Special Thanks to Bird 

"JDMatt" (JDMatt) 05/03/2015 at 20:42 • Filed to: Thank you, thanks, greatful, MZ20, soarer, roadtrip motorcars, importing a car

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Bird, Thank you so much for your help on my Import/Export management project. For those of you who don’t know, I did a project for my Import/Export management class where I hypothetically imported a 1990 Nissan Skyline GTR from Japan to the USA. Bird is a registered importer, and he was a valuable source of information on the importation process. If I decide to make my dream of importing a Skyline to the USA a reality, I know who to call.

My Professor is a Japanese Citizen, and she personally imported a Volvo 850 from Japan to the USA 20 years ago, and she commented immediately after I gave my oral presentation that I filed all the forms out correctly and that all my facts were correct.

Thank you so much for your help. The first 2 segments of my project received an A+. The grades for my final section and my oral presentation haven’t been released yet, but I feel like I got an A+ also.

Side note, thank you opposite lock for being a channel of communication for car enthusiasts to connect with one another. Without Oppo, my project would have been harder to complete!

jkm7680 > JDMatt 05/03/2015 at 20:44

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Wooo for Opponauts helping Opponauts!

LeadfootYT > JDMatt 05/03/2015 at 21:18

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Neat! Sounds like a cool project. Question though—having had this experience, which parts would you hand off to an importer if you were to import a vehicle in the future, and which would you do yourself? Curious your input, and the level of difficulty with the paperwork.

JDMatt > LeadfootYT 05/03/2015 at 21:54

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If it’s your first time, I would get as much help with the transaction as I could get.

in the pro forma invoice, if you agree to the incoterm CIF (cost including freight), this means that the seller assumes all responsibility for the car until it arrives at their place of business. It’s less stress on your end, but more money. Doug Demuro did this when importing his skyline, he just wrote the importer one check and called it a day.

If you would like to have more control over the shipping process, the FOB (free on board) incoterm is more ideal. Free on board means that the seller assumes responsibility over the car until it is on the boat at the port where it will be exported. Many cars that are exported from Japan are shipped this way, because the guy who buys the car for you at the auctions speaks japanese, knows how to de-register the car for exportation, and he has a contact with a shipping company to get your car on the boat.

A genuine piece of advice that I can give you would be to hire a customs broker. Their rates vary, but their service is worth it. Customs brokers have access to some forms that your importer may not have. If you are shipping your car CIF, the fees for a customs broker are included in the price of the car.

Japan exports a lot of used cars. When you seriously talk to an importer, a lot of preconceived notions about shipping a car will fade away.

Ferrero1911 > JDMatt 05/04/2015 at 03:04

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Glad you did well on the project! That was actually me that you were emailing with most of the time, although we both worked on the answers to your questions. One thing, we’re not a registered importer, just a dealer importing cars. Registered Importers are who you call if you want to modify cars into compliance that are less than 25 years old.

JDMatt > Ferrero1911 05/04/2015 at 04:57

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Yikes! I know you and bird work as a team! I should have given you credit also. But yeah, I knew damn well that both of you guys had to be helping me. I really appreciate the help!

You made this project bearable. Your advice steered me in the right direction. Because I (probably) have a perfect score on my term project, I don’t really have to worry about taking the final.

Keep up the good work guys! if you come up to the Bay Area, I totally owe you guys a beer.

LeadfootYT > JDMatt 05/04/2015 at 15:14

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Very cool stuff. If I do finally sell my two E39s, I might genuinely look into the process (a manual turbodiesel Hilux would be an excellent daily...).

Thanks!