arthurj

Hello all. Can anyone recommend a front/rear dashcam pair for my Vellfire? I’ve never used a dashcam before so I don’t really know what I need.

I don’t want bells and whistles, just something that will provide evidence in case of an accident, including if someone hits me when I’m parked with the ignition off. Ideally they would be as small and discreet as possible and not drain my battery much. No need for a screen (can’t see the point of them - are they useful?)

Cheers.

7 hours ago, Rojie said:

Seriously, if you do have a conversion try Scenic, part of LV; but they do have a maximum insured value (and your Bentley is sure to exceed it).

If only

It’s unconverted, but also still unregistered, and annoyingly I have 0 no-claims due to a hit and run on my other car last year. Hopefully they’ll be able to shave a few tens off that once I get my V5

Lifesure didn’t want to insure me…

If you’re looking at the Stepwagon size, there’s also the Toyota Noah Hybrid, which is a bit smaller than the Alphard but a lot cheaper for a newer vehicle. There’s a couple of them around my area.

If you’re looking to import I’d speak to an agent. There’s a few recommended on this site. I went with Paul @ JapAutoAgent and he will happily chat about the differences between models and that. Just allow yourself a good hour for that phone call

Thought I'd post my notes here as it may be useful to people in future. I won't post contact details, but it's all easily found on the web.

This is for shipping a 2012 (just under 10 years old) from Japan to the UK. Ro-Ro shipping (drive-on/drive-off). Total loss and General Average (if they decide to sacrifice some cargo to save the ship or the rest of the cargo) is covered at a minimum.

Charterhouse Limited

Quote: £127

This broker claim to specialise in transporting classic cars. They were very fast to respond and seemed knowledgable. I didn't buy at auction so I didn't have an auction report, but they were happy to accept the detailed video inspection the agent in Japan made for me. I went with this quote in the end, not just because it was cheapest but because the coverage seemed more tailored to shipping an individual car. My quote was underwritten by Lloyds. I haven't needed to claim (yet!) so no idea what they're like to deal with at that end.

Clegg Gifford

Quote: £350

This broker said they will not cover vehicles older than 10 years old, so I had to find the manufacturing date to get them to consider me. There were some other hoops to jump through as I didn't have an auction report, and eventually got stuck on the Japanese registration not being in my name (and no UK reg, obviously). I think I would have been able to source documentation that would have satisfied them but had already gone with Charterhouse by that point.

Breathe Insurance

Quote: £273

Quite quick to respond. Gave me a detailed insurance quote underwritten by Aviva. Reading the small print I noticed that insurance didn't cover the car when under its own power. As the car has to be driven on and off the ship by the shipping company, I left it at that!

Marine Insurance2day

Quote: £267

Again, needed to be persuaded that the car was less than 10 years old as they will not cover older cars. The quote was covered by Aviva, but didn't have the same exclusion clause as the one from Breathe.

The Insurance Broker

Quote: £288

Had the exclusion about being driven under own power except for when being driven on or off the boat. This would include door-to-door insurance if necessary, but I didn't need it. However it did exclude pretty much every type of minor damage or theft I could think of, basically the car would have to be written off for me to claim.

Everyone I spoke to was very polite and helpful, but some seemed more at ease dealing with this than others, and some were not able to insure for various reasons. My feeling was that most of them are used to dealing with import companies shipping a bunch of cars, rather than individuals. Hope this helps someone if they're ever in this position.

I’m not an expert but I was also worried about this and researched it.

So with regards to the engine, there were two problems: one was the problem that could result in catastrophic damage and required a full rebuild of the engine, the other is the oil burning. As I understand it, the first problem was eliminated in a revision in 2007 (I think). If you have a car prior to this, I believe it will be ok so long as recalls have been followed. I think I’ve read of one person who has this problem in the uk so it’s pretty rare.

The second problem is way less of a problem. It may only affect US versions and it may have been fixed/improved after 2008, but even if not, judging by US forums you just need to keep an eye on oil levels. It’s otherwise an extremely reliable engine.

Even though the engine stayed the same between 1st and 2nd gen, the hybrid drivetrain was completely reworked. As I understand it, the 2nd gen is much more reliable, particularly the CVT gearbox, but I’ve heard no complaints from 1st gen owners either.

55 minutes ago, Chris.ac said:

Red when you switch fogs on, will override and turn off red and switch on white, if you select reverse, and of course white if you select reverse and your fogs are off.

Hmm. Just checked the rules here 2021 guidelines and it says

Quote

Rear fog lamps may be combined with the rear position lamps. Front and rear fog lamps are permitted to operate independently of any other lamps or ignition systems. The function of a fog lamp must not be adversely affected by the operation of any other lamp.

It's a major fault if any other lamp interferes with the fog lamp and I assume the reversing lamp counts

Though maybe a straight-up replacement is fine, so there's only one fog and one reverse light.

28 minutes ago, Rojie said:

It may be OK but you will need to be messing with the wiring, won't you.

The fog light will still need a switch on the dash, and wiring to the tailgate

If you are comfortable with that OK.

