How To Get Your Own R34 GTR Right Now - EP.56

In This Episode we discuss the various ways you can aquire your own R34 GTR Right Now! Financing, insurance, Importers, Exporters and current market availability!

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Welcome to the right hand drive guys podcast. The show for guys who like right hand drives. Wear your hosts. I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. Yeah, yo. And make sure to follow us on all the socials are at our HD G U I S. DM us with any of the questions. We're glad to help you out any time and check out the merch if you want our HD G U I S dot com. We hope you enjoy episode 56. All right. What are we going to get into today? Trouble. Yes. A bunch of trouble. No, we're going to get into one of everyone's favorite cars, right? The R 34 GT R GT R GT R. Yeah, the GT R and how you can get one right now. How you can get it? How you can get one right now and you know, either work with somebody or do it yourself. Yeah. So Aaron's just going to kind of break down, you know, everybody knows the R 34 right? Obviously it's become this huge crazy icon of the Japanese sports cars. Yes. 100%. You can't you can't think about Japanese sports cars without thinking about the R 34 and spend that way for a long, long time now. Really? Yeah, since they came out like 25 years. Yeah. You know, in that sense. So Aaron's going to spit a few just little facts about the 34 just to bring some people up to speed if they have been living under a rock or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. The R 34 GT R is the final rendition of the one of the best Japanese sports cars as we said. It comes with the RB 26 D T T T T T meaning twin turbo. So you had the same RB since, you know, the R 32 little little changes, little refinements in the engine. Not too much though. It's still pretty much the same. The 34 did get a six speed get track transmission which that's a pretty big change from the other models. It's the same six speed that came in the like the Toyota Supra. Yeah. So they're pretty tough. Yeah, they're pretty tough. You know, like I said, this is this final form, you know, this is the final rendition. So they figured it all out at this point. Right. And with that, right? So it was like the final edition and something we kind of talked about in the past was like, you know, the R 32 had like a V spec in an N one, right? Right. And the R 33, you know, they came out with a V spec, the 400 R and then of course the LM. But dude, once they hit the 34s, they're like V spec, V spec to M spec, NUR, like all these different things Z tune, you know, all of these different iterations in it felt like it was because of what you're saying. It was like the final hurrah. And so we're going to do it all. Yeah, literally anything that would stick, which with this car, everything stuck for the most part, right? And especially in 24 shoot, you can hardly get it off the wall without giving your kids to get you know, it's insane. So yeah, I mean, they're, they're awesome cars. They, they look modern to this day, but you could put that car in a, you know, on a car lot next to brand new cars and it wouldn't be out of place. Yeah. So it's got a real timeless design. And yeah, I mean, you can't beat it. You can't be, which is hard to say about a 25 year old car like most 25 year old cars, you're not saying that was a timeless design. Right, right. There's only a few out there, you know, like this one, the FDR7s and others, you know, just those classic, like just timeless. That's the only way I can think of. Yeah. So yeah, as he was saying, you know, the 34, of course, all will drive it. You know, if, if you know anything about GTRs, it's a GTR plus one or plus two. Right. You know, so the point of this episode is kind of to give you the route to figure out how to procure your own R34 GTR if you're in the market, right? And we have some decent experience with that. Obviously, I have an R34 GTR and Aaron went through the process with me of finding that and then we've found more cars after that. And so we kind of got a good handle on the options that you have right now today to get your 34. Yep. So let's start with importer. And, you know, if you listen to some of our earlier episodes, some of this will kind of ring a bell, but we figured for the new guys, we might as well just really give it to them. And we've met a few new people since and so it's kind of changed our vision of it. Yeah. That's a new knowledge. Yeah. So importer, what's an importer? An importer would be stateside and they're the ones that receive a car that they might have sourced from overseas. So they are buying the car overseas, shipping it over, doing their thing, getting their premium and putting it for sale. So they're like a United, they're like a US right hand drive dealer. Kind of correct. Yeah. Assuming that they're holding stock. