Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Calculate TAX

These days everyone who is interested in car importing is searching for how to find the TAX charged by Sri Lanka government when we import a vehicle. I accidentally found a web site where we can find it but I have no idea about the accuracy of them. Just have a look, it's a site from Sri Lankan company, so if you want you can give them a call and clarify it.


www.sachin.lk



NOTE: this not a recommendation but just information.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

How to personaly import a vehicle!!!!!

..........how auctions in japan handle thousands of vehicles per day.............




By referring my "Never buy cars from Sri Lanka sales" post, now you have an idea how to choose a good vehicle by looking at an auction sheet.
There are many web sites that you can select a car and import it. www.sbtjapan.com is one such web site. There you can either select a car from there stock or ask from them for an auction.

1)Buy from the Stock

They buy vehicles from auctions and stock them. They list those vehicles and their relevant details in their web site. we can choose a vehicle on our demand and ask for more details from their customer support.

2)Buy from auction
We can ask them that we want to go for an auction. Then first we have to send about 100000Yen to their account. Then we can see the vehicles in Japanese auctions and select cars and give our maximum value for that car. Then they go to the auction on behalf of us and bid for the vehicles we asked. If they can't buy any vehicle within our maximum value then no worries... we can bid another day, until we buy a car from the auction our deposit is valid.


After we selected a car then we have to send them 20% of the car's value. After they receive that money they ask us to open a LC (Letter of Certificate) for the rest of money. Then they ship the vehicle.
If you buy the vehicle from an auction, then the deposit of 100000yen will be reduce from the cars value. (That mean, if you are going to surely buy a vehicle,then there is no loss either buy it from the auction or from the stock )

After ship arrives clear the vehicle through a clearing agent or by yourself. Because of the TAX changes I have no idea about the present TAX, but it'll be more closer to one to one.

Before you bid or buy from the stock, you can know the total price including shipping, insurance..etc.

FOB- price without shipping and insurance
CIF- Total price including shipping, insurance and cost

Friday, June 24, 2011

What is Continuously Variable Transmission !!!

Seems many people in Sri Lanka not aware of the transmission system on their vehicles. Many people only know about manual and automatic transmission. But the newest technology is "Continuously Variable Transmission". It is same as the automatic transmission from the outer look, but it is an totally different technology. It doesn't have a fix number of gear wheels (normally five) as in a manual or automatic vehicle. It only carries two wheels which can change their radius by changing pressure provided to the core of the wheel. When you drive it, you wont feel the shifting of gears. It change the radius of the earlier mentioned wheels and change the ratio. So it can generate infinite number of ratios rather than Fixed Five ratios in a normal car. So it will smoothly changed within ratios and that is why it is called Continuously Variable Transmission.

Fuel Economy

Automatic < Manual < CVT

Yes it is true!!!!!!!! This technology is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aware yourself about the transmission type of your vehicle and go for the Experienced people to change your transmission oil. Because there is a special procedure in changing CVT. Some people said that they are experts and they have machines to do it, but many of them are not aware about the correct method. Go for a mechanic who is updated with the new technology, otherwise your amazing machine will useless.

CVT oil is differ from Automatic transmission oil....
Most of Toyota new toyota models comes with CVT......


Watch following videos please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Theory::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::




:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::PRACTICALLY::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::





::::::::::::::::::COMPARE CVT AND Automatic Transmission:::::::::::::::::::::::

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Never Buy Cars From Sri Lankan Sales

***** I'm writing this post only thinking about the people who are not professionals in "buying vehicles" and share my knowledge and avoid innocent people loosing their money.******************

I did a little research about car sales in Sri Lanka. Do you believe if I say "They are earning more than five lacks from Each vehicle they sell". The key fact to this issue is people are not aware about the vehicle they are going to buy. Let's assume that you are going to buy a Toyota Belta Car.

.......How do you measure the quality of the Car you are looking at..............

99.9% of unregistered Japanese cars in Sri Lanka are bought by auctions in Japan. People in Japan hand over their vehicle to a auction to get them sell. In every auction in Japan their are one or more examiners who works independently. When a Japanese hand over his car to the auction, the examiner examine the car and he issue a document called "Auction Sheet". For a day thousands of cars are auction in each auction online. Before two days they publish photos of the cars to be auction and their above mentioned "Auction Sheet". So every person who by a car from Japanese auction receive the auction paper with his car. That means 99.9% of Sri Lankan Japanese car dealers should bear the auction sheet for each car.
THIS AUCTION SHEET MEASURE THE QUALITY OF YOUR VEHICLE!!!!!!!


...........How to use a auction sheet to measure the quality................................





here I have added a sample auction sheet. Unfortunately auction sheets are in Japanese language but fortunately there is a standard sign system.
The most important factors are Auction Grade and the Mileage of the car.Now if you are going to buy a Japanese car from anywhere first ask for the auction sheet. If the car is in good condition seller will surely give it, otherwise he will act like a baby as never herd of such a thing.

In my sample sheet look at cage 1. cage 1 is overall quality of the car. This car is 4.5 and 4.5 is a good condition.If you are buying a car buy a car which has a auction grade 4 or higher. I have mention useful Auction Grades and their meanings below.

