Importing a car from UK to Oz

[Funky_Munky]

Hey guys. Seriously considering importing a car back home. Has anyone done this before? Looking for tips and advice on how to do it quickly and efficiently.

Im also considering getting a broker to handle it for me but dont know of any good ones. Do you guys know of any?

Would greatly appreicate any advice or referrals. Thanks.

[deanobhoy]

You will have to prove you owned the car for (it's either) 4 or 5 years, you can't just buy a car and import it.

I thought about doing it when i moved here 3 years ago, i looked into it and it was just too much hassle, they even asked for the original receipt of purchase and god knows what other crap, i ended up selling the car to my dad.

[gassit320]

Funky, I looked at doing same from Hong Kong, you are only required to own it for 12 months here to get it back to Oz duty ( sort of ) free.

However, you will still be up for a minimum of GST, and if the car is worth more than the luxury car tax threshold, you wil be up for luxury car tax too ( and the threshold is not that high, low 50s )

Part of the problem is that you are, to a certain extent, at the mercy of customs, if old mate is in a good mood he will most likely value the car at what you paid for it, if he got a knock back last night he might value it at the Oz value.

As an example, a 2-3 year old Aston Martin can be had for roughly 60,000 pounds or 120,000AUD. They are worth around 250,000 in Oz. So there would be luxury car tax, GST and possibly duty depending on what they value it at. From memory when I did the numbers a 120K car would at best be around 160-170K and at wosrt over 200K, the :vpo: government has their hands in your pocket at all times.

On the other hand a work colleague imported a 15 year old Porsche that ended up owing him around 40K, and had no trouble and its worth 75-80K in Oz.

I would definitely use an expert in car importing and recommend that you do it only if you bought a car you really like and want to take it home, not to try and make money, plenty of people get burnt.

Hope this helps

PS figures are very rough and just intended to give you an idea

PPS You can go to Australian customs website to find out the exact duty etc.

[GHZ28]

Looking to bring in a race car myself.

www.dotars.gov.au and follow the prompts.

gh

[Funky_Munky]

Funky, I looked at doing same from Hong Kong, you are only required to own it for 12 months here to get it back to Oz duty ( sort of ) free.

However, you will still be up for a minimum of GST, and if the car is worth more than the luxury car tax threshold, you wil be up for luxury car tax too ( and the threshold is not that high, low 50s )

Part of the problem is that you are, to a certain extent, at the mercy of customs, if old mate is in a good mood he will most likely value the car at what you paid for it, if he got a knock back last night he might value it at the Oz value.

As an example, a 2-3 year old Aston Martin can be had for roughly 60,000 pounds or 120,000AUD. They are worth around 250,000 in Oz. So there would be luxury car tax, GST and possibly duty depending on what they value it at. From memory when I did the numbers a 120K car would at best be around 160-170K and at wosrt over 200K, the :vpo: government has their hands in your pocket at all times.

On the other hand a work colleague imported a 15 year old Porsche that ended up owing him around 40K, and had no trouble and its worth 75-80K in Oz.

I would definitely use an expert in car importing and recommend that you do it only if you bought a car you really like and want to take it home, not to try and make money, plenty of people get burnt.

Hope this helps

PS figures are very rough and just intended to give you an idea

PPS You can go to Australian customs website to find out the exact duty etc.

Not really interested in making a profit to be honest. I just want to buy either a C63 or an M3 since they have been something of a dream car for some time now. The prices in Oz are ridiculous so I figure I buy one here and take it over when Im ready to move.

Thanks for the advice.


Looking to bring in a race car myself.

www.dotars.gov.au and follow the prompts.

gh

Will have a look into it.

Cheers.

[seldo]

My bro-in-law is a Certifying Engineer Signatory for all this sort of stuff.
Rowan Carter - info@cartech.com.au

[JuiceSSV]

My understanding is that if you own it for 12 months over there you will meet the requirements and save yourself a lot of money compared to buying one here. Not sure about resale though if it's sold here through dealers. People might prefer to buy a locally delivered car.

