Exporting Japanese Car parts!!

[pharoh]

I've lived and worked in Japan for three years. Now i'm back in Toronto, my hometown. While in Japan I noticed/realized that automobiles and their parts become obsolete much quicker than in the west, where a used car part can be very useful. This spurred my idea to import Japanese car parts from Japan. Is anybody engaged in such a business operation, looking for a partner in Canada? or if any other comments regarding the feasibility of this potential venture would be posted, I'd realy appreciate it.

Thanks

[edinjapan]

I've lived and worked in Japan for three years. Now i'm back in Toronto, my hometown. While in Japan I noticed/realized that automobiles and their parts become obsolete much quicker than in the west, where a used car part can be very useful. This spurred my idea to import Japanese car parts from Japan. Is anybody engaged in such a business operation, looking for a partner in Canada? or if any other comments regarding the feasibility of this potential venture would be posted, I'd realy appreciate it.

Thanks

It's a good business but, you'll have to beat the Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis off with a stick as they swarm the auctions and snap up all the good stuff.

[eku]

you forget about the dominicans, peruvians, brazilians etc...
mind you, with car parts, you dont need papers, stolen cars will do... but then you gonna have to beat the east europeans off with a stick :D

BUT... anyone with half a brain would start exporting used electical appliances, there is going to be a glut on the market pretty soon.

[edinjapan]

BUT... anyone with half a brain would start exporting used electical appliances, there is going to be a glut on the market pretty soon.

True, and don't forget to get yourself a few nasty looking Nigerians to keep all the Africans in line and make sure they pay in cash and not promises.

[eku]

True, and don't forget to get yourself a few nasty looking Nigerians to keep all the Africans in line and make sure they pay in cash and not promises.
funny thing is... the nigerians around here run the most honest yards and pay the best money (we instal english OS into used japanese PC for them at 1 man a pop)
worst are the iranians we know (i am sure there are nice ones out there... but the ones around here are dangerous) coming in a close second are the peruvian yards.
the nigerians just LOOK scary. :D

[edinjapan]

funny thing is... the nigerians around here run the most honest yards and pay the best money (we instal english OS into used japanese PC for them at 1 man a pop)
worst are the iranians we know (i am sure there are nice ones out there... but the ones around here are dangerous) coming in a close second are the peruvian yards.
the nigerians just LOOK scary. :D

I don't deal with the Islamics as they are just too crazy. The African's I know have one bad habit. They will try to knock the price of an item down after they have signed the contract. I would design the material, get their names on the contract and on the delivery day they would try to get me to reduce the price by \10,000 or more.

I've never seen them do that with a computer, software or such but if you design a sign or flyers for them they always want to try this stunt.

[finskater]

I've lived and worked in Japan for three years. Now i'm back in Toronto, my hometown. While in Japan I noticed/realized that automobiles and their parts become obsolete much quicker than in the west, where a used car part can be very useful. This spurred my idea to import Japanese car parts from Japan. Is anybody engaged in such a business operation, looking for a partner in Canada? or if any other comments regarding the feasibility of this potential venture would be posted, I'd realy appreciate it.

Thanks

been there done that!

8 years ago, my jpnese partner and i started this biz of buying car parts from scrapyards for re export. the biz failed for various reasons.

Firstly, the scrapyard owners weren't even interested in us! why? because we couldn't compete with the many foreign buyers who were literally camping out at the scrapyard. at the entrance, they would bid for the cars coming in.

on a successful bid, cold hard cash were exchanged and the cars would be driven into a corner of the yard rented by the foreign buyers. the cars were then be stripped into parts and stuffed into containers within hours!

we couldn't compete because we were not prepared to 'camp' out at the yards. somehow the idea of living in a container in squalid conditions just doesn't appeal to us.

as for hiring help, you will still have to be present to do the bidding cause it involves cold cash.

lastly, the scrapyard owners would rather sell the whole car as oppose to waste time and labor dismantling parts for us.

however, we managed to have a few shipments exported to Asia but the biz wasn't making profit due to the high labor cost of stripping the parts.

good luck!

[tanmedia]

been there done that!

8 years ago, my jpnese partner and i started this biz of buying car parts from scrapyards for re export. the biz failed for various reasons.

