@@switchcars Make a car guy / dealer "jump to conclusions mat" you could use on occasion - It sounds stupid but I bet it could go viral. certain conclusions - buy, run, PPI, it will never work, wholesale it, dump it take the loss and move on, etc. HAHA!
In the 90's, the Japanese swept through Florida and cleaned out every classic English car that they could find. A shop that I knew went from dozens of English cars per week to maybe one a month. Other brands, even Japanese brands got caught up in the exporting frenzy.
Yes. And then that market dried up overnight when the Japanese market crashed, and it caused the global collector car market to crash as well. Pretty crazy turn.
I’ve imported used Porsches from Canada successfully in recent years, and value isn’t necessarily in the exchange rate - that ship sailed awhile ago as you said - but rather there are quite a few rarer options (e.g. PTS/CXX) that often sell for the same or less than what your “standard” car would. Otherwise it works great for your standard driver’s cars, because ultimately there is still a stigma for CA cars among buyers: there’s this idea that, “Canadian cars sell for less, because they do, therefore they do”.
You are right on the money about Canadian cars selling for less in the US just because they do. No good reason (in most instances, at least for cars out of warranty), other than the "grey market" stigma.
My Mom always tells me about how my grandfather used to be able to buy new mercedes in Germany and then bring them back, drive them for a year or 2, and then sell them for what he paid if not more.
First generation Elises are 25 years old. They're way lighter than Federal Elises. Yes, they have a Rover drivetrain instead of Toyota 2ZZ but engine swaps to a K20 are all over Federals. Another is Kai cars and pickups. They aren't rare or exotic but here, people haven't seen them so they're just like an exotic on the attention getting scale.
Been looking at 2nd generation R8s for sale in Canada. Have known others to do the process. It seems like there’s lots of money to be made even with the “import” discount. Audi seems to play nice to documentation for transfer
@@nonstopper that’s great to hear as PCNA can be a bit resistant if they believe they’re providing a LoC for the sole purpose of export sale - for newer cars at least.
A courier I knew, a guy from Kenya, made good money buying high end salvage title cars that had been "fixed" and shipping them to Kenya and selling them there. He'd work his ass off for 6 or 7 months, living in his Sprinter, while buying Mercs and BMW's. He'd get them to a port, ship them and be waiting for them in Kenya. He'd take a couple months to sell them, then come back to the US and do it again.
yeah that's a whole different animal with the salvage title cars. Once overseas nobody knows, same thing with high mileage stuff. There are so many low mile clean title cars over there that were piles of crap before they left US shores. It's amazing how effective the Atlantic Ocean is at washing titles.
I imported an ex MOD Land Rover Defender, and it honestly wasn't that bad. I'm considering importing a Land Cruiser 70 series to flip, just so see how well it goes. There is good profit margin here, it's just a lot of work.
I know you're coming at this from a luxury European side of things, but I've done about five six cars a year from Japan. I've bought every which Way through importers through exporters at auctions at dealers in Japan. One thing I will say the Yen is really weak right now and it has been for over 2 years. There's cars that can be had cheap. The only issue is to really make any money nowadays you have to buy early. You have to buy a year out and you'd have to store it in Japan. It sucks to store a car for that long but that's the only way people are making real money. People in the US don't want to put in the work to import a car. They don't want to wait. They don't want to buy a car sight unseen so there's a bit of a demand there. People that import just regular cars that are right hand drive or JDM Honestly, they're not making money, they sit on them or they break even
Hi guys, love you, love your show. Here’s a question. Have you ever heard of anyone even attempting to import a Donkervoort? I saw a video years ago about the D8 and my thoughts were that it had Koenigsegg level power to weight AND that if you crashed one at a speed of over 25mph your next car would be a hearse. I was just wondering if there might somehow be one legally registered here in the States.
I'm not personally aware of one, but the most likely way (likely the only way) would be through the Show & Display exemption. Somewhere on the US Customs website you can look up the list of cars that have been approved for the USA through that program. That doesn't mean that anyone can get one here, that just means that someone has brought one over.
