I Think I'm Turning Japanese

[saturnv7890]

Wow yeah I've been following these theads... and it ends in a scion?

You were gonna pay out the ass to have a car brought over from japan?

$3000 and a plane ticket to california would've landed you exactly what you thought you were looking for.

But hey congrats on getting a car!

[Poorboyz]

I read both threads and at the end its a scion...ugh

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[EVLE30]

Not a bad idea. I would have bought the BRZ but I work for Subaru so I'm biased :p

I like the front fascia a bit better on the FR-S, and from what I've read, the FR-S has a slight tendency towards oversteer whereas the BR-Z tends toward understeer. I prefer oversteer. :)

[Roysneon]

So.... long story short.... I bought a Scion FR-S. :D

Thanks to everyone for their help and advice along the way. Enjoy your E30's!!!

Not a bad idea. I would have bought the BRZ but I work for Subaru so I'm biased :p

[EVLE30]

So.... long story short.... I bought a Scion FR-S. :D

Thanks to everyone for their help and advice along the way. Enjoy your E30's!!!

[EVLE30]

^ wow, that's an awesome tool. I've never heard of that before. Thanks for sharing!

[word is bond]

I highly recommend using this site to search through craigslist:

http://www.autotempest.com/

[EVLE30]

This.

There are lots of good cars in North America, you just need to be patient. And if you are willing to look in Canada and USA then I'm sure you'll find something. Even if you buy an E30 from Japan you're still going to need patience because it's going to take time to get here.

Also most Japanese E30's are auto (not sure if you car or not).

What about this car...

http://saskatoon.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-cars-trucks-1990-BMW-325is-e30-Rebuilt-Engine-All-Original-NEEDS-TO-GO-W0QQAdIdZ485515347

The guy has a thread on r3v.

Don't worry about mileage! The best E30 I've owned had nearly 400,000 kms! And I've owned 2 with 160,000 kms and they were terrible.

Yup. I already contacted that guy, eager to buy it. But it got sold before I could make anything happen.

Yeah, I'm patient..... sort of. lol. I'm willing to look and wait for the right car, but at the same time, sometimes I just want a car NOW. haha I'm sure something good will turn up in a local market. It already has once. But it was early in my hunt, and I hadn't really learned enough and seen enough to jump on chance to buy the car (it was an immaculate 1984 325e) and so it got sold literally the day I decided that I was going to make the owner an offer. I'm sure there will be other cars....

[HawaiianE30]

^waffleswaffleswaffleswafflesshitcrap buy it! Looks sweet, I would be jumping in my car right now if I wasn't stuck out here in the middle of the ocean!

[defaultName]

AFAIK, Japan got a lot of nice MT2 late-models. It may be worth picking up one of those, or a Touring, or something different from what the North American market got.

This.

There are lots of good cars in North America, you just need to be patient. And if you are willing to look in Canada and USA then I'm sure you'll find something. Even if you buy an E30 from Japan you're still going to need patience because it's going to take time to get here.

Also most Japanese E30's are auto (not sure if you car or not).

What about this car...

http://saskatoon.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-cars-trucks-1990-BMW-325is-e30-Rebuilt-Engine-All-Original-NEEDS-TO-GO-W0QQAdIdZ485515347

The guy has a thread on r3v.

Don't worry about mileage! The best E30 I've owned had nearly 400,000 kms! And I've owned 2 with 160,000 kms and they were terrible.

[evandael]

AFAIK, Japan got a lot of nice MT2 late-models. It may be worth picking up one of those, or a Touring, or something different from what the North American market got.

[EVLE30]

If you can score a minty ride for a good price imported from Japan, go for it.

I would personally look into cars on my continent first, but I'm also not a huge fan of paperwork/dealing with government bullshit. Maybe importing from Japan to Canada is easy though?

I also support looking for a car that is located somewhere you really want to go and driving it home ;)

The importation part would be easy, as everything would be taken care of by the auction/broker and included in the "all-in" cost I mentioned earlier. I would literally have the car show up on driveway.

agreed..

have you tried looking at vancouver CL? I just checked and found several late model 2-door 5speed E30s in decent shape for < $4k.

Thanks for that heads-up/reminder about Craigslist. I've been only using Kijiji and Autotrader for the time being, but it sounds like there are some good offerings in Vancouver through CL. And I take drives from Calgary to Vancouver all the time, just for the fun of the mountain roads. So that's definitely a good option.

I'm not saying that I've given up on North America, I just want to consider Japan as well. But having never imported a car from overseas I'm trying to do a "sanity check" thorugh the forum to see if there are any strong reasons to do it, or not do it.

[coldweatherblue]

I also support looking for a car that is located somewhere you really want to go and driving it home ;)

agreed..

have you tried looking at vancouver CL? I just checked and found several late model 2-door 5speed E30s in decent shape for < $4k.

[Threehz]

If you can score a minty ride for a good price imported from Japan, go for it.

I would personally look into cars on my continent first, but I'm also not a huge fan of paperwork/dealing with government bullshit. Maybe importing from Japan to Canada is easy though?

I also support looking for a car that is located somewhere you really want to go and driving it home ;)

[EVLE30]

Don't let the low mileage part fool you into thinking the engine has less wear. Seems kind of pointless to import if its for no special reason.

Fair enough. And good point. And thank you.

That's the kind of feedback/thoughts/comments I'm looking for...... i.e. pro's and con's of Japanese importation.