After watching Quentin Wilson with his programme of imported stolen Japanese 4by 4s I bet a few people are quaking in their boots.
My neighbour has recently bought a Shogun which is an import ex Jap.
He's an emotional type of fellow who is prone to bouts of depression and I keep expecting to hear a gunshot from next door if he watched it.
Must dash off I think I heard something.........
Alvin
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Maybe HJ will make an update on the car-by-car section.
Jonathan
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How about an summary/update for those of us who are several miles away from the program ?
M.
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Mark,
Go to BBC homepage, select Watchdog from the drop down menu at the bottom of the page and all will be revealed.
PS
Is the Vista Chinesa still as beautiful as it was in the 70s........?
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> Is the Vista Chinesa still as beautiful as it was in the 70s........?
The view is certainly still beautiful. Rio is somewhat larger and less tasteful now though. Jardim Botanico in general has deteriorated somewhat over the last few years.
Mind you, the last year or so seem to have been improving. It is now close to a very large favella with all the difficulties that brings.
In all, I have to say you'd probably like Rio a lot less than you would have done in the 70's. Mind you, as opposed to three or four years ago when it lead the country Rio is now a lot safer than Sao Paulo.
Also, I have always considered Salvador, Bahia to be the worst, and I was only up there a week or two ago. But I caught a BBC travel program - Holiday I think - which was broadcast last week on BBC World saying it was the safest place in Brazil - rubbish is it !! I did wonder at the time if they were at all liable for what is undoubtedly going to happen to anyone who takes their advice and goes to Salvador at Carnival time.
Copocabana is quite dangerous now, although Ipanema is ok and Leblon is best. There is now a bloody great town at Barra de Tijuca - nice place though, I live there.
If you know Rio well, Praia de Botofogo is a lot safer than it used to be although its still a pretty major drugs area.
Leme is ok but right downtown around Rio Branco is a total no-no after dark.
You can move around most of the town, the yanks get a lot more trouble than the Europeans. I wish that one day an American would grasp the point that he is walking around with a year's salary for a policeman in the pocket of his checked trousers and the locals know it - that's why the yanks keep getting dotted on the head and kidnapped or robbed.
M.
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To repeat Dave Wollard's comment above - No such thing as a free lunch.
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Unfortunately did not see the whole of the prog, badly timed phone call from a client. You can't do enough for a good company you know. Since then read the Watchdog website.
Question, am I right in thinking that the strategy behind the police grabbing the vehicles and the maximum publicity is to destroy the market. Thus stop the crime by the public being so scared to buy a grey import.
Was there any aim to get at the original criminals, beyond Count Quentula driving round Japan and talking to the mystery figure who was allegedly ex Yakuza? Thats when the phone rang. Plus what about the criminals in UK? Or are they just innocent traders? .
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Very sensational story,and good to see that the BBC did'nt want to let the truth get in the way of a good story.Was this Mr Wilson's and the official closed shop importers last ditch attempt to hold the tide back?After all we have allready heard about "you can't get the parts" or "we won't service it" or "nobody will insure them"--"you won't be able to sell it" or my personal favorite,"Japanese home market cars are built to a much lower standard,and the engines are made from cheese and they need special petrol!" King Canute tried it once and that didn't work,i can't see this silly little story working either.
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I thought the programme produced more questions than answers.
If 50%+ of the cars sampled proved to have been stolen, then how long have the police been aware of this growing problem? I hadn?t heard of this, other than Quentin Wilson?s vague comments in his Mirror column. Have I missed out on this? Has this been previously documented in the motoring press?
What had the Police done to warn potential purchasers? Why weren?t the public alerted earlier?
The cars are sold by the police at auction; what percentage of the take do the Police get to keep?
What are the terms of the deals the Police have negotiated with the cars? legal owners, the Japanese insurers? Is this an exclusive arrangement; why can?t ?owners? of suspect vehicles check them out themselves on the internet and then either claim a fee for returning the car or negotiate purchase of the legal title?
How many Police hours ( which we ,the public, have already paid for) have been spent in acting as paid repossession agents for Japanese insurance companies, rather than in law enforcement?
The whole thing stinks. The longer the police delayed in making this public, the more stolen vehicles would have been imported and the revenues accrued when they recovered the vehicles would have been maximized. If 50%+ of the cars checked had been stolen, someone has been either very negligent or very devious.
Once again the British public has been shafted by it?s paid servants. We?ve paid for law enforcement and we get our Police Officers acting as insurance company agents, recovering stolen cars for undisclosed fees. Are they on a commission? Are all our villains banged up now, so that our Police can be deployed to other duties?
The Japanese are probably baffled by our quaint concepts of ownership and our antiquated vehicle licensing system which allow ringers and stolen cars to be easily driven on our roads. I?d like to have sold the cars and handed the dosh to the Burma veterans.
And no, I don?t own a Jap car. I?ve got a Citroen BX ( had to get a mention in there somewhere, Dave).
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AFM,
With all due respect I think you should read the comment from Hampshire Constabulary on the Watchdog website before throwing out comments like that.
The site also gives advice about how to get your car checked out before contacting the police and a little bit about how you may obtain good title to the car.
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Thank you, Stuart.
I've now read it. It would answer about one of the above questions; you can establish ownership without Police help.
I'd still like more information. The salient point is that these vehicles have been accumulating in this country for the past 7 or so years. The police or, lets say, Customs and Excise, must have known about it. It was in the public interest to publicise this, so why has it taken so long?
And I'd still like to know what percentage the Police are on. Any statements about "costs" would be open to interpretation.
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I believe that the Japanese equivalent of the MoT test, after about 3 years, requires the replacement of many of the components of the car. The test is so stringent that it is more economic to replace the car. Such cars have minimal value in Japan.
Presumably the insurers had paid the owners the car?s market value in Japan, let us say approximately bog all for a 3 year old car. When the car is auctioned in the UK they will make a hefty profit. The victim of the fraud has paid all the import costs, yet it is only because the car has been imported that it has any significant value. Something unjust here, maybe legal, but very unjust.
Anyone got any answers or hard facts?
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Thinking laterally there may be another scandal underneath all this.
There are many companies now importing used motorbikes from Japan and one of the main reasons for the availability is often explained away by reference to the stringent Jap version of the MOT.
The grey import of M/Cs is similar with the usual arguing over spares non availability, crash damaged being repaired and sold as straight etc etc.
I wonder if there is a parallel story to the 4x4s here after you can ship a lot more M/Cs for the cost of shipping a car and at £2 -£4k each retail in UK there might be even more money to be made.
just a thought
as ever
Mark
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