There have been some comment's relating this company They have registered with the forum but never made a post i tried to p.m them once with no reply. They must have some interest in what is going on over here The thing is how do they work if they are not selling the cars, do the cars belong to other people and are they restoring them and the ones that are for sale are privately owned and isuzu sports are the agent .
I think it's a shame we can't comunicate with them as they must be doing some parts reproduction as we do here and it would be easier to produce parts if there was a bigger market out there.
A interesting thought is if you look on the forum to see who is on there are often a number of guests my guess is some are Japanese enthusiast's interested in what is happening here. If only we could get a few Japanese members on board.

that would be great if we could.......

i have my theories on this and the whole subject of why these things are as they are, but i won't go into detail on the forum about them...
all i will say is that it's cultural, we as Australians aren't alone with it, and won't be changed anytime soon...

and what more is there to say.....

we dont have to fit 2 classic cars into a single car garage space, we arent married to the company we work for and have to do whatever hours are expected, and have many more freedoms that are priceless

so you can imagine that it could make a few people just a little annoyed and prickly

long live the land of the Great Big Back Yard with enough space to keep 10 cars and some bits as well


OZ

Observations:
Their previous Isuzu location had 20 cars with prices on the windshield on the front sales lot, three covered storage buildings with at least 36 restored or partially restored cars in more or less a reserve inventory, 75-100 or more parts cars in the yard and around the buildings, and a dozen bays with lifts, some of which were occupied with cars being worked on. Not a one man operation.

The city location they are now at was their regular car sales lot (half a city block). Now it seems to fluctuate between mostly Isuzu cars on the days they are taking pictures for the website, to a handful on days they are doing regular business selling non-Isuzu used cars. So they have a second locations somewhere for storage and restoration. And, restoring and selling Isuzu cars is not their only or primary source of income.

They seem to have a resistance to dealing with foreigners. Their Goonet and Carsensor listings specifically exclude sales for export. They do not respond to English language inquiries, and may not speak English, or prefer to communicate in Japanese.
In fairness, some of the Australians I have talked to about this topic have also expressed an unwillingness to meet the Japanese halfway, with things like attempting to speak the language, being introduced through an intermediate contact (similar to a letter of introduction), and reciprocating the gift/bribe system. They seemed to be playing the Ugly American stereotype with the knob turned to twelve on a scale of one to ten.

The prices for the items they sell seem very healthy, but not any more unreasonable than some of the things seen here, like the $300 used fog lamps.
They seem to set their price, and that is what the price is. The market will come to them, or the market will do without. And they are still in operation after 20+ years, so their strategy seems to be working well.

Their website shows a very small number of these premium priced items. There are not that many items that they can put into a box and ship out.

Suppositions:
I'm going to guess that they depend very heavily on local customer owners paying for repair, restoration, and modification work.

There are almost certainly a lot more things that they can build custom or that they do not advertise. These things they would depend on the customer inquiring about the few premium items, and they would inform that customer of the wider range of products and services they can provide, once the car is brought in to be worked on.

Every car that gets shipped out of the country is a lost opportunity for future service, restoration, and modification, because that car will not be coming back to their location to be repaired or upgraded.

And since the custom work requires the car be there, and/or the original part be submitted to be modified, foreign inquiries will not lead to viable transactions. Not many people will pay shipping to and from and do with out the use of their car and the possession of their parts to ship parts to and from Japan for repair and/or upgrade.

perhaps they confuse American with Australian...

thats nearly as insulting as they way they deal with "Foreigners"

if the business is working so well, then export out of the country would not make one bit of difference to their bottom line
(did i say that)?? Strike out bottom if its not politically correct.

they are missing out on a great deal of after market sales as well as most people will buy genuine parts and pay for the postage cost.

any grease monkey can do oil and grease and mechanical repairs

but i agreee with PR91, its mostly cultural and that will never change till many generations after the last obstacle has passed away.


OZ

I would imagine the reality is that very few cars are exported anyway....

for example, how many cars have been imported here from Japan, you could count them on one hand I think.

How many to USA, i would think much the same....... anywhere in fact.... I am talking Bellett's only of course here.

glenn

May be we should get gt orphanage to learn jap.gricey

gricey...
i have a young girl here doing just at at school already.

Brett,

Would she like some homework? I have an Isuzu Hillman Brochure that I'd love translated

Cheers, Vic

as have i about 80 Japan-rese only Bellett ones here to be translated Vic....
one day, but she's only in grade 5, so can't rush it!

Went to Eagle Sayama (the previous location) many times when I lived in Japan. It was a great place, with plenty of cars for sale (including 2 x imported Holden Gemini wagons), parts cars and knowledgeable staff. The variety of spare parts they had, both new and used, was amazing. I gave them my 1991 Gemini Irmscher for free after I bought my 117 Coupe elsewhere. Regrettably Eagle Sayama closed down in June 2008.

The Eagle group also had an Isuzu sales yard in Tokyo and this became Isuzu Sports. I have visited there twice (2009 and 2010) and both times they were unhelpful and totally uninterested. The first time I was just looking at their stock for sale, all vehicles were locked with the salesperson totally ignoring me even after I asked him (in Japanese) if I could look inside a few of the vehicles. The quality of their cars was not that good. The second time I was after a few parts for my Aska. A different salesperson this time, I asked if they had any parts cars like Eagle Sayama used to have. His response, short and sharp, was that they had no parts cars, Aska parts were no longer available and that the only way I could get the parts was to buy the Aska they had for sale. He then walked back to office and ignored me.

My experiences with Eagle Sayama and Isuzu Sports.

sounds like a funny place or they simply don't like foreigners i guess.

glenn

well thats what happened to me when I was over there 2008 everybody else in japan would bend over backwards to help you but not isuzu sport .

thats what i meant. I.S. not Japan in general.

Ha!! Thank you 117coupe - this explains why I am certain I've seen a Gemini wagon in Japan, yet seen no reference to them in Isuzu literature.