Global markets for these cars

Is there a general difference between values of these cars in one place vs another? I know the American tastes for cars differ from Europe, as does the perception of mileage etc. so it seems like there would be a hot spot where they are worth considerably more, enough that it would start a migration of import/export of them. I got to thinking about this after dreaming of moving to Europe someday and what I would do with my car if I do.

 

Other than LHD/RHD in appropriate locations, I don't think so.

 

It happened in the past for some cars that went out of fashion somewhere (it's not unusual to see 308 / 328 with US specs in Europe, which shows that at some point it made sense to buy in the US and go through the hassle of bringing back to Europe for resale) but with the modern worldwide communication I think it's less likely to happen since people will tend to align prices.

 

As John has already mentioned, the obvious difference is RHD/LHD.

However there are some local factors, the restriction on personal imports under 25 years old (I think that's right) to the USA, limits you to what there already, which is a finite number of cars. Interesting to see if that changes when people are free to import Euro spec cars as they reach the 25 year mark.

Also local taxes, certain regions have import duties that are eye watering for vehicles. Off the top of my head - Australia, Denmark, Singapore, Malaysia and I'm sure there are more. Some of these have duties that are multiples of the car value, not just a small percentage. So once in these regions there's little incentive for cars to leave.

 

I have been thinking the same. After being in America once in a while, it seems that the times where Americans ran their big American sedans are over a long time ago. Also the times where BMW/Audi/Mercedes premium cars were popular is also less noticable. But American made Lexus, Infinity, Acura and now the cheaper versions of Chevrolet and Nissan etc. are more popular. As far as I know, the cars have a lower average number of years in traffic. That means cars from the 90-ies become very «old» and rapidly a classic, opposed to Europe where cars seem to be used for a longer time. In my opinion that might be one factor along with thw sheer total amount of cars, makes these cars so rare in the US. And the fact that Americans have many many rich people and lost of car culture makes the market more interesting for the owners. Service on the other hand, seems to be more expencive in America. More strict emission zones in Europe are also not favouring these types of cars here anymore. They are actually illegal to run in some cities in EU from what I understand. The euro/dollar is also a factor. The dollar is also about 50% more worth agains Norwegian Crowns now compared to 2008/9/10!! Back them I could get an early 2WD Diablo for about 70.000 dollars which was 500.000 crowns or even less!! Now those cars are 150.000 dollars and up for a good one. I should have got one!!

 

I wonder how much of that “gain” would have been eaten up with $$$ maintenance over the past decade

 

Japanese 550's may be cheaper. You have to add up all the costs for importation and take into account the unknown.

The car has to be 25 years old to be able to import into the USA. I thought about importing a car and bringing it to Cn.

 

Is there an English language website for searching the Japanese marketplace or someone located in Japan who can source these?

 

Yes.

Try using the search feature.

You can also look on-line and you will find several hits.

Good luck with your search.

 

A good car that is in working order and taken care of is not that expencive to own. A friend of mine has 25 Lambos and do all the work himself. The good thing about having many cars is that they don’t get driven much each

 

Canada is only 15 years lucky bastard