I Bought a Land Cruiser at Auction IN Japan!

How cool would this be? The seat is open. No, it's not open. Try this. I've come to Japan to buy a car for my Japanese car import business and I won't be going home empty-handed. There is a problem though. I have no idea which car I'm gonna buy. I've come to Gulliver used car dealer here in Nagoya. Now Gulliver is the largest used car dealer in Japan. They have 500 sites and on this particular site they have 500 cars. So if I can't find a car to buy here, there is something wrong with me. It's a little bit of a shame that it's raining, but there we go. However, I need to find my friend, a man from Autocom Japan. He's gonna help me find the right car. But what car will it be? You're all right, man. How are you doing? Yeah, great. Welcome to Japan. Yeah, sure. I'm a little bit jet lag, but it's all fine. Now we're in the K car area. So these are like the micro cars. Exactly. Now I like these. They're kind of cool, especially in these colors. And I particularly like this. Look at this. What is this? That's the top. This is something that I'd like to buy for myself. Now, price-wise, we need to think about the pricing on these. So to work it out, that's essentially 1.28 million yen. That's correct. You have to add four zeros at the end. Four zeros at the end. And to convert into the UK what it costs me, you basically divide by two because of the exchange rate. So 1.3 million yen divided by two to get you into thousands. That's... How much is that in the UK? 6.5 thousand pounds or 6 thousand pounds. Six and a half thousand pounds. And this one has done... That's how it all works. But while I like this kind of car, I need something that I can sell. And I think that's probably just a little bit too left field for UK buyers. So we need to go find some other cars and bigger cars and more normal cars. Where should we go? I think they have all sorts like minivans, SUVs. Right, let's go this way then. We can just walk towards the other end. I do like this though. Look at that. This is like a little mini VW bus. Get me away from these little cute cars. Otherwise, I'm going to end up with one. And this. Look at this. Stop it. Focus. Get focusing. Aman, you brought me to these strange looking MPV vehicles. What exactly are they? This is Toyota Alphard. VIP minivan of Japan. Ah, yeah. Do you know what? A load of minicab companies buy them in the UK. They use them a lot because they're super reliable and super comfy. This one's got like fake carbon fiber on it. This is 2025 model Alphard. So this is pretty new. Bloomin' heck, it's expensive. So six, five, nine, that's like about 32,000 pounds. That's correct. Right. It looks quite cool. Let's have a look inside it. This could be like quite a decent sell because you cannot get these in the UK. Minicab firms like them. I like this as well. I like these seats. And it's got, look, it's got screens and everything. Yeah, this is pretty cool. By the way, it's like a three-seater on the second row. Yeah. And we've got two seats in the back. Let's have a look how roomy it is in the back. That's pretty roomy in the back, actually. Look at that. That's quite good. So yeah, I can see why minicab firms have these. You can recline the seats. Let's see if we can get into the back. How do we get into the back? Yeah, that's it. Do you want to do the honours? You jump in the back, come on. This is how you sit in the back? There, you get in the back seat, matey. Let's just push this back and see what it's like. Oh, mate, I'm having a nightmare. How do we push this back? The one, this one. This one here? Yeah. Hey! Right, tell me when you're... Oh, that's good. Oh, you're fine. Look at this, look at this. Are you happy? Yeah. So this is a good shout. However, I was picked up from the airport in one of these things, well, similar, and it had, like, more executive seats. Well, these are nice. Let's have a look in one of the other ones. There's one here. Let's have a look in this one. See if this has got the posh seats. Yeah, mate, this is it. This is more me. This is Alphard grade Z. Okay, so this is what? This is, like, top spec or something? Yeah, it's one of the top specs. It's apparently brand new, 2026, with these separated seats, right? This could be the job. Look, it's got, like, this bit, like, comes out, it's full business class, this is. So I reckon for, like, the premier chauffeur firms, they're going to want something like this, so you can charge a premium for, like, taking people to Heathrow airport and stuff. That's correct, and it has heated seats and ventilated ones. Heated and cooled, and a bit of a glass roof there, electrically opening doors. So all of this, this could be good. Is it a hybrid? I know you can get them as just, like, petrol, but firms are going to want a hybrid just for the fuel