vitessetony
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,055
Club RR Member Number: 114
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Japanese mini advicevitessetony
@vitessetony
Club Retro Rides Member 114
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Nov 21, 2020 13:32:06 GMT
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Japanese minis, is there any reason not to get one over a UK car?
I know that they generally have Aircon and are spi engines but anything else I should be wary of?
Is insurance an issue as with other imports? my nissan largo was horrendous.
Any thoughts on anything else?
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Nov 21, 2020 16:08:32 GMT
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Japanese minis, is there any reason not to get one over a UK car? I know that they generally have Aircon and are spi engines but anything else I should be wary of? Is insurance an issue as with other imports? my nissan largo was horrendous. Any thoughts on anything else? Wing mounted mirrors (subjective, but I'm not keen) and IIRC the engine isn't quite an SPI or MPI? A bit of both?
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vitessetony
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,055
Club RR Member Number: 114
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Japanese mini advicevitessetony
@vitessetony
Club Retro Rides Member 114
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Nov 21, 2020 17:07:09 GMT
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I've not seen any with wing mounted mirrors yet but I agree I'm not keen on them either.
Interesting about the engine, that might be an issue when it comes to unusual engine specific parts/sensors I guess.
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Nov 21, 2020 18:39:39 GMT
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Search TMF using "jdm" and "J" and "Japanese" there's a fair bit of info on there
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Ryannn
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,420
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There’s not really any major downfalls. The SPi owners FB page is good for J knowledge as there’s a few on there.
Engine bay is very very tight to work on.
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,188
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Japanese mini adviceChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Nov 22, 2020 10:45:36 GMT
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The rust situation should be better, going from JDM imports in general. They're not immune, but probably less likely to be as hit with the tinworm.
That's one reason why I'd probably go with one.
From what I've seen you have to spend alot on a UK car to get something that's not got oversills fitted and patched to within an inch of its life (i.e a clean shell).
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Nov 22, 2020 11:00:30 GMT
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The rust situation should be better, going from JDM imports in general. They're not immune, but probably less likely to be as hit with the tinworm. You have got to be joking? Everyone I've seen had no underseal and was horribly crusty. I've recovered a couple of JDM Previas with collapsed rear suspension where the trailing arms had rusted through, although it was a roll of the dice which part was likely to break first.
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,188
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Japanese mini adviceChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Nov 22, 2020 12:29:28 GMT
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The rust situation should be better, going from JDM imports in general. They're not immune, but probably less likely to be as hit with the tinworm. You have got to be joking? Everyone I've seen had no underseal and was horribly crusty. I've recovered a couple of JDM Previas with collapsed rear suspension where the trailing arms had rusted through, although it was a roll of the dice which part was likely to break first. My Carina came from Japan, and it was rust-free and unwelded, and it didn't have alot of work done to it for some time. All of the UK cars I've bought for similar money have been patched up, rubbish POS that would only be right after basically binning alot of metalwork. The only cars I've had that have never seen a welder are: -2003 BMW M3 : This now will need to see a welder (UK Car) -1972 Merc 280SE : This was genuinely rot free ; I've not seen a car that clean and original for a long time. (US Cali car) -1995 Merc E320 : This was semi-low mileage, but it was odd that it was rot-free shell wise - the front wings did need work however. Despite the wings, the shell was perfect, something which wasn't the case on my two other 124s (both had welding done on the subframe mounts -1977 Carina Coupe ; Came into the UK in 2016 from Japan. Considering J cars are meant to the be worst for rust than any other brand generally, my Carina, a friend's R30 Skyline with minimal tinworm, and another chap's R30 would say you're less likely to get a rust bucket. Rusty US cars exist too remember, but nowhere near as often as the UK, which is a car killer. Like the 'states, there are regions which will suffer more than others.
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Last Edit: Nov 22, 2020 12:30:16 GMT by ChasR
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,777
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Nov 22, 2020 15:01:44 GMT
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AFAIK the Japanese don't salt their roads and don't normally underseal their cars, so they usually arrive here with little if any rust. However if they aren't properly undersealed on arrival they are totally unprotected, BRR (British Racing Rust) will attack with a vengance and they can quickly end up in a worse state (with rust) than an equivalent UK car
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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