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. They're the ones that bring they bring the car in. They you don't have to deal with any type of any type of poor clearing or nothing. You know, it's just like going down the street to the used car dealership, giving them some cash, taking home a car. Yeah. So so here's the thing, the importer of course saves you a bunch of hassle, right? Like, which will go over in a few, but they also are a middleman. And so the thing about a middleman, right? The middleman always needs to make his money. And I am not trying to be negative or put down any of these guys that we're going to recommend. But the middleman has to make his money or else there's no business for the middleman there. So you need to think about it in regards of you get to go walk walk in there and you get to look at these cars. I don't know what their policies are. You might be able to test drive on. Right. But you have to pay for that in the price of the car, right? Because they've pdi'd it. They've done they've done everything. Hopefully if they're a good importer, they've changed the oil, they've checked everything. You know, so you're going to pay for that. And if you're okay with that and if you aren't a patient type of person and you want the car now, I say go for the importer. 100% dude, pay that pay that little bit of importer tax. Yeah, for sure. Because you know, you're not having to go to Japan. Right. You're not having to wait for your car on the boat. You're not having to go to port to pick it up. You're not having to do all these extra steps that can be stressful to some people. Oh, for sure. If you're if it's not your gamer, if it if you're not into anything like that, yeah, I could see how that'd be very stressful because which will go through in a minute that process. But yes, this is more of a stress free because you can see the car in person. You can more than likely test drive it. You can feel it out. So the importers that I recommend, I mean, I have gone through a few here, but the who I would recommend would be top rank international who is the California base of top rank. And so you're going to be able to preview what they have or what they can get you by also looking on their global website. Right. So in top rank is interesting because a lot of people, there are a lot of businesses don't have a Japan and a US base. Right. Right. So but top rank is different, which we'll get into later. And then also I recommend Revhard and Revhard. I met these guys in Japan and they were super stand up guys. They have done a few little things for me, even though I never bought a car from them. So in their base in Colorado and they have stock there, they have a lot of people who can vouch for them, especially in that area. So I would check them out. Top rank and Revhard for your importers. There are plenty. And I'm not saying that the other ones aren't good. These are just my personal suggestions based on what I've observed. Right. So then when you get over to the exporting side. Right. So what's an exporter? Exporter is going to be in Japan. Right. And they will deal with sourcing a car and getting it to the boat for you. You know, simply put. You know, they'll they'll go to all the dealerships, they'll go to the auction, they'll they'll do all that for you unless you want to do it yourself. I'm sure you know, you could do that. But the exporter will deal with you know, handling everything on the Japan side, getting it on the boat, storage, things like that. And then shipping it over here. But once it's on the boat, you know, kind of like your situation with the 34 GTT, it was kind of on you, right? Yes. So exactly that. So pretty much if so when you get the exporter, right? Like Aaron said, they handle everything in Japan. They'll get you ready. They'll get the export certificate, you know, everything like that done. And so let's back it up a little bit. So if you want to work with an exporter, of course, you get two options. You shop online or you should go to Japan and shop. So of course, a lot of people and, you know, I get these DMs all the time. So keep them coming. I'll continue to reassure you that if you work with the right exporter, you can absolutely shop online. Yeah. You can absolutely shop online if you work with the right exporter. And 100%. So I personally have purchased multiple cars, site unseen from Japan, from reputable exporters because these people take pride, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so reputable is the keyword. Yes. And so when we're talking about the importer and the middleman and the importer really finding cars that they're going to be able to make the biggest spread on, right? And I'm not saying that exporters don't, but exporters, when they're soon, okay, if they have it in stock, okay, there is a predetermined price, right? Just like any dealer. When you have them look for a car from you, that's when you can really start saving some money because there is just a fee for looking at these cars. There is not like what the invoice from whoever the car is bought from is what you pay plus their fee, right? So so now at this point, it's almost like a hack because instead of just taking what they have, you say, I would like to find this. They find you this. You pay them their X amount fee. And it's just like you being there buying it. So there is no middleman fee. However, you are buying a car with nobody looking at over beyond a inspection that they provide, right? But that doesn't go in super deep. That makes sure there's no scratches, no dents, the motor's running healthy. You know, that type of thing. No crazy rust. Right. Exactly. Pretty much the little past the shocking. Right. And so when