I've decided to start a blog to record the process of buying and importing a car from Japan to New Zealand. The car is an Autozam AZ-1, which is something I've always loved, but seemed impossible to get. They only ever made 4300 Autozam AZ-1's, and 530 Suzuki Caras. They both share a Suzuki-built 3cyl 660cc turbo engine, mounted in the rear. The car is known mostly for it's gullwing doors, but also for it's incredibly small size. There were base models, Mazdaspeed models, and a special run of under 50 made by a company called M2. Anyway, this is my story!
April 18th, 2014
I was scrolling around
http://www.goo-net-exchange.com/ (a Japanese vehicle site) and found an insane Suzuki Cara for sale. It had a body kit and looked to be in great condition.
I decided that "next year, when we have a garage, if that car is still available, I'll buy it!"
December 8th, 2014
Impatience and impulsiveness after a trip to Japan had me obsessed with the idea of importing a cool car. I decided to email my coworker's uncle, who has been an importer in NZ for 15 years. Here's his site:
http://www.japancarimports.co.nz/
His name is Terry, and his partner in Japan is Kimmy. They had recently imported a car for my coworker, so I decided to give it a shot. I sent him the link to what I was interested in, and he had Kimmy check and see if it was still available. Within a few hours, Terry and I were chatting on the phone about the logistics. It was cheaper than advertised, but still very expensive after everything was added up.
December 9th, 2014
Realizing that it just wasn't the right time, I had to pull out of buying the car. It was going to be $18.5k after buying the car, shipping it, and legalizing it, so it was better to wait and be sure about everything.
January 20th, 2015
Having looked at the same car over and over for the past 8 months or so, I decided to check out what other AZ-1's were available. The Cara I wanted had a cool body kit, but some of the panels didn't line up perfectly. It also had a "repaired" status, which made me curious if that's the reason the body kit was installed.
All of a sudden there were a lot of better/cheaper options, so I thought it was a good time to get back in contact with Terry. I emailed him some links the next day.
January 21st, 2015
He got back to me straight away and said he'd pass the link to Kimmy in Japan. They gave me two options:
* 1994 Silver Mazdaspeed with 60k km's for about $21k
* 1993 Red Mazdaspeed with 86k km's for $14.5k
Those prices would be after shipping, NZ compliance, etc. Although the silver one was immaculate (seriously the cleanest AZ1 I've ever seen), I couldn't justify spending RX7/Skyline money on what is basically a toy. The red one was still in great condition, and it would leave me with plenty of cash left over. That and I loved the color!
Kimmy called the dealer who had the red one up in Tochigi and chatted with him about it. He was apparently a really nice guy and explained that the low price was due to a New Years sale, and if I wanted the car, it was now or never. Done deal. Terry told Kimmy to buy the car, and it was done! The whole deal took just over a day.
January 22nd, 2015
Terry sent me an invoice with Kimmy's bank details this morning. I'll go at lunch to wire him the money. The car + shipping all inclusive ended up being
¥960,000 yen, which is $10,955 nzd. Terry says it will probably take a week before the car is shipped, and around 35-40 days before it's in Wellington, road legal.
I'll update this blog as I go to keep track of how long it takes, and whatever unexpected things happen along the way. Stay tuned!
- Sam
