Gorgeous Lines! Balanced Musculature! Uber Babe!
What’s this beautiful creature I’m looking at here? She’s a very good condition used Alpina B10 V8 imported from Japan to Canada. She’s a super clean, low mileage BMW Alpina with left hand drive (LHD). She’s Alpina’s take on the BMW 540i: Take a car that’s already excellent, power it up, muscle it up, and you get perfection. She’s a perfect example of the fine second hand German classic cars, super cars, and executive cars, including Mercedes Benz, AMG, and Porsche, as well as Alpina and BMW that we find regularly here in Japan in the used car market (click on the country name to get more info on our website about these wonderful machines). The used car market here in Japan comprises the Japanese used car auctions, the used car dealers, and private sales. At Japan Car Direct we get good units from all of these sources, and this Alpina B10 V8 was definitely a “score” for one of our “Winnermen.” (Who are the JCD winnermen? Check it out on our JCD Blog here.)
Just look at this true uber babe:
The 540i Gets Powered Up By Alpina
BMW’s 5-Series sedans (and touring wagons) are a very successful family of vehicles. I especially like the third generation cars, the E34 chassis models that ran from 1988 to 1996,
and the fourth generation machines, the E39s that were in production from 1995 to 2003.
I like the clean lines that aren’t over the top, and, even though the cars, depending on specification, are often very powerful machines, the strength comes with a certain, how can I say?….modesty. The gun metal grey E34 535i above, for example, is a serious piece of motoring kit, but he doesn’t have to trumpet it around the neighbourhood, if you see what I mean.
Now, our 1998 Alpina B10 V8 here, that we exported to Canada, has definitely been powered up and tuned up, over and above the more “humble” 5-Series cars, by the good fellows at Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen in Bavaria; but she doesn’t come over as muscle-bound. If we do a simple spec comparison with the BMW 5-Series unit that the B10 is based on, the 540i, we see that external dimensions are nearly the same, with the Alpina being just 20mm lower. It’s also 30kg lighter, at 1,690kg. Of course, the Alpina’s wheels (fronts are 235/40ZR18, rears are 265/35ZR18, versus the 225/55R16s that you find on both front and rear with the 540i)
give a keen observer a heads up about what’s under the hood.
Alpina B10 V8 Engine Specs
And this is what’s under the B10’s hood:
It’s now a 4,619cc V8 versus the 4,398cc V8 unit in the 540. In addition to raising the engine’s swept volume and performing some other tuning tricks (hot cams, lighter pistons, strengthened crank, and some fancy “chip tuning”), Alpina has bumped the compression ratio up from 10:1 to 10.5:1. Result: a very nice jump up in power. The max power of 286ps at 5,700rpm in the 540i is now 347ps in the B10 (still coming in at 5,700rpm). Max torque with the 540i is a very nice 42,8kg/m at 3,900rpm, but, in the Alpina, it’s an even better 48.9kg/m at an even lower 3,800rpm. These are nice figures in a car weighing just under 1,700. No wonder it’s a sub 6 second car.
Excellence of line, excellence of engineering, excellence of interior layout and build….the car is just so excellent that, yeah, for all practical purposes it approaches perfection. These cars are becoming classics now, and when you think about buying a well treated, indeed treasured, second hand Alpina B10 direct from Japan for a very reasonable price, you can see why these top-end German machines are one of our main export areas here at Japan Car Direct. (We’ve written more about this whole “German Cars from Japan” thing elsewhere on our JCD website. Just click here.)
JCD Makes the Import Process Happen
By buying a good, clean used German car from Japan and importing it yourself, you can get yourself behind the wheel of the best of German motor engineering without breaking the bank.
Makes sense to me, but some guys say: “Import a used car from Japan? From halfway around the world? That’s gonna be a hassle.” Actually, it’s not. We’ve even had customers tell us that it was easier than buying from a local used car dealer down on Main Street. At Japan Car Direct, making that process smooth, and even enjoyable, is part of our job. You’ll find a simple outline of the whole process here.