we talk about an exporter, there are a few options, but you just got to realize you're probably going to pay a little less because you're not paying for all of those services that an importer is going to give you. Right. And an importer does need to make the maximum out because they've done all this work to get the car there. And they've been sitting on that car for months probably. Trying to get it. Yeah. So I mean, I understand it. Yeah. It's all in your how patient you can be and how much money you have to spend. Right. Right. And to each their own. So my biggest benefit, I would say, personally, because I bought cars there. I have an R34 in Japan right now. I love. And this has created so many memories for Aaron and I. And then, you know, I got to have the experience with my daughter. And dude, driving your car in Japan is the most rewarding thing. And this is just my personal opinion. The most rewarding experience that you can have with these cars. Yes. It really is because it's full circle, right? Like when we were growing up and we're seeing these cars, they're always in Japan. It was always on the toga. It was always on these tracks. It was always in the tunnels, always in the tunnel. Right. And so, you know, there's one thing to owning that car. And in mobbing it around your hood or whatever, right? But there's another whole piece to owning this car, having it legally registered in Japan. And then putting thousands of kilometers on the car on Japanese roads. Like I can't just seeing all the sites. Yeah. In your car, right? Taking the pictures with your car in the background of these, but you know, and it's just it really is a crazy, crazy thing. And I understand not everybody can afford that. Not everybody has the patience, right? To have their car. Like my car can't even come to the US until December of 25. I'm glad. Keep it there because that gives me more motivation before I had a car there. Yeah. Of course, I love Japan. I wanted to visit Japan. But once I had the car there and we took our first trip, it was like, okay, when am I coming back? Like before you even get on the plane when you're on the train to the airport, you're like, okay, so how am I going to worth this out? Because just those in-depth experiences that you can have like with that car over there is just like there's things we never, ever would have been able to accomplish and like live without that. So if you want to drive your car, the exporters that we recommend would be top-ranked global. Of course, they have hooked me and you know, a lot of our friends up with these registrations and these opportunities. Not to mention what we just experienced was a track day at Fuji that was private, held just by them. And they had all kinds of legends there that you know, we never would have been around, never would have met. So definitely recommend top-rank for that. And then what we found out was our buddy Jesse, he has a 34 from space auto and they also register it for you. So if top-rank maybe doesn't have a car you want or whatever the case may be, space auto apparently will still do that for you. I think they also worked with Amelia Hartford. Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, they did. They just got her one. Yeah, so and so okay, so let's just say you still want to take the exporting route, but you're not really trying to pony up for this registration and wait for the car. You just want to get it here, right? Yeah, totally understandable, you know, totally understandable. So we 100% recommend Trevor King from Kizzo International. He is a super trustworthy and super stand-up guy. You can find him on Instagram, you know, Trevor Kizzo. Yeah, and that dude, yeah, does it right? Right, you know, for somebody who's not this like huge company that has this huge bankroll and you know, he really takes pride in what he does. He's going to personally pdi your car to make sure that it's all set to go on the boat. All of that. I mean, definitely reputable. Yeah, for sure. And I've sent handfuls of guys to him that have bought cars from him and everybody says the same thing. So, and then also, you know, stacked exports is also a good reputable exporter that solely strictly does exporting, you know, there's no registration or anything like that. Yeah. And, you know, I would recommend them if, you know, whatever Trevor can't find what you need. So that kind of goes through importers versus exporters. You know, do your due diligence, figure out what it is you want and when you want it, and then take the appropriate route there. Yeah, if it's too good to be true, maybe it's especially in 2024. Yeah. You know, if it's too good to be true, it's just for me. And so beyond that, if you, so when Aaron was talking about how I kind of had to do a lot of the work after Trevor shipped it, see do have two options there. And this is something I didn't realize, but I'm glad I didn't realize because I feel like a lot of times you need to take the hard route to really learn and we wouldn't have this knowledge if I hadn't taken the quote unquote hard route. Right. So something you can do here is work with an importer. I don't know if I'm sure you've heard of it, but I don't know if you realize that. So you can work with an importer. The importer will take from Trevor and do the rest of the