Japan has over 120 active car auction venues. Every week, roughly 140,000 vehicles pass through these auction halls across the country. This is the supply chain that feeds the entire UK JDM import market, and most UK buyers never learn how it works. Your importer bids at these auctions on your behalf. The car you … Read more
Every car that passes through a Japanese auction house receives a grade. The grade is an independent assessment of the car’s condition, carried out by the auction house’s inspector before the sale. It is the single most important piece of information on the auction sheet, and it is the value your importer uses to filter … Read more
The IVA test is one of the things that makes people nervous about importing a car from Japan. It sounds intimidating (Individual Vehicle Approval) and the government documentation reads like it was written to discourage you. The reality is less dramatic. The IVA is a structured safety and emissions inspection. It checks that the car … Read more
For a Japanese car bought at auction in 2026, the total UK landed cost is the FOB (free on board) auction price, plus shipping and insurance, plus 10% import duty on the combined CIF total, plus 20% VAT on top of all of that, plus a stack of fixed compliance fees. The UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic … Read more
Most JDM imports will not appear on comparison sites. You will type in the model, get no results, and end up on the phone to a specialist broker. That is the standard experience for anyone importing a Japanese-market vehicle to the UK. But there is a small category of JDM imports that sidestep this problem … Read more
You have found the car. You have sorted the import paperwork. You have passed the IVA. You go to CompareTheMarket, type in the model, and nothing comes up. This is the standard experience for anyone importing a JDM vehicle that was never sold in the UK. The Toyota Noah, the Nissan Elgrand, the Mitsubishi Delica, … Read more