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Shipping a car from the UK to Australia

Shipping a car from the UK to Australia

Old Jun 9th 2015, 2:59 pm
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Default Shipping a car from the UK to Australia

Hello
I have a BMW 3.18d M Sport 2009. I have a wife and two kids and I am seriously thinking about shipping the car to Sydney where we are about to move to. I'd like to get a view of whether people think it's worth it.

It's a nice but not a flash car that actually works pretty well for the four of us. My concern is that if I sell it in the UK I'm likely to get £6-7k for it. When we move to Oz, we will need a car but are likely to have to fork out $40-50k for the equivalent.

We don't need a flash, new car when we move but we will need to have a 4x4 or similar (Japanese I hear is cheaper than European).

Do you think it's worth shipping our BMW out there, even if all up it costs us about £5-7k to do it!

If it's marginal, I'm not sure we'll bother but the thought of having our own car out there sounds like a nice idea!

I'd love your thoughts.

Best
Tom
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Old Jun 9th 2015, 11:29 pm
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Default Re: Shipping a car from the UK to Australia

What's the price of a second hand car of the same age, make and model in Australia? compare your costings to that.

The general rule here is not to buy European because the servicing and spare parts are wickedly expensive.
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Old Jun 10th 2015, 4:28 am
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Default Re: Shipping a car from the UK to Australia

I can't see shipping over a used car being worthwhile. I mean you'd be paying most of its current value in shipping costs alone. Not sure what else there is to pay on top of that in terms of import duties, registration fees, etc., or any conformity issues (Australia likes to reinvent everything on its own).

As mentioned before, try a price comparison and see what car prices are like over here. And then see if you can find any good deals on Japanese cars and tilt your religion slightly towards the SUV side for something that works well on roads here (a low suspension is not recommended unless you are a fan of that scraping sound coming from underneath).
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Old Jun 10th 2015, 5:00 am
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Default Re: Shipping a car from the UK to Australia

They also have to comply with Australian Design Rules before rego can happen.

We shipped ours over. It cost about $7-8K but we still saved about 6K doing that.
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Old Jun 10th 2015, 6:45 am
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Default Re: Shipping a car from the UK to Australia

Originally Posted by Alfresco
They also have to comply with Australian Design Rules before rego can happen.

We shipped ours over. It cost about $7-8K but we still saved about 6K doing that.
Hi there Alfresco, was the $7-8K all inclusive or just the shipment cost alone?

I've been toying around with sending my cars over as well.

Thanks in advance!
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Old Jun 10th 2015, 6:57 am
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Default Re: Shipping a car from the UK to Australia

Originally Posted by astera
tilt your religion slightly towards the SUV side for something that works well on roads here (a low suspension is not recommended unless you are a fan of that scraping sound coming from underneath).
Seconded, the number of times I scrapped the underside of my first car on kerbs and parking bars was unbelievable. Go for something that takes E10 petrol/ is hybrid and save on your fuel costs and carbon emission, and you'll be sweet.
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Old Jun 10th 2015, 12:24 pm
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Default Re: Shipping a car from the UK to Australia

Ditto on the hybrid front. I wish I had my old Lexus SUV over here, especially when my route takes me through a myriad of traffic lights.

Is E10 any good? I just pump Shell 95 into my tank each time.

P.S. Come to think of it, has anyone gone the other way and taken a car from here back to the UK?
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Old Jun 10th 2015, 10:27 pm
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Default Re: Shipping a car from the UK to Australia

Originally Posted by xizzles
Hi there Alfresco, was the $7-8K all inclusive or just the shipment cost alone?

I've been toying around with sending my cars over as well.

Thanks in advance!
That was everything, Roll on Roll off, ADR, Rego etc...
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Old Jun 12th 2015, 2:19 pm
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Default Re: Shipping a car from the UK to Australia

Hi Tom,

if you know the history of your car and can see the second-hand price of the equivalent model here, do the sums and see whether it stacks up. Why do you say you will need a 4x4 or similar?

I regret not bringing our family car out here in hindsight, but at the time of migrating, there was just too much else going on to complete the formalities - BTW, unless the rules have changed in the last 5 years, you need to have owned the car for at least 12 months prior to export.
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Old Jun 15th 2015, 12:12 am
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Default Re: Shipping a car from the UK to Australia

I would contact Kristian at Iron Lady Imports and ask him to give you an idea of the costs so you know how much in total it would effectively cost you (actual costs + foregone UK value). We're bringing two cars over and they are somewhere between Singapore and Hong Kong at the moment. So far we're impressed with Kristian.
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