Early Reserve & Save

There are normally two ways to buy a Japanese import in Ireland, and both make you choose between price and safety.

Import one yourself and you get the best price, along with the customs declaration, the emissions paperwork, the registration deadline and no legal recourse if the car is not what the seller said. Buy one off an Irish forecourt and you get the protection, the inspection and the ability to drive it first, at the price a landed car commands.

Early Reserve & Save is the third option, and as far as we know nobody else in Ireland runs one like it. You take the car while it is still on the water, at a discount that reflects the wait, and you keep every protection that comes from buying from a dealer here — including the right to walk away with your deposit after you have driven it.

The two dials

The discount is not a flat percentage and it is not a countdown gimmick. It comes from two things working together, and both are visible on the car's own page.

Time sets the ceiling

The further the car still is from Ireland, the more there is to compensate you for, so the maximum available discount rises with the remaining wait.

Your deposit decides how much of that ceiling you get

The minimum reservation is €500, and that alone secures a real discount. Beyond it, the rate climbs steadily towards the ceiling as the deposit grows, reaching the full amount once you pass a set share of the car's price.

Deposit required to unlock the full ceiling

If the ceiling is	Deposit to reach it	Below that
16–20%	50% of the price	Scales from 5% upward
Up to 15%	40% of the price	Scales from 5% upward
Up to 10%	20% of the price	Scales from 5% upward
5% or less	€500 minimum	— you get it outright

Nothing about that is hidden behind a phone call. Drag the slider on the car's page and the price updates in front of you.

Three worked examples

The same car, a €21,500 vehicle, in three different situations.

€21,500 vehicle — what the two dials produce

Situation	Deposit	Discount	You save
16+ weeks out, full deposit	€10,750	20%	€4,300
16+ weeks out, smaller deposit	€2,000	7%	€1,505
8 weeks out, full deposit	€8,600	12%	€2,580

The first line takes that car from €21,500 to €17,200. The second shows that a modest deposit is still worth €1,505 rather than nothing. The third shows what the same commitment is worth once most of the waiting is already done.

Why the discount exists

Worth being direct about, because “limited time offer” language has made buyers rightly suspicious of any countdown.

A car that is sold before it lands never becomes stock. It does not occupy space, it does not need photographing and presenting to browsing customers, it does not sit for two months while we find a buyer, and it never becomes the car that does not sell. Those costs are real and a reserved vehicle avoids all of them. The discount is that saving handed back, not a price inflated so it could be marked down.

The part that makes it safe

This is what separates it from importing a car yourself, and it is the reason the programme exists in this form.

Your deposit is refundable, including after you have driven the car

When the car lands you see it, inspect it and drive it. If it is not what you expected, you take your deposit back. You are not committed by having paid, and you are not committed by having waited. Someone importing privately has no equivalent: by the time their car reaches Ireland the money is gone and the vehicle is theirs whatever condition it turns up in.

You are buying from a trader in Ireland

The Consumer Rights Act 2022 applies. The car must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described, and if it is not you have a route to repair, replacement or refund against a business you can drive to. A car imported personally from an exporter in Japan carries none of that here.

The tax and paperwork are already handled

Customs duty, import VAT, VRT, the NOx levy and Irish registration are ours, not yours. No customs declaration to file, no NOx figure to chase, no thirty-day registration deadline to miss. The price you reserve at is the price of a car that will arrive on Irish plates.

The price is fixed against the schedule

Arrival dates come from the shipping line and they move. If the ship is late you still pay what you agreed, and your discount does not shrink because the sailing did. That risk is ours.

What you see before you commit

You are reserving a car you have not stood beside, so it matters what you get to look at.

• The Japanese auction sheet, with the grade the independent inspector gave it and the condition map marking every dent, scratch and corrosion point on the body.
• The photographs taken before the car was loaded.
• More pictures or a walkaround video, on request — ask and we will get them.
• A second inspection by us when the car lands, before handover.
• And then the car itself, in person, with the deposit still refundable.

The auction sheet is a better document than anything attached to a used car sold in Ireland, but it is not the whole answer, and we have written about what it does and does not tell you.

When it does not suit

It suits a buyer who knows what they want and is not in a hurry. It suits nobody who needs a car this month, and it is a poor fit if you would find the wait stressful rather than merely inconvenient.

If you need to drive something away next week, the honest answer is to look at what has already landed and pay the landed price. The discount is compensation for waiting, and if you are not waiting there is nothing to compensate.

What we do

Every car we have on the water is listed in current stock with its arrival date and its slider. Move it and the price moves with it.

If nothing on the water is right, sourcing finds the specific car instead, and our sourcing fees sets out what that costs. For the mechanics of the import itself, see importing a car from Japan.

Common questions

How does the Early Reserve & Save discount work?

Two things set it. How far the car still is from arriving sets the ceiling: 20% at sixteen weeks or more, falling by one point per week to 5% in the final week before landing. The deposit you place then decides how much of that ceiling you actually unlock, scaling from 5% at the 500 euro minimum up to the full ceiling once your deposit reaches a set share of the car's price. Both move live on the car's own page as you drag the slider, so the figure you see is the figure you pay.

What deposit do I need to reach the full discount?

It depends on the ceiling the car has earned. Where the ceiling is 16 to 20 per cent you need a deposit of 50% of the price. Where it is up to 15 per cent you need 40%. Where it is up to 10 per cent you need 20%. Anything between the 500 euro minimum and that figure gives you a proportional rate rather than nothing, and where the ceiling is 5 per cent or less the 500 euro minimum gets you it outright.

Is the deposit refundable?

Yes, and it stays refundable after the car has arrived and you have driven it. If the vehicle is not what you expected when you see it in person, you take your deposit back. That is the whole point of the arrangement: you get import pricing without carrying the risk that normally comes with buying a car you have not stood beside.

What happens if the ship is delayed?

The price you reserved at stands. Arrival dates come from the shipping line and can move by a few weeks, and that movement is ours to absorb rather than yours. A delay does not reduce your discount and it does not change what you owe.

Can I still get the discount on a car that has already arrived?

No. The discount exists because a reserved car never becomes stock, and once a vehicle has landed those savings no longer exist to hand back. There is no version of Early Reserve applied to cars sitting on the forecourt, and cars less than a full week from arrival no longer qualify either.

What do I actually see before I reserve?

The Japanese auction sheet with its grade, the inspector's condition map, and the photographs taken before the car was loaded. Ask and we will get you more pictures or a walkaround video. Every vehicle is inspected again on arrival, before handover, and you can drive it before deciding whether to complete.