Hey everyone! So a little about me first: I'm 18 and live in South Australia. I actually don't yet have my license, but the purchase of this little thing has basically forced me to! I've recently bought and currently importing (from Japan) a manual yellow '05 Copen Detachable Top It's been modified by it's previous owner, which saves me money later and raises some slight questions in terms of me being able to drive it on my P's lol. Here's what's been done to it: D-Sports carbon bonnet, Upgraded turbo, Upgraded exhaust, Upgraded radiator, Tein suspension, LSD, Heavy duty engine mounts, Upgraded clutch and Alloy wheels. I'm super excited to get it and drive it and I know it's going to be an adventure owning it!
Ooh! Another one for South Australia! I'm curious as to the cost involved in importing one from Japan versus buying one locally.
Nice car, but if you're only 18 I assume you're on your P's. That means you can't drive a modified car right? Might be something you want to check out.
Weird laws over there, that does look worrying if wikipedia is right though. South Australia P1 regulations seem to mean you can't even drive a standard copen since it's turbocharged? Drivers who obtain a P1 provisional licence on or after 4 September 2010 must not drive a high-powered vehicle if they are under the age of 25. High powered includes vehicles with engines of eight or more cylinders, vehicles with turbocharged or supercharged engines (excluding diesel powered vehicles), vehicles that have been modified to increase engine performance, and nominated high-performance vehicles. High-powered vehicle restrictions do not apply to drivers over 25 years of age. P plates of any kind are not displayed when on the P2 licence.
I'm spending around $17,000 all up, compliance and all that. The car itself was around $9k. A bit more than buying one locally, but this has hardly any Km's on it and it's yellow. I don't yet have my license (lazy) so I'll at least be able to drive it for a while. As for the P's issue, honestly I would hope it won't be an issue, considering the power the car makes turbo/modified or not. I'll try get an exception for it. More than happy to let the SA compliance people laugh at the tiny amount of power it makes. Worst comes to worst I buy a crap car whilst on my P's, which isn't ideal but I guess if they feel the need to stop me driving a car which makes a max of like 70kw with the mods then so be it. EDIT: Looked on CarSales and according to that the stock 660cc Turbo Copen is P Plate legal. Mine being modified might completely change that but I really hope not. I think I might have a car that's in a bit of a grey area in terms of P Plate legality.
Goodness, that’s a fair chunk of dosh for a Copen! Be keen to check it out in person when it’s ready for the road.
69,000km (68,765 to be precise) on it and modified so I can't be too upset honestly. I plan on keeping it forever so it'll be well worth it. Definitely! It's really not going to be a difficult car to spot lol!
It looks clean and I doubt you’ll have the rust issues we suffer from in the UK, but that’s a serious chunk of money for a Copen. To give you a comparison, I just PX’d my 1.3 with 90k km for GBP3k and it was in pretty good condition.
It is with a heavy heart that I have to announce that my Copen dream is over for now. Issues with compliancing the thing have been around for a while, and it's finally reached a point where there's just no chance it's going to happen right now. The car also got caught up in Typhoon Jebi in Japan recently, but was found to be okay. The little nugget is unfortunately going to have to be resold in Japan, and I'm going to try import an AW11 MR2 instead. I've only ever seen pictures of the car, but it's a hard goodbye to make nonetheless. Maybe one day in the future I'll try import another one of these little things and maybe it'll all go right.
Why are you so keen to import something? With your budget you could easily buy a local Copen in very good condition then modify it once you're off your P's. The only Mr2 Aw11 worth getting is the supercharged version which you still can't drive on your P's so it seems a bit pointless you getting one at this stage in your life.
Hey Melody how much is it costing you all up in aussie dollars will be interested in hearing how it works out for you ovrr time regards john
I don't particularly want to spend that kind of money on a car here, plus I'm not even guaranteed the colour or gearbox that I want. The whole reason I'm okay with spending the money on one from Japan is 1; condition of the car and 2; I don't necessarily treat the import costs as part of the cost of the car. I treat it as $9000 to buy and $7/8000 to get it over here and drivable. I was already aware that it was gonna cost extra to bring one over. I'm keen on bringing a car over here for multiple reasons. 1. I'm young and it seems like a good time to try something different, which might lead to more in the future. 2. I really like the idea of having something unique, and importing a car allows for that, without the car being so crazily hard to find parts for. 3. I have the money to spend so why not? I was very close to giving up, but I'm not one to do that when so much effort has been put into it already. As for the MR2, I'm aware that the supercharged one is the one to go for, but I really don't care that much? I like the look of the AW11 and just having one would be cool, supercharged or not. My other ideas were the mid 2000's Corolla Levin, a N/A S13 (not legal), and the other car I was potentially looking at, the Z32 300ZX. Other than that I can't think of much else I want that's importable. If you have any other ideas I'd appreciate it.
