Buying from Japan Partner?

A forum for owners and fans of the legendary Nissan Skyline and Nissan GTR.
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M35Squirrel
Posts: 185
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2014 8:35 am
Car: 1990 GT-R, 2011 M37
Location: Houston, TX

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I have been going back and forth with this company called Japan Partner based in Nagoya, trying to get a 1989 GTS-T sedan. I am sure some of you guys have heard of it, the company's operation appears fairly large. Here is the link of the car:

http://www.japan-partner.com/Auto/24027 ... -sale.html

I have all the details negotiated, but I told them I would like to see additional pictures of the bottom of car and the metal registration plate. Then communication just stopped, I made a few more attempts asking for pictures but they never answered. My last attempt was a month ago.

Is this typical? Am I asking too much? I would like to know if you guys have better information on this company, because I have read some horror stories about them on other forums.

Thanks in advance!


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kabob
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Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2014 3:26 pm
Car: 1990 Skyline GTR R32
Location: Dallas, TX

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I always look at it as "Well, I guess this company isn't interested in my money." If I were you, I wouldn't tie myself down to just this car. Your request wasn't unreasonable.

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M35Squirrel
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Car: 1990 GT-R, 2011 M37
Location: Houston, TX

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Thanks for the feedback.

Would you recommend a few websites for searching used cars? I notice that a car trading website is generally very unresponsive, and an exporter's website tends to have very few stocks and slightly overpriced. I can't seem to find a good way of searching for a R32......

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kabob
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Car: 1990 Skyline GTR R32
Location: Dallas, TX

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Honestly, importing from Japan's a big hassle unless you have an English speaker over there at the auctions knowledgeable about the cars that can inspect it and answer any and all questions you have. I've found it easier to just scour Australian, UK, and Canadian sources. I myself bought my '90 GTR from DaveW of The GTR Shop, a well known UK GTR shop that's a forum sponsor for a number of Skyline sites including gtr.co.uk, skylineownersusa.com, and SkylineOwners.com For Canadian cars, just find one you like, negotiate an approximate price, then fly over there to check it out and finalize the deal so you can drive it across the border. Driving across the Canadian border is the least hassle way of importing these cars. No additional port authority and security BS.

DwillcauseUcant
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Joined: Sun Aug 11, 2013 12:51 pm
Car: 1990 Nissan Skyline GTR-R32

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I can help you out. check out my new thread.

cheers

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M35Squirrel
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Car: 1990 GT-R, 2011 M37
Location: Houston, TX

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DwillcauseUcant wrote:I can help you out. check out my new thread.

cheers
Is this company Japan Partner legit? I just want more pictures of the blue 1989 GTS-T sedan I want to buy, hopefully I can see a video of the car starting and running. AND HOPEFULLY THE CARS ARE NOT FLOODED BY THE TYPHOONS!

Here are their addresses:

Office:
Japan, 455 Nagoya, Minato-ku, Nanyo-cho, Nishihukuta, Ganjima 51-1
Yard:
Japan, 497-0043 Aichi-ken, Amagun, Kanie-cho, Shinchiaki, Ato-higashi 80-1

However, If you are just advertising your service here, no I will not pay for your service. I believe the admins are watching your posts already, so be honest!

VandrelSOUSA
Posts: 74
Joined: Sat Jul 03, 2010 1:19 pm

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Yes, Japan Partner Inc. is quite real. I happened to be at their office 2 weeks ago.

The issues that stems at the heart of this debate though is purchasing from a exporter vs purchasing from a importer. There's a lot of leg work and sleepless nights involved in both sides of the journey but one of them is much safer and far more user-friendly. For example, if you purchase directly from an exporter you better make sure you read their fine print because many of them have little sections that will say you are not entitled to any refunds or they will say they reserve the right to issue refunds within 6 to 12 months following your refund request. That is to say that you're purchasing from a real exporter and not just sending money into a black hole in another country. The other part of this is they are only the exporter meaning once the car is on the boat or in a container the rest is up to you (see my last comment below). Also keep in mind that it's very difficult to know if the exporter actually owns the vehicle they are potentially offering to you. For all you know it could be a car that doesn't exist or may belong to another exporter and they are just using it to generate and dupe people into borked sales agreements. A common thing they like to do is get you to send them money and then tell you someone else bought it before you did and they'll look to find you another car so you can't get your money back.

