pete jackson

Hi there, I know there are alot of threads about inporting cars, mostly people moving over and wanting to bring your car with them, but what about this:

Living here for 2 years

wanting to buy a VW Golf R32 Mk4

Aus average price private sale $34,000 (2003/4 spec)

Uk average price sale £8,000 - £11,000 (lets say £10,000 to make it easy!)

Uk price in aus $ = $20,200. (using google converter this morn)

So Aus R32 is $14,000 more here, = £6,900 !

How can this car be imported for personal use??

Im a VW technician in Brisbane so cars are my thing but import and paper work are not!

Looking for advice, cheers, Pete

La Vida loca

Its very hard, you may have to go through a licenced broker, but I guess you will get hit hard with GST etc....and transportation costs.

If it was easy which it isnt, we all would be doing do it, and the streets will be filled with audi's mercs and porsches instead of ford'sand holdens.

Deancm

Actually it's quite easy, it just costs a lot. If you want to import a car which costs more than $57K in Australia, you will get stung with 33% tax. That's why people aren't importing Mercs, BMWs, Astons etc.

Apart from shipping cost which prob won't cost more than 1K pounds. The car on arrival needs to be converted to Australian standards, which means headlights, windscreen and other bits and pieces need to be changed.

It's a lot of messing about and isn't going to save you a great deal at the end of the day. The govt has taken care of that. Aussie protectionism! They want you to buy a shitty Ford or Holden.

La Vida loca

You dont need to convert anything.

Cant rain all the time2

The car on arrival needs to be converted to Australian standards, which means headlights, windscreen and other bits and pieces need to be changed.


Change the windscreen to what?

Deancm

A different tint, thickness, glass? I don't know.

Pollyana

Have you read the info by Bigape? Most of that would still be relevant even though you are already living here.

Have a look at the links in this thread
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7624416

Pollyana

ADR 8 - Safety Glazing Material

The function of this Australian Design Rule is to specify the performance requirements of material used for external or internal glazing in motor vehicles which will ensure adequate visibility under normal operating conditions, will minimise obscuration when shattered, and will minimise the likelihood of serious injury if a person comes in contact with the broken glazing material.

Must meet Vehicle Standard (Australian Design Rule 8/01 - Safety Glazing Material) 2005

smellycat28

We took our car with us last year, 2003 chryser grand voyager, because we couldn't sell it in the UK. We paid around 5000 pounds for everything shipping, tax, port charges etc which was a lot, but the cost of buying one here to replace it would have been more. Didn't need any modifications - you need to take it to the pits to get a roadworthy test - only thing he did say was the child seat anchor points weren't the same as australian ones but he passed ours since it did have them, but if you don't would need to get them installed. Thats in Perth mind you, I believe other states such as victoria are a bit more particular. One thing to bear in mind though - we enquired about a trade in and the guy at the garage offered a lot less because it was an import. Bit of madness prob because it has a full service history & been mot'd every year so prob in a lot better nick than a lot of the cars here

furkew

what about the fact that you need to have owned the car for 12 months & that you need to bring it when you migrate. As far as I know you cannot buy a car and send it over at a later date.

There are different rulings about buying abroad and then importing I do know, but its not made easy or cheap.

smellycat28

Ooh - just remembered as well - we had to own the car for a year first & provide receipts etc, so if you're taking a new one might be different!

smellycat28

Lady I met at the pits was getting her car checked - they'd taken her husbands car when they moved and had left her car in the UK for a year (or two- can't remember) so they could import it too, so you can import them later but you can only take one car every year or two.

La Vida loca

No you have to be with the car, thats why you photocopy everypage of your passport.

Weebie

I had to put some child restraints on an import ended costing me 3k

cookiestar

You'll need to have been in the same country as the car and owned it for 12 months. The only way you can get round this is if the car is on the SEVS list (have a google - these are rare cars that have never been available in Aus)