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I've been thinking about buying an early nineties 3 litre auto surf as they seem good solid reliable vehicles, and recently visited a couple of dealers who specialised in them. I didn't arrange a test drive as I was a little disappointed by the overall condition of the vehicles in relation to the asking prices. (typically between £4,200 and £5K for '93/94, 13/14 year old vehicles). Although the mileages shown were approx 130,000Km (warrantied from the docks?!), the interiors on some -particularly the steering wheels- looked as if they had done at least double that, giving a mouldy dirty worn out appearance.
I walked away still really liking the cars, but feeling really uneasy about the whole grey area of dubious histories, questionable odometre readings and high asking prices.
My questions are;
1) Were any early 90's 3litre Surfs official UK imports, or were they all unofficial Japanese imports?
2) If they were all unofficial Japanese imports, is there any way of tracing the cars history to check if the mileages are genuine, or do you resign yourself to the fact that everything in the service schedule before the car entered the country is written in Japanese and should be ignored, leaving you to just take the risk with not knowing where the car has been?
3) Does anyone know the emissions rating for the 3litre Surf? (I live in London and may be clobbered by a proposed high central London emissions tax!)
Any help would be really appreciated!
Cheers.
I walked away still really liking the cars, but feeling really uneasy about the whole grey area of dubious histories, questionable odometre readings and high asking prices.
My questions are;
1) Were any early 90's 3litre Surfs official UK imports, or were they all unofficial Japanese imports?
2) If they were all unofficial Japanese imports, is there any way of tracing the cars history to check if the mileages are genuine, or do you resign yourself to the fact that everything in the service schedule before the car entered the country is written in Japanese and should be ignored, leaving you to just take the risk with not knowing where the car has been?
3) Does anyone know the emissions rating for the 3litre Surf? (I live in London and may be clobbered by a proposed high central London emissions tax!)
Any help would be really appreciated!
Cheers.