North Island JDM Sellers - My opinions!

[PcSpecialist]

We went up island today to check out some of the dealers in Courtenay and Campbell River. The following is strictly my opinion of what I found out....

In Courtenay we found Jautoimports near Walmart and looked over some very fine machines. A couple of Delicas, a cute little KEI dump truck, some Nissans and a Honda Beat. A very courteous young man who was obviously recently from Japan, happily showed us all the vehicles and explained things very well. Overall a pleasant experience. http://www.jautoimports.com

Then we drove on to Campbell River to visit Bonsai Motors. He only had two vehicles on the lot, a nice Toyota Landcriuser, and a Kei Van. The owner arrived and was happy to show us inside the shop where we played with his watch dogs. Don't pick up the ball!!! He had four more Kei trucks in the shop and was working on getting them ready to go. No Delicas on hand but some are "on the way soon". Nice young fellow ran the place, and obviously enjoys his work! http://www.bonsaimotors.ca

From there we went south a bit to Tyee Imports. Here, things picked up in one way and went downhill in another. LOTS of Delicas on the lot, lots of Nissans, and RX7's. Most, if not all of the vehicles looked like they had either just arrived from Japan, or had been sitting lost somewhere in the bush. Little or no evidence of any work having been done to them. No one came out to see us and a young fellow sitting on the computer in the office wasn't interested in showing us any vehicles I asked about. He said if I came back in two or three days I might be able to try one out...A couple of other people on the lot either ignored us, or turned and walked away as we approached.... Needless to say we wrote them off our list... http://www.tyeeimports.com

Just my opinions....but I think I'll stick to the south part of the Island.....

[quadzilla]

I bought my van from Tyee. It needed the regular maintenance (all belts, air filter, oil filter, etc), but I got it for a good price. The van runs really well (it ran well when I bought it and even better after some maintenance by Glen and the boys at Coombs Country Autos). The one thing that is odd is that my van is apparently still for sale on their website nearly 4 months after I bought it!

I wouldn't write them off, but you do need to speak to Grant and be a little more demanding of his time. That was my experience, anyway.

[PcSpecialist]

Thanks Quadzilla.
You must have been more persistent than I was willing to be...I wasn't even able to get a price after driving up from Parksville, but as I say they did have a lot of vehicles for sale..
Enjoy your Delica!

[konadog]

Had a similar experience / impression of Tyee. Don't want to say anything bad, just that they seemed a little sloppy and most of their delicas appeared kinda damp, mouldy and sad. We had to wait along time for service and when it came it was a little uninspired. We were only there the once though, and I do know of others who bought there and are happy. No comment about the Courtney place as we never went there. We finally bought our delica, Hazel, from Derek at Bonsai Motors in Campbell River and are very happy. He was enthusiastic, personable and forthright. He gave us the auction sheet (a must for me), a fairly comprehensive list of work he had done on her and, perhaps best of all, a really good price. I like the idea of getting an independent mechanic who specialises in delicas (no disrespect to Derek) to do the road-ready makeover so we took her down to ccautos and had Glen and the crew give her the works and we still came out way better off cost-wise than we could have anywhere else we checked. Apart from the lack of the coveted sliding back windows, we got the exact delica we wanted for less than we expected to pay. Derek seems like a honest guy who is in it because he loves it. Good experience with both Derek and with ccautos. Would recommend both to anyone looking for a deli and a first-rate mechanic.

[Fanny Bay Delica]

I agree with the previous sentiment I went there once to look at a rack, called ahead and advised I was on my way. When I got there it was thrown in the mud and covered in engine parts, I was not impressed with the professionalism of the place at all!!

That having been said I have seen some decent vehicles on their web site at good prices and I would decide by the quality of the vehicle not the importer. Heck I bought at VI !!!

[john n]

opinions are like assholes - everyones got one.
Maybe you should keep yours to yourself.

[quadzilla]

Uhhh - who you talking to, John N?

[Fanny Bay Delica]

John N,

One of the best aspects of this forum is to share our experiences and thoughts!!

So I don't get your point

[PcSpecialist]

Why? Am I not allowed to express an opinion on here? Did I step on some toes?

[Fanny Bay Delica]

Maybe John's from New Zealand

[JMK]

Seems like Deja Vu. Go back and look at how a few guys that gave their opinions 'early days' about Car Dealers who eventually ended up taking other people's money and running, got tarred and feathered for giving their opinion.

Well, ironically John probably did not take his own advice about offering opinions when he posted this diatribe:
http://www.delica.ca/forum/empty-inclin ... tml#p12001

However, having said that, I must confess that the opinion he gave there does make a lot of sense. Although I still have my clinometer and altitude on the dash, I must agree they are pretty useless even here in the Rockies, and their presence there is pretty much a matter of vanity. I'm left wishing I had the outside temperature guage that the Exceeds seem to have which is at least useful.

Anyway, I appreciated reading the info, opinion or not, so keep up with the opinions all you want. If someone is upset by your objective post, maybe there's something more to it than we know about.

[mararmeisto]

opinions are like assholes - everyones got one.
Maybe you should keep yours to yourself.

John N:

And this is why YOU get to have your say on the forum too.

Everybody else who is participating:

I see things have been handled nicely by others. As correctly stated, PcSpecialist was stating THEIR opinion of those businesses and was not inflammatory, so I don't see a problem with what was written. Some people may disagree with what was wrote, but the great thing about the Internet is that it's like television: if you don't like what you're reading/viewing, you can always turn it off.

[loki]

nevermind, I'm not going to get into it with someone like that.

[PcSpecialist]

My guess is John N is NOT connected with either Bonssai Motors OR JAuto Imports....

I just reported exactly what happened..

[MJB]

I think this is a perfect example of our forum. Its someones experience. For many of us this is a big deal buying a vehicle and most us don't fit in to the normal buyer group (because we're all to damn cool to be suckered in to a Windstar). We need no hear what other people think of places. One place will be great for some and so-so for others. But its just an opinion and we are all able to have different ones thankfully. But saying something as unproductive as John who does it help?