Hi I have a job offer in perth and have been advised by new boss that we should import our car as second hand cars in oz are really expensive. after checking out ebay and such this seems to be true. we have to wait 3 weeks for the shippers to give us a price for our housey stuff and the car. could any good member advise of how much it might or will cost and how long we have to wait once shipped. thanks in advance si

I doubt that all the hassle and expense would be worth it for a Golf. 2nd hand VWs are more expensive here but new ones are about the same or cheaper than the UK.

also, you'd still be subject to the high price of VW servicing and the car would have to be made ADR (Asutralia Design Rules) compliant.
They are more particular that the Euro compliance laws so there will be minor work needed. You'd also need DOTARs approval before importing.

check this page for info:

http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roa...les/index.aspx

If it was something like an Audi or a BMW I would probably advise going through the hassle of doing it, particulalry if its not a base model. Chances are you could sell it for much more than you could back home.

Australia has a restrictive import system on cars, which unfortunately helps keep the price of certain brands over here high (Audi, BMW etc). The second hand market is also quite pricey in places, and cars dont depreciate in value as quickly as they do in the UK. Thats a rant for another thread though.

agree with evrytning you said except this. My passat CC cost $268 for 15k service. Hardly dear.

Check out the Blue book prices and compare. One good thing is.. You know the history of the car secondly they are superb build quality so will last for years.
I am shipping sl mecedes and I can assure you it is lucrative to do so and not so much effort as some may lead you to believe. I can give you details but it is no big deal you need to have owned and used the vhicle for minimum of a year, It must comply air con wise or be emptied of gas, it is a good idea to use an oz based shipping agent.
If you have the bucks and are in the u.k. for one more year go buy a nearly new porsche, mecedes sl,aston,audi, and you will make a tidy sum.

fair comment. my comment was anecdotal.
a friend of mine often grumbles about servicing and repairs on his R32.

Could be valid on one of those "special" beasts.

We are moving out in Aug 2012 and my hubby wants to buy a new (secondhand) car now to bring with us. He is looking at Jaguars........haven't got a clue which type but they look nice

Is a jaguar a good car to bring to Aus or are we better off looking at BMW's & Audi's? We've compared prices on British Ebay and Aus Ebay and the difference is unbelievable!!

Any advice would be great x

Did anyone see Sunday night's TopGear and the Mercs, BMWs, Porsches, RX8s, S2000s they could buy for under GBP7k? I reckon you could import them and knock them out here for $25-50k - definitely a market for them. Although I'm sure there are a load of hassles involved.

Better hurry up as you need to own it for 12 months before you can import. There are significant extra costa and the car will retail for much less than one from here. Doable but check your facts and numbers very carefully first. Lots of detailed threads on here about this.

there definitely would be a market. unfortunately you can only do one personal import every 5 years, and you must have owned the car and lived in the same country, and have evidence of driving it, for 12 months.

Cars over 30 years old are fairly hassle free to import, but again I think there are restrictions on volumes.

However, in the case of "newer" cars, you are not allowed to import a car which has been previously sold in Australia without a letter of authorisation from the manufacturer, or their designated importer!
Effectively, you would have to write to Porsche and get them to allow you importing a Porsche which they sell in a showroom for 100,000 more than you could get it overseas. Restrictions like this explain why people like BMW and Audi keep their prices of base models really high.
In a perverse way, this protects the local (subsidised) industry Ford and Holden.

The main problem though is that people continue to buy cars at the price they are. Until stupid people stop buying "luxury cars" (*) why would the manufacturers lower their costs? I know I wouldnt

(*) we are talking low end BMWs and Mercedes which are just taxis in Europe/middle east

To the poster a few posts up talking about Jaguars. Hell yeah! if you own one, and its in decent condition, or better still its a new one, bring it over with you. May cost you a few thousands pounds to do it, but just check www.carsales.com.au for an inidcation of what you could sell it for.
Same with Range Rovers, Morgans etc etc