Martin J

I have been on to check the prices of some cars in Melbourne for when we arrive in Aug and i cant believe the prices in relation to the UK!!!

I thought we got stung here!

I own a BMW 525D M Sports Touring, which is worth about £24K. I havent owned it for 12 months yet and for some reason this prevents me from shipping it over to AU.

WHY!?!??!?! I am now going to be forced to sell up here, probably with a loss and then fork out twice the price to get a simillar car in MEL.

Is there no way around this 12 month thing?

chris1386

no, unless youre going as a diplomat temporarily.Will you have had it 12 months when you arrive in Oz? or 12 months when IT arrives in Oz? Worth checking the details, good luck.

rocket01

Speak to the shipping comany, and see if you can pre sign and date everything over that 12 month period and get them to send it then.

Martin J

Unfortunately not.

I only bought it in Dec last year. The problem i have is it will cost me over $100K to buy the same car in AU. Thats just bonkers.

I wonder if there is something my company could do to say they own it and its going over as a company car or something like that?

Martin J

I guess the other option is i hire and send for the car come Dec time...I just dont want to give it up unnecessarily.

philnorris

I know what you mean about the price of BMW's in OZ I wanted an SMG M3, I could easily pick on up here in the UK for about £25k. But in OZ its going to be about $100k like you said for the same car, so the only option I have is to buy myself a Holden, Ford, Mazda or some thing similar when I get out there.

alipally

It's a nightmare! But seriously, have you looked at the 3 differnent taxes you'll have to pay

GST, Customs and LCT!! and that's on what they value of the car is in Australia (although you ask different people, you'll get different ideas on where the value comes from!) so by the time you've added the cost of shipping, the taxes (which are also charged on the shipping cost!) not to mention the hassle of getting a permit and arranging the shipping. Unless it's an irreplaceable, much loved 'baby', you have to ask yourself if it's really worth waiting for.

Yes you can ship before 12 months, but it will cost you even more money!!! The ins and outs of car importing can be found on the AQIS website.

Wish I had something good to say I really do!

Ali x

kanjig

I'm also thinking about taking across my BMW X5 3.0D Sports, but am researching all the costs. when you apply for the export licence, do they give a idea of costs? or do they actually value the car than, or when it lands in Australia? all in all I think its going to cost me about £5000 to get the car across, but as you guys mentioned, trying to get a BMW out in Australia is going to cost me a arm and leg, so might take the £5K hit and just do it.

moneypenny20

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=458572 This is an excellent thread which explains practically everything that needs to be done to get your car over. May not help with your current situation but considering how long the formalities can take, it may be December before you get it over anyway. That's if it ends up being worthwhile.

Good luck.

clarinsred

I have a BMW 330D M sport covertible, I am confused as to if it worth me taking it over. This model is not sold out there, so will this not cause problems when I come to resell it? I have spoken to a shipping company, they suggest it will be worth a lot more out there, but they would say that anyway, wouldn't they?

The Bloke

If they don't sell it here, therefore you may have difficulty, if not find it impossible in getting spares without having to import them too. Therefore, resale value maybe through the floor.

Geelong Gent

Yes

answer

Ship it after the 12 months

Geelong Gent

X5's have dropped like lead rocks recently.

The are now fetching as little as A$25K for a 2002 with 150K on the clock

clarinsred

True I hadn't considered that. I am not planning to move untill Sept 09... Which car, if any, would you recommend taking?

bigAPE

You really need to read the documents from DOTARS mate.

The 12 month rule is not a joke to them. The point of the rule is to try and stop people importing new cars and selling them for a profit. Everything about the import requirements is designed to make that as hard as possible.

The DOTARS VB10 Approval to Import form requires that you provide extensive documentation for every day your away from the country and your car since you bought it, for the reasons stated above. For me that was seven years and it was a royal pain in the arse.

Have a look at this for more info