Japanese import servicing, repairs for Merc and Audis

[GSV]Lemming

[GSV]Lemming

[GSV]Lemming

Associate
Joined
27 Nov 2002
Posts
834
Location
Desborough,Kettering
Hi all, I have a Toyota Alphard currently imported from Japan. Love the car to bits, its awesome, and has does sterling work with my 2 dogs, elderly family and as an ad-hoc van for moving stuff to our new retirement house in France.

I recently failed MOT on a few minor items but struggled big time to find a garage to look at the issues as its an import. MOT centre couldn't connect to it for fault codes so wouldn't look at its failed items. Its currently with an import specialist so expecting them to resolve its issues shortly.

This lead me to on rethinking if I should keep this car, and what I should replace it with. Wife and I plan to retire to a rural house in France we bought this year, also plan to drop to one car and the plan was to keep the Alphard as its so versatile and generally reliable. The issues I had finding someone to work on it here are likely to be even worse in France so started looking at a change, ideally an estate with initial choices around and E class Merc or A6 Audi. Both of these are I see available as Japanese imports once again with attractive mileage, trim levels and prices. I know the Alphard was never sold or bought to UK/Europe so can understand the reticence of garages to deal with it. Do imported Merc and Audi cars suffer from the same issues when it comes to getting service, is there an issue with them on diagnostic machines and getting repairs servicing? I was hoping they would not be an issue, so I could easily part ex the Alphard to an importer and get an estate..

I am hoping some people here may have experience of this, and whether I should just bite the bullet and buy a UK car.
 
Would have thought if retiring to France it would make more sense to buy something out there ultimately.

The Alphard isn't that obscure - the run of the mill places like MOT Centre or Halfords or whatever might struggle with it but I'd have thought any reasonably experienced Toyota or van specialist would be able to sort most issues.

One problem you might have is the Japanese brands especially seem to be killing off a lot of parts production and/or orders for their older vehicles this year so getting hold of parts for stuff like the Alphard might start getting a lot harder :(
 
Won't having a RHD car in France just be a pain you could do without, let alone having to insure an imported car over there and deal with whatever weirdness that'll bring along?

Just get a large french car like a C6 or whatever and enjoy the cheese and fresh baguettes surely?
 
The used car market in France is insane, high prices and high mileage, while travel distances make viewing cars a challenge even if you find one. Our population size is almost identical, but France is more than 4 times larger than England. There is simply no comparison to the cost and variety of cars here in the UK within a reasonable radius. I expect to come back to the UK at least once a year due to family commitments, so maintaining MOT and insurance from the UK is easy for the time being.

The Alphard may not be obscure in the UK nowadays but the garages I have used to maintain my cars here around Kettering simply refused to engage on anything other than simple servicing. I don't want to be faced with that issue if my car has a more serious fault in France. There is a local German car specialist with great reviews 25kms from my French house which is certainly one reason I am giving serious consideration to a Merc/Audi/BMW swap.
 
sovietspybob said:
Won't having a RHD car in France just be a pain you could do without, let alone having to insure an imported car over there and deal with whatever weirdness that'll bring along?

Just get a large french car like a C6 or whatever and enjoy the cheese and fresh baguettes surely?
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I will be insuring in the UK to cover me for 52 weeks use in France, don't really expect to use the car that much so LHD/RHD is unlikely to impact me much. We have bought a farmhouse with 7.5 acres and I plan to spend most of my time in the garden or woods, every day a holiday, for years to come. It is amazingly rural with very little traffic unless you choose to travel into a city, and I have no plans to as I transition into a retired, antisocial, people hating, grumpy old man. :D
 
In practice if it is UK registered, MOTd and insured it seems no issue having spoken to a number of ex pats during our visits. The choice and cost out there rules out a French car for the time being until i get my head around things over the next few years.

Without going too far OT, it seems Leboncoin is their choice over Ebay, Facebook is used WAY more than websites for business and just finding contractors or materials in rural France can be a real challenge. I sorted Starlink during the last visit (awesome by the way) so at least internet is okay, but getting things done is wayyyy harder than the UK if you cant do it yourself.
 
I think the issue becomes with the insurance company, the most amount of time covered abroad by UK insurers I've seen was 180 days, the usual is 90 days. Would they check in the event of a claim? Idk, but the real question is, would you want to take the risk with a more expensive car?
 
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