Telling It's A Uk Car

[Fitz]

Ok, I know the obvious thing to check is the side repeaters when hunting out a UK spec car but having read on here now on various occasions, I am arare that some people are removing the tobes and I assume replacing with UK repeaters or similar. So when looking at a car, is there any other obvious things to look out for?

Do the buttoms have jap writing on them? Does the fuse box cober have a map on it in japanese? Is there any other way to tell from looking at photos?

I'm looking at Auto Trader and there are some very nice cars but I am very specific in the fact I want a UK car.

One grumble I have on another note, is the fact you type in on autotrader to search key word 't bar' and it brings up sun roof models too I know it's probably dealers trying to plug the car they are selling but seriously dude, I'm not interested if it aint a t bar

[james1760]

dont know if this works for everyone but when i was looking for a uk car i simply ran a ins quote on auto trader.

if it said at the end i had to phone to get a quote it was an import

if it gave me a quote it was a uk car :)

also one thing you could look out for is the regplate at the back, my uk mr2 has a rectangle one where the import ones tend to have the square plate.

good luck, and yeah t bars rule :)

[Hedgehog Dodger]

dont know if this works for everyone but when i was looking for a uk car i simply ran a ins quote on auto trader.

if it said at the end i had to phone to get a quote it was an import

if it gave me a quote it was a uk car :)

also one thing you could look out for is the regplate at the back, my uk mr2 has a rectangle one where the import ones tend to have the square plate.

good luck, and yeah t bars rule :)

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Your right about using INS co's to run a quote, but only if your under 25.

Number plates isnt right, that all depends on where you get them done. Best way to check is its a UK model, is get the chassis No and phone a Toyota Dealer

[Kelvyn]

If the car is photo'd from behind you will see that the imports have an almost square rear number plate, the UK cars have the normal rectangular ones. Of course its possible to fit a UK rear bumper but not many have (and if you find one then suspect a rear end crash). Of course if it mentions turbo then its definately imported (unless someones done an engine swap). On my imported non turbo T bar the instructions for operating the T bars was on the drivers sun visor (all in Japanese of course), I suspect that on a genuine UK car its in English.

[Rash@R.A.Motors]

If its a genuine UK car it will say on the V5 something along the lines of 'New at First registration' if its an import it will say 'Previously used or registered Overseas'

Also an Imports' Chassis No is only about 8 digits long whereas a UK is around 16Digits long.

Rash.

[Bibbs]

the V5 will say import.

the sun visor has jap writing on it.

UK cars had sunroofs or Tbars

Jap cars had tin top or Tbars

The UK T-bars had full leather, the !Removed! didn't.

So if it's a sunroof, it's UK, if it's T-bar and full leather, it's UK.

They also had GTi-16 on the boot. !Removed! have G-Limited, GT or GT-S ..

[Fitz]

Some top advice there as per usual, cheers folks.

I just want to try and avoid wasted trips to turn up and find a lovely jap car, just because the seller thinks I will buy it if I see it.

I have nothing against Jap ones, it's just I can't justify doubling my insurance costs for one.