Julie3w

We are moving out to Oz in the next couple of months now we have our visas accepted, been looking on the net at car prices in Oz and they seem very expensive so thinking of buying a car here and shipping it out. Has anyone done this too and how much does it cost? Any imformation is very much appreciated.

sammyg

No can do You need to have owned the car for 12 months prior to shipping it to oz.

Nice idea though

hollykimalan

As I understand it you can import a car of any age...it is merely the tax implications that are hefty for newer cars?
HKA

mvagusta

Interesting point. I have just looked at my car on the Brisbane website and it was going for $43000 used. I bought mine for $33000 used last year and it has less miles.

Does anyone know the costs involved in importing a car?

I'm assuming that it would go into a 20ft container.

DrWho

They've only expensive if you want European cars... If you want Asian/Japanese they're better value here I think...

DrWho

Have a search, there's loads of threads about this...
Basically you'll have shipping costs + taxes + compliance costs... followed by the car always being designated as an import and being difficult to shift and at a price that'll be significantly less than comparable Aussie specced cars...

The Bloke

Read this stickie thread as a guide.
http://www.britishexpats.com/forum/s...ght=car+import
and this thread.
http://www.britishexpats.com/forum/s...d.php?t=513108

The Bloke

Why would you want to bring an older car that may have difficulty in getting parts for if it breaks down, no to mention the cost of importing, transportation, registration and compliance. The only ones really worthwhile are rare vintage collector items. Read BigApe's thread.

bigAPE

My article on importing your car is a little old now, by about 10 months, and it is specific to importing to Victoria, however it will give you a good idea on the costs and hassle involved. Nothing has really changed

In general it is not worth it financial with most people breaking even or losing a little money. You have to take into account all the charges, fees and taxes in order to understand the total cost to you against the amount you will make as a second hand sale in the UK. There is an Excel spreadsheet (with instructions) which I created to assist people in figuring out a really close estimate of the costs specific to them. Perhaps that will help

I would point you to the original article I wrote and have been updating but it's on the Wiki of another forum I only posted it here after Buzzy asked me to and now whenever I post the link for people it is deleted by the mods I guess if you PM'ed me I could send it to you)

In answer to a previous question, you have to own the vehicle for over 12 months and live with the car during that time. You even have to account, in writing, for every instance of overseas travel away from the car during the time you have owned it. These are measures to stop people buying a car to import for profit.

Hope this helps.

deryans

it is not worth it unless you have a "classic" and owned it for some time , i.e more than 4-5 years.

I spoke to customs regarding our car when we emigrated (Audi S4) and basically we would have ended up paying Oz luxury equalisation tax which negated the whole point (I sneakly wished to sell the bugger when we got there).

Customs bloke was really honest and upfront, and basically said that unless you are bringing in something that is really unusual (and you want to keep it in OZ) then don't bother

bigAPE

I imported an Audi and was charged Import Duty based on the value of the car when it was imported ("as landed"). I have never heard of a luxury equalisation tax, perhaps it's a NSW specific thing ?

I certainly agree that it's not worth it unless you have a "classic" which you could not live without.

deryans

6 odd years ago now, we sold it the week before we emigrated, not an equalization tax (I'm confusing it with the Wine tax) , but as you say a luxury duty tax, I think it was 54K aud then, not that it's changed much.

The trick with a rare classic, is that if you have had it a while, you can argue that it's not for sale (which would be true) and that it's a bona fide interest and you can generally agree to "hold on" to it and not become a de facto car dealer.

how did you go with the import , was it worth it ? we reckoned we would have made about 15K before talking to customs, it then turned out to be around 3K which was actually not worth the bother....

bigAPE

You are liable for Luxury Car Tax if the as landed value of the vehicle + customs duty + GST is greater than ~$57,000. You will be charged 25% on the value that exceeds that amount. As the authorised valuations are generally ~60% of the second hand road value in Australia, even when you add on customs duty, then it would have to be a really expensive car. Remember your talking about the second hand value of a car which you have owned and used for at least 12 months in the UK.

The rule now is that if the car was manufactured before 1 January 1989 then there is no restriction on your length of ownership (usually 12 active months with documentation and some sort of statutory declaration), but you will still be liable to import duty on the as landed value of the vehicle.

If you purchased the "classic" before 1998 then you will be required to either accept the customs value as being 40% of the current market value or a customs value derived from the original purchase price minus a depreciation amount of 5% in year one followed by 1% in every further year of ownership upto a maximum of 76%.

The "classic" will still need to conform to Australian motor vehicle standards to be deemed roadworthy which could mean extensive and costly electrical, mechanical and possibly structural changes.

I would be surprised if you broke even, once you add on all the additional fees, registration fee (yes Victoria charge you to register the car as new even though it's your own car!!) and cost of making the car meet Australian requirements (we had to spend an additional ~$750 adding child seat anchor points to the car even though they had the ultra high spec ISOFIX safety frame! Which is not accepted by Australia).

If I sold now I would break even. The car does get better resale here but it costs so much to get it over and on the road that it's just not worth it. Sell the car in the UK and buy in Australia.