Guides
The parts of an import that cost real money when they go wrong.
Explained once, properly, with the rules the calculator applies and a worked example for each.
- 01
How to import a car from Japan to Ireland: the whole process, step by step
Eight to fourteen weeks, four payments, two deadlines and one document that decides whether you pay duty. This is the order things happen in, what each step costs, and where people lose money.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 02
The Statement on Origin: how a Japanese-built car pays 0% duty
The EU–Japan trade agreement removed the 10% car tariff for Japanese-origin goods. Whether your import gets that rate comes down to where it was built and one document from the exporter.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 03
Why a diesel import can cost €4,850 in NOx levy, and how to avoid it
The NOx levy is small when the figure is on paper and brutal when it is not. Most Japanese export documents do not carry it.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 04
OMSP: how Revenue decides your VRT, and why your price does not matter
You can buy a car well in Japan and it changes nothing at the NCTS. VRT is charged on what Revenue says the car is worth here, not on what you paid.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 05
7 days and 30 days: the NCTS deadlines after your car lands
The clock starts when the car enters the State, not when you collect it. Book before it lands.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 06
How to read a Japanese auction sheet
A Japanese auction house inspects every car it sells and writes it up on one page. Learn the page and you can judge a car from 10,000 kilometres away.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 07
Verifying mileage and history by chassis number
The chassis number read off the car, checked against every auction it has ever been through. Everything else is someone telling you a story.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 08
Insuring a Japanese import in Ireland: who quotes, what they ask for, and what it costs
Some Irish insurers will not quote an import at all, most load the premium, and the paperwork they ask for is easier to get before the car ships than after. Get the quote before the bid.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 09
What goes wrong with Japanese imports, and how each one is avoided
Every problem on this list has cost someone real money. None of them is bad luck; each has a check that prevents it, and most of the checks happen before the bid.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 10
Haggling in Japan: what is normal, what is rude, and where the room really is
Irish buyers treat a sticker price as an opening bid. In Japan it is much closer to the final one, and the room that exists is in different places. Ask once, politely, with a reason, and then look at the fees instead.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 11
Importing a track-only or drift car: it still has to be registered
The paddock wisdom says a car that only goes to Watergrasshill never needs registering. The law says otherwise, and the difference is forfeiture. Here is what the rules actually say and what to do instead.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 12
Roll cages on imported drift cars: bolt-in, weld-in and what Irish series accept
Half the drift cars in Japan have a cage. Very few of those cages are legal in an Irish championship. Know which you are buying before the container is booked.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 13
RoRo or container: shipping a caged, lowered or non-running car from Japan
RoRo is cheap because the car drives itself onto the ship. A drift car often cannot, and the difference is a container, a fortnight and about a thousand euro, unless you share the box.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 14
Importing an engine, gearbox or half-cut from Japan to Ireland: duty, VAT and no VRT
Parts are goods, not vehicles. That makes them the simplest thing to import from Japan and the easiest to get wrong at the declaration, because nobody tells the buyer what the invoice has to say.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 15
Heading 9705: 0% duty on a classic from Japan, and why the 13.5% VAT rarely applies in Ireland
Every forum says a classic pays 0% duty and 13.5% VAT. Half of that is reliably true in Ireland. Here is which half, what it is worth, and how to claim it without a letter from Revenue.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 16
Why Japan is where the right-hand-drive classics are
Britain ran out of good ones years ago. Japan did not, because it bought them new, garaged them, and never salted the roads. The catch is that Japan knows what it has.
Updated 18 Sept 2026
- 17
Britain, Northern Ireland or Japan: the same used car from each, compared
Since 2021 a car from Britain pays the same customs charges as a car from Japan. Northern Ireland pays neither. VRT is identical from all three. Which route wins depends on where the car was built and what it costs there, and the calculator now shows the three side by side.
Updated 18 Sept 2026