efficiency. This is nice, though. This could be the thing. And the seats in the back, still, pretty roomy. They even recline in the back. This could be a good shout, this could. Could be an easy sell, because I know that there is a market for these, because we just don't get them in the UK, but minicab firms are just aware of them. Well, private hire, it's not minicab, it's private hire. Is this a hybrid? No, this is not hybrid. This is gasoline engine, 2.5 litre. Oh. Quite new, only 15 kilometres. Only 15 kilometres, but it's quite expensive. So it's about £35,000. I just need to find a hybrid one. Actually, wait, this one's a lot cheaper. So it's 4-6, so that's like £23,000. This is ST package, slightly better than the ones we have just seen. So will it have those cool seats? Yeah. Is this a hybrid? No, it's not, it's not. It's not hybrid. Let's just have a look at the seating in it. Yeah, so it has the posh seats and some... It's also got winter tyres, look. It comes with winter tyres. Seats fold up, actually, so you can turn it into an actual van. So that's handy. So you can fold the seats up in the back of this one, so that you can fit anyone's luggage in. So you can have two posh seats and then loads of luggage for the rich people as they get taken to the airport. We need to find a hybrid. Oh, this is hybrid. Hybrid. And this is S-type, gold. I think it says it's gold or what? So we realised the hybrid from this. So it's got blue on it. It stands for hybrid. Hybrid. It's got the seat. This, oh, hello, Alcantara seats. They're not quite as posh because they are manual, but that's not such... As long as you can get a good recline on, it doesn't really matter. This is the older version, right? Also, you don't have this armrest. No, look, you've got this one. Oh, like I'm in the big one. Yeah, you don't have the posh armrests because it's not fully electric seat. But still, for carrying people to the airport, they're just going to think, you know what? This is really comfy. I can have a nap. This would work. It's better to have those seats and the hybrid rather than the super posh seats and non-hybrid. So let's see the price of this. £24,000? Ah, it's in 48,000 kilometres. That's correct. 48,000 kilometres, quite high. Yeah, and that's going to matter to private hire firms. Do you know what? Let's just hold off on these minivans for now. This is something that we might come back to. Let's try and find something else, which is more just for an average consumer, something people actually want to buy, like rather than businesses buying them for commercial purposes. How about SUVs? Let's check some SUVs. So here's some SUVs, Aman, but I don't think I need any more five-door Jimneys. I've still got three black ones, three black manuals and one green manual. You are not going to try red? Do you know what? I personally like the red. I think it'd look great if you did this colour-coded as well, but I'm not sure it's going to be easy to sell. I've also seen a blue one down there, which I'm not so keen on that colour. What I can't see are any black ones. Do the Japanese not buy the black ones? I think Suzuki doesn't have poor black colour. There's one that's this bluish dark black. The ones I bought are black. They're not that blue. They're black. Really? They're 100% black. Check the colour code. It says something including blue in it. Yeah, it's a blue, but it's not that blue. That's a proper blue. Anyway, there is one blue Jimney that I've seen that I would like. It's just over there. Let's go check it out. Yeah, this is it. Look, I'm telling you, this will sell so easily in the UK because I've not seen this paint scheme at all. Look at it. So this baby blue, cream roof. It's got the steel wheels, which people like. It sort of works with like the contrast between the coolness and then the utilitarian. And it's probably not that expensive either. How much is it? How much is this one? I can't see the price. Oh, Matt, it's already purchased by a customer. What? The one colour I want to buy. Definitely want to buy a wood bike because it's not going to be that expensive and look so cool. It's raining. The perfect Jimney. I can't blame him. Buy it. Can we speak to them and see if we can like and do a secret deal? See if they can get another one. Maybe increase the price. They're not going to do that. This is a Mitsubishi Delica. Now Delicas are really popular in the UK, but it's the older versions that people buy. The reason I like them is that they have four wheel drive and that people convert them into like little mini camper vans. This is the brand new latest version. So how many kilometres is this done? It's only 12 kilometres. So it's brand new. Brand new. And 507 means £25,000 to buy it. Obviously too important to the UK. The shipping costs, there's other bits and pieces, handling