Jap trucks

My main point is not to jump at a bargin and make sure you do the research.

My last couple of cars were Toyota's and was very happy with them. So I'm certainly not against asian vehicles.

But as bigcam has indicated Model X in japan may have a different gearbox to the same model as imported to Australia. So parts are not available for Model X from japan in Australia. Could be more expensive to keep!

As mentioned once before on the forum I work in the Computer field. And remember at one stage a friend purchased a cheap laptop from a really big international company in asia. They then brought it back with them to australia. Unfortunately the machine played up. They took it to the dealer here in australia. They took one look at it even though it was identical to a Australian model, parts everything (made in same factory in Asia even!) they checked the serial number and found it was not sold in Australia and refused to fix it. They now cannot use the laptop and wasted the purchase money.

Yes different situation. But does illustrate some of the dangers of purchasing things over seas.

And all my comments in relation to the import of vehicles is from what some of my friends have been through not my experiences.

As to japan the issue is inspections are required after a vehicle is 3 years old. And due to other requirements and costs it would quickly become uneconomical to have a vehicle older than 3 years old. Have a read of www.nytimes.com/1993/09/12/world/why-the...k-just-like-new.html while it is a bit old certainly interesting reading.

Importing Jap used vehicles is a minefield that you're better off, staying away from. For starters, you have to apply for, and receive import approval, PRIOR to purchase and importation. If you don't, it will cost you dearly for Customs storage, while your vehicle is assessed. If import approval is denied, you have to re-export the vehicle .. :'(

www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/vehicle_...s/general/index.aspx

When considering an import, you have to remember that Japan is four windswept islands, that suffer from climatic extremes .. salt, humidity, hurricanes, heaps of rain, snow in the North and tropical humidity in the South. All Jap import vehicles are prime candidates for rust.

On top of that, is the fact that Jap traffic makes Sydney peak hour traffic look good. Average traffic speeds in Japan are about 20 kmh. Lots of idling, low speeds, up and down gears, on and off the brakes .. it's murder on vehicles. A Jap vehicle with 50,000 kms on the clock is the equivalent to an Aussie vehicle with 100,000 kms.

Last, but not least .. is the insurance problem. Very few insurance companies will insure "grey" imports. They often have different panels, different grilles, different lights .. and the parts retailers, and car/truck dealers, here, don't want to know you, if you front up with a Jap import looking for parts.
They don't even have parts books on them .. the grey import models are usually built exclusively for Japan, and the parts books and manuals for them are written in Japanese, and no translations are available.

At the end of the day, when you try to sell your worn out grey import, you might as well give it away .. because no-one will buy them. The only reason you may find a buyer, is if some other entrepeneur wants to wreck your vehicle to provide parts for other grey imports. Even in this scenario, few people are prepared to indulge in wrecking them, due to their low total numbers.

Years ago a friend blewup a sigma motor and put a Jap import motor into it which was alegedly the same. He then needed a cap for the dizzy and could' find one here, the Aussie Dizzy wouldn't fit in either. It ended up being cheaper to put a 2nd grey import motor in than fix the dizzy You may find the same issue with the trucks.

Finally got some good replies.
Firstly Bigcam, I'm glad we sorted out that you are talking about imports only, not japanese vehicles as a whole. I find it difficult to believe, I be honest, they make better quality units for us whities than they do for themselves. The issue of different parts I understand however and this would be the single biggest concern. In light of onetracks comments about rust, perhaps this is the reason for wooden trays. I know in cold areas of europe where they salt the roads in icy conditions, cars are pretty much rusted to buggery in ten years. By the way Bigcam, now I'm starting to think you might be a woodaphobe and as a carpenter I take offence. If your scrappy wouldn't take it its because he has no vision. I would have stuck it on ebay as exotic, vintage floorboards, only ones in Oz.
JB, I never meant to imply you were against asian vehicles. With the laptop, surely, like a car, there are plenty of people who can fix it. Like a car, I'm sure the dealer is the most expensive and least competent of your options. They've probably got a 17 year old dumbass buggering up your gear.
Nevertheless I'm not actually arguing with you guys, onetracks point about the parts issue with its implications on insurance has pretty much killed the dream :'(

Onetrack. In reply to your post about the slow driving speeds, whilst it doesn't make sense that idling and slow speeds put more stress on a vehicle than blasting down the freeway at 119.99 km/h , it also seems clear that to achieve 100 000km the truck is going to be running for far more hours. If you judged the truck on hours running, like machinery, maybe these trucks really are nowhere near as good as they seem. Still, if you were gonna hit the freeway, you could be pretty sure 5th gear hadn't seen much action.

the japanese diesels last a long time ..(much better than some of their earlier efforts)i worked on fleet maintance a few moons ago (isuzu /hino trucks mostly) ..even with our worst drivers they were still getting 500.000ks +
the 80s toyota dynas were lucky to get 50ks before something went wrong

In the late 60s I had a Toyota DA 6000 diesel tip truck and had the misfortune to have a near head on, my truck was fully loaded, the body broke and smashed the back of the cab, the bonnet ended up about 2 foot long on the drivers side and I survived because the steering wheel folded away from me. Once the west coast mirror was pulled away both doors opened like a new Merc.

The engine was a double head bit of kit and was a corker except it tended to stretch valves I think the engine was a Mecedes that gave them some legal grief but not sure about that. It was fast and could on a round trip push the V8 Inters and Dodges.

So I have some affection for the Tojo

I traded an AA Inter on the Toyota

thats my 2 bobs worth

wasnt that the toyota that looked a bit like the long nose inters and dodges ?

I am not up on my Toyota trucks. Are we talking about one like this?

That's the beastie. Gee, I haven't seen one for years .. but there's probably a few hiding in farm sheds.
A lot of them died early, because the motors in them gave a lot of grief, and parts started getting hard to get for them.
They were a good truck otherwise, but the crap diesel engine put a lot of blokes off buying another one.