Looking to import a 1993-1996 Prado to the US and wondered what yall thought about doing the legwork myself for importing through beforward or is it worth the investment to work through an agent.
Very new to this process and I have a few questions. I’m 20 and have saved money for years for this process, want to make sure I do it right.
Regarding agents:
1. How much does an agent cost?
2. How much work does an agent do?
3. Where can I contact a reliable agent?
Regarding Beforward:
1. If I find a listing from a dealership that looks trustworthy is it a sane move to trust them
2. How much of a hassle is it to do that paperwork yourself
3. Can I try to convince them to bring the price down?
by 3tml4102
4 Comments
Bid on one using B-pro if you want one cheaper than dealer prices. There are 100 trustworth auction houses in Japan that do the inspections independently from the sellers.
Might take a couple tries to land the one you want.
Check out his interviews with gearhead syndrome on YT for how the process works.
Don’t touch beforward. I had access to an auction website through a broker and saw a 70 series Land Cruiser. I saw the exact Land Cruiser a few days after the auction listed on beforward at a 8k markup from the auction sold price. They didn’t change anything to it. Even the stickers the original owner slapped on the back glass was still on it. I’d only use them to buy kei trucks because their prices for those seem okay. Anything else I’d recommend a broker that lets you bid on auctions.
Hope this helps…
Regarding agents:
1. How much does an agent cost?
– Depends of the vehicle’s value mostly because there’s duty from tariffs and also port fees. But our agent cost around $1200 to do everything. That was their fee not including port fees and duty on the vehicle.
2. How much work does an agent do?
-Ours handled everything from guiding us through the buying, choosing the right port, making sure the shipping details are correct, the entire importation, all paperwork that needs to be filed with the govt agencies and the ports. We had to sign a few documents and send an email or two but AIMEXA handled everything else.
3. Where can I contact a reliable agent?
– I’d recommend AIMEXA US https://www.aimexaus.com/ they are based out of Southwest Florida but can have your car shipped to almost any port and imported to any state. Paul there helped us bring in our cars and made the whole process super easy. He’ll answer any of your questions.
Regarding Beforward:
1. If I find a listing from a dealership that looks trustworthy is it a sane move to trust them.
-Couldn’t tell you but I know beforwed is one of the sites we used. Paul helped us on that front too.
2. How much of a hassle is it to do that paperwork yourself
-There’s some paperwork we couldn’t do ourselves, but we found it worth the money to just let AIMEXA to do the whole thing for us.
3. Can I try to convince them to bring the price down
-I believe you can sometimes. I hoped this helps. GOODLUCK.
Beforward is not a scam in itself but it is about as close as you can get to throwing your money away if you’re not careful. Check out their trustpilot if you don’t believe me.
An agent is very worth it. I paid $1,500 for mine but they are stateside. Agents handle everything (paperwork, shipping, inspection, problems that come up at the port, port fees, etc).
There are quite a few respected ones, just have to search mostly. A favorite of mind in Japan is Midoriworks.
> Can I try to convince them to bring the price down?
Buying a car in Japan isn’t like the US. There’s not much room for haggling (both culturally and economically). These shops know what they are selling.
Also, just to call it out… if you can’t afford $1,500 for an agent, you don’t have business buying a 30 year old JDM import. Not trying to be rude at all. These cars are expensive as fuck to maintain.