Buying a car from a Japanese dealer without seeing it: what to ask, and how to get it seen

Plenty of people buy a car from Japan without ever seeing it. Buying straight from a Japanese dealer, rather than from an export company's own stock, widens the choice: Japan's listing sites show cars from dealers all over the country. But it also means nobody in the middle has looked at the car on your behalf. What you have is what the dealer chose to photograph and write, and photos show less than you think.

This page covers what changes when you buy direct, what to ask the dealer before you pay anything, and the question most buyers ask first: will a dealer let someone come and look at the car for you?

What's different when you buy direct

• The dealer is the seller. There's no export company's stock and no marketplace between you. The person answering your questions is the person selling the car, which is useful, as long as you remember their answers are theirs and nobody else has checked them.
• Ask first whether they'll sell abroad. Before you spend time on a car, ask whether the dealer will sell to a buyer outside Japan, and how the car would leave the country: whether they arrange the export themselves, or expect you to bring in an export agent.
• The registration has to be cancelled for export. Under Japan's Road Transport Vehicle Act (Article 15-2), the owner of a registered car that's going to be exported has to apply for temporary deregistration for export and receive a certificate before the car leaves. Ask who will handle this and how the certificate will reach you, because your own country may ask for it when you register the car. The stages after this are in how to import a car from Japan.
• Most of it happens in Japanese. Domestic listing sites such as Carsensor are in Japanese, and so are most dealers' replies. Carsensor's own page on its certification scheme ends its list of steps with visiting the dealer to check the car in person.

Will a dealer let someone look at the car for you?

You might worry that a dealer won't want a stranger turning up for a buyer who isn't there. For most dealers, our founder doesn't see a problem: asking to see a car so you can take photos and video is, in his view, an ordinary request, and he expects larger dealers to be fine with it.

The exception, in his view, is the small specialist that's run more like a hobby than a business. Some of those aren't in a hurry to sell, and he thinks they may well say no to someone viewing on a buyer's behalf. He's frank that these are often the shops he'd trust most, but he thinks that mostly pays off when the buyer goes in person, and that a visit to look on someone else's behalf may not go down well there.

What we hold to is being straight about who we are. When we contact a dealer, we say we're there on behalf of an overseas buyer, and we don't pretend to be you. We ask in Japanese whether the car is still for sale and whether they're happy for us to visit, and we make an appointment before we go.

A dealer can still say no. The car may already be promised to someone, the dealer may not sell abroad at all, or they may simply not want a viewing. That comes out on the phone, before anyone travels.

What to ask the dealer before you pay anything

1. Will you sell to a buyer outside Japan, and who handles the export paperwork?
2. What's the total price, including the dealer's own fees, and what does it not include?
3. What does the listing say about repair history and flood damage, and what does the dealer say when you ask? "No repair history" means less in Japan than it sounds; see repair history and flood cars.
4. Photos of the places you name. The underside as far as it can be seen from ground level, both strut tops under the bonnet (hood), the rear arches and sills, and the boot (trunk) floor with the mat lifted.
5. A video of the engine starting, with the exhaust in view, and whether the engine was already warm. Our guide to engine start videos says what to watch for.
6. The chassis number and the papers, so you can match them. See what a Japanese chassis number check can tell you.
7. Who you'll be paying. The name on the invoice should be the dealer you agreed the sale with.

What the dealer's photos and answers can't tell you

• Anything the camera wasn't pointed at. The usual gaps are listed in what dealer photos miss.
• Whether an answer is right. A reply by email is the dealer's word. It's worth having, but it isn't the same as someone seeing the thing.
• Some things even a visit won't settle. Without lifting the car, the underside is seen only as far as ground level allows, and there's no test drive. Nobody can tell from a video whether an engine was already warm before it was filmed.
• Whether the car will meet your country's rules. That's for your own government, not the dealer.

Found a car at a dealer and not sure what the photos are leaving out? Send us the listing link and tell us what worries you. We'll say whether it's something we can ask the dealer about, or something that needs a visit.

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Two ways to close the gap from abroad

Ask by phone. A Remote Check is a call to the dealer in Japanese on your behalf: your questions, a request for the photos you still need, and a translation of whatever paperwork comes back. Nobody sees the car, so the report marks all of it as the dealer's word.

Go and look. An On-Site Vehicle Viewing means an appointment at the dealer and a record of what could be seen and heard that day, in photos, video and a written report in English. We mainly cover the Tokai region (Aichi, Gifu and Mie) for viewings in person; for a car elsewhere in Japan, ask us.

If you're not sure which one you need, Remote Check or a viewing? sets out the difference. Either way, we don't tell you whether to buy. That decision stays with you.

Written by Yoshiaki Sagara, a paintless dent repair and detailing technician in Japan. He looks at cars for overseas buyers through Ninja Desk Japan. About us

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