Toyota Australia: Sorry, we cant support you.

[thespud]

Ok... I am mainly venting here, but these are my experiances with my local Toyota Dealerships and even Toyota Australia (Sydney). I havent put this in the other thread, coz i didn't get raped so much, just put in a hole.

As many of you know, i have the JDM (duh) 20v in my Aussie built corolla. I went into my local dealership and asked if they have the Japanese Area version of the EPS on their systems. They told me they did, and when asking for the part numbers for the belts in particular (no-one else has them), they gave me them. But when it comes to ordering them in, they said they cant do it. This is quite a pain, because the Alternator belt is a special size. ie. a 5 ribbed belt in a size that you cant buy here (atm i have a 4 ribbed on there).

As they were looking up the parts that i needed, they also made some comment about imports should be illegal, and that they are only made for the Japanese market. When i asked them, well what about the fully imported MR2's and Supras and even Hondas and USDM cars such as the Mustangs, they said to me 'that is a different story altogether'

Now i know that this is only one persons opinion, but when i rang Toyota Australia to see if they could import the parts for me, they basically told me the same thing. It sucks. They told me that they flat out didnt have the Japanese AREA version in Australia, only the JAPANESE version, which is BS, coz i saw the car in the computer systems at the dealership in ENGLISH!

Now, it's not only the import bit of my car i'm having troubles with either. I need a Centre Console, Desperately. This, you would think Toyota would have, being an Australian part of the car. NO! They stopped making them after 5 years!?! And guess which bits are the most wanted at the Wreckers, and usually gone by the time you get to it? You guessed it. The interior bits.


All of this is making me want to buy a Nissan
If Toyota Australia doesnt lift their game, my next car will be.

[BLUEMEANIE]

You got PM.

[WortownSolara]

you know man not all is lost, they are just making it harder for you to get, just gotta go around them

[chronoti]

ah i'll never get another nissan .......

[Sportivo Concepts]

actually you will find alot of dealerships like that basically anywhere you go. it is just a matter of finding the right dealer, if you have to email a japanese dealership and see if they can help you

[JWatson]

Need JDM Toyota parts? I have parts available for all models available.

Jeff Watson
jwatson@cityscope.net

[thespud]

^^ yeh, and pay overheads to get it to the US, then to Australia

[rolla-XRS]

Yeah it sucks but all JDM's are the same. Nissan, Toyota, Honda, etc so you won't fare any better with Nissan.

Yes - Japan makes cars for other markets. That doesn't mean that the cars made for the Japanese market is the same as those in another country. When they assemble cars in Japan for other markets (like Australia, Canada, USA, etc) they are all made to different specifications depending on the option packages, Department of Transportation laws, etc. This often means different parts. While manufacturers try to keep the need for different parts as low as possible (to streamline the assembly process), there will always be differences.

I suspect that the car you have may not have been approved for use in Australia. It happens quite frequently when some bureaucrat just rubber stamps an entry permit without realizing all the differences between a vehicle meant for domestic market and one for a foreign market. Heck I've seen a current gen MR2 in Canada with Canadian plates (an obvious import from the US) and they're not even legal here. Low bumper tolerances and height. How that car got here is anyone's guess.

All manufacturers discourage the purchase of parts for cars from other countries. There are many reasons. One, there's no guarantee that the market can support a foreign part. There a bunch of legal reasons to. Plus the dealer's are generally not qualified to tell you if the part is the correct since they don't have support locally for foreign parts. They can't return the part (if it's wrong or defective, etc). It's a messy business and there just is no reason why a dealer would want to engage in that practice...there's not enough margin in so few purchases.

I could go on and on but I won't...but that's the price you pay for importing a car that no one else likely has in Australia.

Now that's not to say that there isn't a few people who specialize in JDM parts. You'll pay through the nose for those parts...guaranteed.

GL man!