Doug, sent you an email before the holidays with a link to two dozen or so cars and coffee personalized plate pics. Never got a response back, did it come through to your dealer email? 2nd question, regarding importing cars from Europe. Heard years ago that Germans were protective of Americans exporting what they felt were halo cars. Rare 80's BMW M models, Alpina models, Ruf models, pre-merger AMG's. Is this true, or put simply does money talk, national pride be damned?
Adam, I did get the email, my apologies for the lack of response. We get a lot of messages and sometimes I file them and forget to reply. I'll send that link to Tyler since he needs a good supply of vanity plates. I don't think you're totally off base about the national pride thing. When I was exporting Porsches to Germany there was definitely a sense of pride that they were "Coming back home"
I realize that porsches are built in Germany, but what are the % of German made "others" here in the states??? I would love to dip my toe in this, but I'm scared to buy an American made German car. Money is the answer to ALL your questions. Just curious.
That cheat codes over, way over saturated. Importers popped up like weeds from 2020-2022. Also the time from purchase to car in hand with title is too long
Doug got his “jump to conclusions” mat out.
HAHAHA love this reference.
It's a mat.... With different conclusions on it.... That you can..
Jump to
@ That is the worst idea I have ever heard of...
@@switchcars Make a car guy / dealer "jump to conclusions mat" you could use on occasion - It sounds stupid but I bet it could go viral. certain conclusions - buy, run, PPI, it will never work, wholesale it, dump it take the loss and move on, etc. HAHA!
In the 90's, the Japanese swept through Florida and cleaned out every classic English car that they could find. A shop that I knew went from dozens of English cars per week to maybe one a month. Other brands, even Japanese brands got caught up in the exporting frenzy.
Yes. And then that market dried up overnight when the Japanese market crashed, and it caused the global collector car market to crash as well. Pretty crazy turn.
I’ve imported used Porsches from Canada successfully in recent years, and value isn’t necessarily in the exchange rate - that ship sailed awhile ago as you said - but rather there are quite a few rarer options (e.g. PTS/CXX) that often sell for the same or less than what your “standard” car would. Otherwise it works great for your standard driver’s cars, because ultimately there is still a stigma for CA cars among buyers: there’s this idea that, “Canadian cars sell for less, because they do, therefore they do”.
You are right on the money about Canadian cars selling for less in the US just because they do. No good reason (in most instances, at least for cars out of warranty), other than the "grey market" stigma.
***Ontario and Quebec Rust have joined the chat
@ If you’re buying sight unseen without a PPI, then that’s on you.
If there's a video being made for the GP. All the money to be made has been made.
My Mom always tells me about how my grandfather used to be able to buy new mercedes in Germany and then bring them back, drive them for a year or 2, and then sell them for what he paid if not more.
First generation Elises are 25 years old. They're way lighter than Federal Elises. Yes, they have a Rover drivetrain instead of Toyota 2ZZ but engine swaps to a K20 are all over Federals. Another is Kai cars and pickups. They aren't rare or exotic but here, people haven't seen them so they're just like an exotic on the attention getting scale.
I had an S1 a few years ago. I’ve been eyeing an S1 Exige. You should also check out the Analogue SuperSport Elise if you haven’t seen that yet.
Love the channel
First time I’ve ever seen a car UA-camr wearing LTT merch. Hell yeah
Had to double take on that one lol
Been looking at 2nd generation R8s for sale in Canada. Have known others to do the process. It seems like there’s lots of money to be made even with the “import” discount. Audi seems to play nice to documentation for transfer
@@nonstopper that’s great to hear as PCNA can be a bit resistant if they believe they’re providing a LoC for the sole purpose of export sale - for newer cars at least.
just found this channel 2 vids ago.... was listening for a bit but when i looked up i saw LTT merch. insta-Subscribed! (don't make me regret this lol)
Tyler loves his LTT hoodie. I don't even know what it is
@switchcars Tyler knows what's up lol if you ever decide to make merch look at their stuff first!
Great podcast so far btw 😃
I’m here for all the Altima jokes! 😂😂😂
A courier I knew, a guy from Kenya, made good money buying high end salvage title cars that had been "fixed" and shipping them to Kenya and selling them there. He'd work his ass off for 6 or 7 months, living in his Sprinter, while buying Mercs and BMW's. He'd get them to a port, ship them and be waiting for them in Kenya. He'd take a couple months to sell them, then come back to the US and do it again.
yeah that's a whole different animal with the salvage title cars. Once overseas nobody knows, same thing with high mileage stuff. There are so many low mile clean title cars over there that were piles of crap before they left US shores. It's amazing how effective the Atlantic Ocean is at washing titles.
