Many new importable models... wait, where did some of the old ones go?

May 25, 2023

With the commencement of our new RVS import laws (still confusingly referred to sometimes as the Specialist Enthusiast Vechiles Scheme - SEVS - the same name as the old import laws!) a number of new vehicles have been added to our site as importable models. Check them out here!

That is a fairly comprehensive list of models which are importable under our current import laws, or more accurately this is a list of models which can practically be imported. There are some models which we have decided to not include as they may be a model which is incredibly difficult to find, or in many cases a model which cannot reasonably be found in a condition that is up to J-Spec's standard and that we would be comfortable recommending to customers for import. Rather than list these cars on our site and potentially wasting both customers' time and ours, we've chosen not to include them on our site as that would just be giving people false hope when it's a car we can't find up to standard for them.

The cars most typically deemed as not possible to find in good enough condition will naturally be older cars in very roughly the 15 year old range or more, but it will vary between models. Some vehicles may stand the test of time better than others, some may be more likely to be affected by rust than others, and some are extremely difficult to find in good condition due to their nature. In particular, older sports cars from the 90's and early 2000's which used to be J-Spec's specialty over the last 25 years are often as good as impossible to find in good shape unless you are very patient, and have very deep pockets. Many have been thrashed, are rusty, have accident history or are showing their age, and while many will look good in photos and people will tell you how great they are, in reality for many of these models we know from experience that genuinely good vehicles really are scarce. Dealers may be importing these models in a pretty rough state, dolling them up for sale and then selling locally, but these are not the sorts of poor quality cars we want to be dealing in.

Examples that we are no longer importing include vehicles like Skylines (R32 - R34), Silvias, Chasers, Mark II's, Supras, RX-7's, Lancer Evolutions, older WRX's, most older 4WD's, etc. All are cars we dearly love (and have owned!) at J-Spec, but the reality is as these cars reach 30 years old in some cases or more that the availability of good enough cars just isn't there. There are also some rare or obscure vehicles which are technically importable but can't reasonably be found in good shape due to how many are out there, for example a Subraru Impreza WRX STi Spec C RA-R is an importable model, but with only 300 made (and significantly less than that still around) it is again a car that we don't list on our site.

We will continue to import many models which are newer or can still be found in good shape, but if a car is not listed on our site there's a good chance it's because knowing the market we aren't confident it's a model which can reasonably be found or imported up to J-Spec's high standards.