steveinjapan
25-04-2010, 03:45 PM
Hi everyone.... I am an American civilian living in Okinawa, and I just bought a Beat! I appreciate this forum because Japanese isn't my first language, not even a distant third....
I am an old ragtop guy and have been missing the experience a lot. I still have a nice original '64 Alfa Guilia Spider in my garage in the US, but after 6 years I am resigned to the idea that I am never going to ship it over to Japan. For starters it would become a pile of rust in a matter of months here in warm, moist, oceanic Okinawa. One of my online Alfa friends in Tokyo bought a Beat a few years ago. This chap has run some awesome machines so I trusted his opinion that the Beat was good enough in the fun category. I also own a more normal Kei car, so I am familiar with the plusses and minuses. Then I drove a Beat for about 10 minutes at a dealer's and decided that I needed one badly.
After a bit of searching I found a very clean and low-mileage 1993 Z model for sale last month on the Yahoo.jp parts auction site. I had been warned off the many dealers who sell cars on Yahoo, but this one was a private sale and I got it at a nice price although I had to fork out a bit to ship it from the mainland and re-register it here in Okinawa. I am now waiting for the ECU to be rebuilt and a few other minor repairs to be done while I am recovering from eye surgery, and then I will look forward to a long summer of topless midship amusement!
It's been a long time since I belonged to a UK club - the Matchless Owners Club circa 1966 to be precise. But I do speak your language having resided in London for 2 years.
If I can be of any help with spares, let me know as I am developing contacts locally.
Steve
I am an old ragtop guy and have been missing the experience a lot. I still have a nice original '64 Alfa Guilia Spider in my garage in the US, but after 6 years I am resigned to the idea that I am never going to ship it over to Japan. For starters it would become a pile of rust in a matter of months here in warm, moist, oceanic Okinawa. One of my online Alfa friends in Tokyo bought a Beat a few years ago. This chap has run some awesome machines so I trusted his opinion that the Beat was good enough in the fun category. I also own a more normal Kei car, so I am familiar with the plusses and minuses. Then I drove a Beat for about 10 minutes at a dealer's and decided that I needed one badly.
After a bit of searching I found a very clean and low-mileage 1993 Z model for sale last month on the Yahoo.jp parts auction site. I had been warned off the many dealers who sell cars on Yahoo, but this one was a private sale and I got it at a nice price although I had to fork out a bit to ship it from the mainland and re-register it here in Okinawa. I am now waiting for the ECU to be rebuilt and a few other minor repairs to be done while I am recovering from eye surgery, and then I will look forward to a long summer of topless midship amusement!
It's been a long time since I belonged to a UK club - the Matchless Owners Club circa 1966 to be precise. But I do speak your language having resided in London for 2 years.
If I can be of any help with spares, let me know as I am developing contacts locally.
Steve