@@switchcars
Must be the saltwater
@switchcars I'd also imagine that as a native Kenyan, he would know more about the loopholes than you or I.
@@AeroGuy07 Correct. Without a native insider/family connections, exporting to most middle east or African nations is not doable.
I imported an ex MOD Land Rover Defender, and it honestly wasn't that bad. I'm considering importing a Land Cruiser 70 series to flip, just so see how well it goes.
There is good profit margin here, it's just a lot of work.
Quick question for Doug. In my business should I focus more on the exporting and forget about the importing?
If it's cocaine then yeah ship it to Melbourne Australia for me
That’s a question for Art Vandelay. He’s an Importer/Exporter.
Is there an email to reach out too? I’d like to get some “learnings” about this topic, I’m serious and not a bot.
I know you're coming at this from a luxury European side of things, but I've done about five six cars a year from Japan. I've bought every which Way through importers through exporters at auctions at dealers in Japan. One thing I will say the Yen is really weak right now and it has been for over 2 years. There's cars that can be had cheap. The only issue is to really make any money nowadays you have to buy early. You have to buy a year out and you'd have to store it in Japan. It sucks to store a car for that long but that's the only way people are making real money.
People in the US don't want to put in the work to import a car. They don't want to wait. They don't want to buy a car sight unseen so there's a bit of a demand there. People that import just regular cars that are right hand drive or JDM Honestly, they're not making money, they sit on them or they break even
Hi guys, love you, love your show. Here’s a question. Have you ever heard of anyone even attempting to import a Donkervoort? I saw a video years ago about the D8 and my thoughts were that it had Koenigsegg level power to weight AND that if you crashed one at a speed of over 25mph your next car would be a hearse. I was just wondering if there might somehow be one legally registered here in the States.
I'm not personally aware of one, but the most likely way (likely the only way) would be through the Show & Display exemption. Somewhere on the US Customs website you can look up the list of cars that have been approved for the USA through that program. That doesn't mean that anyone can get one here, that just means that someone has brought one over.
@
Cool, thanks for the response.
I hope the E46 M3 market drops drastically as they start getting imported.
They’re pretty low already. You can pick up manual 100k mile clean title cars now for like 15k
Yeah they're already a collectors car
The best time to buy is yesterday
The next best time is now
@@cs2294 I see them starting at about 20-25k. Not counting convertibles because it rains too much here to own one.
Yes sir , you know me in Kentucky.....😅
For me used Porsche 911’s were 10k and a my neighbor had an old Ferrari under a tarp he wanted to sell me for 8k.
Doug, sent you an email before the holidays with a link to two dozen or so cars and coffee personalized plate pics. Never got a response back, did it come through to your dealer email? 2nd question, regarding importing cars from Europe. Heard years ago that Germans were protective of Americans exporting what they felt were halo cars. Rare 80's BMW M models, Alpina models, Ruf models, pre-merger AMG's. Is this true, or put simply does money talk, national pride be damned?
Adam, I did get the email, my apologies for the lack of response. We get a lot of messages and sometimes I file them and forget to reply. I'll send that link to Tyler since he needs a good supply of vanity plates.
I don't think you're totally off base about the national pride thing. When I was exporting Porsches to Germany there was definitely a sense of pride that they were "Coming back home"
Lexus might be a family car with tweens
I realize that porsches are built in Germany, but what are the % of German made "others" here in the states??? I would love to dip my toe in this, but I'm scared to buy an American made German car. Money is the answer to ALL your questions. Just curious.
Take care of your own back yard. Plenty of biz here.
Tyler is to Doug as Kennan is to Doug 🤢
That cheat codes over, way over saturated. Importers popped up like weeds from 2020-2022. Also the time from purchase to car in hand with title is too long
TRN2ERN is definitely “trying to earn.” Probably an Uber driver or a pizza delivery driver.
Well that at least makes sense then. Here I am TRN2UNDRSTND his plate without the "Y"