1. Me at the auction site

2. JUMVEA President giving speech

3. Liverpool Auction

4. South Hampton Auto Auction

5. Customers at Liverpool Auction

Technorati Tags: Liverpool, South Hampton, Auto Auction

I was out of Tokyo for last one week on a business trip to UK. I was not able to reply many of my mails and I am sorry for the inconvenience it may have caused to you.

Well, on an experiment basis, our company exhibited cars at two Japanese car auction houses in Britain.  Profit was definitely not our objective; rather we wanted to learn by experience.  We could sell 6 of our 11 vehicles. We plan to put the remaining 5 cars on auction next time.

We found that cars which were more than 10 year old were popular in the auctions, as they were exempted from taking the SVA (Single Vehicle Approval) test.  In the retail market, however, one can see expensive cars with high quality were popular. The main cars exhibited in the auction were 4WD and sports cars. Not many standard cars were seen at the auction.

This trip was a package tour sponsored by the Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA), and 23 persons from used car exporting companies participated in this trip.  Best Trading is still a new player in this trade.  In this trip, I could meet the presidents of many big corporations, and was able to receive guidance from them on various issues. This was a rare experience for all participants to be on such a long tour with people from similar business field.  That was the best point of this trip.

Prices in Britain are very high. I was really surprised to see that most things were expensive than in Tokyo; almost by 1.5 times. Almost every day, the temerature was above 30 degree C. However, the air conditioners in public transport vehicles such as the train, taxis, and buses were not functioning well.  And I felt it was very hot.

In the countryside the beauty of similar buidings lined up against green backdrop was very picturesque. It will always remain in my memory.

I sincerely wish to express my gratitude to the auction house staff who helped us a lot since our arrival in UK and provided us with all the facilities. That’s a big help for us to build business with Great Britain in the future.  .

Technorati Tags: Tokyo, UK, Japanese car auction, Britain, SVA, sports cars, JUMVEA

Last weekend, I went to Tokyo Disneyland and stayed there with my family from Thursday to Saturday. My internet connection then was very slow and affected my replying to customer emails.

We had a nice view from the Hotel in Tokyo Disney Sea buy we experienced a typhoon on that day. We were lucky in that way, as there were few customers.  In popular holiday seasons in Japan, such as the Golden week, we have to wait for 2 hours just to buy a popcorn !! Can you believe it? That’s why I tried to go there in rainy season but I had not expected the typhoon.

Now we are having two problems about payment.

First incidence goes like this.  We received an order from a Caribbean country for 9 cars from one of our customners. But we just received the payment for 4 of these cars (90%). These cars have already been shipped to his country. We have a B/L for him, but we won’t send it unless we receive 100% of the payment for these cars.  Now we have a big problem.  The customer says that he will pay the money, but we can not trust him because he should have made the payment to us 2 months ago. We have already waited it for a long time.

Now I will be forced to sell these cars in Japan.  If we don’t return the deposit, the customer will lose a lot of money, and we don’t want to do this. We think it is our fault,too, because we should have been strict about the payment.  We thought he bought many cars, so we relaxed the rules, but it was not a right judgment.  Of course, we won’t send him the Bill of Loading unless we receive 100 % money. From now on, I have learned a lesson.  We will not ship the cars,  if the customer wouldn’t pay 100% amount within 4 days.  We will be firm with this rule.

One more similar incidence occurred.  We sold a car from USS auction to a Canadian buyer, but he wanted to cancel the order after he bought the car - because  he doesn’t  like the interior condition of the car.  Some parts of interior are not in good condition. He also said to he was not aware of this condition because we had not sent him the auction sheet. My reply to him was that we can not cancel the order. If he really wanted to see the auction sheet before buying the car, he should have mentioned to us before buying the car and we could have sent it to him. But he did not insist on it and we did not find it necessary to send him the auction sheet.

Of course we would buy a car with beautiful interior if the customer insists on it, but we can not read what is in the customers’ mind unless they tell us. Canadians can import only cars which are 15 year old. The car we selected for him had a grade “4″, so we had mentioned to him that the car was in a very good condition. It is very unrealistic to find a 15 year old car with perfect conditon and the customer has to understand it. Now I have no choice but  to take his deposit as I’d be forced to re-sell the car at USS auction again. I  can not cancel the order after buying the car -  that is the auction rule and I have to abide by it.  I really don’t want to cause trouble to customers, but if few cases like these occur, we may go bankrupt.

Technorati Tags: Tokyo Disneyland, USS auction, car

This week two gentlemen who were visiting Japan from New Zealand on a business trip came to our office. They were interested in buying a car from Japanese used car auction for their personal use. I took them to Yokohama used car auction with me.

One of them found a nice car which he liked, but the auction had already ended. He was lucky that car was not sold in auction, so we tried to buy the car by negotiation ( It is possible for a buyer to negotiate with the seller though auction staff).

My customer was happy that we could buy the car after the auction was over. However later we found out that the car had a problem with the air conditioner. The air conditioner had run out of gas. If it was just a simple problem of being run out of gas, we can fix it for just about 3,000 yen. But I think the problem was different and the seller knew it very well. So he just mentioned to the auction office that the air conditioner had run out of gas. And so the auction inspector didn’t realize that problem and was not mentioned in the auction sheet.

In short, we were cheated by the seller. If we buy a car during the auction process, and later find problems which are not mentioned in the auction sheet, we can market that I cancel our order.  But since we bought the car after the auction was over, we could not cancel the order. It was not my customer’s fault, but I took it as my lack of observation, so.I discounted my customer for 100,000 Yen. My commission is 50,000 Yen and it was a loss for me, but I must take a responsibility for quality for my customer.

It was a sad affair, so ladies and gentlemen, please take extra care if you buy a car after the auction is over through negotiation.

The two  customers from New Zealand are Kiwi but their nationality is Iraq. They have a very serious problem in their home country, but I found them very bright and of good character. Though I do not wish to mix politics in this blog,  I just pray that their family and friends in their homeland Iraq can live peacefully.

Technorati Tags: Japanese, used car, auction, New Zealand, Iraq