Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Anything non-technical about the Mazda Bongo Friendee van

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BongoBeeman
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Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by BongoBeeman » Tue Jan 14, 2020 7:49 pm

Has anyone has experience of this company based in Kingswood.

They have several ads on Gumtree and some things just seem a bit off

- the name for a start, in 2020, come on
- they are a new company, only about a year old, claim to have an undercover showroom/storage area
- they have one ad on there stating 85k miles but when you check mot history its almost double that at about 140k

any info appreciated

cheers
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Re: Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by Flanners » Tue Jan 14, 2020 8:04 pm

No, but given what you have written why risk it?
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Re: Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by mikeonb4c » Tue Jan 14, 2020 11:14 pm

If in doubt
Leave them out
;-)
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Re: Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by Bob » Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:24 am

Nothing concrete, but it has the hall marks of Bristol Bob. :(
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Re: Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by Gsmifff » Wed Jan 22, 2020 1:11 pm

Hello there

I went to look at a Bongo there in September in the pouring rain. They do have a large covered warehouse but was full of cars and the Bongo was outside. I got soaked!
It was very dirty, bits of trim hanging off, had a very spongy rear tyre and the roof siren kept going off even with the roof down. All in all not very well presented for a £7k vehicle in my humble opinion.

The nearby cafe did a really good breakfast though!

Hope this helps

Geoff
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Re: Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by Bob » Wed Jan 22, 2020 1:20 pm

Thanks. 8)

And I do like a good breakfast. :)
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BongoBeeman
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Re: Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by BongoBeeman » Sun Jan 26, 2020 10:52 pm

I steered clear in the end, just didn't feel 'right'.

Bought private in the end, picked up today, woo-hoo
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Re: Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by Bob » Mon Jan 27, 2020 1:25 am

Well done. :D

We have 'gut instincts' for a good reason.

Look forward to meeting up somewhere soon. 8)
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Re: Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by TheLongRoad » Mon Jan 27, 2020 7:14 am

Interestingly 140,000 km is approximately 87,000 miles. Don’t know anything about the dealership but just thought it might be a possible explanation of the difference in those figures.
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Re: Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by g8dhe » Mon Mar 08, 2021 4:54 pm

Geoff
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Re: Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by Bob » Mon Mar 08, 2021 5:20 pm

Good find, Geoff. =D>
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Re: Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by BongoBuyer » Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:57 am

So it seems we've got lucky with this!

Bought our bongo a few weeks back privately from a young guy. When I looked through the paperwork, he's bought it from this place - paid £11600 only 18 months ago, we bought it for 6k. Should note that the guy before us had very few problems himself with it.

Luckily for us we've taken it to ADS (Bongo specialists in Bristol) and they've given it the once over - good condition for a van of its age with limited rust, and just a few fixes required (700 quids worth to bypass rear heater, dbushes etc).

I've been wary of this 'Bristol Bob' character we'd heard about but had no idea this Japanese imports place was linked to that. We'd been contemplating getting the cambelt changed for peace of mind - we'll be going ahead and getting that done now because I don't want to take any risks with it! :(
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Re: Jap Perforomance Imports - Bristol

Post by g8dhe » Wed Aug 10, 2022 12:00 pm

I think the real problem, is that the individuals named in the article and referred to as "Bristol Bob" simply buys anything, smartens up the external appearance (stickers over damaged areas and dents is a common fix!) and then does a "selling" job on the buyers, you may be lucky in that the vehicle has no mechanical problems on the other hand there may be major problems which don't show up immediately and the value of MoTs is highly questionable but I suspect is given prominence in the sales job!
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