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Moving to Fussa. Anyone in the greater Tokyo area? Yokota?

Joined
25 March 2007
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1,310
Location
Knoxville, TN / Washington D.C.
Hey international Primers. I just delayed my second NSX after learning that I'll be moving to Japan sometime next year.

Anyone in the area? I've been trying to browse local auto classifieds, but it's very difficult! Thinking of delving into a GTR or just getting a RHD NSX.
 
I don't know where Fussa is at but YOU CAN BRING YOUR NSX HERE. GTRs like civics here. NSXs a rare breed here in Tokyo area. I'm in the NAVY and I'm seeing bunch of cars that are brought here from states. You can ship one in and ship one out. I should have shipped mine but I'm deployed a lot so didn't bother shipping it.
 
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J-R where are you stationed at? i'm in NAF Atsugi. Is your NSX here also? Nevermind i jsut read the last part. I shipped my NSX out here and the military did it. I think you just need permission to ship it out here and then get it to J-spec. so it might cost you around 3-4k to get it there ( emmision test alone is 2k) shouldnt be more then 5k . The cost covers for isureance and JCI and all that other fun stuff. and if you need modes for
 
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USAF i take it you are going to be stationed at yokota airforce base. There not many NSX around here and finding one will be slim to nill. there is an nsx shop in tokyo that sell nsx. i think someone on here was selling a NSX here in tokyo.
 
Wow! Good info.

Yes I'll be going to Yokota AB. Fussa is about 25 miles west of Tokyo.

I had thought about purchasing an NSX here and shipping it out, but also thought of bringing something back. Which would you go for?
Bringing it up to J spec sounds pretty expensive, but I'd be eating that same cost on the backside by bringing something back to the US and going through customs.
 
I dont know if they will let you bring any NSX you bought here back as for the U.S inspection is very strict. it's easier to just bring your car here and bring it back since it's your POV. Buying a NSX here can run you atleast 40k USD for a 91 (from the last time i look about 3 years ago) and buying a used car just to get around can run you anywhere from 400 USD to 3k USD. Thats like the run if the mill hand me downs around the bases and military members who are leaving or transfering. If you are looking for something fun and sporty it might cost you more then 6KUSD which isnt so bad but remember you probably will not be able to bring that car back with you. I like the fact that my NSX is the only one on base and U.S spec, very rare here. You'll get alot to attention. only bad thing is there's not alot of part sourcing for it( maybe i'm not looking hard enough) sometimes i find the pricing is more expensive here then buying it state side. Most of the stuff i get for it is from the U.S lol. I have a contact here who speak english and will do all the work for you to get your car registered and J-spec ready. It will cost you around 3-4k for everything meaning total price out of pocket including conversion if you need it.and you can probably do it cheaper but i rather pay someone to do it then run into roadblocks. My car was pretty much stock all i had to do was change out the tail light to the JDM tail light which cost me 800$ for a pair of OEM JDM tailights. If you have the OEM wheels keep them, they will need it. If you have any other question i'd be glad to help.
 
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I just came back from leave-Sunny San Diego. I was driving my NSXs like candy... LOL. I highly suggest you bring one here. I just sold my beater here so I can get a car 25years or older so I can ship back to the states. You can ship in and out a vehicle states side vehicles. I see it here all time. I think in the end it will be worth it. NSX here is very rare, I have only seen 4 in the whole 2 years i've been here. I really wish I brought my NA here. One last thing, its hard to find a house with garage, some apartments have storage garage, very cool parking but not so good if you will lower yours.
 
Wow! Good info.

Yes I'll be going to Yokota AB. Fussa is about 25 miles west of Tokyo.

I had thought about purchasing an NSX here and shipping it out, but also thought of bringing something back. Which would you go for?
Bringing it up to J spec sounds pretty expensive, but I'd be eating that same cost on the backside by bringing something back to the US and going through customs.

