Buying a car from Japan
- First you need to know what model you are looking for, what year, mileage and what is the total budget for getting the vehicle? You should definitely take into account all the costs incurred during registration in Estonia or in other countries. Costs can vary a lot between countries in terms of taxes and legislation related costs.
- In Estonia : Single type approval certificate cost is around 500-800€ VAT (+200€ government fee for applying single type approval )per vehicle and state fee for initial registration is 192€.
- Also required prior registration : Replacement of headlights because the light beam angle on Japanese market cars is on the wrong side, even when your vehicle is LHD from Japan. Replacement of navigation and audio systems because the Japanese FM frequency is significantly shorter than the European FM frequency band. Also, navigation devices do not work with the same software as we have in Europe. Please note that LHD headlights for some newer European cars might be very expensive to replace.
- After collecting preliminary information, we will propose vehicles with similar parameters that will be auctioned in the coming days. If you have decided to make an offer for a car, you should do so at least 12 hours before the start of the auction! In order to submit an offer, it is necessary to pay an auction participation deposit of approx. €1,200 (incl 20% VAT) based on the invoice we provide, which we will deduct from the final price after purchasing the vehicle.
- No one can bid on auctions without a deposit. The deposit is refundable if, after a long search, you cannot find a suitable vehicle, but then you have to take into account the additional cost of €150, which is left to the Japanese broker for submitting offers and sharing information. It takes an average of few days to return the deposit.
- If the first offer was not successful, you can make offers for the following cars with the same deposit. If you want to buy several vehicles, a deposit of €1,200 must be left for each vehicle to be purchased. If the bid is successful, we will invoice the remaining cost of the vehicle and shipping from Japan.
- You have 3 days to pay the invoice, because auctions require immediate car purchase. If the payment has also been received in Japan (usually 3-4 days), our contact on the Japanese side starts organizing the car’s transport and prepares the documents for exporting the car from Japan (Export Certificate), which takes about 3 weeks.
- When the vehicle’s documents are ready, the car waits for shipping either in the storage yard for container loading or RoRo loading.
- Shipping from Japan to Estonia takes approximately 2 months. When the vehicle has arrived in Estonia, we will complete the customs clearing and after paying the taxes and releasing the goods, you can pick up the car at our dealership.
- NB! From 01.02.2019, the free trade agreement concluded between the EU and Japan entered into force, due to which customs duties on goods of Japanese preferential origin will gradually disappear over a period of 8 years. In the case of used vehicles, there is a gradual reduction in customs duty by 1.2% increments per year. So today’s duty is 3.8% and it will decrease by 1.2% every year until it reaches 0%. Note that this does not apply to vehicles of European origin (BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Alfa-Romeo, Fiat, etc.)
- Motogate OÜ services pricing can be found here
- Please contact us for more detailed information