Transferring from Japan to NL / Introducing ER34 Skyline and E90 325I

[GoHashiriya]

Hi all - apologies for the use of English.

I'm a UK citizen that has been living in Japan for over four years and will be transferring within my company to the Netherlands at the end of 2023 - January 2024.

I moved to Japan for my automotive pursuits, originally drove a Fairlady Z Z33 (350Z), crashed it at the track and cooked the engine. I then went on to buy an R34 Skyline which I've used as a hobbyist track car. This has become more painful to swallow as the prices for old Japanese cars have increased. Last year, I bought a UK 325I E90 to use when visiting friends/family with the long-term goal of making a VLN race car out of it - just a pipe dream at the moment. For now it will be a daily. I will import both cars to the Netherlands.

The Nissan has had most chassis components replaced to make it a bit more track friendly, engine is stock except cooling. It needs a roll cage if I'm to take it any further but due to its value I don't really want to go this route.

As for the BMW, I've barely used it, despite it being taxed and registered in the UK. I mistakenly bought the N53 version over the N52 with 120,000 kms sight unseen. It was cheap at £2,800 inc delivery. So far I've fixed some oil leaks and replaced all the injectors with Index 12 - yeah, those damn high pressure ones. Still, it's a cheap car and a good car for the money. I'm budgeting around £10,000 to fix it to a good OEM standard and a further £15,000 to make a race car out of it in the coming years - we'll see. No good photos of the E90, as, well, it's just an E90.

For now, I'd like to know a bit more about the automotive scene in the Netherlands, it seems there aren't many tracks and the ones that exist are expensive; in Japan I have around 10 tracks in my area and most cost EUR 30 for 1 hour. As far as meetings and events, I would like to know what the culture in the Netherlands is like and where/when these happen?

[TLRS]

Welcome chap. Any idea which area you will move to?

[EvdP]

Welcome!

[SlowCo]

Welcome.
Our Dutch car culture is: milk the holy cow!

[Knot]

Welcome!

Hope you have saved a bit (lot) of money to run your toys over here....

[Riceaux]

Welcome! There are indeed not many tracks in the Netherlands. But there also some just over the borders of Germany and Belgium. (Zandvoort, Assen, Meppen, Papenburg, Zolder, Spa). The carscene is dependable on what you’re looking for. Static meetings, big events, roadtrips. There’s more in the Netherlands than you might expect.

[Crookie]

A decent e90 325 for £2800 is ridiculous.

Welcome.

Meetings are quite regular I suppose from different brand enthusiast gatherings to mixed ‘cars and coffee’ like type meetings. I’m not the one to supply all the info as I’m not too up to date among upcoming meetings. I’d say The Netherlands has a much stronger car scene than say other European countries excluding Germany ofcourse.

[JP]

Every day there are 164 car-meetings.

Just at every McDrive.....

[Downforce Hans]

Welcome.......don't make that big mistake.........

[GoHashiriya]

Welcome chap. Any idea which area you will move to?

Initially the plan is to move to Maastricht from January to June, as the company should have an apartment I can use by then. Otherwise, the office is in Eindhoven so I will move there. From June I am expecting to move somewhere between Utrecht, Apeldoorn and Arnhem - this commute works for my girlfriend's job in Amsterdam.

Welcome!

Hope you have saved a bit (lot) of money to run your toys over here....

It's all in the forecast. I'm expecting about EUR 1000 in tax, RDW is about 250? And insurance is expensive at about EUR 1,500. Everthing is times two, except the Skyline will only be used for six months of the year. This is versus Japan which is RDW/Shaken: 500 EUR every two years, insurance is 1,100 EUR, Tax 300 EUR p/year; and the UK (BMW): tax is 350 EUR and insurance 400 EUR p/year. Total for NL I guess around EUR 5.5K, Total current is around EUR 2.4K - it's painful to look at.

Welcome! There are indeed not many tracks in the Netherlands. But there also some just over the borders of Germany and Belgium. (Zandvoort, Assen, Meppen, Papenburg, Zolder, Spa). The carscene is dependable on what you’re looking for. Static meetings, big events, roadtrips. There’s more in the Netherlands than you might expect.

It will take me a while to get the BMW ready for track use, at least a year or two. I may do some drift events in the Skyline next year as they're tame in the Netherlands - seem to always be in the wet. I'll attend a meeting or two although roadtrips are more my thing. I'd like to meet with similar circuit-goers as I prefer the driving aspect of car culture.

A decent e90 325 for £2800 is ridiculous.