My buddy that I'm living with here shipped not one but two of his 240 datsun(the other one was on a friends name). Didn't cost him a lot to bring to J-spec, you can do much of it on your own, hell, I can help you out. I dont know if you are coming here with dependent or not but if you are, you can have up to 2 vehicles registered.
 
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I dont know if they will let you bring any NSX you bought here back as for the U.S inspection is very strict. it's easier to just bring your car here and bring it back since it's your POV. Buying a NSX here can run you atleast 40k USD for a 91 (from the last time i look about 3 years ago) and buying a used car just to get around can run you anywhere from 400 USD to 3k USD. Thats like the run if the mill hand me downs around the bases and military members who are leaving or transfering. If you are looking for something fun and sporty it might cost you more then 6KUSD which isnt so bad but remember you probably will not be able to bring that car back with you. I like the fact that my NSX is the only one on base and U.S spec, very rare here. You'll get alot to attention. only bad thing is there's not alot of part sourcing for it( maybe i'm not looking hard enough) sometimes i find the pricing is more expensive here then buying it state side. Most of the stuff i get for it is from the U.S lol. I have a contact here who speak english and will do all the work for you to get your car registered and J-spec ready. It will cost you around 3-4k for everything meaning total price out of pocket including conversion if you need it.and you can probably do it cheaper but i rather pay someone to do it then run into roadblocks. My car was pretty much stock all i had to do was change out the tail light to the JDM tail light which cost me 800$ for a pair of OEM JDM tailights. If you have the OEM wheels keep them, they will need it. If you have any other question i'd be glad to help.

If I were wanting to bring an NSX back from Japan, I'd be aiming for a 1992 at the newest for the 25 year rule. If it's older than 25 years, Customs doesn't care what kind of car it is, it can come back. No legalization. Anything newer must be legalized, and, in the case of an NSX, none of them can be legal due to having a comparable model (the Acura NSX) in the US.

Bringing an NSX to Japan is an interesting idea, but I'd like to delve into what they have over there with the option of bringing one home. I don't like the thought of bringing over a car and only being able to bring that car back, or bringing it over and having to sell it to bring another car back.

I just came back from leave-Sunny San Diego. I was driving my NSXs like candy... LOL. I highly suggest you bring one here. I just sold my beater here so I can get a car 25years or older so I can ship back to the states. You can ship in and out a vehicle states side vehicles. I see it here all time. I think in the end it will be worth it. NSX here is very rare, I have only seen 4 in the whole 2 years i've been here. I really wish I brought my NA here. One last thing, its hard to find a house with garage, some apartments have storage garage, very cool parking but not so good if you will lower yours.

I think I might be stuck on base, but not sure yet.

My buddy that I'm living with here shipped not one but two of his 240 datsun(the other one was on a friends name). Didn't cost him a lot to bring to J-spec, you can do much of it on your own, hell, I can help you out. I dont know if you are coming here with dependent or not but if you are, you can have up to 2 vehicles registered.

I don't think I could live with just driving a Datsun as my only car again haha. I'd rather ship a ZG back to the States after getting there.

Thanks for the advice all! Shipping an NSX to Japan is very tempting, but I like options and I feel like it would be game over if I up and bought one here, brought it there, then found something I badly wanted over there.
 
I grew up in yokota!
It was a while ago but some of the best times of my life

The import car scene was so far ahead of the states at that time. It truly was great.
 
yes you can change them after inspection. you dont need your stock rims. Just if your rims sticks out from your fender any amount its deemed illegal or not street legal by law. So no legit company will work on your car if you need stuff done to it. That goes for inspection to, its better to take it to the inspection with the stock rims cause if they want to be picky they can deny inspecting the car and you have to re-schedule the inspection and that will waste a lot of time. Try to bring it to stock is better. Less hassle
 
My buddy that I'm living with here shipped not one but two of his 240 datsun(the other one was on a friends name). Didn't cost him a lot to bring to J-spec, you can do much of it on your own, hell, I can help you out. I dont know if you are coming here with dependent or not but if you are, you can have up to 2 vehicles registered.