[gassit320]

Funky, no worries, definitely go the C63 ;)

Juice brings up a good point, there is a real stigma attached to buying imported cars, especially UK with the salt off the roads, but this will only concern you when/if you try to sell it and the money you save buying it O/S will probably compensate for the money you lose when you sell it.
Cheers

[Speedy Gonzales]

A big issue is if you decide to sell it, since its a private import, parts/features may not be the same as the locally sold model, plus it wont hold its price as much, that said, there are con artists out there who will try to pull the wool over any prospective buyer and balloon the price and sell it as if it were.

If you work or live overseas, buy it drive it but dont bother importing, looked into it myself and cbf paying the rort and butchering up a car designed and built in LHD, just garage it OS at a relative or friends place, pay for it in cash.

[Blakrok]

I've been looking at importing a race car from the uk, from what i can work out it will cost me approx $40k landed where as the same thing here ranges from $60-80k depending on condition.

Problem is, if I need to buy parts from it the local distributor doesnt want to know you!

[hsv-105]

Looking to bring in a race car myself.

www.dotars.gov.au and follow the prompts.

gh

Race cars are easy to get through provided you supply all the details -

Racing experience
Cams national circuit License
Details of category you intend to run in
FIA Homologation paperwork

A road car on the other hand will be a right PITA and keep in mind at the end of the day an Aust delivered car will hold better value than a ' grey ' import.

[Blakrok]

From memory their was also a question about why are you importing this particular car instead of buying local (cheaper price isnt an answer).....but the cheaper price is the answer, i cant afford the local price.

[Funky_Munky]

My bro-in-law is a Certifying Engineer Signatory for all this sort of stuff.
Rowan Carter - info@cartech.com.au

Thanks mate. Ill drop him an email.


My understanding is that if you own it for 12 months over there you will meet the requirements and save yourself a lot of money compared to buying one here. Not sure about resale though if it's sold here through dealers. People might prefer to buy a locally delivered car.


Funky, no worries, definitely go the C63 ;)

Juice brings up a good point, there is a real stigma attached to buying imported cars, especially UK with the salt off the roads, but this will only concern you when/if you try to sell it and the money you save buying it O/S will probably compensate for the money you lose when you sell it.
Cheers


A big issue is if you decide to sell it, since its a private import, parts/features may not be the same as the locally sold model, plus it wont hold its price as much, that said, there are con artists out there who will try to pull the wool over any prospective buyer and balloon the price and sell it as if it were.

If you work or live overseas, buy it drive it but dont bother importing, looked into it myself and cbf paying the rort and butchering up a car designed and built in LHD, just garage it OS at a relative or friends place, pay for it in cash.

Not too concerned about resale value. Im just taking advantage of an opportunity that is available to myself at the moment. It seems as though I can get an M3 or C63 landed for about $60K here and its about the twice the price in Sydney. Out of principal alone, I refuse to pay the extortionist prices in Oz and I really do want to get a Euro so this is deffo the best option.

Oh and the only thing that will need to be changed is the speedometer (miles to kms). Should be relatively easy.


From memory their was also a question about why are you importing this particular car instead of buying local (cheaper price isnt an answer).....but the cheaper price is the answer, i cant afford the local price.

Havent seen that stipulation in any of the documents Ive read.

[Blakrok]

•if the vehicle is a model available in the Australian vehicle market, justification for the need to import the vehicle (cost of the vehicle in the domestic market will not generally be considered an acceptable justification).


I'm assuming it means an actual road car that has been race converted rather than an actual single seat race car....?

[nickh]

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201040369695859/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-from/35000/price-to/50000/make/aston_martin/page/1/postcode/cb234hy/radius/1500?logcode=p


http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201040369695859/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-from/35000/price-to/50000/make/aston_martin/page/1/postcode/cb234hy/radius/1500?logcode=p



why wouldnt u do this when you can buy a am for like 70k aud or the lambo for 120k..

[Funky_Munky]

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201040369695859/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-from/35000/price-to/50000/make/aston_martin/page/1/postcode/cb234hy/radius/1500?logcode=p


http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201040369695859/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-from/35000/price-to/50000/make/aston_martin/page/1/postcode/cb234hy/radius/1500?logcode=p



why wouldnt u do this when you can buy a am for like 70k aud or the lambo for 120k..

