5 Things To Know About Getting Insurance For An Imported JDM Car

The number of JDM imported cars in the has skyrocketed. You can thank the import craze in the 90s. All of us who had Japanese tuner cars have grown up, but our love of the cars haven’t. When that intersects with the 25 year old import rules, you have the perfect storm of passion meets opportunity.

But it’s not just us Gen X folks who are jumping on the JDM craze. In fact, most of the buyers we talk to who want to insure JDM vehicles are actually younger, newer drivers. The opportunity to drive something unique is powering their interest.

And lastly the Kei truck craze. Functional vehicles that are inexpensive to buy, are highly reliable and small and cheap to own an operate.

And yet with the craze there is a lot of challenges with insuring and registering these vehicles. And unfortunately too many people get excited bout a model and buy them, either from dealers or third parties, who are ill equipped to help them get coverage for them.

Worse, there is also a lot of misinformation and even outright bad advice online, and even from agents out there. Dealers and agents too often just “find a way” to get these vehicles covered, with little regard for what would happen if you really needed to file a claim.

In this blog post we’re going to hit on the 5 things we think everyone who has or is thinking about buying a JDM vehicle should know. Our goal with this blog post, as with all of them, isn’t to provide a step by step guide. But rather, to help you come up with questions to ask when getting your JDM imported car insured.

But if there is one thing we want you to take away from any insurance post: Everyone insurance situation is a lot more unique than they think, and making assumptions based on other people situations can lead to challenges. Whatever you do, before you get a JDM vehicle, explore your specific insurance situation before committing.

It’s Easier And Harder Than You Think

Yeah, this is a bit of a cop out title. Still, it’s really true. Getting JDM coverage is not that hard. In ideal situations. But if your situation isn’t ideal, it can be REALLY hard.

Getting Coverage Can Be Easy

First, let’s hit on the easy part. For JDM vehicles where you don’t daily drive it (errands, commuting and other primary uses) and you otherwise are a well qualified insurance prospect – chances are it will be really easy to get coverage. In fact, here at Traction we have half a dozen carriers/underwriters who will glad take JDM vehicles.

And not in a wink wink nod nod kind of way, which is a topic we’ll get to in a minute. They will take vehicles they know they are JDM, cover them and in most cases, even give you true replacement value for your import.

So if you need coverage for a JDM vehicle, it’s only used on the weekend, for shows, tracking or other non-primary vehicle uses then its as easy as reaching out to any one of the enthusiast friendly companies that eagerly take JDM vehicles.

Getting Coverage Can Also Be Hard

While some situations getting coverage is easy, there are a number where it can be surprisingly difficult. It’s a combination of factors. If your situation – whether it’s usage like daily driving, or other factors like being a youthful driver (under 25) or someone with a driving record that is less than ideal, all can add up to mean you wouldn’t qualify for one of the enthusiast friendly insurance companies that actively take JDM vehicles.

There can be other challenges too. If you use your JDM vehicle for commercial uses. Or your vehicle may be too truck like to being appealing to the enthusiast companies. We’ve even recently see some carriers, even ones that actively want JDM vehicles implement a previous right hand drive experience requirement for coverage or to qualify for the best rates.

In those situations, you may have to forgo an enthusiast friendly specialty company and go with a more mainstream insurer like Progressive. Still, just calling Progressive or talking to a neighborhood agent may still lead to challenges. Most don’t know how to write coverage for JDM vehicles with a more traditional insurance company. And not all traditional insurance companies want JDM vehicles.

We sadly have had a number of owners who wound up having to sell their vehicles but they didn’t do research ahead of time and assumed getting coverage would be easy and affordable for their situation. And that is not always the case.

Getting Coverage For Daily Driven JDM Vehicles

Getting coverage for daily driven JDM vehicles can be really challenging. It’s a shame, because they can make perfect daily drivers. Still, most JDM friendly companies are specialty insurers who generally will not take daily driven vehicles.

