Buying an unregistered car in Sri-Lanka? Make sure you validate the car certificate before depositing an advance to the car dealer.
Types of certificates:
The most common certificates are JAAI and JEVIC. There are some others as well but this post focuses on these two types.
It is a regulation in Sri-Lanka and the buyer has the right to see the JAAI certificate.
https://www.japanesecartrade.com/import-regulation/sri-lanka
Why validation is needed:
Following points are from conversations with people experienced in the car trade.
Some car dealers purchase, repair, camouflage and ship vehicles to Sri-Lanka which have been:
- Graded as 'R' (been in accidents)
- Exchanged after being exposed to floods
They portray these as good quality vehicles with low mileage.
When to validate:
The car seller should provide the certificate to the buyer. The certificate may be counterfeit or tampered, so a validation is needed.
Validating JAAI certificates:
JAAI certificated are no longer available publicly.
You can go to the inquiry link: http://www.jaai.or.jp/e-jaai/index.html and click 'Inquiry (English Only)' or go straight to the link: https://x272.secure.ne.jp/~x272031/contents/postmail/postmail.html
Directly emailing 'e-hp1@jaai.or.jp' works too, but it's better to go through the link for assurance.
Provide the JAAI certificate number, chassis number, and engine number.
This alone won't get you the verification (as it is for exporters), you need to send them an image proving that you have a copy of the certificate. They then validate it for you.
Also, the windscreen of the vehicle should have the big blue JAAI sticker and the smaller JAAI sticker. Always validate the JAAI certificate even if the stickers are present.
I personally encountered a vehicle with a JAAI certificate and sticker, but upon inquiry uncovered that the mileage was reduced by 32,800 (that is roughly 2.5 years of running miles for an average family).
Validating JEVIC certificates:
If your JEVIC certificate number is 160213-674694-1S74, the sticker number is 674694
Go to: https://www.jevic.com/jevic-initiatives/e-certificates/index.html
New link: https://members.jevic.com/
Enter the chassis number and sticker number, to retrieve and validate the certificate.
After validation:
After the validation, it is always good to have an inspection done at the company.
If it's a Toyota vehicle, they do it for about 7,000 bucks.
This is suggested as sometimes part swaps are done by sellers after the inspection by JAAI or JEVIC.
Personal thoughts:
Cosmetic damages are inevitable on the roads,. If you are on a tight budget, a slightly lower grade vehicle is fine. But make sure that they don't have major accidents which deformed the Chassis, or have evidence of flooding or radiation.
The main reason to go for an unregistered vehicle is to go for a lower mileage vehicle and use it without repairs for 2-3 years. The industry is such that the meter is most commonly counterfeit. So always validate the milage.
Vehicles with issues are fine, camouflaging them as good vehicles with low mileage is a low-life.
The salesperson may or may not know it is counterfeit if the dealer is the culprit. Either way, validate and push our society to import and distribute quality products.
Note: A certificate and auction sheet grade is different. An auction sheet specifies the condition of the car and provides a grade for the auction, e.g.:
"Grade 5 to a car with exceptionally low mileage and in mint condition.
Grade 4.5 is in excellent condition, but can also have mileage of up to 100K.
Grade 4 is a good, solid car. Mileage is not an issue (could be low or high).
Grade 3.5 is similar to a grade 4 but may need more paint and panel work. Alternatively, it may have high mileage.
Grade 3 often has either serious paint and panel, or it has had a panel replacement somewhere. Grade 3 cars can also be basically grade 3.5s in terms of condition, but with very high mileage."
More details: https://providecars.co.jp/japanese-car-auctions/auction-grading/
Hope this helps someone!
Enter the chassis number and sticker number, to retrieve and validate the certificate.
After validation:
After the validation, it is always good to have an inspection done at the company.
If it's a Toyota vehicle, they do it for about 7,000 bucks.
This is suggested as sometimes part swaps are done by sellers after the inspection by JAAI or JEVIC.
Personal thoughts:
Cosmetic damages are inevitable on the roads,. If you are on a tight budget, a slightly lower grade vehicle is fine. But make sure that they don't have major accidents which deformed the Chassis, or have evidence of flooding or radiation.
The main reason to go for an unregistered vehicle is to go for a lower mileage vehicle and use it without repairs for 2-3 years. The industry is such that the meter is most commonly counterfeit. So always validate the milage.
Vehicles with issues are fine, camouflaging them as good vehicles with low mileage is a low-life.
The salesperson may or may not know it is counterfeit if the dealer is the culprit. Either way, validate and push our society to import and distribute quality products.
Note: A certificate and auction sheet grade is different. An auction sheet specifies the condition of the car and provides a grade for the auction, e.g.:
"Grade 5 to a car with exceptionally low mileage and in mint condition.
Grade 4.5 is in excellent condition, but can also have mileage of up to 100K.
Grade 4 is a good, solid car. Mileage is not an issue (could be low or high).
Grade 3.5 is similar to a grade 4 but may need more paint and panel work. Alternatively, it may have high mileage.
Grade 3 often has either serious paint and panel, or it has had a panel replacement somewhere. Grade 3 cars can also be basically grade 3.5s in terms of condition, but with very high mileage."
More details: https://providecars.co.jp/japanese-car-auctions/auction-grading/
Hope this helps someone!
10 comments:
Thank you............. your description on JEVIC and how to find the sticker number was very helpful.
Glad it helped.
Greatly helped thanks
Welcome, good to hear.
hello am unable to get any certificate even after entering both the chassis number and the sticker number. i just get a message, vehicle inspected by jevic to Kenya Bureau of standards. i was expecting it to show the number of kilometers covered by the car. am i missing something???
Thank You so much this post . It's Really helpful for me
Tks. really valuable stuff
Dear sir.
I need verify below car jaai certificate. Ch. No. KSP130-2233655.
DA17V-325981
BE63DG-700451 pls check my vehicles year jaai
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