Hi
I just bought a 2010 Hyundai Elantra in Aug 2010. I wasnt planning on going with my Husband (At the time we werent married). But now Im leaving on the 13th to be with him in Yokota for 3 yrs.  We dont know what would be best, selling my car (We still owe more than the bluebook price) or to store in in storage. we were told Military would pay for the storage but we dont know who to go to, to get it storage and paper work.
Im 21 and its my first car, so its kinda hard to sell my car.
Any ideas?
-Kelly Quintanilla

Hi!
You can try looking for companies that can export your US car to Japan..they'll have all the details for you, but be ready to shell out about $3-8k depending on the company's fees. Unfortunately, cars aren't usually included in your JFTR..but you can ask your husband to ask his sponsor from yokota if he can get info from offices on-base who handles the move. But, if you ask me, it's more practical and less expensive if you guys just take the free storage that the military offers and just buy a used car here in Yokota. It's what everybody does here anyway! There are a lot of used car sales here off-base, and there's a lemon lot on-base. Cars range from $1000-4000. When you buy a used car here, it'll have all the paperwork you need like insurance, road tax, and JCI. The JCI (Japanese Compulsory Insurance) is usually valid for 2 years. You don't have to worry about used cars in Japan because there's strict inspection of cars before they can be issued JCI's. Besides, you drive on the left side of the road here so you might have a hard time driving here with your US car. You probably would also need extra paperwork to drive your US car here.

If you need any other info about Yokota, just send me a PM! I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy your stay here in Japan! Yokota is a modest-sized base, the people are great, and tokyo is about 2-3 hours away by car. Start getting familiar with the common japanese phrases too!

Hi,
Thank you for the reply.
We are thinking bout storing my car here in the states. We are thinking of storing it and pounder bout selling it while in Yokota. If we can get use of not being around the car or if it not on our mind as much.

Here are some additional links that may help you with information:

Taking my car
http://www.japanbases.com/forums/aft/1517.aspx

*** Bringing a vehicle from the US to Japan
http://www.japanbases.com/forums/aft/468.aspx

easy to get it stored at government expense...

check out https://www.whereismypov.com/turnin.asp

key is to get Letter of Authorization signed by your TO (transportation office) authorizing storage.

Could we ship our car over to Yokota but not have to get all the work done on it if we plan not to drive it. Just to have it there to feel safer with it with us?

i don't think you can do that, but your best bet is to ask yokota personnel. you can start by calling the housing office in yokota and they might be able to direct you to someone who can answer your car questions. in my opinion, it's totally impractical to spend $3000-8000 to ship your car here and not use it. If you do decide on having your car shipped, i suggest you have all the work and paperwork done so you can use it. You'll be here for a good 3 years anyway! you can sell it before you leave japan. Or maybe you can get a special power of attorney and have somebody sell your 'almost new' car in the US on your behalf. You can at least get some of your money back. There's a military car sales here in yokota that sell new US cars if you really want a new car (i usually see dodge and ford cars).

Don't bring it. Trust me. Hyundai is not a "japanese compatable" car. No dealer support.

Culturally, Japanese by and large will not buy a Korean made car.

If we wear to store it, is there a certain place the Air Force has us store them or do we pick out where to store it?
We are not sure where to start on storing the car. I tried looking online but I couldnt fnd anything.

We stored our car and came to Yokota. I think it was TMO the place you need to go talk. They had papers tells you what need to do storing your car.

Im gonna go to the TMO office tomorrow morning to ask.
Thank you :]

As far as I can tell, the Military will authorize storage of one car. More vehicles are at the member's expense. Does anybody have an official link that states this? (We are coming from a non-US base in Canada and not dealing with a US TMO. This is making our transfer very hard. We just had a family leave for Germany a few months ago and they are sending us all of their POCs that made their transfer happen since nobody knows what to do with us!

We were hoping to drive into the Seattle area and store our vehicle there since that is where where we will be flying out of to go to Japan.