So that leads us to purchasing from an importer, where you now have a legal binding sale agreement and contract which you can seek legal assistance to help enforce if there's any issues. This is something you otherwise can't take advantage of from other sources outside the U.S. As well, if the importer is doing things properly they will be a licensed dealer which again gives you yet another legal protection if something goes wrong. Where people fall short and end up in bad situations is when they buy from straight middle-men off of Facebook or some other location, where the person has no legal establishment, no company, no place of business, no license to operate, etc. and you hand that person your money hoping to get a car in return. There's many well established places out there who have invested a lot of time and money to do things the right way, I recommend you seek out one of those places to trust your money with so you get your car the proper way.

Lastly, there's the DIY route which ties into the purchase from exporter option. While yes it is possible to accomplish this you should really stop and ask yourself the hard questions, do you want to gamble with your money and your car? If you want some milk do you go seek a cow and extract the milk yourself or do you just go to the supermarket and purchase a carton to drink? When you want to play a video game, do you just create your own video game or do you go buy one that some company made? If a hurricane rips apart the roof on your house do you teach yourself to and then fix or replace the roof yourself or do you simple call someone who's qualified to do it for you? I can safely tell you that when I need something done and I'm not a professional at it then I'll just cut to the chase and hire or pay the right people to do the job. That's not a sales pitch, it's just common sense :)

Look at it this way, you can venture on the import journey yourself and hope you do things right but you could put yourself in a situation when you miss 1 step or mess something up and you'll be paying fines between $5,000 and $40,000 to the government all over a car you probably paid $10,000 for or less in Japan. Is it really worth it? Are you really going to save that much money? You'll still have to pay local sales tax and all other applicable fees involved. The only thing you'll save is paying a importer's T&M (time and material) fee but is that really worth your time? Again, most people have lives, jobs, and other important things to worry about instead of trying to self-educate to do a 6 week process on your own only to save $500 in most cases. Is that really worth it or do you just pay a real company to deliver what you want for you so it's done the right way?

Back in the day when I attempted to import my first car I thought I was going to be slick and do it all on my own. Well, I did it and to tell you the truth it was more of a hassle then I wanted it to be. I had to use up vacation time at work, put important projects on hold while I was out. I burned through tons of money on transporting the car myself. I had to pay a nice little fine because the car arrived dirty. Then I spent countless hours of my life arguing with state DMV workers trying to title the car. In the end it was a huge pain in the a** I would have rather paid someone else to do so I could of carried on with my life and just waited for the car to be delivered to me. Now I own a company that does that sort of thing. Ironic I suppose.

Hope this helps.

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M35Squirrel
Posts: 185
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Car: 1990 GT-R, 2011 M37
Location: Houston, TX

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Vandrel,

Thank you very much for your insightful information. I am very excited to know that you have first hand experience with Japan Partner Inc., because from what I discovered last week, they are just as suspicious as other exporters.

I have bookmarked a lot of Japan Partner Inc.'s so called "stock cars," and started about 2 months ago many of them were "sold" according to their own webpages. These "sold" cars were taken off their search page, but since I have the bookmarks I can still see them. Strangely, started just last week, these sold cars began to appear on a trade website that I believe is trustworthy, and Japan Partner Inc. list them as new listings ready to be sold and exported. See them for yourself:

http://www.japan-partner.com/Auto/23383 ... -sale.html
vs.
https://www.tradecarview.com/used_car/j ... /15381438/

http://www.japan-partner.com/Auto/23543 ... -sale.html
vs.
https://www.tradecarview.com/used_car/j ... /15381587/

http://www.japan-partner.com/Auto/23329 ... -sale.html
vs.
https://www.tradecarview.com/used_car/j ... /15381410/

Of all the exporters I contacted, Japan Partner Inc. seemed most communicative, and their website is frequently updated with plenty of "stock cars." That good communication seized when I asked for a few more pictures. The reason could be that I am an individual buying a cheap GTS-T, and they don't see future business potential to accommodate any of my request. But I am afraid this same attitude would carry over even after I made my purchase with them.