process. Now you do have to pay a fee to the importer, right? And not all importers do this, but a lot of them will because it's just another little thing that they're already doing that they can make a few bucks on. Right. Right. So they handle the broker, they handle all of that type of thing, and then at that point it gets shipped to their location, you can pick it up from them. So maybe you didn't buy the car from them, but you're still supporting them. Right. I personally, again, took the hard route, didn't really want to sacrifice any more money because it's precious, right? So I went the self-importation process. And so it's really not as hard as it sounds, right? You pretty much hit up Becky at Soundbrokerage or whoever the broker you want to be. She pretty much walked you through it. You fill out DOT paperwork, EPA paperwork, the bill of lading and the certificate of export, all of these different paperwork you have to file, right? She kind of walked she through it. And she gets the clearance for the port, everything, right? So you work with her, I can't remember what the fee was total. I think total, I paid 1,500 or something like that. Yeah. And she gets it to the port for you via paperwork and phone calls, right? So by the time the boat lands in your port, she's got everything ready, cleared, good to go. You go into port, right? And so this is what an importer would do for you. They would have handled all that without the broker and they would have handled this next part, which is picking it up at the port. Yeah. Picking it up at the port your first time is like kind of a little nerve-wracking. Like because you don't, you don't know, right? Like, of course you want to think, oh, you just stroll up there and say, hey, I'm picking up my GTR. Yeah, there it is over there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and they're just gonna be like, yes, sir, here's the red carpet. Hell no, dude, especially not in New York, dude. No way, dude. It's rough. It's rough. Like they deal with who knows how many people a day. And they just want you out of their face, right? They just want you, yeah, get your piece of junk Nissan get out of here, right? Right. Right. So I mean, it's not that bad. It's just you're not sure what to expect. Expect the worst and just come prepared. Yeah, definitely bring your your reflective vest because they're not going to let you in the gate without the reflective vest. And also understand that your buddy's not going to be able to go back there with him. And they're going to tell you that straight up, he's not going nowhere. They said, we're like, wait, what? Like no, like he's going to, and they're like, no, no, he's going to stay right here. And we're like, okay, yes, sir. And you know, you get these cars from Japan and they've been on the boat for who knows how long, right? Their batteries are dead. Like, and you're just going in there like, you know, it's not going to start. Right. Sure enough, it didn't start. So I get a run back. Have dude go and go to the truck, get the jumper, got a run back. You know, so it's kind of a hassle. But once you get it on the trailer and like your head it back home, it's like, oh, yeah, that's right. And I did this myself. You know, it's just like the satisfaction of that. Yeah, for sure. It's an accomplishment. And then beyond that, you're the one towing at home. So you know that it's all good in that sense. It's not getting any door dings or whatever. But you can ship container or roro container is in a container, obviously, sometimes alone, sometimes with other stuff, depending on your setup, or roro means roll on, roll off, which there are full roro ships. And if you see a ship carrying a car and there's no containers on top, that means it's roro. And so they're literally parking garages in the ship. And yeah, and they just roll them on, roll them off, roll them on, roll them off. That's a lot of cars. Yeah, no, it is. I saw a video of them loading one and it seems insane how many cars can fit on these ships. Yeah. So that's that's kind of, you know, your self-importation process, right? That that gets you from, you know, the boat in Japan to your garage. Again, you can work with an importer, but it's all in what you want to spend. So once you get it off the boat, right? You get back home. Well, how did you even get it on the boat and get it back home? Did you have the cash upfront? Can you finance these? Like what's the deal? Like, do you know, can you finance these? Yeah, definitely. You can definitely get personal, personal loans for these cars. A lot of people do it. Sofie is one of them. Sofie. Yeah. Light stream is another one that I see a lot. Right. Probably just go to your bank. Go to your bank. Yeah, that's what I was going to say is, you know, they might look at you kind of funny and be like, why do you want all this money? Why do you want a high interest rate loan for this car? Oh, no, this is our auto loans right here. Yeah, it's like, no, no, no, no, no. Then you show them the vent and they're like, oh, yes, so did you want a personal loan? Because they're not financing a 34 GTR. And you know, it wouldn't surprise me if there did become some financing options that were like targeted towards these cars because that would be somewhat smart as long as you digit your