargain. Because the DVLA moves at the speed of a sea cucumber after a pie-eating contest, it hasn't updated its pricing structure in years and so all Japanese imports are classed as PLG (public light goods) in the UK. Vehicles are taxed at £210 a year for anything of 1549cc or under, and £345 a year for an engine larger than this. And this really does mean ANYTHING larger than 1550cc, so that the difference in owning, say, an imported Lexus LS or Toyota Land Cruiser rather than a home-bought one is a whopping £350 or so to the better. These are 2024 prices; the DVLA puts them up every April along with most other car categories.

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What do I need to consider before buying?

Always ask to see the auction sheet. Private sellers may not have it, and should have owned the car long enough to reassure you about its history anyway, but an importer/dealer should have retained this in order to prove the vehicle's grade, along with any other important documents.

 

If you see a car you like the look of on Ebay, Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace, your first contact with the seller should ask to see the auction sheet - particularly if the car seems rather cheap. If you get an evasive answer, or none at all, then walk away. We sell only 3.5 (good), 4 (very good) and 4.5 (excellent) grade imports.

 

A vehicle's history is effectively erased upon export, but most of it is there on the auction sheet, so make sure you see it. A particularly unscrupulous dealer may show you an amended version, and if you sense your seller is dishonest you may wish to ask for the VIN number and check the car yourself on https://carvx.jp for about £20. If the dealer won't supply the VIN so you can do this, walk away. If upon checking the auction sheet provided doesn't match the one on carvx, run!

Be aware that anything rated RA has been repaired (but may be fine, as Japanese people tend to replace an entire panel after a small ding) whereas anything rated R or unrated is equivalent to scrapped or insurance writeoff (what used to be known as class N in the UK before it was replaced with A.B,C and D). Unrated means the auction house considers it a case of 'caveat emptor' and won't inspect or rate it; its sheet will look like the one shown with boxes crossed through and the Japanese word for 'invalid' in large characters. These cars are still auctioned, often driveable and sometimes get exported to be repaired and resold overseas.

Resellers are a menace, particularly those that buy huge volumes from Japanese auctions to tranship via Singapore and Malaysia. These fixed-price sellers will have no auction sheet to show you - in fact they rely on nobody else seeing it. So always ask. It will give you a good sense of the seller as much as the car!

 

If still in doubt use https://carvx.jp. Satisfy yourself, but don't be too suspicious. If the car has come direct from a USS auction then it's clean. The auction house will have already checked the car's history before agreeing to sell it, in a country with a ruthless record-keeping regime, very tight laws and little corruption. It's when resellers get involved beyond Japanese shores that things get muddy.

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This should be your checklist:

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- Long MOT with no serious advisories
- Underspray carried out
- Speedo conversion done
- Rear fog fitted
- Dealer willing to show you the auction sheet (check VIN matches!)
- OR UK seller with evidence of vehicle history (same as with any car)

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Do you only stock MPVs?
We mostly buy seven or eight-seater MPVs but also the occasional hatchback and luxury sedan, if it's a model we admire and it's not easily available in the UK. We are especially fond of the gobsmacking looks of the Toyota bB, the comfort of the Lexus LS and the just-about-everything of the Toyota Crown Athlete. We only buy 'family' cars for general sale.

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What about sports cars / dream cars?
Yes, we can supply you with a JDM supercar. Since the 25-year rule allowed older imports into the US, and the rash of Fast & Furious movies sold the Tokyo Drift scene to Americans, Japanese supercars such as the Mitsubishi Evo and the Nissan Skyline have gone through the roof pricewise. There are still many models from the Japanese golden age of 86-98 that are more or less affordable, however. Our agent in Japan knows the high-octane models very well and we can certainly find whatever you're looking for. SImply CONTACT US and explain what you're after; we'll tell you the price you can realistically expect to pay. Alternatively, use the form in the DREAM CARS section.

 

We generally take a downpayment of 20 percent of the estimated total before launching a search; this is essential as performance models may be heavily modified, harder to insure, older, more beset with bodywork issues / gremlins and generally harder for us to sell on in the case of a default.

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What kind of aftercare / advice will I get?

We will look after anything that goes wrong in the first month that isn't caused by mistreatment or accident. We also supply a six-month third-party warranty as standard,

After that, be assured that you will never be lonely with a JDM car! The Facebook groups set up around each model are genuinely helpful and will happily advise you on everything from making your purchase to fitting new tyres. Additionally, if we sell you a car and you have ANY questions afterwards, please just call. We can advise on useful websites, parts suppliers, equipment and garages that can best service your pride and joy.

 

Any other questions? Find us on the CONTACT US page. Please be aware that we may be under a car, down the Asda or having custard rubbed in our hair by children, but we WILL call you back!

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Happy motoring and 行ってらっしゃい (be safe out there!)

 

Liam

Devon JDM
 

 

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