Hah. I was actually looking at the DB9 as an option. I think its a little out of my league though. Still, extremely tempting.

[gassit320]

Ha ha, a DB9 for 70k, I'll take 2 ;) just make sure you put aside the money for a service and pray every night that nothing breaks.

As for the 120k car for 60k, remember the car MAY be valued by Oz customs at substantially higher than you paid for it, and you won't know until the car lands in Oz.

[Speedy Gonzales]

You cant walk into an autoshop and get filters or parts for a DB9 off the shelf, what if you break a trans, diff? What about rubber seals? Even light globes or headlights? Bumpers? DB9 isnt a car the local Ultratune can take care of.

If its a track car, fine, but you will need plenty of spares. If thats going to happen, make sure you load up that shipping container to the brim with spares.

The C63 should have individual build details matched to the vin and eng number, I wouldnt bother unless its a keeper, or better yet, find a repairable writeoff or repoed one and do a fixer upper for the track.

[keith reed]

I don't know if this any help. I brought my vb across from N.Z. about 9 years ago. To be able to bring it across I had to own it for 3 years and I had to get an import licence. As the car was older than 15 years I did not have to pay any duty. The total cost including broker was about $2000 delivered to my doorstep in Toowoomba. In the nineties a friend wanted to bring a vn group a from N.Z. The duty he would have to pay made it prohibitive.

[jhinchy]

It would be worth looking at importing from Ireland. Cars in the south have km speedos, and with the recent recession, the value of high performance cars have gone through the floor, many being exported to UK. Just to give you an idea, you would pick up a 2005 m5 for around 23000 euros, no market over here for them anymore.

[Funky_Munky]

You cant walk into an autoshop and get filters or parts for a DB9 off the shelf, what if you break a trans, diff? What about rubber seals? Even light globes or headlights? Bumpers? DB9 isnt a car the local Ultratune can take care of.

If its a track car, fine, but you will need plenty of spares. If thats going to happen, make sure you load up that shipping container to the brim with spares.

The C63 should have individual build details matched to the vin and eng number, I wouldnt bother unless its a keeper, or better yet, find a repairable writeoff or repoed one and do a fixer upper for the track.

This wont be a dedicated track car. It would be a daily driver.


I don't know if this any help. I brought my vb across from N.Z. about 9 years ago. To be able to bring it across I had to own it for 3 years and I had to get an import licence. As the car was older than 15 years I did not have to pay any duty. The total cost including broker was about $2000 delivered to my doorstep in Toowoomba. In the nineties a friend wanted to bring a vn group a from N.Z. The duty he would have to pay made it prohibitive.

Thakns for the advice mate.


It would be worth looking at importing from Ireland. Cars in the south have km speedos, and with the recent recession, the value of high performance cars have gone through the floor, many being exported to UK. Just to give you an idea, you would pick up a 2005 m5 for around 23000 euros, no market over here for them anymore.

Thanks mate. Will look into it.

[Swordie]

My suggestion is to call the local car club for the model your interested in. See if they have any advice.

If you do buy one try take if for a good drive in Europe. It would be a great place to explore. If the car is under warranty have it fixed in Europe while your there.

[gassit320]

Oh yeh, I forgot, I'm pretty sure the age of the car makes a difference too, especially if it is a late model car it will be a lot harder to argue the difference in value between an import and a local. ( not that you can really argue, at the end of the day you are totally at the mercy of customs )

[keith reed]

Should have put this with my first post. As the car was a private import it did not have to comply with the adr. The car was a vb with a fuel injected vp v8. It did not have a catalytic converter, a narrow neck fuel filler or a charcoal canister. I have done all of them since, not required unless I sell the car.

[Benboy]

I suggest that you consult with Australian Customs and get them to provide you with all relevant documentation pertaining to importing a privately owned motor vehicle. You will find that there are many provisions that must be complied with including roadworthiness, lights, including indicators and front parking lights etc. The car will also have to be meticulously cleaned prior to entry. All this needs to be acomplished prior to the vehicle being released to you. Best to use the services of an agent proficient and familiar with such requirements. Might cost you a few dollars but save you a lot of frustration and anguish.