Whilst importing a car from Japan can be a lengthy and complicated process, that doesn’t mean that you have to endure the process. You can get the benefits of the imported Japanese car without actually having to complete the process yourself.

In short, the process consists of:

Put your vehicle on the vessel in Japan

• Deregister the vehicle in Japan
• Complete the appropriate shipping paperwork
• Prepare UK legal paperwork and documents
• Communicate with UK customs
• Give them the appropriate paperwork
• Deal with custom clearance

I don’t know about you, but the very mention of paperwork and legal documentation is enough to make my eyes glaze over, so what if you were to find someone who would do all this for you? They would probably charge a small fortune for the privilege wouldn’t they? No, not necessarily. You do need to pick the right company of course.

Autoadvan and Japaneseauctions have been in this game for over ten years now, they know everything there is to know about the documents, the paperwork, the shipping and customs. They will do all of this for you and best of all; there charge is a small admin fee of between a couple of hundred pounds and five hundred pounds. With auction there’s currently an offer on which means you get this for a mere £250. I think you’ll agree that this isn’t very much money when they take all of the hard work from you. Basically all you have left to do is collect the car from the docks when it reaches the UK.

Any other costs which are incurred in the shipping process, which include shipping costs, Import duty and VAT, shipping agent fee, Mot and registration plus fog light and speedo converter and SVA test for cars under 10 years old will be invoiced by the respective companies so you can be sure that you are paying only what you should be paying.

Very little work could be providing you with the car of your dreams at a more than affordable price.

The whole of the process described above takes approximately five to six weeks because of the long distance involved in getting the car from Japan to the UK, and the respective companies will do everything in between those times. All you really need to worry about is arranging an insurance cover note, MOT and tax. Oh, and a lift to the dock. What could be easier?