The basic message here is (or at least should be) to check your vehicle's VIN against factory records before trying to import. US Customs wants to know the month and year of manufacture to determine if the 25 year rule applies. I know this can be problematic when buying from a source in a faraway country, but you have to perform due diligence.
WARNING! “US Legal” JDM 70/80 series Land Cruisers and Hiace/Delica vans (Craigslist)
- Thread starter ABC
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silkroadautos
New member
That wasn't a reference to you. I was responding to the guy who initiated the thread. You didn't buy any car from us and if so show us something that you did. Post a picture of the seatbelt.
silkroadautos
New member
He never purchased a vehicle from us. I have tons of emails that I have privately sent to him asking him to remove this thread. The biggest problem I have with this is that we never even exchanged a single word that would make him go through so much to tarnish our image. He placed a deposit on one of our delicas, ask very very many questions over a period of weeks while the delica was off sale. He then wrote to me about how he found a website that showed this van to be this year and that year. I told him, I would refund your deposit and did so. That was the end of the story as far as we were concerned. When he posted this I had been emailing everyone I had sold a delica to and never thought it would be him because, once again, I never sold anything to him. But, then when I read the thread saying how "a buddy of mine in the auto industry told me this and that" I realized it was this gentlemen. I wrote to him and ask him to remove this as it is not true. I wrote to the moderator and explained to him that this wasn't true. Furthermore, he has now sent me several emails accusing me of trying to sell him a 1995 hiace which is clearly not eligible for US import. And, it even gets wiereder. I sent him the auction paper which clearly shows the van being 1995 but I still wanted to sell it to him. I have several vehicles here that are not 1991 and I can't sell them in the US. Initially I was avoiding to disclose the seatbelt thing to him as that actually is the manufacture date of the vehicle not the date shown on de-registration paper. This, I thought was my company secret and didn't want to reveal but when he wouldn't remove the thread I disclosed that to him as well and his reponse was "the date on the seatbelt shows the date of seatbelt manufacturing" and not that of the vehicle. There was no going back for him. He had invested so much time in this that it was impossible for him to just say may be I made a mistake. He purchased a delica, I didn't give him the vin no until he came here, then he found it was illegal, brought it back to canada and yes NEVER CONTACTED US. Most of my buyers come and drive these vehicles and bring their own insurance so the registration is sent to them weeks in advance and we sent one to him as well as he was supposed to buy his insurance as well.
He is so worried about "his delica" that he brought it back to canada but then openly list identifying details of other peoples vheicles on this forum. If he was so concerned about his delica being smashed why did he not show the slightest bit of concern for those other poor people I had victimized. If I know and believe that their vehicles may be destroyed, would I openly list their vin no and locations for the whole world? Doesn't that tell anything about the character of this guy? He is actually a very nice guy and we don't know what the hell happened to him. This isn't the person I talked to and exchanged about a billion emails. His very last email to me where he told me this delica was this and that said that he would like to order a high roof hiace from us. If you are so convinced I was there to scam you, why would you still order from us? My competitors and a lot of curbers out there are copying this threat every where because they know that the title is good enough to tarnish our name. No body has time to read through the whole thread or even read through the lines. I don't know what he gets from all of this. It certainly isn't because he wants to help others or else he wouldn't be posting details of their vehicles for the whole wold.
He is so worried about "his delica" that he brought it back to canada but then openly list identifying details of other peoples vheicles on this forum. If he was so concerned about his delica being smashed why did he not show the slightest bit of concern for those other poor people I had victimized. If I know and believe that their vehicles may be destroyed, would I openly list their vin no and locations for the whole world? Doesn't that tell anything about the character of this guy? He is actually a very nice guy and we don't know what the hell happened to him. This isn't the person I talked to and exchanged about a billion emails. His very last email to me where he told me this delica was this and that said that he would like to order a high roof hiace from us. If you are so convinced I was there to scam you, why would you still order from us? My competitors and a lot of curbers out there are copying this threat every where because they know that the title is good enough to tarnish our name. No body has time to read through the whole thread or even read through the lines. I don't know what he gets from all of this. It certainly isn't because he wants to help others or else he wouldn't be posting details of their vehicles for the whole wold.
silkroadautos
New member
No, Sir. I manufacture seatblets that exactly matches the vehicles I sell and then print tags that have the corresponding details of the vehicle and this shouldn't be a surprise because I am smart enough to scam the Canadian, US and Japanese Governments. You clearly are a dealer and love this thread or another user name created by the same guy who initiated the thread. Moderator would need to look into this.
silkroadautos
New member
That wasn't in a response to your thread. Again, you are not my buyer. You never purchased from me. Share anything here that would show you own a delica let alone one purchased from me. I know exactly who you are. I know your first, your last name, your phone number, your address and your work address. But, unlike you, I have boundaries. I don't list other peoples' full names, company names, identifying vehicle information and location. You are a child, of course. I sold you a car, never gave you vin no, you took it the US found it wasn't' legal, brought it back to canada and never contacted me. Now, can you explain to everyone here how the process at the border went. You said you came to pick up a delica so you should now quite well as to what the process was like at the border.Share it with us? What did the custom tell you, what did they check and what information they needed. You don't have any of these because, once again, your buying a delica from us is a complete lie. Your deposit was refunded and that was the end of it. Do you want me to post your last email here? You were so quick in posting my email that I sent to you prior to knowing who was posting these ****. You were the last person I thought about because you don't have a delica.
You found a website and were on top of the world as if no one else ever knew about this. I have been in this business for 13 years and do you think I haven't come across these websites? Also why don't you tell the world how I was going to scam you by selling you a 1995 hiace? And even stranger how I sent you the auction paper for the 1995 hiace but told you it was 1991! If I am so smart as to scam you out of your money I sure would have known better than to send you an auction paper which clearly says the van is 1995. You are a lot smarter than this but you are so deep in this now that there is no way out for you. I have pleaded with you to please remove the thread as we have done nothing to you. If I had kept your deposit which I should have then you would have a reason to get back at me but I didn't despite the fact the vehicles was off sale for weeks. You may succeed in causing damage to my business but am not sure what that would bring on to your table.
Ben Steiner
Adventurer
Off subject... I have a 91 Delica camper with the Reimo pop top for sale.
No problem, as this thread is almost entirely off subject.
That gave me the idea to read through this again and find the important points:
Post 1 (ABC) - "If you only read one thing: Check the VIN on JDM expedition vehicles!"
Post 10 (AtlantaViking) - "Basically, you might be able to get a title and license plate in your state, but the initial importation was not up to snuff."
Post 31 (haven) - "The basic message here is (or at least should be) to check your vehicle's VIN against factory records before trying to import. US Customs wants to know the month and year of manufacture to determine if the 25 year rule applies."
VIN sites
(JDM frame/chassis number)
japanesehistorycheck.com/service/
auc.ts-export.com/month
mitsubishi.epc-data.com/
toyota.epc-data.com/
toyodiy.com/parts/q.html
I thought of a couple points I could have previously said that are more on topic than some of the things I posted:
If all the details on the chassis number plate (below) match the build data from the free VIN check services, then the age on the sites is a good indication of the age of the vehicle. Note that Mitsubishi didn’t include a place for the manufacture date on the plate. I apologize for redacting most of the picture, but the areas where a buyer should check for matching specs are clear. Also, try and get everything a dealer says about a vehicle in writing (or at least in emails). I now understand why Silk Road Autos would only discuss important details over the phone. Basically, just do your homework before even thinking about JDM.