Auction Grade - Quality

3.5 - many damages(not recommend)
4 - good quality
4.5 - very good quality, usually low mileage
5 - top condition. very low mileage
6 - more likely to the brand new condition.
7 or 8 or 9 or S - these are brand new condition grades.
R - this car has replaced parts
A,RA - this car has met with an accident and parts have been replaced



Auction R is not recommended.If you saw a auction sheet with auction grade R, then look at the picture of the car in the lower of right hand side of the auction sheet. The examiner marks the replaced parts using "XX". So you can decide what has happen.

Cage 2: this is the interior auction grade of the car. Every auction sheet follow the same template, but in some auction sheets you may see there are two cages instead of single cage2. That is because some examiners give a exterior grade also. So if there are two cages one is for interior grade, other one is for exterior grade. This Toyota Belta has a interior grade of "B". It is better if you can buy a car with interior grade B or A.

Interior/Exterior Grade Meaning

A - Above the average condition considering with the mileage of the car
B - Average condition considering with the mileage of the car
C - Below the average condition considering with the mileage of the car

When it is a interior grade "C" car, we can find some cigarette burns in sheets or/and some scratches in the dashboard...etc


Cage3: Mileage of the Car in thousands. This Toyota Belta has a 27.285 in cage3 and that means it bears a 27285km mileage. Actually that is a very good mileage.


Cage4: Car owners comment.This field is always in Japanese language and usually contents the boasting of the car owner.Ex; reverse camera,TV,Navigation system,Alloy wheels ...


Cage5: Examiners comment.In most of the auction sheets this field is empty because examiner points everything using symbols and he has nothing to write further. But sometime he write some important facts about the car that he can't express using the symbols.If you can translate and read this field it's better.

We know when we use a car it get scratched, little dents..etc. Auction sheet reveals everything. In our Toyota Belta's auction sheet there are some places pointed as A1. Those are little scratches, and they are visible if we get a very very close observation.

If this car was an Auction Grade "R", then there should be pointed "XX" parts(those are the replaced parts).

A-very very very little sratch
A4- long scratch than a A3.
Now you got the idea. Other signs used for various reasons are listed below.


A1 Small Scratch
A2 Scratch
A3 Big Scratch
E1 Few Dimples
E2 Several Dimples
E3 Many Dimples
U1 Small Dent
U2 Dent
U3 Big Dent
W1 Repair Mark/Wave (hardly detectable)
W2 Repair Mark/Wave
W3 Obvious Repair Mark/Wave (needs to be repainted)
S1 Rust
S2 Heavy Rust
C1 Corrosion
C2 Heavy Corrosion X Need to be replaced
XX Replaced
B1 Distortion on (radiator) core support or back panel (approximately size of a thumb)
B2 Big Distortion on (radiator) core support or back panel
Y1 Small Hole or Crack
Y2 Hole or Crack
Y3 Big Hole or Crack
X1 Small Crack on Windshield (approximately 1cm)
R Repaired Crack on Windshield
RX Repaired Crack on Windshield (needs to be replaced)
X Crack on Windshield (needs to be replaced)



************ Don't depend on price in Sri Lanka****************************
If you are not buying the car through a leasing, but using cash, or using a bank loan ,then individually import your vehicle by your own. It'll save you more than 4 lacks. But if you are not interested in those kind of things, buy it from Sri Lanka, but buy the best car. Don't be a fool in-front of cunning car sellers.

If you are going to buy it from Sri Lanka, then you have to buy that car for the value in Sri Lankan market(4-10 lacks more than actual cost). So at least try to get the best vehicle.

I have real life examples myself:

I was looking for a car, I didn't go for car sales, instead I go for people who personally imported vehicles, because their cars are 2 or 3 lacks cheaper than the cars in the sales. Now you know why they are cheaper.(some people don't need earn 4-10 lacks from a single car, instead they earn 2 or 3 lacks. that's the reason)

Oh! I forgot to mention that their are two car market prices in Sri Lanka. Prices in car sales and prices in individual importers.As I mentioned there is a huge gap between these prices also. Personally imported vehicles are not vat claimed and if some one is going to buy a personally imported vehicle through a leasing facility then he/she should pay vat claim(about 1-2 lacks).

I went to a car owner and asked for the auction sheet, but he said he didn't have it and he gave me a bank document. For his bad luck in a side of that document was only a car sketch which is very similar to the sketches in the auction sheets. In that sketch trunk was pointed as "XX" and I said him that trunk of this car has replaced and he was stuck and he said this is an unregistered vehicle and how could that happen. I go to the back of the car and had a close look and found both back doors and trunk are not shining as front doors. YES Repainted. So that car is auction GRADE "R" and in Japan auctions, auction Grade "R" vehicles are normally 1-2 lack JPY cheaper than others. When it comes to Sri Lanka it is cheaper than 2.5-5 (because of VAT)lacks. Did you see that.... People are not innocent as they seems to be.

If a person who knows nothing about these things go and visit that car, he will surely buy it. We can go with a mechanist and examine the vehicle but auction sheets reveal everything and even the things that the mechanist doesn't imagine that could be happen.
Anyway check your engine by a mechanist.

DON'T BE A FOOL IN-FRONT OF CAR SELLERS. BE A PERSON WHO KNOWS MORE THAN THEM.
THIS ARTICLE IS SPECIALLY FOR INNOCENT CAR BUYERS IN SRI LANKA.
____________________________end______________________________________________________________

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