Remedies To Sought If You Are Cheated By A Japan Car Sale Or Jaai?

[Kasman]

Hi All, I’m new here, I got an interesting story to share regarding a Toyota Axio I got down from Japan.

Last year after the initial import duty reduction I decided to go for an Axio and a Sri Lankan guy associate with Japan car sale approached me online to provide me details to select. Then I selected a 2007 Axio X with 5,000 on the clock. I just saw the pictures of the car and they all were fine. However I never saw the auction sheets but JAAI looked great and didn’t indicate any issue.

I opened the LC in my name and got it cleared end August last year. As I was in a hurry to drive it got it registered next day. Exterior and interior looked fine except a dent on top of the right front door and engine bay suggested it may be 5000. However I realized there is a hum when the wheels are rolling, because I never drove an Axio, I thought its normal. The real story begins when I took it to the under wash on the second day. The line below the skirting which run under side doors (don’t know the term) was damaged and indicated it took a big impact underneath especially front left side. Careful inspection by a mechanic showed me that gear box sump is damaged, CVT box have definitely removed and repaired with bad silicon job. Further AirBag light is always on but a sticker pasted underneath the indicator to hide it. Dashboard meter panel didn’t fit exactly and there was a ½” gap. All these suggested that the car has met with an accident and repaired. However JAAI certified there are no issues and it’s not a accidented car, which was the reason for me to bring down. I sooner informed all observations to the agent here and showed him the car and he also accepted something is gone wrong. Then I told him that I need to get these fixed through Toyota Lanka, otherwise I have to do something about it.

Then we got an inspection report from Toyota with all those faults and send it to S*T Japan saying customer will put a case to car sale and JAAI if this is not made good. The estimate from Toyota to fix only a brand new CVT box came to 1.8Mn. We found out that the car has been auctioned by a company which repairs the wrecks brought from Insurance companies. Finally after 2 months of waiting they realized that better option is to send a replacement vehicle and they sent me a new one in December. The agent was asked to find money for the duty and he got my vehicle (WP KL 78** - Silver) leased in to his name for just 1.8Mn and duty was only 1.5mn. So, end of the day, I got the color and number changed and he got an Axio for 1.5Mn. The replacement car had 20K on the clock with good exterior interior condition and runs well so far. However the guy conned me by removing the DVD setup and reverse camera of the new car to fix to my previous one.

I’m sure this is a very rare case and bit late to share, but my question to all you experts is, If something like this happens what are the real remedies that we can use to get compensated? Can we put a case against Japan sale and JAAI for their negligence?

[CyRaX]

I must say you were lucky,there could be many others who get caught to these crap,who dont know the procedure.

Edited June 5, 2011 by CyRaX

[Crosswind]

Thanks for posting this buddy. This may be useful for others too. It seems that the exporter got scared the sh*te out of him when you said you are going to make a case against the car sale and JAAI. This probably means that there is a way to complain to JAAI and JAAI takes things seriously.

This probably also means that the JAAI certificate was faked or the inspectors were knobbled, which could have caused panic.

[nexus]

very useful information for members thanks for sharing Kasman.

[Kasman]

To be honest the agent here did a good job in getting the replacement, though he kept a last minute boot to me..

I think there is a way that you can get done through Japan embassy and also through exchange controls to make that Car sale a black list. They got scared about it as bad publicity can impact at peak of them sending cars here. But I wasn't too sure, but we made it a point to get the replacement.

[Watchman]

I'm a bit confused. The agent who sold you the bad car took it back from you and gave you a car that was leased in his name?

What happened to the old car?

[CyRaX]

Yeah where is the old car,if they fixed the dvd on to the previous car,it could be because they want to sell it here

[Shehan_WCC]

I guess what he meant was the agent leased 1.8 mn for his old car and took it to his custody .The new vehicles duty was only 1.5 mn - so the agent bought his old axio for 1.5 mn .Thats a lucky charm even for a bad axio ,wonder if the agent needs to return it back

[Kasman]

Shehan_wcc is correct. The agent got it to his name. He said he is gonna use it, but with another 2 or 3 lakhs he will be able to repair it and sell to somebody to make a good profit..

S*T Japan just wrote it off as their cost to send a car here is much lesser compared to the quotation from Toyota Lanka to fix it.

Btw, is there anybody else faced the same situation?