We have just looked in to this; according to PSD here in Great Lakes, the Navy will authorize storage of one car. The personnel gave my husband a list of authorized storage places and he is supposed to call the storage place directly. There aren't many on the list; I know there is one in LA and one in St. Louis. There are a few others (I think he said something like 20 in the US) that are authorized. Hope this helps! (ask your PSD for a list of storage places!)

We went to the TMo office and we were told we cant store our car on the Base storage. How would we authorized a storage? Or is that just the Navy? Will the Air Force authorized. Our closest AFB is 2 hours away so we have to do everything through the Marines Base.

Kelly90
My husband is in AF and we moved from Travis AFB. Car is storing at off base storage. We was told take the car to Oakland, CA.
Maybe the person you talked just don't know about military counteract car storage. Call Travis's and ask help might be better idea.

Hi,
Ya thats what we were thinking, or he just didnt want to do more paper work.
But I found there website and the office's number. We emailed them but we are going to call 1st thing in the morning.

HI All,
   I was searching for info on storing vehicles in the US? Household Goods informed me that the government will only store one car at government expense. I am trying to make a decision on what to do with our other car. We have one car paid for and another we currently make payments on... I trying to decide if I should sell the car with the payments on it... I don't think I would like paying car payments and paying storage , insurance etc...  Does anyone know typically what is charge to store vehicles in the US?. What have some of you done in a situation like this...  Looking forward to feedback ... It would really help with my decision making

The first step is to read your orders, they will give you directions as to the disposition of your personal property. Normally if you are on AD military orders to Japan you have the option to store one vehicle at Gov. expense. You take the orders to the local transportation office, and they give you information and help you set up the appointments to place the vehicle in long term storage. There are only a few cities that do this so it will be up to you to get the vehicle there. Those are dedicated vehicle storage facilities. You run the risk of, theft, fire, floods, earthquakes, etc. so choose wisely.  Make sure you get covered storage or the hail and elements will destroy your vehicle.

There isn't allot of room here in Japan to have stored vehicles but if you payed through the nose... "thousands and "thousands"" you could make it happen, military bases here consider stored vehicles (un-registered) as abandoned vehicles, they get towed and scrapped...

My advice, sell your vehicle and take the loss. Sell it on Craigslist or sell it back to the dealer. Here is why I say that, how much do you pay on insurance per year? Times 3 years, car payments with interest times 3 years. The value of that car will only decrease in time, in 3 years it will be worth 5-10,000 less than today even with low miles. So if you keep it that will cost you more money after three years.

If you can't afford to make up the difference by taking the loss even if that means you need to get a loan to do that. Then store it at gov. expense that's your next best option. (Insurance maybe 500x3= 1500, payments maybe 350x36=12,600 together 14,100 without renewing any registrations) Car value also went down too so you lose more money.  That's an easy 20K loss.

You could pay 3,000 and ship it to Japan and have car while your here, the odds are great after 3 years you will be paying another 3,000 to ship it back though. (6,000 option plus you still make those car payments 14,100=20,100) Car value went down too so you lose more money but you do have a vehicle to drive, with the steering wheel on the wrong side and it's a little big for the tiny side streets. Some of the streets here are about as wide as your car, and that's for traffic going in two directions.

So if you sell your vehicle and take a 5,000 loss you will really saved about 15,000 because if you keep it most likely you'll be out 20K in three years.

For 2-5,000 you can get a car over here that will last your entire tour and then sell it before you leave, doing that will put about 10,000. in your pocket.

Thanks Yakota for detailed info!! I have a american size honda odyssey.. it def to big the streets in Japan. I don't want to come to Japan and lose money. Then on the flip side vehicle will be paid off by the time I get back but i will have to pay storage fees.... I guess i leaning toward selling it.. Honda Odyssey are popular in the states especially those with a larger family... thank you !!

