Bonsai Cars - Review

I've seen their name mentioned a couple of times on the forum and having used them to source my Legnum in 2008, I'd thought I should offer my opinion of Bonsai Cars...

I'd been looking at sourcing a Legnum direct from car dealers in Japan but even with Google Translate, the language was a serious barrier as was the fact that I didn't really know what I was doing.

After spending a LOT of time searching around, I discovered AutoSquare in Japan http://www.auto.co.jp which offers a great service!

On their web site, they mention that their UK agents were Bonsai Cars. http://www.bonsaicars.com so off I surfed!

The feature I really liked was that I could view all of the listings for the next day's auctions on their site, complete with condition ratings. Once I found something I liked, I could then ask for a translation of the auction sheet into English.

Possibly out of impatience and possibly because it was the RIGHT car, I found a Legnum rated 4.5/A on the first night. The score of 4.5 is out of 5 and is for the overall condition of the car. The "A" is the interior condition. I have only seen a couple of VR4s which have been given 4.5 at 10 years old.

Anyway placed a deposit and registered my max bid with Bonsai - this part of the process was excellent. I spoke with one of their guys and he went through the translated auction sheet with me. I was given a guide total for the whole process (which was fairly accurate). I won the auction and all was dandy...

I received some information and invoice via email and paid the winning bid via international bank transfer to AutoSquare.

I also received some photos of my new car in my own "customer area" on the Bonsai web site although the mention that they were "hi-res" was well over the top!

Then the wait begins...

I think a lot of my niggles with the time it took for the car to be shipped was due to my own impatience. The car carriers seem to leave Japan once or twice a month. I won the auction for the car on the 18th January 2008 and it eventually rolled off the boat in Southampton on the 1st April. Obviously there is paperwork to be completed before a car can be exported and so this caused delays.

The next stage was to pay the international transport company based in Southampton and pay the import duties and VAT. The car was then collected from the docks and taken to a garage in Eastleigh for MOT, speedo conversion and service.

This was my main gripe with the whole package - the garage staff were certainly not experts. I was told I could collect the car on the 18th April and bought my train ticket in readiness. When I arrived on the day the car was still not ready despite being told otherwise. And the nice twin head units that were in the car when it left Japan had vanished!

Here's a list of things that were/were not done:

Oil change - done (engine only)
Rear fog lamp - requested rear light cluster mod and was given cheap dangly one
Cat 1 alarm - done but overly sensitive
Turbo timer - done but not as requested
Speedo conversion - done incorrectly, gave problems on drive home and had to pay for replacement
MOT - done

The speedo chip was not properly soldered and was installed in the wrong place. The car started jerking approx. 50 miles from the garage and needed 'nursing' home - there was little point in driving back to the garage.

It was obvious that the garage were certainly not experts in Jap imports and had never seen a Legnum before.

I did write to Bonsai regarding the issues and they in turn offered to have the car back for remedial work but at around 400 miles round trip, I decided to get my local garage to sort out the important issues and live with the rest.

Would I use Bonsai again? No.

Would I import another car from Japan? Yes! But I would go direct to AutoSquare rather than fork out an additional £500 to use their UK agent.

Most, if not all, of the clever features on the Bonsai web site are simply ported across from the AutoSquare site. When you pay Bonsai Cars for their fee, you still have to pay a similar amount to AutoSquare.

The staff at Bonsai were quite helpful but everything seemed to need more than one phonecall/email to get an answer.

As others have mentioned in previous threads, most of the process is fairly simple, its just a case of bringing everything together - sourcing, bidding, Japanese paperwork, shipping, UK customs, MOT and I believe that AutoSquare provides the service up to and including the shipping.

Remember folks - the amount the car sells for is NOTHING LIKE the amount you will finally pay. My VR4 with just 23,000 miles sold in the auction for approx. £2000 but the final bill was more like £5000!!

That sort of money will buy you a fantastic car from one of the club members and leave you with a lot of change to pay for more toys!

If anyone wants any further details, please feel free to contact me - I still have all the email correspondence saved.

End.

Excellent write up Dave and something I am sure many will find helpful. Such a shame things didn't go so smooth for you, but you do have a cracking car /yes

An excellent post and very useful information :thumbsup:

Some rep coming your way /yes

Thanks Pete - yes, should have mentioned that the car itself arrived exactly as described and apart from a couple of minor dinks, was in really impressive condition although I credit myself with that for finding it!! :D

Wayne - thank you!

Perhaps we could cobble together some more reviews of importers and combine as a sticky guide...

Anyone else bought through Auto Advan, Bonsai, Algys, New Era etc?

I know Nev bought his lovely Purple monster via New Era!

My experiences with Bonsai are well documented on this site but I thought that I would post and put another negative against using them.

IF my super get written off and I need to buy another one from Japan, which I would do, I DEFINATLY will not be using Bonsai.

I will use Iron Chef imports for all the Japanese side and do the rest myself.

Don

I had both my Leggies from Autoadvan. The first time I used em they allowed me to bid in Yen (they bid for you using their agent) and managed to get a good price (267,000 Yen). That was back in the days of 220Y/£ so £1,760. After all import duties, shipping etc the UK landed price was £3,135. I opted to have the car picked up from the docks by a trade plate service and do the MOT/Registration myself.

The second Legnum they asked me to quote a UK landed price I was willing to pay. Not wanting to loose the one I found (niced manual with some mods) I suggested a healthy £4250. Wha'dya know, they won it for £4250. Hmnnn....

As you have said, the next Japanese car I buy at Auction would be using the Autosquare service direct. At least then I know nobody is making extra cash out of me.

Good stuff Dave. I've moved it into the UK Dealerships forum (as we have with other recent dealer/trader review threads).

Thanks Nev - sorry for not noticing it already existed!

Also means that the thread is now visible to non-members - which is good if anyone new is considering getting a VR-4, and if Bonsai see it, then they can either offer apologies where appropriate, or go away and improve their service for the next punter.