Meant To Be...? - JDM CR-X EF8 SiR in Japan, awaiting import into Canada

One day in February 2005 a 1989 JDM CR-X EF7 Si showed up at my work. I’d considered buying a genuine RHD CR-X before, but this was different.

After much deliberation, I had made my decision. My baby; my 88 CRX Si would be replaced. I made the call to the owner/importer, Import Concern. After much convincing, he accepted my offer of $5000Cdn and told me that he would call the other potential buyer and then call me later in the day to firm up the deal.

Project 88 ca.2000

Literally one minute after I hung up the phone from him, a friend of mine, Dieter, called to tell me that he’d found an EF8 SiR for sale in Japan and he was going to import it. He had been talking about bringing cars over from Japan for quite some time, but I didn’t know he was that close to getting set up and actually doing it. When I asked him how much, I was floored at the response… approximately $6500Cdn landed.

I confirmed the options on the car and the condition with him… A Grade 4 at auction in Japan. Now, here was everything I wanted: CR-X SiR, B16A, glass top, with Auto Air Con, power windows, etc… in decent condition and for a mere $1500 more than the Si I was prepared to purchase. And I was purchasing through a friend; someone I could trust. I called Import Concern and canceled my offer right after I hung up from speaking with Dieter. They were fine with my cancellation since only about ten minutes had passed, and we even joked some months later about it being the fastest about-face he'd been involved with.

But before I would put money down for this car, I told Dieter that I would need to see some pictures. He agreed that to buy a car absolutely sight unseen was not good, so he told me he would set about getting some pictures for me ASAP. The wheels were in motion…

Remember, this blog was written in chronological order so, you will need to click OLDER POSTS to move forward in time, and click NEWER POSTS to go backwards.