I know I said I wasn't going to about a month ago, but I am considering this idea again to bring a 240Z over, an early one at that.
I've been cruising on japanbases.com about the legalization of US cars and the 240Z wouldn't have to be emissions compliant as well as being fairly cheap to bring to J spec like you mentioned (amber lenses being the biggest one). Another thought was an earlier Porsche 911, but it would need to be older than April 1976 to meet the emissions cutoff and those get significantly more expensive as they get older.

The overarching idea is to bring it over and possibly sell to fund the purchase of another car to bring back. It's very expensive to bring a US NSX and have it compliant, and I'd like to "do as the Romans do" while in Japan, so it's either pay $5K+ upfront to bring over an NSX or pay $10K+ on the backside for the premium of a Japanese NSX to bring back. I think I'm going to opt for the latter for simplicity, the desire to bring back a Japanese car, and my higher pay grade upon coming back to the US making it easier to make all of this work by then. Tokyo also doesn't lend itself to being easy to drive around either, so I probably wouldn't get near the enjoyment out of an NSX in Japan as I would back here.

I don't have dependents, so it's just one car at a time.

Thoughts? Suggestions?
 
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Its all up to you. I'd bring mine if I could do it again. You should be able to save a lot with the COLA you will get here, stay away from Rapponggi:biggrin:. I have buddy here who has 240Z shipped from San Diego. You do get a lot of "wow" factor". Still have to convert the MPH to KPH and a few things... not as much as an NSX I think. But 240Z would be a great candidate to bring here. Just a warning, parts are hard to get here. We use ebay most of the time to order especially with 240Z.
 
I grew up in yokota!
It was a while ago but some of the best times of my life

The import car scene was so far ahead of the states at that time. It truly was great.

YOKOHAMA is even better... Drifters wild-out infront of KOBAN by Daikoku futo. I just hate them freeways here, so expensive.
 
Wow! Good info.

Yes I'll be going to Yokota AB. Fussa is about 25 miles west of Tokyo.

I had thought about purchasing an NSX here and shipping it out, but also thought of bringing something back. Which would you go for?
Bringing it up to J spec sounds pretty expensive, but I'd be eating that same cost on the backside by bringing something back to the US and going through customs.

Hey

If you are moving to Yakota you will be next door to the best NSX tuning shop in Japan, KSP Engineering Contact Katori-san or Toyoizumi-san [AKA Mr TIZ] unfortunatly no English spoken so take a translator, however I get my bills in English.

Website: http://www.ksp-eng.co.jp/
Location [paste this into google maps;

〒208-0034 東京都武蔵村山市残堀 2-29-1

Cheers

Simon
 
! I totally forgot about Mr. Fumiaki of KSP engineering. Another reason to bring your NSX, he's by the east gate. Good guy but its very hard to communicate, start downloading english japanese apps. Believe it or not, theres actually a lot of rustangs, i mean mustangs here on base.
 
So, update to this thread.

I've been out here for about 6 months now. Visited KSP a little while back. Left the 240Z back in the US for my parents to keep/drive/store.

Drove around a '99 Silvia Spec R for a bit and sold it for an '89 Skyline GT-R in decent condition.

Have really enjoyed my time here thus far and have seen a few NSXs out in the wild. Still planning on purchasing another one getting back to the US. They're just wildly expensive here for a car you cannot take back for a couple years still.

I'm up for any sort of drive/ get-together with some of the owners here. I used to be fairly active in the Southeastern US area NSXs when I had mine. I've been down to Daikoku once in the Silvia and wouldn't mind doing it again here soon with the GT-R.
 
try the JDM owners of Kanagawa on the facebook page. It's my friends group. they are always doing stuff.
 