Yokota, thank you for that insightful & lucid financial analysis. People get so emotionally attached to their "stuff." Sorry folks -- cars are just "stuff" (other than genuine collectors items/hobbyist cars.) Yokota is exactly right -- you are making a $20,000 bad decision about storing your car just 'cuz you can't stand to part with it -- even if you are getting free storage. Sell it now; take your $5K loss, count it off to experience and consider it a $15K gain.

If you have the financial discipline, sock away each month what you would have lost in insurance, depreciation & payments for three years. When you return home, you'll have nearly enough to pay cash for a brand new car instead of owning a 4-year-old car that's moldy and not quite right cuz it sat unused for three years.

There are some really screwball notions posted above; hopefully they never came to fruition. Bring it to Japan just to feel safer? Come on, we are grown-ups. Make grown up decisions!

Thai Guy... Trust and believe I am not attached to stuff... It's material..It don't last long.. Just want to make the best decision and i was def leaning toward selling the vehicle but wrestled with the idea that it may paid off when I get back .. i have never done this before nor have I ever stored a vehicle.. So I like your view point too!!,, ThaiGuy you have some really great input on this site. I come here and read all the time in preparation for Japan. People just want to be well informed and make the right decisions and want some advice. Everyone has different opinions of course because we as people are different. With that being said you can be a bit harsh and critical about opinions.. We are all here for info and help..nobody wants to feel bad for some information,.

Storing the car isn't a problem, IF, you prepare it correctly. Right before dropping it off for storage, do this. Wash and wax it throughly,
clean the interior and then place bags of dessicant under the seats, in the trunk and up under the dash. Spray the interior with a thick coat of leamon pledge, cover the seats with plastic or install cheap seat covers.
Power wash the engine and under body, after they dry spray everything and iI mean everything under the hood with spray silcone lubricant ( not wd40). Do this to all the cables and hoses under the car also.
I have stored show winning cars like this for years.

Posted By Dalston on 10-06-2011 3:46 AM

ThaiGuy you have some really great input on this site. I come here and read all the time in preparation for Japan. People just want to be well informed and make the right decisions and want some advice. Everyone has different opinions of course because we as people are different. With that being said you can be a bit harsh and critical about opinions.. We are all here for info and help..nobody wants to feel bad for some information,.

Ok, I'll try to be nicer. Thanks!

One of my friends here @ Yokosuka drives an American-size Honda Odyssey. They had just recently -- I think it was a couple of years old -- bought it before coming here. She doesn't mind driving it on base where there are wider roads, but she doesn't like to go out in town with it since the roads are narrow and she has often found on the toll roads that there are not always toll booths available where she can pay on the left side of the car. My car is a Japanese right-hand drive so I don't pay too much attention to paying tolls on the other side of the car so I will take her word for it.

Having a Honda Odyssey here is doable. There are a lot of people that drive Japanese Honda Odysseys here. They are really popular family minivans here. I really don't see a size difference between the two. Of course, I have not seen them parked side by side.

We opted to sell all our cars before coming here. They both were paid off. By the time we come back to the states, we would have taken a loss of $5K at least per car on depreciation alone. USAA has a insurance for us at $5/year that covers us if we rent a car, fly back to the states and borrow a friend's car, and maintain our insurance history for when we buy cars back in the states again when we go back next year.


Good luck!

Mom of 3.. Well I think I will just sell.. Thanks for the info about maintaing insurance history for return back in the states. I will def look into that!

yeah, I've got that $5 annual insurance from USAA. It's a pretty good deal for all the reasons that Mom mentioned.

I'm pretty sure that US Odysseys are larger (fatter) than Japanese models. That would be a huge problem both in parking & navigating narrow streets. On the way to my house, one street is so narrow that if I pass by someone with an umbrella, they have to lean out of the way or fold their umbrella for me to get by. This is not at all unusual in Japan. And this is a two-way street! It's hard for Americans to envision, but it really does work once you learn to drive the Japanese way.