all that kind of stuff, which bumps at the cost. But base price here to buy it £25,000. Let's have a look inside because maybe this is another option because people could potentially convert them into a camper van or use them for private hire. Because yeah, once again, we've got like decent seating for an airport run and those flip up seats in the back. So you can either go with luggage or people. However, I think people are more going to be interested in like the older versions just because they're much cheaper rather than this. This is just an alternative for Alphard, with off-road-ish. With off-road capability because it's four wheel drive. But I think there's a much better market for Alphard. So I wouldn't have one of those. I'd go for an Alphard. I need an SUV or something that people are actually going to really want to buy because I'm not going to buy many. I'm just going to buy one and I just need to be able to sell it like that. SUVs like Land Cruiser, 200, 250, Prado 150. Exactly. Let's find some Land Cruisers. Yeah, let's check. There's 400 cars. There should be. So one of these could work, a Land Cruiser Prado. What's this? This is £27,000. 26,000 miles. It's diesel though, right? Is it diesel? Oh, it's gasoline. 2.7 litre. No, people in the UK aren't going to be buying a petrol. It's cool, four wheel drive. Yeah, it is cool but I wouldn't be able to sell it because it's a petrol. This one, maybe this one. I like the interior of this. Look, it's like new. Look at that. So this one is similar price. Let's just see if it is. Is this a petrol or a diesel? This is again, petrol engine. Gasoline, 2.7 litre. Shame. I tell you what's even better than those Prados though. The new Land Cruiser 250 which is what this is here. So Toyota has only bought in about 600 officially in the UK. That's still about, probably less than 200 a year. So there's a serious opportunity with these cars. So yeah, you've got things like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. I reviewed this car. You've got to be careful when you're buying these because there's different looks. So I really like them. Like this one, it's got the round headlights. That's perfect. This would work. Tell me it's a diesel. Gasoline again. Gasoline engine, VX. It's done 12,000 kilometres, hasn't it? So 8,000 miles. That's 6 million Japanese yen. So 35,000 pounds, but it's a petrol. It ain't gonna sell. People would buy them if it was a diesel. I prefer this colour. Yeah, the colour's good. I really like the sand version. I've not seen this colour before. He called this bronze, but does it look bronze or grey? No, this looks grey. It's like a shiny grey, isn't it? It's called bronze. Oh, it's got the normal headlights. I don't like these headlights so much. Does this diesel be a diesel? No, no, no. Again, gasoline. Gasoline. It's a petrol! But something like this with a diesel engine, that would work. We need to find somewhere else where we can get one of these with a diesel. Diesel engine. Why? Is the diesel just not as popular in Japan? I think they just produce less. And they're more expensive, right? With the diesel. Diesel version of this Land Cruiser 250 is gonna be way expensive than this petrol one. That's why it's so cheap. That's why it would be so cheap. Okay, so we need to find a diesel version, but they don't have any here. So colour preference. I like that over black, but if there's a sand one, I'd probably rather have that. Sand one, yeah. While we're here though, check this out. Another car sold in the UK in very limited numbers. I think they've stopped selling it now. Honda Civic Type R. This is a good shout. We don't have to worry about whether it's petrol or diesel. 6.5 million yen. It's 37 grand. How many kilometres? This one's brand new, 15 kilometres. This might work. This is a good one. But I might be buying my heart rather than my head. Let's have a look inside. Look, they've got two! Which one do we have? It's even got... Look, it's got the plastic stickers on it. It's so new. It's got the protective covering. Ah, okay, right. So in the UK, the car came with this beautiful red interior. Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes. You found it. Yes! This could be it, mate. Perfect, yeah. This might be a good shout, you know. What do you reckon, blue or white? I think white. Do you reckon white? I think blue is a very specific colour. It's rarer, but I think people want the white one. It's like proper JBM. And this has got the red interior. Right, I've got to decide what to do. Do I just get one of these? You mean blue? No, I'm probably going white. White seems generic, blue. Okay, a blue or white Civic Type R? Or do I look somewhere else and go with an SUV? What's going to be the easiest to sell? Both this and the Land Cruiser 250 are rare in the UK and hard to get. So there's definitely a market for them. Anyhow, do you know what, mate? Let's get in out of the rain because I'm getting soaking wet. Yeah. I think we've done some shopping. We just need to decide what to do. So we're just driving back and I spotted these camper vans. I've been interested in Japanese camper vans for a long time. Because if you notice, they're narrower than the UK ones. They're shorter, they're like about five metres. They're still quite tall. However, they're rather expensive. They're, I don't know, about 40 grand for something like this. And they're a bit harder to ship as well because of the height of them. I wouldn't mind going in and seeing what they're like inside though. Because they could be pretty cool. Hey, check this out. This is a bit of me. Look, look, look, look at this. So this is like a K truck version of a camper van. Is this place open? This looks shut. What does it say? Let me just go on Google Translate. Okay, so it seems like it's shut. I'd love one of those. You won't have any of the shipping issues with that either because it's lower. How cool would this be? Let's see if it's open. No, it's not open. Let's have a look inside. Because it's not open. Let's try this. Have a look. Have a quick look in there. Look at it. It's got sink. It's got table. It's also the roof lifts up. So you've got the bed up there. Yeah, it's a shower head. So you've got a shower. Let's just shut this because probably shouldn't be doing that. That'd be perfect. I'm definitely going to get myself one of those. I wonder if I can find one. I love it. I'm going to have to get one. It's so cool. I've come to USS Auctions in Tokyo. I'm not actually allowed to film in there. So I'm just outside so you can see. But I'm going to head in there and go check out some cars. There's various Land Cruiser 250s I'm going to look at. From a brand new one that's black. There's a couple of sand colored ones. One is actually a very special first edition model with round headlights. Sand color. All the bells and whistles. It looks really, really promising. There's also one just there. I don't know if you can see it. There's a grey one which seems to have upgraded off-road wheels. So that could be pretty exciting as well. Anyway, I'm going to go in there now. Put the camera away so I don't get chucked out. And see if the cars are okay and worth bidding on. So that was a bit of a crazy and disappointing experience. So the first edition car looked perfect. Low mileage. Just under 1,000 miles. And it had everything on it. Special upgrade kit as well. Looked like the perfect car to import. However, we met someone with a paint depth gauge. And we put on all the panels and they were all reading really well. Like 110 microns. Perfect. Apart from the front right wing which was 240 microns. When we inspected it, it looked like the wing had been taken off and re-sprayed. Now I wasn't sure whether there's any more damage to that car. So anyway, I couldn't bid on it because of that. Then we found this black one which was absolutely mint. Brand new. But I think it's going to go over my budget. Quite substantially over my budget. We managed to get a bid in at the very last minute. And the auction will take place in a moment. And we'll find out whether I've won it or not. But I'm not hopeful about that. Then we found another sand one which seemed perfect. It had 5,000 kilometers on it. Not too much of a problem. We did a paint depth gauge on that. And it was reading high all over. Like 160 microns. And then at the rear panel it was like 240. I'm not sure why it was reading so high. Could have been a full re-spray. But they didn't look like it. Anyhow, that was just too worrying to bid on. It's probably fine but I just can't risk it. But I did find a nice grey one with the uprated wheels that I planned to go and check out. And that looked good. Paint on that was absolutely perfect. It was 110 microns all round. So it looked like a good car. It's just that it was the lower spec version. It wasn't the top spec ZX with all the bells and whistles. So it doesn't have like rear ventilated seats. It doesn't have the electronic folding third row seats either. It just has normal manual. So I'm not sure whether to bid on that. Nothing ever goes just as you want it to, does it? Ha! So many great cars but they all have slight issues. What is my life like? Obviously, if you're buying a used car, even one from me, you should do a history check to make sure the car hasn't got a dodgy past. And I recommend using CarVertical. Here's the CarVertical history check for this particular GI Yaris. As you can see, it's all clean. However, that won't always be the case. Because certain cars do have a dodgy past that you might not be aware of. So here's an example of a Toyota with a dodgy past and a dodgy CarVertical history