Guy
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or buy from my friend David Morris at https://valleycarsandclassics.com/cars-for-sale/ who sells about 100 Japanese imports a year about half of which seem to sell pre order or on the boat. You do have to wait 3 months but the typical 10 - 20 year old cars are incomparable in condition to the UK equivalents as the Japanese treat European cars like luxuries for special occasions so they cover low mileages and are garaged and driven without salted roads. The really interesting stuff (Maserati/Ferrari etc) is mostly LHD due to a quirky fashion in Japan. The current bargains seem to be Q car Volvos with 350 bhp twin turbo sixes and 4 wheel drive. The UK seemed to only buy the chuggy diesels so they are quite hard to find here. He has also imported a ;lot of Alfas (156/9/166) and the owners are shocked to buy a 20 year old Alfa with no rust!UK process have always been cheap, I guess due to being RHD.
Even with Irish VRT a lot of people here would buy a UK car as the spec was always better and they were cheaper if a bit more hassle. That all went when the UK dropped out of the EU which allowed individual EU countries to apply whatever import duties they thought fit, the Irish adding a straight 23% VAT charge as a starter. This equivalently killed imports from the UK in any great numbers. This has had an effect of firming up prices here as there is really no alternative, UK with 23% plus import duties or elsewhere in Europe but LHD and higher starting prices.
There is one anomaly, Japan, for some reason Japanese cars don't have the same import duties, most of the cars available are RHD and prices seem good, however the downside buying blind and the delay in it arriving put most people off.
Catch 22