And back to your discussion, I have no issue using an importer and I totally agree that I could actually be saving money if I can indeed pay them $500 to deal with the hassle and risk. However, of the importers I contacted all began with this general question - tell us how much is your budget and how much can you spend? and we will find you a car within your budget. When I replied I wanted a GTS-T and not a GT-R, none of them replied back. For a perspective, the GTS-T linked in the original post was quoted to me for $10,365 shipped to Galveston, TX, which I believe is a very reasonable price with good margin being paid for the transaction, but the importers I contacted thought differently.

So I am back here at square one, an individual wanting a GTS-T, not GT-R, but neither the exporter or importer think I am worthy of their business.


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M35Squirrel
Posts: 185
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2014 8:35 am
Car: 1990 GT-R, 2011 M37
Location: Houston, TX

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WOW! Thanks for the headsup, that's an eye opener!

So looks like the GTS-T I was looking at may be long gone......

VandrelSOUSA
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Joined: Sat Jul 03, 2010 1:19 pm

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M35Squirrel wrote:WOW! Thanks for the headsup, that's an eye opener!

So looks like the GTS-T I was looking at may be long gone......
If it was a GTS-T on their site then yeah it's long gone. None of the 1989 or 1990 Skylines listed on there were ever really available, they were listed as soon as we sold them and were in the process of exporting them. For the sake of marketing they ended up being used for their website listings. Some cars are still sitting there but none of them are actually *available*, they are just waiting for their export date to come up to arrive on our end.

Common exporter tactics. Make something appear to be larger then it is. Convince people you have things you don't. Worry about delivering something after you have the money. I'm not saying they are a bad company, obviously we decided to do business with them but we're a different story as we have a commercial interest in the matter unlike the average Joe buyer trying to send them money for a car. Like I said, same tactics different company, this is a common practice in the JDM exporter industry. Wasn't really a bad thing to deal with last year but we opted to fire up our own company in Japan this year for future operations :)

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kabob
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Car: 1990 Skyline GTR R32
Location: Dallas, TX

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I don't know if it's still available, but Feast Auto in Canada has this one for sale: http://forums.gtrcanada.com/cars-sale/6 ... -love.html

They're a legit importer in Canada that can source most any car or part for you. Same with Newera Imports http://www.neweraimports.com/ Or just source one from Rivsu Imports (Steve/Vandrel's company) or IVI (Sean Morris' outfit)

joeoele
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Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:53 pm

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Japan partner are rookies sitting there to rip people off. And i can confirm that the company buy cars from jap auctions and wind back the kilometers to almost half and put it up for sale on tradecarview. I was not shocked to see other buyers claiming they have being ripped off. I wouldn’t recommend my enemy to buy from this site. I have even heard they just take any pictures from other dealer sites and ship you a similar car or even different colors and that’s IF they ship you a car for your money at ALL !!!!!!!!!! SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM more at japanpartnereview.com

blynhoei
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Joined: Fri May 08, 2015 2:12 am
Car: BNR32 GT-R

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I can't help but disagree with these commenters and defend Japan Partner. I have dealt
with them on many occassions, and they are to be trusted. I know Vitali, the CEO, personally
and conduct business with him on a regular basis. You can always have the option to go to their facilities, and oversee your transactions personally.

I think these guys giving Japan Partner a bad name were the same people doing it a couple of years back, and they turned out to be business competition, SB or something. I go to Japan 3 times a year on a business trip and always make a point on visiting them. Don't believe all you read, these guys helped me build my business in the USA.

JDMusedCars
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Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2015 1:52 am

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Just to make some things clear.

Rivsuimports vs. Japan Partner.
Rivsuimports was buying cars from Japan Partner Inc. and then reselling them. That's why you could find RIVSUIMPORTS cars at Japan-Partner.com website.

Tradecarview vs. Japan Partner
Tradecarview is a marketplace, like Ebay or Yahoo. Any company can place its cars for sale via Tradecarview. Tradecarview doesn't own any cars.

