You have to be careful buying from Japan.
It's a better idea to get someone to import it for you it's a lot less hassle.
There are many factors to think about:
1. The Yakusa steal cars to order and export them.. (make sure it's not one of these)
2. you need to know what kind of condition the car is... they go in auction grades usually....
1 is old clunker.
5 is brand new.
However the best you'll probably get is 4.5 which is very good condition but used.
Lots of this can affect this i.e. modifications so beware.
Preferable get the car checked over by someone
3. Transporting it... this can range from about £1000+ for (roll on-roll off) to about £6000 ish for (container) you'd be wise to get some kind of insurance too.. just incase they accidentally drive your car off the ship in to the water!!
4. Import duty and tax... now this is a stinger... import duty can vary a bit but it has been known to be as high as 10% on top of the car and the transportation.... then you have to pay VAT on it too.
So on a £10000 purchase and £1000 shipment charge you'd pay £3217.50 in tax and charges.
5. SVA test this stands for (Single vehicle approval test) it's like a big MOT but can cost around £400 mark.
You'd also nee to get the car up to regulations for driving in this country... i.e fit a rear fog lamp, change the speedo to MPH... sometimes the tyres need to be changed... the ecu will in some cases's need to be sorted so the car will run on our unleaded.. most we get 98 octane, in japan they have 100 octane. Also you'd want to have it derestricted.. otherwise it'll only do 112 mph.
6. Insurance... now there are plenty of companies that'll insure imports but most will charge you a fortune for doing it.. put it this way my Celica GT4 UK version costs me £720 p.a. fully comp.. with the alloy wheels etc. The same GT4 on an import would cost me over £1000p.a.
7. Parts and servicing... there are places now that can source you any part for an import, but main dealers on the most part now won't deal with imports even if they have a similar version in this country.
8. Resale value... Be prepared to loss quite a bit here, because of the problems with import ownership i.e. insurance etc... most are not worth alot in resale value!!
I hope this has helped you.. i'm not trying to put you off buying from Japan, if i could afford it i'd have a Skyline R33 or R34 tomorrow on an import, i love jap cars... but i would say if you can get a proper UK version, i would, it's a lot less hassle in the long run.
Some cars though you'd have no choice on.. like Mitsubishi EVO's they are ALL imports... they only started offically importing them near the end of the EVO 6's and they would be through Rallyart.