Firstly, the scrapyard owners weren't even interested in us! why? because we couldn't compete with the many foreign buyers who were literally camping out at the scrapyard. at the entrance, they would bid for the cars coming in.

on a successful bid, cold hard cash were exchanged and the cars would be driven into a corner of the yard rented by the foreign buyers. the cars were then be stripped into parts and stuffed into containers within hours!

we couldn't compete because we were not prepared to 'camp' out at the yards. somehow the idea of living in a container in squalid conditions just doesn't appeal to us.

as for hiring help, you will still have to be present to do the bidding cause it involves cold cash.

lastly, the scrapyard owners would rather sell the whole car as oppose to waste time and labor dismantling parts for us.

however, we managed to have a few shipments exported to Asia but the biz wasn't making profit due to the high labor cost of stripping the parts.

good luck!

-- Interesting. I know a guy who's been doing it for quite a few years out of Osaka, and he's made a fortune exporting parts only to Australia--so much that he's now retired (for the time being) in his 30s. He's been renting his own yard and hiring foreigners at 20,000 yen per day to take them apart for him. I guess he's had everything worked out upstream and realized what parts needed to be supplied. Even though I don't anything about the business, I would think exporting parts to Asia would be difficult because of the relatively low margins. At least in a country like Oz, where the local car industry is protected, parts for Japanese cars would probably fetch a premium.

[donpaulo]

considering that any japanese part manufacturer worth their salt has already set up shop in China the margins are higher than before.

I saw a huge Koito sign on the Shanghai highway. And Jataco has a plant in Vietnam.

my advice ?

its quite likely that J car parts are "re" exported from Japan... therefore go to the source.

[B1-B2]

I am just looking into sending whole cars back to OZ does anyone have advice on this?

[terry66]

Yeah make sure you know exactally waht will sell and what won`t. I have a contact (that i have put several GP`s on to) that sells cars before they go to auction and one of his friends only sells parts for export! This friend ships all over the world including aust/nz and africa! He said that you really need to do your research and not just buy everything! I saw his yard and it was immpresive, some quite nice cars with a bit of damage getting stripped and containered ready to go! Once again make sure you know what will sell or your in for a whole lot of hurt!

[yashchenko]

Hello , this is my view.

I am in this business, it has changed from 5 years ago, and it became difficult, but still good chance for smart people.

Before, everybody bought cheap cars at scrapyards, but now Japanese became smart , they try to sell it from the aucions, even if the is nothing at all

What we do now, is buying 30 cars from auction during 1 day, and a 40feet container is ready in a week for shipment to ANY PLACE in the world.

But, many countries have different regulations and sometimes it becomes tough to import without special documents, but still possible.

I fully disagree about parts REEXPORTED from Japan.

Used parts are very cheap here, they are better quality than Chinese one, and you are sure that they FIT your car.

We even exported used parts to China once, they are still chaper after 30% import tax in Shanghai

[giggio26]

Hi, i'm intersted in importing some japanese car parts.
Can you give me contacts of some companies that do this business? if you want through pm
thanks!

[homesweethome]

I used to ride a mini-bike back in the US and as I recall the price for a used one was just a little less than new. Used bikes seems to sell as soon as they came in. In Japan there are used motor bikes and cycles all over the place. Anybody doing or interested in exporting/importing used Japanese bikes and scooters and/or parts?

[shikami K. Akweyu]

Hi there I urgently need used parts for Honda Civic as follows;


Details of the car are as follows;

Make: Honda Civic Hatchback
Year: 2001
Chassis: Eu1-1029244
Model type: s6a1ov5-nh623mx-y-s

Parts
1. Front windshield
2. Hind windshield
3. Rear right tail lamp

[Makanji]

Bwana Shikami
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Nitumie e-mail kwa lmakanji@yahoo.co.uk
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Oli omulyia. Esie endi omushisa.
Nyasaye akhulinde

[Rich-Kyle]

Hey Pharoh, I liked your idea of importing Japanese parts to Canada as the market is really hot over here. I know one such company from US known as automotix.net dealing in used car and truck parts, used engines and transmissions etc. You can also view their used engines page here http://www.automotix.net/usedengines/