This guy bought a Hijet and in the later video he also bought a dump carry. He did multiple upgrades to the truck, bumper, lights, tires,springs..... And a bunch of maintenance and troubleshooting. There is alot of ride along as he off-road his mini. I like his humor alot and I learned many things from his video. Here is a link to the first video where he buy his first truck. Whats up mini-truck!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I have talked to him. I don't agree with him on buying a truck from Amir as his trucks are not the best ( I bought and owned one for 2 years ). His videos are entertaining
Yeah Motocheez is highly entertaining. I think it's the most accessible kei truck content on YouTube.
Following Motocheez as well, very high entertaining, but i find that the minitrucks in the US are way overpriced, compare to what they cost in Japan, offcourse, people can make some money on the trucks, but i hear prices from 4 til 6000 dollars. if you watch carefully, you can buy them yourself less then 2K. including shipment towards the us
yup.. But Customs here in the USA, you have to file $200 worth of paperwork, 25% vat tax on cargo vehicles ( 2.5% on others ) and to make it easier a broker will do it for $2-250. You also need to file as a self importer at a cost of $400. My bill to my broker for my Imported Jimny was $852. If it was a Kei truck it would have been more. My total released from the port was about $2,600 and I pretty much bought the cheapest Jimny I could find. There is a Sambar on that site right now one could get for less than that, as purchase price is only $450
I did not know about the 25%tax for the cargovehicle. Here in europe it is simple, you buy the car, when its on the boat, you contact a local freight broker, email them they invoice and all info about the truck. They will take care about when the car arrives, they make up an invoice for the 21 % tax, and some fee for doing all this. you can choose if they will take care of transport, or that you will pick it up on the harbor. after that, you'll have some local costs, registrate it, change beams of the headlight, tyres etc.
Ya watched his stuff for humor content. And yes mini trucks are way over priced when shops are selling them. My 95 hijet low dump with 5 speed diff lock and ac was only 1600 cad at auction. Similar non dump where closer to half the auction price. Think it was around 4500 insured and on the street in Canada. We did all the importing paperwork on this end once we got the paperwork from the exporter in Japan we used.
What is this $400 charge you speak of? Who charged it? I did not have to pay that when I self-imported my Sambar truck. I paid about $400 in total for all of my duties and fees, and that included the 25% chicken tax.
^^^ hey im loving my mini.... & very interested in getting another one if this is something a "regular guy" can do.. could you elaborate more on what all one has to do .. to import one themself? if you dont wanna sidetrack this thread, throw me a PM.
you got lucky. your supposed to register/ bond as a self importer through customs. It's not per vehicle, it's per year.. the fines that can accrue from incorrect importation are no joke. $5,000 if they ding you for not filing an ISF ect. That's why I went with a broker ( Davidson and sons ), even though being bonded myself I could self import. The $300 that I spent on them to file everything and take care of everything was worth it
Motocheez has really helped with my motivation for further research into these trucks. I think his videos are funny and he does all kinds of randomness. His Jeep winch bumper looks great on his hijet.
I can bring a cheap one over for $2200 now possibly less. Tax might make it a little more. Get the $450 truck from Be forward. They always have cheaper trucks. Granted I'm registered as an importer until January. Not everyone is.. and this is assuming you actually want the cheapest truck. It IS possible
I BOUGHT ON EBAY ABOUT 3 MONTHS AGO I PAID TO HAVE THE TRANSPORTED TO THE DOCKS.AND ANOTHER FEE TO HAVE IT SHIPPED TO THE STATES.AND ANOTHER FEE TO HAVE IT TRANSPORTED TO ME ..THAT COST ME WAY OVER THE PRICE YOUR TRUCK DID
You bought it from substar which is a known scam company. No surprises unfortunately. My Jimmy was only $2600 and that was with the $400 importer registration. It would be $400 cheaper to buy the same truck again. Kei trucks from be forward cost $1200 to New York. So its pretty cheap. Under $3k every day for a decent truck
SUBSTAR SOLD ME A TRUCK THAT WASN'T EXCELLENT BUT THATS THE CHANCES YOU TAKE BUT ALL IN ALL IT DID HAVE LOW MILEAGE AWAS PRETTY CLEAN..BESIDES SUBSTAR HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TRANSPORTING FEES
For my $0.02 I spent less than 1k on my truck. Adding in Auction fee's, Transport to Nagoya port, shipping to the US was all less than 3k. Import broker said I had to register as an importer. Cost was either $50 per car or $125 a year. As I am only importing the 1 I spent $50. Now I live near the port (few hours away) so there is no shipping from the port, just some time off work. In SOME ports you can file your self and there are walk throughs on line if that's what you choose. My port (Tacoma) won't let the Average Joe do it any more because of repeated paperwork mistakes so I hired a Broker. Still not a lot of $ if you shop around. ( And yes, I sub to Motocheese. I gotta stop, he got me to buy one of these and now I'm looking at Chinese motorcycles.... in October in Washington!)
My truck was under $2500 by the time it his my driveway.. This figure included shipping to NYC/Newark NJ, duty, taxes, etc.. I did not pay for transport from Newark, I just loaded it up on a trailer and brought it home, so there was no US transportation cost either. I too bought from an exporter in Japan (Autorec), and I did all of my own paperwork (no broker, except for the ISF 10+4 filing which was only $25)
Again, I ask.. to whom did you pay this "Importer Registration" fee? Are you talking about a "Continuous Bond"? That is only necessary if a vehicle is over $2500, and you are planning on importing more than one vehicle. If the vehicle in question is under $2500 *prior* to any shipping costs, then it qualifies as an "Informal Entry" and does not require any sort of bond. My Truck was just about $1000 FOB, so it easily qualified for Informal. If you are looking to only import one vehicle that is over $2500, then you should go for a "Single Entry Bond", which is more economical than a Continuous. Yes, there are penalties for not following the required filings, but as long as you do them.. that is a moot point. I spent a lot of time researching and several calls/emails with the Personal Import Specialist at my port of entry to make sure that I had all of the paperwork sorted. Honestly, clearing customs was super easy, and far cheaper than I expected when I started the process. I stressed out about it more than I needed to.
Watched every mini truck vid motocheez has put out. Amir’s trucks are some of the most expensive on the continent. Sometimes he has gems but there are other importers who will cherry pick for you, for less. Amir is buying up a ton of the more desirable packages (lockers, dumps, etc) and paying a premium for them. I did a lot of research with them and went a different route.
It's a continuous bond. I paid Davidsons to file it, and I'm bonded through their insurance for a year. They said I needed it, and they handled ALL of my paperwork and import process
For what it’s worth, some ports are requiring use of a broker for certain types of vehicle imports. Port of Tacoma WA requires a broker service be used for kei class vehicles now for example. Has to do with issues at Customs and WADOL required documents for street legal eligibility. Namely proof of tax paid and vehicles sneaking through newer than 25 years old as “legal” etc.
Completely agree. Motocheez has also been great to answer a few questions I've had. I highly recommend following on Instagram and YouTube.
Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm for the Motocheez channel on YouTube. I just watched the first video where he buys his first truck, and it's awesome to see his journey with the Hijet and the dump carry. The upgrades he's done, from the bumper to the lights and tires, really make a difference. It's also great that he shares maintenance and troubleshooting tips along the way. The ride-along off-roading videos sound like a blast, and I appreciate his sense of humor. I've found that watching channels like Motocheez can be both entertaining and educational. But if you're looking to grow your own YouTube channel, you should try to buy YouTube subs to boost your subscriber count.