max kilby

Hi all,

Sorry to drag up this old dinosaur again but I really can't make up my mind whether to take the car or not. Does anyone have any experience of actually taking a car with them, and was it worth it ultimately?

Had varying quotes for a 4 year old Mazda MX5 that my wife has owned for 4 years since new and looks like it's going to cost about £7000. The car is worth about £9-10K so apart from sentiment it looks like it'll be too expensive.

Many thanks once again.

MAX

newstartnz

Max me'boy. Maths lesson. It will cost you a shedload of money to take this 4 year old heap to Aus, plus loads of hassle, when you can sell it now and buy another one there, saving you 7 GRAND!!!

kitkatz

Well I have a 10 year old MX5 and I'm taking it at the end of the month ...

I've worked out it'll cost about £2k - £2.5k all in to get it there - I've even called the guy in Sydney who Oz customs use to issue the landed value to get an idea of the actual duties that will be imposed, and it's going in the same container as my household stuff.

So on the basis that I know the car's history, it's done really low mileage, it's in relatively good condition, I've only been offered about £3k to sell it here, and I'll realistically have to spend about £10k if I want an equivalent car when I get there, I'm just going to say hang it all and do it. Maybe not the most sensible thing in the world, but moving is such and upheaval it'll be nice to have one constant... my plan is to just drive it into the ground there - but at least I'll get better use out of it than in the UK weather...

Hope this helps.

kitkatz

That's the problem with the MX-5 - can't even fill it with anything - no space!!!

ndaltonb

We are same situation as kitkatz. 6 year old MX-5 with lots of TLC. I know where all the scratches are. Could sell here, get nothing for it, buy equivalent in Aus and not know what it's been doing for past 6 years.

Nope, we bought from new and we will see this MX-5 all the way to the crusher, in many years time.

Actually the maths works out for us, probably as we are sticking it in the same container as all the rest of our junk. Maybe the £7k is because Max's car is going alone??

Nigel db

etlniwd

I did all the complicated maths involved in determining whether it would be worth shipping my 1995 shogun. To cut a long story short the total cost of the shipping, import duty, and modifications was practically the same as the price difference for the same car in the UK and Oz.

In other words, cars are a lot more expensive to buy in Australia but they also cost a lot to ship and import. If the cost works out to be roughly the same then it's not worth all the hassle involved in the shipping process - unless of course you've formed a personal relationship with your car.

max kilby

Thanks all for the replies.

Yes the car does have sentimental value and when we bought it we thought it'd be 'for life'. It's got barely 23,000 miles on the clock and has been deeply loved. I guess there's a lot to be said for knowing a cars history and so forth.

I get the impression from some of these replies that it works out cheaper to put the car in the same container - The price quoted was £1500 to ship out. £350(ish) for insurance and the rest is import duties and taxes (booo)

The bummer is that if we'd bought the car and owned it from March 1998 instead of June we could claim depreciation.

I guess the extra 3 months makes all the difference..........

Anyone want to buy a 'mint' MX5?.....

Cheers,

MAX

max kilby

Sorry to say that we sold the old girl today so she won't be coming with us.......

Still who knows what we'll be driving in Adelaide when we arrive in November....

MAX