another slow news day. It never changes last time it was harley's and boats. Yes it does happen but not as much as the papers beat it up. Got to love the line "illfitting local parts". shadow
Typical. Another poorly written article full of half-truths, errors and no doubt some bullshit. QUOTE: "One Melbourne man spent nearly $100,000 on a V8 BMW 525". A BMW 525 is NOT a V8. QUOTE: "Police initially checked 1000 vehicles and found that 90 were stolen and more than 700 were 'grey imports' ... Most of the grey imports checked by police have been illegally imported from Japan" This implies that "most" of the 700 grey imports were illegal. I'd love to see some feedback from J-Spec, Blipman, or others involved in importing LEGITIMATELY to see if these quoted numbers are genuine. I would think they would have access to industry gossip, however ... ... the above comments might simply be crap - earlier in the article it is stated that, QUOTE: "Of 110 suspect cars inspected by police, 20 required modifications to reach Australian safety standards, nine were cleared and 81 cases are pending." So how many cars were checked? 110, or 1000? Of the 110 stated, none have yet actually been found totally illegal - just "pending" cases??? My experience tells me the article may have some factual merit, as it turned out that my Z had compliance "issues" which needed to be addressed before registration. The shonk who imported it simply drove it on dealer plates for 4 months, and the engineer who signed it off was fraudulent, although almost all work was done. But as a classic piece of scaremongering I think this piece should rate about 2/10 in a journalism exam.
I didn't really have much to say about this but since Mikey asked "Most" grey imports being illegal is ridiculous, most are perfectly legal, roadworthy and properly complied. On the whole grey imports are trust worthy and you should have nothing to fear. Any statement to the contrary would just be scaremongering. That said, the import industry has some shady characters (I know that even some of the most well known importers do some dodgy stuff) but they are not the norm. The problem is if you wanted to try something sus' it really is easy.... all you need is a mate in the right position to sign something, or to doctor paperwork and no one will ever know.... to be honest the only thing stopping someone from pulling the wool over some government department's eyes is your morales, getting away with some things would never be an issue (there are limits, some things are almost impossible to get around). So, yes I would believe there are some dodgy cars out there, but they are no where near in the majority. If it's a concern, go with someone you trust, some of the things which can be done you'll never actually be able to detect. Ben