If you do want to daily drive your JDM vehicle you will have pretty much no choice but going with a more traditional insurance company. That means finding an agent or phone rep who will know how to get write a JDM vehicle with the traditional insurer.

This problem becomes increasingly challenge in states with higher risks, like California or Florida. Many of the traditional insurers that will write JDM vehicles have pulled away from these states or the rates may be very high.

Letting Your Agent Insure It As An American Model Car Could Be Problematic

There may be no approach that makes us cringe then hearing from clients that their long time agent successfully got their JDM vehicle covered by putting in that the vehicle is the American equivalent. It gets even worse when they pass it off as a completely incorrect model. We had one client tell us their agent registered their Kei vehicle as a Chevy pickup truck.

While these tricks and gimmicks may get you an ID card, if you ever have a claim – at fault or not – you could have a lot of exposure. First, if you, even with the help of an agent, misrepresent the vehicle being insured the insurer in most cases would be in their right to deny the claim. This could include the liability portion, leaving you personally on the hook for damages.

The other thing that could happen is your insurer may discover the misrepresentation outside of a claim and still choose to cancel or non-renew you. In most states there are little or no protections for mis-representing your vehicle to your insurer.

Bottom line: Don’t go for this trick. It’s bad advice and not recommended, no matter how desperate you are to get your JDM vehicle covered.

You Can Get Insurance Before You Take Possession

Most JDM vehicle buyers don’t realize that many insurers will take your vehicle from the minute it hits the docks. So if you purchased a JDM vehicle that has not yet arrived, but have a bill of sale and are simply waiting for the vehicle to be shipped, you can start he process of insuring it. And with many of the specialty carriers you can start coverage the day it arrives.

A few things we should note. First, they won’t generally cover it while its in transit on the ship. Second, they won’t cover it until you’ve purchased the vehicle. So if the importer has yet to take your funds and provide a bill of sale, you may need to wait until you complete the transaction.

Still, the important thing to note here is you don’t need to wait until the car is in your garage and you need insurance to start looking for insurance. In fact, we’d recommend the opposite. As soon as you’ve committed to buy, whether the vehicle is state side or waiting to be imported – start exploring your insurance options early.

Insurance Is Just One Piece Of Registration

While JDM vehicles being popular means there are fewer weird looks at the DMZ, don’t assume that if you can get insurance you can get registered. This is particularly true when it comes to Kei vehicles. Many of these small trucks are under attack for their perceived safety risks. States like Georgia have explicitly banned them, and we’ve had clients report issues in Tennessee, Texas and other states.

We recommend exploring the registration requirements in your state before taking the plunge on a JDM vehicle. And if you can’t get your vehicle registered in your state, you can explore the cost, legality and complexity of using a trust to get your vehicle registered.

Your insurance agent, whether it’s a company like ours, or your neighborhood agent, cannot guarantee you can get registered just because they got you coverage.

Top Tip: Explore Insurance Before You Buy

Bottom line, we highly recommend you explore your specific situation before you purchase a JDM vehicle. And don’t just take your dealers word for registration or insurance. While they’re advice may be useful, it may not be universally applicable to your situation. And that uniqueness could make all of the difference when it comes to the ease, quality and affordability a solution.

Informational Purposes Only

Every insurance blog post, including ours, always has a disclaimer. Always read your policy carefully. Despite this warning, so many people fail to do this. Just like Software License Agreements and Terms of Service, people tend to breeze through these legal contracts with little regard for what’s included. It’s pretty typical, but the risk of doing so is more than just the possibility of disappointment, it could cost you money. Lots of money.

Of course, we have to say it – what is or what is not covered is defined by your policy, not by what you read on the internet, heard in the paddock or were told by a friend who tracks a lot. Our goal here isn’t to give you list of what is or isn’t excluded either, just to put these thoughts in your mind so you ask the question if you are unsure.