diligence on who's borrowing the money, of course, but yeah, I feel like some options might come up as these continue to come over. And then of course, you can ask your buddy, hey, can I borrow 150,000 bucks? And like he's either going to say no or probably no. So what, let's say you have the cash, right? What do you just pack it up in a box and ship it over to Japan to pay for the car? How does that work? That's what I did. Yeah. No. So you have to go to your bank and wire the money. And it's generally in two to three payments, like depending on your situation with your exporter. But yeah, you go, you want to wire the money. Of course, the bank people don't really want to let you, right? Like they have to, but like they're like, yo, just keep it here. And you're like, no, I want to send it. So yeah, I send it. Right. Exactly. Like I'm trying to get this. Oh, are you sure you don't want to put that in a CD in a Roth IRA? No, I want to put it in a freaking R34 GTR. Let's go, dude. They're like, oh, what? Yeah. So, um, you know, and so okay, let's say you get some sort of financing or you got, got the cash to spend sweet year in good shape now. But you get it home like we talked about and you got to ensure it now, right? And as if we don't have enough little issues, right? With like purchasing this car, now you've got to figure out how to ensure it. Okay. And ensure it to make sure that whether you paid $100, $150,000 or $350,000, that you are getting the total value of that car and nothing less because you paid that money, you need to make sure that you're, you're getting it. Sure for you. If anything happens to it, dude, you don't want to be stuck upside down, you know, not getting taken care of. Yeah, that would be like that'd be worse than obviously losing the cars and using it and not having any sort of nothing, right? Yeah, that would be pretty horrible and it does happen. You see, you see videos, pictures of these cars. They do some some old ADT bones you had in intersection, some dude trying to raise you pitman who is you, whatever it is, right? So we recommend, you know, because obviously both of us have had to get total value insurance. I think who do you have? I have Hagerty. Yeah, he has Hagerty, has you've had good experience. Oh, yeah, 100%. I mean, they even sent me out of letter saying, hey, we realized the value of your car when up, would you like to increase your value? Would you like to increase your policy? Yeah, you want to pay some more, buddy. They are a collector car insurance and I think they do a great job. And you know, initially I'd went to all state, you know, who I have my regular car insurance through and they wouldn't even touch it. They were like, yeah. No, this is what's considered a gray market car and we're not allowed to do. That's wild, right? So I kind of same thing, right? I have USA and, you know, I back in the day, I could register my right hand drive car with them or ensure it, you know, same with guy co, right? But now these things have changed. And so I hit up USA and they're like, actually, we work with American collectors insurance for cars like this. No problem. Hit up American collectors. Decent rate, they were willing to cover the vehicle pretty much to whatever I thought it was worth because of the modifications and I've been paying a member sense and luckily they haven't had to pay out for me. So yeah, one thing I have noticed about some of these like collector car insurances is that your driving record has to be on point. Yeah. So like if you've had a suspended license in the past six months and reckless driving tickets and yeah, they don't want to mess with you. All these crazy things, they're not going to touch you. Because that's a liability, right? 100%. So just keep that in mind. And you know, if they do, if you do get through to one, it's going to be a lot. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty reasonable. If you have good, if you have a good record, but if you don't have a good record, good luck getting insurance. And if you do, it's going to cost you through the nose. So yeah, for this S14 and my 33 GTR, it's about $1,000 a year. Yeah, not bad at all. Yeah. So all right. And also just throw it out there. If you have state farm, they do offer full value insurance. So yeah, if you if you got Jake out there, hit him up. And so yeah, these are some pretty available ways to finance and ensure these type of cars. And I mean, yeah, it may not just be a two clicks of a button and an online approval, but like, you know, you got to do a little work. So this is, you know, how you could import or export your 34 GTR. And, you know, who to use as a broker, finance insurance. Now, now the part that is maybe the tougher pill to swallow. We're going to do a little market research for you real quick. And we're just going to tell you, we're each going to throw out you one Japanese car R34 GTR and one American landed R34 GTR and just kind of let that resonate with you on the current market and the pricing and, and you know, whether this is something you really want to go after or if maybe an earlier 33 or 32 GTR would be more in your price range or hell, go get an S15 Sylvia. Yeah. Because those are just, maybe not just as dope, but just as awesome in that time period. Oh, yeah. So you go ahead started up. Let me know what you found in the US or no, in Japan first. Japan. I'm going to do high end. So on Gone, G O O net. Very popular Japanese website for finding these cars. It's like pretty much a dealer search throughout Japan. Here I got believe, where is the year? Believe it's a note. Yes, it's a 2002 GTL model. