MY tommi Mäkinen
The red TME - its always been an iconic car and one that always turns heads. When the time came to seek my next car out, the choice was between the TME and another great Mitsubishi, the Evo 9 GT. Well you can see which one i chose.
The story with this particular car? Well i'd started watching the Japanese auctions a couple of months before this one went through. In all fairness at the time, January 2015, the red TME seemed fairly plentyful, with one every couple of weeks. This really surprised me due to the low volume it was originally produced in. It now turns out only a handful went through last year, so for whatever reason there was a run of them at this point. I saw this car come up, and it was going through auction in the next few days. It looked a good one (certainly by the un-translated auction sheet at least!) ...a grade 3.5 but with slightly high mileage, hopefully this would be reason for it not being a grade 4, it looked so good afterall. But i was still undecided in the whole process, and not fully made my mind up which way i was going to play it. Do i buy through a Japanese agent? English agent? English dealer? What about inspections and shipping? Insurance? And where do i get that auction sheet translated? Still a few days to go, so i'll find out .... and as always before you know it the cars gone through and its been sold!
The story with this particular car? Well i'd started watching the Japanese auctions a couple of months before this one went through. In all fairness at the time, January 2015, the red TME seemed fairly plentyful, with one every couple of weeks. This really surprised me due to the low volume it was originally produced in. It now turns out only a handful went through last year, so for whatever reason there was a run of them at this point. I saw this car come up, and it was going through auction in the next few days. It looked a good one (certainly by the un-translated auction sheet at least!) ...a grade 3.5 but with slightly high mileage, hopefully this would be reason for it not being a grade 4, it looked so good afterall. But i was still undecided in the whole process, and not fully made my mind up which way i was going to play it. Do i buy through a Japanese agent? English agent? English dealer? What about inspections and shipping? Insurance? And where do i get that auction sheet translated? Still a few days to go, so i'll find out .... and as always before you know it the cars gone through and its been sold!
Luckily for me, i was to find out a few days later that it was an English company that had bought it; http://torque-gt.co.uk
Needless to say i was immediately on the phone to them - perhaps i wasn't going to miss out on this car after all!!!
Needless to say i was immediately on the phone to them - perhaps i wasn't going to miss out on this car after all!!!
After
a re-assuring chat with Tristan the owner of Torque-GT, i contacted a
couple of MLR members out in Japan, hoping to get the thumbs up on the
still untranslated auction sheet. The very much respected and very well informed "Mr. Ralliart" was the first guy to get back to me.....
Hi Richard.
I can't believe there are/were still red TMEs left in Japan, in all honesty there definitely would be many more in the UK now for sure.
Ok so this car let's see.
It was manufactured in March of 2000.
It had 127183 klms on it at time of auction. This is a bit high for a Red TME, but in general not too bad.
The timing belt was changed at a Mitsubishi dealer at 81615 klms which fell on the 16th of March 2009.
Bodywise seems really good with the normal amount of marks on the wheels but nothing serious at all on the panels. Paintwise it's possibly even better than mine.
It says something about paint gone from somewhere around the bonnet ducts, I think it just means the black is gone from the aluminium inner which you can see in the photo.
That's pretty much it!
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Anthony
Hi Richard.
I can't believe there are/were still red TMEs left in Japan, in all honesty there definitely would be many more in the UK now for sure.
Ok so this car let's see.
It was manufactured in March of 2000.
It had 127183 klms on it at time of auction. This is a bit high for a Red TME, but in general not too bad.
The timing belt was changed at a Mitsubishi dealer at 81615 klms which fell on the 16th of March 2009.
Bodywise seems really good with the normal amount of marks on the wheels but nothing serious at all on the panels. Paintwise it's possibly even better than mine.
It says something about paint gone from somewhere around the bonnet ducts, I think it just means the black is gone from the aluminium inner which you can see in the photo.
That's pretty much it!
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Anthony
So that was brilliant news. My other contact on the MLR, "djmisio85" also got back to me, this was actually after i'd put the deposit on the car, but was still reassuring to receive ...
I would once again like to thank both these guys for their invaluable help - especially Anthony who got back to me in super fast TME time.
So back to Torque-GT it was - The car was bought through their "Personal Import Service" - basically you get the car at a reduced rate, saving the premium they add to the car once its gets to the UK. It takes a certain type of individual to take this route. For starters the large deposit you have to pay, which in my case would have covered the cost for them to buy the car at auction, is a big commitment. Then theres the wait, over 6 weeks until you see your return for the money you've paid out. The shipping fee's and tax are paid directly by you to the other parties involved. These costs are deducted from your final payment to Torque-GT.
So you may well be thinking why not just buy direct from Japan, and cut Torque-GT out? Well obviously in my case i couldnt, i had missed the car going through auction. However, the more i thought about it, the more it made sense to use their personal import service. In my case, i witnessed the car go through auction. I saw the photos, read the auction sheet and knew the car was a legitimate auction purchase, not some shady car dressed up to be something it never was. The more you look into the JDM car market in the UK, the more you'll know why this is important!
The next really great thing i liked about the route i was taking, is that Torque-GT have their own team of inspectors out in Japan - the same team for the last 11 years - these guys are in it for the long term. I was wary that as a "one car purchaser", a Japanese agent may say the car is better than it is to get the sale. These agents won't, they know if they mess up, they risk losing a lot of future business.
Third great thing; once they had purchased the car, they had it properly photographed. This meant i was able to see the car in more detail before committing. Something you cannot do before the auction. My greatest fear was buying JDM and finding rust. Even some very low mileage cars i've seen with rust. Yes it is rare, but it does happen, and with my luck?! One thing i've learnt about Evo's since i bought my first one back in 2001 - always buy on condition, not mileage!
Then theres the lack of hassle - they collect the car from the docks, they convert and prepare the car for UK registration, they do all the leg work and lets not forget they do this day in and day out. They know what they're doing. All i have to do is turn up and drive the car away with full MOT and 3 months warranty. Oh, and i hasten to add, the car came with four brand new Bridgestone Re070 tyres fitted, the Speedo and odometer both converted to miles with certificate to prove for when i come to sell the car, plus all the other original Japanese documents, including the BIMTA certificate verifying the mileage at export.
So would i recommend Torque-GT? Of course i would. Yes, it has cost me more than if i had done it on my own, but i think the additional cost is more than worth it. The biggest thanks (and they are all great guys) would have go to Darren the Personal Import Specialist who's attention to detail goes beyond what you come to expect in this day and age. To say i had some not so run of the mill requests would be true, but he delivered on all counts. The worst thing about it? The wait. But you know what they say about those who wait....