From memory, it would need to be the offside reversing light

 

However, my guess is an MOT Inspector will expect a reversing light to be white, not red.

Having a red bulb in a white lens, in my opinion, is a fail.

Oh yeah, the switch and wiring is budgeted for, but I think I’m currently due to get an extra fog light added on to or below the bumper. I’d rather do something more attractive but not willing to spend £100 on those dual reflector-fog lights.

Just wading in. If I were to replace one of the reversing lights with a red fog bulb, would that be fine? For cars first registered after 2009 (mine’s 2012) the regs say there must be one or two reversing lights and they must work if present. Will disabling one to repurpose it as a fog light count as it being a non-functional reverse light and therefore a fail?

I went via Paul @ JapAutoAgent and got a 2012 that should arrive in the UK in a few weeks. Be warned though, they aren’t cheap, at least compared to equivalent petrol models.

Importing takes a long time (it’ll be 6-7 months for me). If you need something sooner you’ll want to buy one already in the UK.

Yeah, I ended up buying a 2012 with the foldable Captain’s armrests rather than the solid ones.

If it's just regular car insurance but expensive because of the car not being registered, you could get it, drive the car home, then cancel it within the cooloff period.

I'll be in the same situation in a couple of months, so keen to see what you end up doing.

Hello. Has anyone got any recommendations for Marine Cargo Insurance? I'm getting quotes from £150-£450 to ship a Vellfire and it seems a bit of a minefield.

How do you check that these insurers are backed properly? Has anyone here ever needed to make a claim? Any horror stories?

The hybrid shows extra information on the head unit, like battery charge and electric motor status. If you replace the head unit you lose that information. There are services that can add CarPlay / android auto while keeping the original Japanese head unit.

The question is whether you find the hybrid info useful.

On 11/17/2021 at 9:53 PM, Jason cox said:

Hi guys, still no luck with this. I've read in another article that it's possible, with techstream software, to turn it off. Is this something a toyota main dealer would have?

I think it’s free and the cable you need isn’t expensive. I found some links, but I haven’t tried it. Worth watching the videos.  https://www.masconit.com/toyota-techstream-software/

Figured as much. Thanks for the info!

Does anyone have this style of seat?

I’m aiming to do the thing where you fold the seats flat and put an air mattress on top. I was just wondering if this style of seat can be made to fold flat at all, the arm rests look pretty solid. Perhaps they can be removed or made to fold down?

13 hours ago, Rojie said:

Due to the age of your Vellfire (less than 10 years) your import may attract taxes.

I don’t think it counts as an import if you’re bringing it here because you’re moving here. At least, if you’re taxed on the import it won’t be the same tax as you’d pay as if you were buying a car here from Japan (or HK). Normally when you relocate you declare what you own as you bring it into the new country, and you often don’t pay import tax on it. I think cars are included in this, at least up to a point.

If you are moving because of work, see if your relocation agent can help. The UK government website will probably have good information too.

If the car is less than 10 years old you’ll need an IVA test (£200 on entry) to make it roadworthy, and every car older than 3 years needs a MOT (£40) every year. You need a MOT to get insurance, you need insurance to drive it on a public road. There are companies at every port that will do MOTs for import vehicles, fit fog lights if needed etc. (if you don’t have rear fog lights you fail your MOT and Japanese cars don’t, not sure about HK)

I had that problem with my Skoda. Was forever down at Sainsbury‘s topping up the tires. When it was time to get new treads I took it to a local tire shop that specialises in alloys and they sealed the alloy when they put the new tires on. Didn’t cost any extra. Haven’t had the problem since.

Thanks for the info. Can I just ask what sort of mpg you get?

I haven’t got one yet but phoned my local Toyota garage and they said they’d have no trouble servicing one when I get it.

So that means any car made after 2010, definitely safe. Probably all the AH20 range is safe as they wouldn’t have released a car in 2008 without making sure it could be sold 2 years later.

The 2AZ-FE was used across 1st and 2nd gen models but IIRC had a minor update about 2007, so possibly not safe for 1st gen models? Unlikely though. They might have tweaked the ECU to make it run better in 2nd gen models.

I believe they’re mechanically the same car as the Alphards, with a different badge, face, dash and trim levels, but share the same chassis, engines, suspension. They’re aimed at younger drivers, while Alphards are supposed to be more executive, apparently. They only came in in 2008, so if you’re reading that they’re more durable I guess it’s referring to both Vellfires and Alphards from 2008 onwards vs older Alphards?

I’m torn between a late 1st gen hybrid and an early 2nd gen 2.4l. The first tend to be slightly cheaper but there aren’t as many around. Apart from the fuel efficiency I like the idea of mild 4wd, which I think would be too much for a 2.4. But are there any problems with the hybrids that would make it a pain to live with?

I measured this the other day to see if I could get an airbed in. Roughly 170cm from the back to the the mid seat base with the seats forward, 140cm wide between the wheel arches. Gen1.

Where are you thinking of buying from Chalky? Anywhere in the NE?