5 replies to this topic

[Jimbo]

Some people just can't accept the fact there are good people out there who do bring these cars over legitimately. Don't forget apparently mine is a dodgy import sell-on aswell!. Even though I have every scrap of service history, testimonials from the original owner including photos from it IN Japan and it sounds like Mark has a fair bit of paperwork aswell. Unless we all know the full story, assumptions and stabs should'nt surface. I'm not trying to rustle anyone's Jimmy's here but sometimes I think certain others just need to keep their mouths shut. Even if someone did bring one over to sell-on, who cares, why should that tarnish the current owners hard work?

We are a tight community here and I even like to think of it as a "sanctuary" for these rare cars.

To Mark it sounds like yours has been brought here legitimately aswell. It's pretty easy to pick out the ones which don't quite add up.

Unfortunately some elitists just can't appreciate things for what they are and all the honest hard work that goes into it. Being rare imports and we, the people who eventually end up with them, unfortunately can't control how the car is looked after in someone else's possession and the clueless mechanics who service them. I like to think many of us here "save" these cars from agonising deaths at the hands of people who don't give a shit or don't really know what they have.

Mark has done a fantastic job of taking a good platform and making it even better. I would like to hope it will stay in this condition for it's lifetime, along with mine and others. 

[Miguel]

Actually "Rebuild" cars were almost entirely bought over illegitimately using a loophole to import non eligible cars and part of the reason for the move to the SEVS system. Entirely different to a personal import as yours is Jimbo.

 

The idea for this scheme was for cars which had been written off locally to be rebuilt using an imported shell, however entire cars could be bought into the country up until 2001(Now they have to be chopped up and dismantled) which meant that instead of local cars being reassembled into a JDM shell JDM cars were essentially rebirthed using a written off local vehicles details to acquire a surrogate VIN.

 

All sorts of other abuse happened whilst this loophole was open such as track only imports being put on the road. Local and overseas cars being stolen and then 'rebuilt' using an 'imported' shell etc.

This was all followed with a police investigation which lead to a final shitstorm in 2005 where Vicroads recalled vehicles with these kinds of VINS as many had fraudulently been signed off for ADR's. Vicroads paid for all vehicles to be assessed and any which did not meet ADR's they paid for necessary modifications to be undertaken as well. Vehicles which were dangerous or were found to be stolen were bought back or seized.

 

As dodgy as these scheme turned out to be really we've ended up with some awesome cars over here that (save for a handful of personally imported examples) we'd never have a chance to otherwise have in Australia and it's safe to say as well that the cars that are still on the road with these VINS despite how they came to be here should still be pretty damn good cars(maintainance by ausssie owners not necessarily withstanding).

 

Sorry to sorta hijack your thread but this stuff is all terribly interesting to me. I first became aware of these cars a few years back when I was looking at an EF3 Civic but still didn't really know what the go was. Then a couple of months back when I was looking at a 1st gen GT wagon I decided to do some proper digging to find out what I was in for and where I stood on things.

 

Couple of interesting things I dug up when I was looking at the Leggy

 

Police slideshow about one of their operations.
http://docdroid.net/h5wi

Ombudsmans report (from Page 33 onwards)

https://www.ombudsma...50-ac325687a27c

[Niko]

^^ I like this guy.

Sounds like you're really head over heels Mark, such good economy. Like you said, mechanically and aesthetically above average, so who cares about VINs, it's all about the satin black.

[Reevesy]

@SubyDr You imply that you know the automotive business (especially in Melbourne) inside and and out. But you have failed/refused to mention what your experience or involvement in all of it is.
You come into Marks thread one day and blast him for the way he does things and the sources he uses with a very negative attitude when you haven't even given us a run down on your background.
So forgive us for taking what you say with a grain of salt until you can start backing up your claims with evidence/sources.


Sorry Mark for clogging up your thread with the rubbish.

More pics of GTB please

[Miguel]

Miguel is wrong .

 

The cost to recomply the cars was at the current owners expense at the time. A vast majority where sold by the owners as they where shit scared of how bad VicRoads where going to make the cars comply.  

Often the cars had passed through a number of owners since being signed off. A lot of them where just parted out or turned into race cars.

 

You could purchase a crashed GTB wagon in 2000-2002 for about 7k-10 and buy some local history (and a crashed car with the parts to repair) for about 5-8 merge this lot together and sell it in the mid

to low 40s. Common market economic forces and greed took over. You couldnt buy a non crashed car and make the same money you could with a crashed one. I know some guys that where making 10-20 k per car

doing this at the time. You struggled to make more than about 8 with a non crashed one

 

You even had dealers in on it .

Sorry I guess myself, articles from he time such as this one http://www.theage.co...rom=moreStories and plenty of threads from enthusiast forums with owners angry and wondering wtf is going on are all completely wrong then?

[skillionaire]

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