About this funny japanpartnereview webiste and his fake and false SCAM. This was a customer who imported cars from Japan Partner (he's not from USA, from another country, and he will be soon sued for his defaming website). Japan Partner Inc. advised him not to do that because he would not clear them at customs. But he insisted telling that he CAN clear the cars at customs. As a result he could not get the cars through the customs and requested refund from JP. Of course he didn't get the refund because he was doing this on his own risk. As many other companies in USA that buy cars (that are not 25-years old yet) at their OWN risk.

Japan Partner is used cars exporter. Not importer. And yes, US importers cannot compete in prices for Nissan Skylines and other JDM cars with Japan Partner even taking into consideration time and money expenses in USA.

jplegal
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Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2015 11:44 pm
Car: JDM

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ATTENTION: WEBSITE ADMINISTRATOR, NICOCLUB.COM

To whom it may concern,


Thank you for taking the time to read this message.

We would like to bring your attention to the following link/s found on your website/forum:

buying-from-japan-partner-t593557.html

Japan Partner has initiated a defamation lawsuit involving the alleged author of specific content found in this posting.

Upon research collected by our department along with data provided by our IT staff, there is conclusive evidence
of his identity, and that this person was a former client based out of Africa. Using his transaction with Japan Partner, this man has attempted extorting money from our company; and is using your website/forum as a means and leverage to do it.

He is has also authored similar content on other websites targeting other car exporters in Japan. Please feel free to get in touch with us so we can provide you with detailed information on this matter.

Based on data logged and reported to us, we are now contacting the administrators of the forums and/or websites where the said content is present. As I am directed to inform you of the legal process involved, we are requesting that
these link/s be deactivated immediately to remove the possible litigation, involvement and liability of your website/forum.

Please be guided accordingly.


大久保 浩二
顧問弁護士 | ㈱ジャパンパートナー

Koji Okubo - General Counsel
Legal Department, Japan Partner

Japan Partner Inc.
PHONE: (+81)567-940-015
FAX: (+81)567-940-0018
EMAIL: [email protected]
WEBSITE: *REDACTED*
Last edited by Rogue One on Thu Dec 03, 2015 5:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Deleted unapproved content

JDMEXPO-NY
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2015 7:25 am
Car: 1990 Nissan Skyline GTR
Contact:

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That is hilarious. Good luck with that.

Wildtraveler
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Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 1:00 pm
Car: 2012 mazdaspeed
1989 BNR32

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Well that escalated quickly

fergyr31
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon May 18, 2015 6:40 am
Car: R31 Skyline GTS-X and GTS-R

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Damn

GreyZ33Track
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Car: 2004 350z Track
2003 G35 Coupe
2006 Titan 4x4 King Cab

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Japan partner is legit. Great communication, car was delivered as pictured, super clean and after jump stsrting it at the port and pouring gas in, drove the car home with no problems. I will be buying more cars from them in the future.

fcjohnny
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 12:25 am
Car: 1990 Nissan Skyline GTS-T Type M

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Japan-Partner is the biggest scamming piece of s*** that has ever been created. I would never ever ever recommend them to a person in my life. They will bend you over a barrel and f&%k you till the pigs come home. They will mark "R" repaired cars and never wrecked, mark cars with D interiors and B, and much much more. I highly suggest anyone looking at a car from a dealer to look up the cars history. There are comapnys out there that are somewhat similar to carfax. Send them the VIN and some info on the car and they will pull up the Japanese Transportation Authority Records to see if it has ever been wrecked, show the true mileage etc... They can also pull up the auction records for the vehicle along with photos. Don't let a shady a** dealer like Japan-Partner take your money.

fnmadog
Posts: 51
Joined: Sun May 18, 2008 6:18 pm
Car: 1993 240sx Vert (no engine)
1991 Skyline GTR

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@jcjohnny is this from a personal experience or friend? i guess it's personal because you made your account 1 minute before your post.

i've bought a car from them. it's super clean and in excellent shape for the age. i agree people should do some home work before buying and you take a risk getting one imported. but you pay 30% less than if you buy it from a dealer who imported it, but they take the risk. also the mileage will be on the export form. it's recorded during the JCI that's done yearly in japan, so that's a hard to scam people on. one thing people need to keep in mind is these cars were likely driven hard in japan and have likely been modified to the nth degree. very rarely you going to find one 100% stock. so you're going to working on something some other people have already wrestled with.


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