Hello all, I imagine I'm one of the few copen owners in the UK, just bought one as a present for my sister and found the seatbelts a nightmare to retract. So I searched on eBay and it seams there's no aftermarket suppliers of facelift extras. I came across this site and found the chrome seatbelt guides on a thread.. Obviously much nicer than the standard and they go with the head protectors behind the head rests, but the threads didn't really help sending me to a Japanese website.. Eventually I found YAHOO JAPAN works like eBay and translates sufficiently for you to understand what your looking at.. If you want copen parts and can't get them in your country, go to this site, type in copen and select automotive, literally thousands of new and second hand parts are available from full body kits to seatbelt guide.. The trick is to go through a website called BUYEE.jp, they facilitate the delivery to the uk.. Once registered you go to yahoo through Buyee site and put a bid or buy it now, the seller send it to their warehouse, they repackage it for international transport and happy days in my case parcelforce delivered it to my door, however, I did have to pay import duty plus the Buyee fee.. If I have done this procedure when I could have got it locally then I'd welcome the direction to anyone who may sell copen stuff in the UK.. But as far as I could see this was the most comprehensive list of aftermarket copen supplies and if you can swallow a little extra on top for fees then this is the way forward for all your specialist spares except the basics which you can get locally anywhere.. Regarding the chrome seatbelt runners, I'm to sure the seatbelt retraction problem is really solved but the belt now runs a lot better through them and they look the business.. Finally if anyone actually read this then if you have any advice or things I should be aware of on the copen then it would be most welcome to hear.. The car is not far off mint for its age, 2004, 33,000 miles, full dealer service history one lady owner, green with tan interior.. The roof does rattle a bit and there is a little water in the well of the boot by the motor and toolkits which I treated and tried to investigate by hosing the car down simulating rain.. I've read the threads on the boot light but I just can't see it leaking there but after a drive in the rain I saw two trickles that looked as if they had comedown from either side of this area which I assumed it may be comming in From the lights, but I just can't hounestly say so for the time being I put a dehumidifying container in the boot and am keeping an eye on it.. Overall I'm very impressed with it and my sister is made up with her little light rocket which suits her down to the ground.. I look forward to any help you have to offer, kind regards.. A.
Hi Alixiho, Welcome to Copenworld. Seems like your doing pretty well already figuring things out. Just search around the forum. There is a buyers guide with point to look out for. There are also threads on sorting out your roof rattles, by tightening a few areas up. Make sure your sister keeps on top of the oil changes. If you can't find anything just post a question.
Check this thread out with regard to poorly retracting seat belts. Its not a problem with yours but an inbuilt flaw. This thread has good information and guide from the forum's resident seat belt guide and retraction expert. https://www.copenworld.com/vb3/showthread.php?t=2170&page=2 The guide in the thread is apparently being re-written and re-formatted to be even more easy to understand.
Welcome to our "little! club! I am interested in your buyee experience - have you been stung by import tax and what is the outcome of it?
Hi Copencat, regarding the Buyee experience, I was dubious but took a punt as I was horrified by the poor design of the seatbelt guides and as it became apparent to me that there was very little options available to acquire aftermarket custom parts locally I felt that there was nothing else I could do and I didn't want to start writing emails back and forth to Japanese websites in the hope that I'd get a reply.. So as there was exactly what I wanted and a great selection on yahoo Japan, I followed the Buyee info which is straight forward even for a dinosaur like me. I wasn't particularly bothered about the cost but the break down was basically, 63.33 for the parts which are a direct fit which my 94 year old granny could install and they look great and go with the roll bars, hopefully set off one day by a set of chrome multispoke wire alloys, 25.55 Buyee fee for repackaging and handling and the parcelforce import tax was 27.65.. This is all relavent to certain vairiables i think eg product cost, weight etc.. Personally I just wanted to get a little gift for my sister which was practical and cool and the price was not an issue, may be there are other options but I am happy with the price as the product was excellent.. If you want it it's on yahoo Japan and you have English speaking contacts at Buyee who you can communicate with if you have any problems with the sale.. if it was my car I'd be spending a fortune on importing bits from there..
