J-Spec/Iron Chef etc

[godzilla]

G'Day all, My name is Trev, long time reader first time poster. I am on the Gold Coast and currently looking for a Legnum. I have a small but now growing family and as heaps of you guys and girls out there agree these cars make/would make a great "Family car". The thing is i have a strict budget of $16k tops as i have just taken a deposit for my car. I have looked at a few places like Motorman here on the coast and a couple of smaller places for Legnums but have not been able to find a suiter(spell check) I have checked out the afore mentioned sites and they seem to have some pretty hard to resist deals. What i was hoping was to get a bit of feedback from you out there whom have used the services of these two places or even prestige motorsport and to let me know what the experience was like ie, any hassles, quality of vehicles etc. I would prefer to be the first reg owner of a car in Aus but only if it is safe to outlay such a deposit without possibly seeing anything for months. All replies greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[cowabunga438]

I bought mine through Prestige Motorsport. I personally had no problems and thought the service was fine. I have heard other "rumours" but my own experience was good.

For under 16K I got a 97 Galant in near showroom condition that has 14 000km on it. It has since developed an intermittent problem in the ABS/ASC, but that is your lot when buying second had cars. It isn't a major problem and hopefully will be fixed once I narrow the cause down.

I have heard nothing but good things about the other two companies. I only used Prestige because I was a newbie and just picked one at random.

Going through one of these import guys you save a few thousand over buying through a caryard/trader. However there is more work and a bigger lead time to getting your car. Also you take a bigger risk in buying a car on someone elses recommendation and overview. Having said that it is pretty hard to tell exactly if a car is a lemon or not in a car yard either. The big faults usually take a few months to show.

I was very lucky and avoided any major compliance hassle. I know some people have had compliance take months and months (mine was a couple of weeks from landed in Oz to in my garage).

If you are prepared to do a bit of work, and take a small risk then you can save money and get a better and lower KM car for a few thousand less than you would pay here.

I'm in Brissy so if you want some details on compliancers etc later on just PM me.

 

[godzilla]

thanks heaps for your comments cowabunga, i think prestige looks a good company too, also have been around for a long time. how long did the entire process take and also did you have to look after compliance yourself?

 

[VR-04-TT]

I bought my car through Kristian, Iron Chef Imports. He will go 110% for each and every customer, with the effort that he went to with me, I'd be entirely happy to buy an import even without photos, he is that trustworthy.

I did have an issue with wait times for compliance, but that was WAY out of Kristian's hands and all to do with DOTARS. My car was a test car for Leader in SA, so it had to be inspected personally by DOTARS and that's where the main wait was.

But now plates are available everywhere, you won't have that issue at all. Kristian is #1 in my books

 

[godzilla]

Thanks Paul, very nice Galant BTW.

 

[SiliconAngel]

Welcome to the site, Trev

I can personally vouch for both Ben from J-Spec and Kristian from IronChef imports. They're both professionals who are highly capable of getting you behind the wheel of your desired ride. If I can draw a difference between them Ben gets quite busy and is hard to contact sometimes and J-Spec's broker fee is higher than Iron Chef's, while I've personally been the recipient of a great deal of thoughtful effort on the part of Kristian who has had nothing to gain from it (I got my car through J-Spec as what I wanted was extremely rare and they happened to find it). So I can safely say you'll get a good service with either of them, but you might get a 'little extra' out of Kris

EDIT: Just saw Paul's comments above and he's on the money

Your broker will / should organise most of the necessary things for you. I strongly recommend taking at look at the 'How to Buy and Import a VR4 Guide' I've got linked in my sig which will give you a good idea of what you'll go through throughout the whole process.

 

[godzilla]

Thanks very much for you comments Trev, i think i shall put my thought toward choosing my spec and let the professionals handle the rest. I cant wait to just get a nice example in my hands. Thanks all that replied, i look forward to joining you in your ranks and hopefully next time i post i will have a ride to brag about. PS for all those who care QUEENSLANDER!!!!!!!!!!

 

[VR-04-TT]

Thanks Paul, very nice Galant BTW.

Cheers mate! It was worth the wait let me tell you!

Oh and right back at ya with Queenslander I am one

 

[Guest]

I'm another Prestige buyer ... I would suggest that All three big guns have fantastic service. Kris and Ben from Iron Chef and J-Spec really know these cars well which is very handy. If u want the best service u should pay your service fee. Don't do what some people on here have done and try get all three importers doing all the work and then leave them high and dry when u switch to another. then complain that one of the importers doesn't return calls. In my experience I paid my fee, got fantastic super fast service through the whole process
Good luck mate.

 

[weeaazz]

dont forget about private sales.
i didnt personally go through one the the brokers but the owner of my car before me got the car from kris(iron chef). ive had the car looked over a couple times now from different mechanics and it is literally faultless

my car is far from one of the most expensive available legnums but the quality is well higher than the money laid down.

i wouldve imported one myself except my parents were far too scared with the whole buying a car without seeing it(and so was i,who wouldnt be), and private sales sure did pay off for me as i got a great car still at a great price.

 

[naughtika]

also if you like, we're having a 'quickie wash me-et' tomorrow night at Mt. Gravatt, come and meet everyone if you like/can..

whether its a Legnum or Galant.. it's for the WIN!

 

[cowabunga438]

Agree with the comments above.

In terms of shipping/compliance etc. The importer organised most of it (though I did choose the compliancer though with advice from the importer on whom to avoid) I did not do very much apart from pay money and fill in the odd form.

 

[Hipsi]

I got my car from Ben at J-Spec and he was more than willing to go out of his way to answer any special queries I had. He was happy to discuss options of compliance workshops also. We ended up complying with Vision Compliance at Slacks Creek who I have no hesitation in recommending. Brad and Ernie do a fantastic job.

 

[trounced]

Yep definately do a self import especially if buget is under $16000 a car yard would only see an average car but with family you want it to be as good as you can get for the money, you may have to wait 3 - 6 months to buy and get it done but its worth it to save the $5,000 - $10000 that you will save.

as mentioned Both Ben and Kristian are the guys i bought through ben but have talked with kristian allot as well and both are more then helpful.

you will easily get a car with all options wanted if you self import rather then just takeing what you can get from a yard.

but as people have said keep an eye on ebay or other australian private sales as well, every now and then you will see the perfect car and somtimes private sales are reasonable price and worth the extra $1000 to get it now

 

[leebutts]

+1 for Iron Chef - he was great to deal with

cheers

Lee

p.s. I live on the coast if you ever want to have a test drive

 

[godzilla]

Thanks for the invite Lee.

 

[BuzzPuppy]

Trev, anything to get you out of an Astra

Loki had swapped hands one or twice whilst it was on its way here from Japan, and through all the fuss between FOUR parties and three Legnums, everyone got what they wanted. Kudos to Kris @ Iron Chef for sorting that one out. Ben also gives excellent service from what we've seen here.

If you dig deeper, there are other importers and the like here if you go down that path, as well as the regrettable sale of one of these fine beasts in the "For Sale" section.

Have fun

 

[Kristian]

If you go with the bigger and well known brokers, you're on a pretty safe wicket (not sure if I should count myself as bigger or well known, but you get the idea...)

The importing thing has risks, but then again, so does buying from a dealer too

 

[SiliconAngel]

At the end of the day there is ALWAYS risk. Even buying a brand new car you could end up with a lemon that has major problems no matter how much warranty work you throw at it (and then it'll just keep on breaking once the warranty wears out too). Having a warranty covers you for certain things, but there's no substitute for buying from someone with lots of experience and integrity who checks the cars thoroughly and stands behind them *coughKristiancoughcough*