check. Now, you want to buy a car with that kind of history or if you did, you'd at least want to negotiate hard on the price. So if you're thinking about buying a used car, any used car for that matter, make sure you check out CarVertical and use the code WATSON for 20% off. There's also a link in the description of this video. Anyway, it's time to buy something special. I've bought a car at auction and we're now heading just into the holding pen at the port to go see it. I hope I made the right choice. A man is just having a word with the chap on security. Hopefully, they're going to let us film. We don't know yet though. So far, we haven't been able to film at the auction. So I really want to show you this car. You can see all the cars there, all of these ones there that you can see. They'll be heading out on different ships going all around the world. You can see there's a Jimny over there in white. Yeah, it's coming back. It's coming back. Hopefully, we've got good news. Does that look like the face of a man who's got good news? I'm not sure it does. Hello. Hey. Are we good? Can we go in? Yeah, we got the permission to enter the port. Oh, well done. Oh, look, there's a 76 Land Cruiser like mine. There it is. Here's the car. Look at it. Have we got the key? Our key's inside. Okay. Look at it. So what do you reckon to the colour? It's called Meteor Bronze. And I thought this car would be quite a good one to sell because it's got uprated wheels on it. TRD official Toyota racing design. What does TRD stand for? It's official though, isn't it? Yeah. It's got chunky off-road tyres. It's got this upgraded body kit here and some J-OS accessories. The high-end aftermarket Japanese tuning accessories. I think it's going to be quite an easy one to sell just because it's got that presence. You know, a lot of people spend extra money to have their cars upgraded. And when there's quite a few just laid out on the sale sites in the UK and you want something that differentiates your Japanese import over a UK car, having something that really pops visually such as this can help. So these bits, look. These are aftermarket add-ons. And then this bit at the front. Don't worry, they haven't drilled into the metal. You can see that it's fitted to a clip underneath. Do you think we can pull it out here just to do some... I'll do it. Okay, go on then. Let's hope that it starts. Whoa! Yeah, it's not it. Thank God! And there are some items inside. Did you see? Yeah, what's this? What's that? Ah, because they removed the front. There are some parts in it. In the picture, I saw them as well. Oh, what have they done? No, we're getting sold off here. What's this? Ah! It says on it. What an idiot. Look. Cover, outer mirror. They've gone for black mirror caps. These are the originals, aren't they? They say this is ZX great mirror covers. Okay. Remember, your car is VX. It's a VX, so it's a mid-trim. Yeah, this is ZX. Okay. Let's put it in the back so I don't damage it. And then this bit. Where does this Toyota grille go though? Where does this go? Let's check the back. The back. Oh, yeah, and this is black. I didn't think they'd replace it. So one of the things about Japanese cars is the mint underneath. Have a look. Look how mint it is. It's so fresh. Ah! It's got the upgraded sump cover lock for off-roading, but it's like new. It's never been off-road, this car. Oh, that's good. There's one thing I need to check on this car, which I haven't done, which could make or break the sale. Oh, my God. I need to just get something from the car, the cable. Let's just check it's got Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, because if it hasn't... That's right. Let's get this bad boy on. This is all in Japanese. Look. I think you can probably convert it into English. Where do we find English? Oh, we go to settings on the top. The drivers and settings and then language. There's literally no way I'd be able to do that. English. Okay, that's good. Is that okay? Yeah, we're in English now. Thank God for that. Right. So that's good. This is the test of tests. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Please. Game on. Android Auto! Right. Let's try your phone, George. Come on. Give us CarPlay. Apple CarPlay. Hello. Enable. We're on Apple CarPlay as well. Let's get rid of that junk. You can have your phone back. So that's good. Right. This has got some extra bits. Look, some extra add-ons. Ooh, cup holders here. Got a sunroof. We've got all our four-wheel drive stuff, all the four-wheel drive settings here. Locking diff. No one's going to really use that, are they? They're just going to drive this on road. Oh, wicked. We've got JBL sound system. I think that's an optional extra. Look at the door, George. What's that? It's like, what's the egg on? What is it? What's that? What is that? Is that