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Why Choose Provide Cars?
Smart car dealers use Provide Cars’ access to the thousands of cars, trucks and buses that pass through members-only auctions in Japan every day to get the great deals that give them the edge in their local markets.
Our professional, multilingual staff and advanced online system take the risk out of exporting, letting you concentrate on growing your business.
Give our system a test drive for 14 days here.
Members of the Japan Used
Motor Vehicle Exporters
Association since 1998
(Certificate No. JMVA-151)
Trucks made for export
This truck was made for export to any country in the world. After use in Japan, buyers from any country would want to purchase this truck, whether their country was left hand drive or right hand drive.
Made for export
Two happy buyers.
Let’s hope that these 2 happy buyers will still be happy once they start driving (hopefully in the same direction)
Categories:
auction finds, auctions
Japan’s Earthquake … impact on exporting used cars
Anyone who doesn’t know now that there was a major earthquake, one of a magnitude not seen in modern history before, that hit Japan must be quite disconnected from information sources that flow around our globe! If this little blog here is your news source for this earthquake, then there was a very big earthquake that hit north eastern Japan that brought a lot of damage to buildings and infrastructure as well as a large loss of life. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the populations of Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures who were affected the most.
How does this earthquake affect our used car export business? Will the auctions now be “flooded” with “Tsunami cars” or “radioactive cars”?
First of all, the majority of cars sold in the used car auctions in Japan are sold outside of the areas. I do not foresee a huge impact on these auctions (CAA auctions, USS auctions, JU auctions).
Secondly, the 3 main ports used by Provide Cars in Japan; Osaka (Kobe), Nagoya and Tokyo are still operating. Osaka and Nagoya were not affected at all by the earthquake or by the tsunami. Tokyo’s port reported some cracks but no major damage to the infrastructure. Cars and vehicles stored on the ports were unaffected.
I do see some impact on supply and demand in the auctions however. Used car exporters combined purchase up to 40% of vehicles sold in the auctions each day, a significant amount that affects the prices of vehicles sold. I do foresee a pulling back (fear factor) of demand from overseas as people’s bias towards “tsunami cars” reduces importer’s customer’s demand. This will reduce the number of purchased vehicles in the auctions, effectively balancing reduced supply also to the point of perhaps lowering auction prices.
What should you look out for? Buying from exporters stock. Unfortunately, some exporters will jump at this opportunity to purchase cheap “as is, where is” tsunami damaged vehicles and then sell them off as “good stock”. That creates even more incentive to buy directly from auctions, vehicles that have been carefully judged and accessed by the in-between auction. KNOW WHERE YOUR VEHICLE IS COMING FROM.
Categories:
auctions, car exports, news
2010 Christmas / 2011 New Year
Now, we are approaching the Christmas » more
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Categories:
auctions, news, providecars
USS Yokohama - November 30th
USS Yokohama will be held » more
Insight or Prius… or Leaf?
The Honda Insight stole a march (not a March) on the latest Toyota Prius when it arrived in Japan in early 2009. I remember seeing a TV news report here at the time implying that the Insight was not only selling better than Honda’s expectations but that, in fact, it was pretty much the only Honda model that was making it out of the showroom at all.
(Honda were not the only one struggling at that time: In the depths of winter when the prospect of a second Depression seemed very real, we heard that Lexus dealers in Kyoto had managed to sell just one single car in a whole month. Perhaps it was just a rumor, but it seemed very believable at the time.)
Anyway, it seems that the Insight has had its moment of glory: As soon as the new Prius came out, the spotlight shifted. Now it is Toyota who are beating their sales forecasts and the (cheaper) Insight is left languishing. Part of this is probably due to the Prius’ carefully-cultivated brand image. “Hybrid” and “Prius” are almost synomymous, after all. It does not help that it is also seen as an inferior car - however good its fuel economy. Apparently, Honda is working frantically on upgrades, but there are also some tuners out there who are coming up with their own as well. OK, so it might not go faster, ride better or have better economy - but it beats the pants of the standard version when it comes to looks.
The difference in the two brands can also be seen in the sold prices in the Japanese car auctions. I had a look at sold prices for the Prius S and Insight G. Taking sold price results from the last 3 months, the outcome was quite surprising:
- Prius S list price = 2.2 million Yen.
- Prius S average auction price * = 2.38 million Yen
- Honda Insight G list price = 1.89 million Yen
- Honda Insight G average auction price * = 1.75 million Yen
(* This is the average price for cars with delivery mileage only in perfect new condition. Obviously cars with greater mileage would be cheaper. If you want to explore the Japanese car auctions for yourself, click here.)
Whoah! Wait a minute. Let’s look at those Prius prices again. The auction price is higher than the new list price? What is going on there? To be honest I am really not sure, but there are a couple of guesses I will throw out there. First of all, it could be caused by demand. If you have customers beating down your door for a new Prius and Toyota can’t crank them out quickly enough, you need to get your hands on a basically new one to keep up. Another possibility would be that that maybe Toyota customers specify a whole raft of optional equipment on their Priuses which means that these ones at auction were actually worth quite a bit more than the base model to start with. But surely some of the Honda’s would also fit that pattern and yet they show depreciation.
This is all well and good, but what I am wondering is whether in the longer term both of these companies are going to be leapfrogged by Nissan, who seem to be bypassing the hybrid model almost completely and are aiming at having a range of all-electric cars. I can see how Toyota’s lead in hybrid technology would easily become a hiderance. Japanese firms are notorious for clinging to technology they have pioneered long after it has become obsolete. The MiniDisc player is a classic example of this. So Toyota wins the battle, but who will win the technology war?
Categories:
EV, auctions, hybrid, nissan, toyota
Obon Auction Rush?
The week of 3rd August to 8th August is the last week prior to the Japanese Obon holiday. In normal times (are these normal times?), this would be a time when prices drop. With the auctions closed for the week of Obon, it is a good idea to get in there and try to make some buys during this week.
(If you would like to buy from the Japanese car auctions through Provide Cars, click here to sign up.)
Categories:
auctions