Its all up to you. I'd bring mine if I could do it again. You should be able to save a lot with the COLA you will get here, stay away from Rapponggi:biggrin:. I have buddy here who has 240Z shipped from San Diego. You do get a lot of "wow" factor". Still have to convert the MPH to KPH and a few things... not as much as an NSX I think. But 240Z would be a great candidate to bring here. Just a warning, parts are hard to get here. We use ebay most of the time to order especially with 240Z.

Hello, I use to live in okinawa. None of my buddies still there can tell me how to ship a car 25 years and older back. Do you have the info. or a contact that does this on the regular bases?
 
Not sure anymore, hoping this isnt outdated too much, about a decade ago when I had a Fairlady Z32 there, I made contact w/ one a Registered Importer. After checking that the car was legal in USA, they wanted $15k to convert it to US regulation specs. I know for the Z it had to be converted to LHD, bumpers, lights, etc... they wouldnt go over the entirety of the list as it was too long over the phone. PS. This could only be done by Registered Importers.

http://forums.nicoclub.com/registered-importers-t558854.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100124225327AAckhtY
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/105637-importers.html
http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/import/web_RI_list01122006.html
 
try the JDM owners of Kanagawa on the facebook page. It's my friends group. they are always doing stuff.

I haven't posted on there in a bit. I'm a notorious NSX lover/devil's advocate/genuine car guy and they have a hard time with that.

Hello, I use to live in okinawa. None of my buddies still there can tell me how to ship a car 25 years and older back. Do you have the info. or a contact that does this on the regular bases?

I'm not sure how much of your TMF,TMO,PMO, etc. offices handle the process especially with getting VPCs involved, but I know what it takes to get it back and through customs if you were to do it yourself. Need your bill of sale (for customs fee purposes), deregistered title, bill of lading (what's in the shipping crate), the EPA compliance form (to which you would mark "not required to comply, over 21 years old"), and the NHTSA HS-7 form (to which you would annotate "not required to comply, over 25 years old"). If you're not there yourself, you'll need a customs broker to receive the vehicle and process the paperwork to which you would be issued a bond release and can now register the car. Then, your car is federally compliant, however you must also meet your state regulations (CA being horrific for this process).

Not sure anymore, hoping this isnt outdated too much, about a decade ago when I had a Fairlady Z32 there, I made contact w/ one a Registered Importer. After checking that the car was legal in USA, they wanted $15k to convert it to US regulation specs. I know for the Z it had to be converted to LHD, bumpers, lights, etc... they wouldnt go over the entirety of the list as it was too long over the phone. PS. This could only be done by Registered Importers.

http://forums.nicoclub.com/registered-importers-t558854.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100124225327AAckhtY
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/105637-importers.html
http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/import/web_RI_list01122006.html

I think RIs promised multiple people the ability to modify and legalize cars, but they must first petition to be able to in the first place. The 300ZX doesn't appear on the noncompliant vehicles able to be compliant and would have to receive a case number, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be, especially with the LHD conversion. At that point though, it would be cost prohibitive.
 
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lol yeah, I dropped out of that group to. They are how you say too bias. I dont need people like that in my life. A lot of people have dropped out of that group. Some immature admins in that group. "JDM owners of Kanagawa"
 
I haven't left yet because it's too entertaining for me to come in as the voice of reason when the need arises. Alot of the same members are on the Tokyo GTR club as well and have a very narrow/biased view toward most any cars that "challenged" the GT-R (mostly the Brits with more pride than sense). That's alot of NSX hate for guys who have scarcely seen one, much less been around/driven/owned one. I made a few guys furious when I spoke out on my views, but sorry guys....I've owned both...and I'm a huge Nissan fan.

Having said that, I'm still game for drives/meets with anyone and have tried to make it out to meets. I will go out and do the Daikoku/Tatsumi/Shibaura thing about once a month or so, so if you're game to go for a drive it would be nice to see an NSX again, Kim.
 
Yeah, i'll try to make it out. With me and my work I rarely have time to sit and relax at home now a days. Just that sometimes when I see the meets and "whos" going. I just rather stay home. Most of the time is always on days i have other stuff to do .
 
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