a bin? It is a bin, but what's the point of it? I don't know. Wherever you are in Japan, there's no bins. They don't have any bins, but they have them in their car. In the trash. Let's see what's in the glove box. Ah, just, nah. What else? There's nothing in here. Right, we've got electric seats here. Electric. They're cooled, heated. Let's have a look at the back. So we've got climate control here in the rear. So we've got e-foldy. And then this is one of the great things about the Land Cruiser. Seven-seater. At least I think it is. Some versions are five-seater. This one is a seven-seater. I did check that. I'm not that much of an idiot. Yeah, you take that, man. It does have seven seats. Yeah, seven-seater. Are we short yet? I think this is an optional extra. Yeah, let's keep it. Isn't it electric? No. It's a VX. Yeah, I think the range top has electric. However, do you know what? Being honest with you, I think the electric's more of a hassle because this is just easier. You know, if you're messing about with kids, you don't want to be pressing buttons and waiting. You just want to be able to go like that, don't you? Done. Yes, good condition. Look at these things here. You liked those, didn't you, George? I do. I think I've changed my mind now. I don't like them at all. It's got the classic look. Is that to stop the rain getting in when you have the window open? They look cool as well. Did you check the window gate over there? Oh, I forgot about that. This one. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you don't have to open the entire tailgate. Now, you're being the expert. There you go. Look. Has this got surround view cameras? It does. Are we sure? Check the mirror. Under the mirror, there is a camera, right? So that means it has a 360. Yeah, let's just bring it off. Let's just check it out. There should be a button here. Yeah, it's got top down. Yeah, it's got surround view camera and that thing where you can look into the bonnet for when you're off-roading. What else can you do? You've got... Oh, look. Rear view mirror camera. So you can go for normal mirror. All right, George. Or you can go like that feed. By the way, it's still got like plasticky bits on it. Oh, look, it's got some aftermarket mats as well here. Can you see? I don't think I paid much attention to it in the auction yard, did I? You were focused on the black and the sand color. Yeah, this was just like an impulse at the end. I was like, I've got to come away with something. But I actually think that what I've come away with is something that's highly sellable in the UK. I think it's going to do well, this. So, Aman, all we need to do now is get this thing back to the UK. How long is it going to take from this point? So this just arrived to the port. It will take maybe three, four weeks until we put it onto the ship. Three or four? Why does it take so long? Because we need to process the documents, make it ready for the export. Do you register from Japan? And also, we have to book a space for you, right? Is it going to be roll-on or container? What do you recommend? I reckon roll-on, roll-off for this. I want to keep it. Yeah, roll-on is much safer. At the same time, you can use 20 feet container. You only put one car into the one container by itself. No hanging. It will be sitting on the floor by itself. But that'll be more expensive. One container is going to be more expensive than roll-on, roll-off. Depends, because this is a big car, right? So the roll-on also could be quite high in price. So how about this? We find you the rates of what roll-on and the 20 feet container. You pick the best. If there's not much in it, I think I'll take roll-on, roll-off. I just prefer it because they're inside the ship rather than outside on a container. So that's probably what we'll do. And then, so it's going to be about three or four weeks. That's one month. And then how long on the boat? 45 to 60 days on the boat. Until it hits the ports of the UK. Listen, thank you very much, Aman, for sorting me out, taking me to the auction, helping me find this car. Nice working with you. And for the next bit of like processing it. If you're thinking about importing a car from Japan yourself, wherever you are in the world, check out Autocom Japan. Now I'm going to be putting this car up for sale on my website, JapaneseDreamMachines.co.uk right now. So if you're interested in buying it, you like it, move quickly because it might be sold as it's heading over to the UK. Also, you can check them out on Carware as well, because I'll list them there. I hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, give it a like. Now, if you haven't done so already, subscribe to this channel. If you want to see what's so cool about the Land Cruiser 76, click on that video window there to watch my video about importing some.