Welcome.

Meetings are quite regular I suppose from different brand enthusiast gatherings to mixed ‘cars and coffee’ like type meetings. I’m not the one to supply all the info as I’m not too up to date among upcoming meetings. I’d say The Netherlands has a much stronger car scene than say other European countries excluding Germany ofcourse.

Lol, yeah but I took a big gamble with the E90. so far compression is okay and the oil sample came back clean. I want to get a light flywheel on it to make it a bit more responsive - I forgot how heavy the DMFs are on BMWs.

Just going by what I've found on the internet, NL has one of the better car cultures I've seen. Plus its location is pretty good for access to the rest of Europe.

Every day there are 164 car-meetings.

Just at every McDrive.....

Hahaha, okay. So same as the UK.

Welcome.......don't make that big mistake.........

If you're talking about moving from Japan to NL.. well, Japan is amazing for car culture, maybe the best in the world. But it's a very difficult place to live culturally.

Thanks for the pleasant welcome all!

[TLRS]

Maastricht should be great in regards to driving to spa, zolder and the ring. Nice city too. Also close to the belgium ardennes, great place for driving.

As you can see, also a lot of car culture based on cost/value. Be wary of that.

[Eeuwe]

Welcome! NL isn't a great country to expericience some 'driving fun', but the Belgium Ardennes and Luxembourg are not far away

[Thomasss]

And just ~ 10hrs from the Alps, you're gonna have some good fun!

[Emiel]

Welcome! You are going to like it for sure. Not the food but quality of the roads and how close everything is. Places like the alps or close by the eiffel or black forrest and driving from north to south in 3 hours is nothing.

I moved from 45km south of Eindhoven to 45km west of Eindhoven. It is the same country but different place. Make sure to check the living area of your choice.

Working in Eindhoven, commute from Maastricht to Eindhoven by car during office hours is a bitch. Excuse my french. Train is not as stable and organised as in Japan.

[GoHashiriya]

Welcome! NL isn't a great country to expericience some 'driving fun', but the Belgium Ardennes and Luxembourg are not far away

I'm sure it's okay. I've driven in the Netherlands before, the driving style was similar to the UK, which, trust me, is a lot better than anywhere in Asia. As you said, good proximity to good roads - that's what I'm looking forward to the most. Cheers!

Welcome! You are going to like it for sure. Not the food but quality of the roads and how close everything is. Places like the alps or close by the eiffel or black forrest and driving from north to south in 3 hours is nothing.

I moved from 45km south of Eindhoven to 45km west of Eindhoven. It is the same country but different place. Make sure to check the living area of your choice.

Working in Eindhoven, commute from Maastricht to Eindhoven by car during office hours is a bitch. Excuse my french. Train is not as stable and organised as in Japan.

I'm from the UK remember, so I'm very easily pleased in the food department. I visited Eindhoven for a week last year and was very impressed by the cleanliness of the city. The girlfriend and I plan to visit prospective towns/cities on the weekends early next year to make a decision, honestly, I'd love to live in Eindhoven but it's too far from Amsterdam for her. Den Bosch is also an option for us.

Garage of over 8m^2 is a necessity. I have much work to do on these cars.

I'm hoping I can leverage my flexi-time at work to avoid rush hour, a commute starting at 9am usually helps. That's how I avoid the morning rage in Japan.

[Str8Six]

Great, welcome!

Did you ever drive on Suzuka, it's close to Nagoya right?
Great track, as far as my online experience can tell.

I'm working for a Japanese company in Amsterdam (the motor manufacturer from Iwata ) and currently having a lot of Japanese expats as colleagues. Believe most of expats colleagues enjoying the Netherlands, and lots of them doing (weekend/week) trips to German cities, Belgium and/or Italy.

[JP]

Welcome to Maastricht. You won’t regret living here.

[Downforce Hans]

[q

Welcome.......don't make that big mistake.........

If you're talking about moving from Japan to NL.. well, Japan is amazing for car culture, maybe the best in the world. But it's a very difficult place to live culturally.

No......i ment to go drive a Beemer here in Holland.

[GoHashiriya]

Great, welcome!

Did you ever drive on Suzuka, it's close to Nagoya right?
Great track, as far as my online experience can tell.

I'm working for a Japanese company in Amsterdam (the motor manufacturer from Iwata ) and currently having a lot of Japanese expats as colleagues. Believe most of expats colleagues enjoying the Netherlands, and lots of them doing (weekend/week) trips to German cities, Belgium and/or Italy.