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a GTR M spec Nur. So yes, very high end model. They're asking 75 million yen. What the heck? 75 million yen. So what is that? What does that even mean? 75 million yen. It's a lot. Let me type it into the the old 75 million yen. Like how do they even talk like like that's going to be 75 million dude. Half a million bucks dude. 500 and 5,000. M spec Nur for an M spec Nur. Millennium Jade. That's yeah. Like yeah, I guess. I mean, because half a million bucks. I think that is the going rate for a Millennium Jade. You did pick the cream of the crop which for sure, right? Like that's how that's how it is. So 500. So I have a 99 GTR V spec. Okay. This is a July car. So it's coming up on, you know, being able to be shipped. Yeah. It is has, you know, a bunch of little bits. It looks like it has some lower mileage. But this is from top rank in Japan. And they are asking 152,000 for this V spec 99. And generally, their earlier years because they're closer to importation are generally a little more expensive. Right. But yeah, I mean 152 grand. And then you would need to export this. So, you know, you're probably looking at 160, 162, something like that landed. Yeah. I mean, it's a lot of money. But it's also it's kind of one of those things. So what did you find in the US? Dude, I couldn't find anything in the States. You couldn't find anything. I couldn't find anything. I don't know. Yeah. I was on marketplace. And I we are early. Like we are definitely early. And that's something you also need to understand is, you know, these cars just became eligible for importation literally 32 days ago. Yeah. 32 days out there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because 98 was the first year that they were eligible. So just realize if you're looking in the States, you're probably paying a premium because that person just got it here or was hiding it until it was legal or whatever the case may be, right? Yeah. So, and I mean, I know you can find something Canada because they're import rules 15 years. So it's just a little, a little different. I did find one in the United States on marketplace. So I am not vouching for this, right? Like I am not saying that this person is legit or whatever this car is, like it looks like a real GT RV spec. It looks nice, but I'm simply saying I don't know. Yeah. Because marketplace is kind of wild sometimes. So this guy has a 99 34 GT RV spec. So pretty much what we just talked about a top rank, right? They had it for 152 grand. This guy has it in the US already and is asking 285,000 285. It's not really telling me like the kilometers or anything. I mean, it looks clean. It has an Z-tune hood, whatever. But 285,000, you can go down a four-lotter deal right now. Grab your cell. It would be in Florida. Yeah, of course. But you can grab yourself a 34 GTR. So, I mean, the prices on these things are going to be wild. I'm sure you could find something. I know Trevor just had something that they had found and it was like had some rust and need some love. And I think it was only $80,000. Yeah, I've ever seen it. I was like, what is wrong with this? Yeah, it just needs a lot of work. Yeah. And he was very vocal about that too. It wasn't high enough. Yeah, no, no. And he was willing to work with you to find somebody to do the work in Japan if you wanted. So, I mean, you can find them on the lower end of 100,000. Yeah. And just you may have to put some love into it. But I mean, if that's what you can afford for a 34 GTR, run it. Yeah, I mean, I found another one on GoNet. And well, first of all, there's only 11 GTRs, R34 GTRs on GoNet. So, that can kind of tell you where the market is. Because that's not very many cars at all for the whole entire country of Japan. Right. You know, if you look at GTTs or anything like that, it's going to be hundreds of them on there. There's 11 GTRs. So, that's crazy. Yeah, I mean, I found another one for $16 million, which converts to $109,000. And that was the lowest in. That was, yeah, that was base model. That pretty sure was the $99,000. Yeah. It was the first. So, exactly. You can, they are out there, right? I mean, you may have to do a little work. You may have to skip registering and driving it in the country, whatever, right? Like, if you really want it, you can find a way. And this was just kind of a little guide to get you started. And if this is something you want, take it from me, go out there, figure it out, get it, because I have zero regrets, regardless of how much I paid for the car. Even though that is my personal experience, I don't think that these cars are going to let you down if you feel how we feel about them. Right. Right. So, again, do your due diligence always. If you get any questions, you can always hit us up. We'd be glad to guide you in the right direction. That's what we're here for. But for episode 56, how to get your R34 GTR right now. I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. See you. Peace.