And what are our main used car from Japan import destinations? Does every Alpina go to my home country of Canada? Not at all. In fact, it may surprise you to find that many of the good used classic German cars that Japan Car Direct exports from Japan are actually imported into Germany! Yep, these cars are so treasured here and kept in such good shape that our German customers, who are certainly connoisseurs of their own iron, often jump at the chance when they see what is available in the second hand German car market in Japan. You’ll find the used car import rules for Germany here.
Our other main markets for these great German used cars are the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Just click on the country name to learn the import rules.
And it’s not just the top end wunderbares Auto, the wonderful car, the “Wundercar” (if you don’t mind me making up a word), supercars and classics like Alpina, AMG, and Porsche, from Germany, the land where the motor car was invented, that can be found loved and in good used condition in Japan, it’s also the more modest, and equally wunderful cars, like the delightful, cute, and now classic (and not sooooo cheap) BMW 2002 that I just loved when I was growing up in Canada
and the aggressive, but compact, 320i that I hankered after,
that are best looked for now in the Japanese used car market. So if you’re thinking that you want to buy a good used German car from Japan, whether from the used car auctions, the specialist used car dealers, or from a private seller, at Japan Car Direct we’ll help you get the machine you want. The perfect car, the true uber car for you.
Just register with us here and, together, we’ll get process on the road to get your car over to you so that you, and your car are on your road.
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I had an excellent experience working with Matthew at Japan Car Direct. I was a first time auction buyer and importer to the United States. Mathew walked me through... read more
Alex Spiegel8/11/2022Matthew at JCD is the man. I’ve now imported three of my own cars through him. JCD was able to accommodate my unique needs, everything from short turn around inspections,... read more
Chan Shin7/29/2022I highly recommend Japan Car Direct. They help you find exactly what you are looking for and are with you throughout the entire process. Import was seamless. Mike was great... read more
Sir Selrahc7/14/2022 -
Before this I have never imported any vehicles to NZ let alone one from Japan! I decided to give these guys a shot and bought a JDM Tesla into the... read more
Edward Yuan7/11/2022Great experience. Extremely easy process and Kept me well informed. Highly recommend them if looking to purchase a vehicle from Japan.
Antonio Sevilla7/08/2022It's hard to say anything that hasn't been said from other reviewers! This was my first experience importing a vehicle. Mike Nguyen was super patient with me and my indecisiveness.... read more
Law_of_the Za6/30/2022 -
I used Japan Car Direct's services to import a Nissan Silvia from Japan to Australia. Mike was very helpful from start to finish and definitely made the process stress free.
The... read more
matthew martin6/24/2022Just picked up my car that I bought through JCD. I was a complete newbie about buying a car overseas and Mathew was kind enough to basically hold my... read more
TK Mad6/18/2022I worked with Mathew on getting my first Japanese Kei truck. The process and communication were great. For me the back-and-forth communication was the reason why I decided to go... read more
John Penny6/12/2022 -
Taylor at JCD has been incredibly helpful in my search for a couple of unique rigs from overseas -- We've scored one, and are looking forward to finding another.
Taylor's professinoalism,... read more
camden lindsay5/31/2022After seeing quite a few Kei Trucks on the road, I was intrigued. Seeing the local retail prices gave me sticker shock, so I immediately thought there has to be... read more
Chris Okano5/24/2022Can't fault these guys - this was the first time I've bought a car at any auction, let alone one in Japan. The support from Yoshiro was brilliant, very patient... read more
Phil Stebbing4/14/2022 -
Japan Car Direct helped me find my dream car. We found a great deal on an ST205. Yoshiro was fantastic and super responsive and patient with all of my questions.... read more
Brandon Moore4/11/2022So pleased with our companies new Japanese mini-truck import. Japan Car Direct made it all too easy. We made a few first-timer mistakes on the paperwork but the next import... read more
MARKNADEN Studio4/08/2022Great dependable business! Highly recommended! Thank you Mathew for all your hard work!
Dmitri Gordei3/30/2022