Thank you and yes and no. Suzuka has four tracks:

Suzuka International: This is the F1 track and is grip only. Normaly requires a race license to drive unless someone has hired the course. Have not driven.
Suzuka South: Grip only. No license required. Have not driven.
Suzuka Twin Circuit: This is one my favourite courses in the Nagoya area, a pretty perfect size for the car. You can run grip and drift sessions here.
Suzuka Motorland: A kart track that sometimes gets used for grip and drift sessions. Never driven this one, there's a pretty nasty corner that everyone seems to come off and go into the trees.

The Japanese colleagues I know in the Netherlands also like it a lot, although, despite my company being an automotive company, none of them are enthusiasts.

How do you find the work culture at your Japanese company? I think there's a bit of a difference between Japanese companies in Japan and their overseas subsidiaries. Although, I've heard Rakuten in Spain is still managed like a Japanese company whilst being in Europe.

I've got a fair few pics from Suzuka Twin Circuit:

[Dimitri]

Lovely pics!
And Den Bosch (or 's-Hertogenbosch) is a lovely place to live. IMHO much nicer than Eindhoven. Beautiful city center! Almost as beautiful as Maastricht.

[JP]

Pic's have a high GT7 feeling

[GoHashiriya]

Lovely pics!
And Den Bosch (or 's-Hertogenbosch) is a lovely place to live. IMHO much nicer than Eindhoven. Beautiful city center! Almost as beautiful as Maastricht.

Good to know. I really liked Eindhoven last year, I was honestly was surprised, as my only reference points were experiences of the Netherlands as an 18 year old in Amsterdam (shamefully).

Pic's have a high GT7 feeling

Cheers! I'm satisfying the childhood GT-obssesed demon.

[GoHashiriya]

So question for all, how do I get insurance for the Skyline in the Netherlands? Are there companies that will specialise in this type of car? I would like for it to be valued at a fair amount.

A friend of mine in NL told me he had his car valued by a third party, and then provided a certificate to the insurance companies to have it valued correctly. This process is new to me - in Japan, I just tell the insurance company the value, they check the Japanese eBay equivalent to verify, and it's done.

[Dimitri]

So question for all, how do I get insurance for the Skyline in the Netherlands? Are there companies that will specialise in this type of car? I would like for it to be valued at a fair amount.

A friend of mine in NL told me he had his car valued by a third party, and then provided a certificate to the insurance companies to have it valued correctly. This process is new to me - in Japan, I just tell the insurance company the value, they check the Japanese eBay equivalent to verify, and it's done.

For most exclusive cars a valuation (taxatie) is preferred, this way you can insure your car for the value of the taxation (taxatiewaarde).
There are several insurance companies specialized in insuring these kind of exclusive cars. Exactly like your friend told you.
Most of these insurers do have specific conditions: must have another (daily) driver, max. 10k km's per year, etc.

My car is insured with VLC&Partners. You can get a quote here:
https://www.youngtimer-verzekering.nl/premie-berekenen

[Baboulah]

So question for all, how do I get insurance for the Skyline in the Netherlands? Are there companies that will specialise in this type of car? I would like for it to be valued at a fair amount.

A friend of mine in NL told me he had his car valued by a third party, and then provided a certificate to the insurance companies to have it valued correctly. This process is new to me - in Japan, I just tell the insurance company the value, they check the Japanese eBay equivalent to verify, and it's done.

First of all, condoleances for your move to this place

For your insurance; it depends on how you want it insured, you can insure it the regular way, filling in your licenseplate on independer.nl for example and choose what kind of coverage you want (WA, is by law the minimum, only pays for damages to other party if its your case, WA+ which is the same as WA, but extras mainly include theft, vandalism and weatherdamage like hail, or all risk where they cover your own damages also. But for older cars tends to be very expensive.

Another option that you have, is insuring it on the appraisal value. a appraiser will come by (or you go to them) they make an appraisal, and you send that along to the insurance compan, that appraisal is 3 years valid, and if something happens thats what they will pay. Ive insured my Ferrari that way, and i think most people with special cars tend to do it that way. I did it through www.sportwagenpolis.nl. They respond quick (i had a quotation within 30min of filling in the form on their website) and 2 days later after i had all documentation insurance was done. Even if you dont have dutch plates yet, they will also insure it on the vinnumber at sportwagenpolis. unde the pretence that you will insure it lateron on dutch plates. worked perfectly for me during my import process this way and im still amazed at "how cheap" the monthly costs are for my car!

Hope this helps you out in your search for insurance!