Watt Dabney

We are currently living in Brisbane and looking into buying a Nissan Patrol from a family member in the UK (cheap cause he can't get half decent price for it there). Already have some idea of the process would be keen on hearing if anyone has had any experience on the following,
freight (drive on drive off), tax (gst & duty), valuations for tax, compliance in Queensland.

Thanks in advance

Paula

moneypenny20

Read this thread by BigAPE (he needs to start making money from this one ). It's 18 months old but the info is still as relevant as ever and it's a damn good thread Long story short though, it's a lot of hard work and not many people find it worthwhile.

Watt Dabney

Thanx will get OH to have a read. At a quick glance it seems to cover a personal import when migrating. This is buying the car from the UK when living in Oz and importing most interested in the differences in the process (if any eg tax) when doing this as opposed to a personal possesion import when migrating.

Paula

moneypenny20

No idea about financial differences but I should imagine the technical stuff would stay the same. Sure someone will be along in the next day or so with more info for you. In the meantime, try a search. There have been lots of threads about bringing a car over, there may be someone who's done what you are considering.

Geelong Gent

No difference Paula same rules apply no matter whether you are here 20 years or just arriving.

On a Nissan patrol it would be foolish too import (basically the prices are dropping like lead missiles here).

NedKelly

As a personal import you have to have owned it for a year before being able to import it. If not, I would think you would be clobered for stamp duty, car tax, GST and it would not be economically viable to do.

rightruccus

From another forum.

We looked into importing our Toyota Landcruiser and glad we didn't now, as prices here in comparison are cheaper.

Watt Dabney

This is exactly the bit I am looking for some clarification on, anyone?

Watt Dabney

I'm not sure on the maths this is my OH's idea. All I know is new/nearly new is cheaper here, but we can't afford that. This is an older car but with all its life on Uk roads (ie never been offroad), v.low K's, high spec, looked after, but noone wants to buy it in the Uk due to economic situation and the higher running costs, he can barely give it away. Similar age vehicle here has been to the moon & back K's wise and would have been offroad, for possibly a similar price if we can find out what the tax implications would be, so its worth giving it some consideration maybe.

NedKelly

When I imported my 4X4 the garage that certified it said that all the UK vehicles he sees are rusted to buggery (including mine) compared to Australian vehicles because of the salt they spread on the roads in the winter. He said anyone who buys a second hand car over here should never buy a UK import and this is quite well known in the industry. So unless you are going to keep it and run it into the ground when you bring it over I would think twice.

rightruccus

I'd think about what Ned says here Watt Dabney.
We were in the same situation. Couldn't give it away despite being the most reliable and useful vehicle we had owned to date. We've since arrived in Oz and for a kick off, the specs of the same model type are different to UK.
We've had a look here to get another one and what we've found is that in the secondhand market, we could get the same, if not better,than what our car was worth in Britain.
The timescales, paperwork, costs and general hassle isn't really worth it in my opinion for the money you *might* save.

I'll give you another quick example if it helps you think differently. When we arrived we bought a car for $10k to run around in 'til we found our feet. That was the equivalent of around £4300 at the time. With the exchange rate over the last week or so being what it was, the car value if you looked at it, was then the equivalent of just under £5000. Go figure.

What i'm saying and Geelong mentioned earlier, we've noticed the secondhand values are dropping here as business's fight for your hard earned dollar. Our car that we bought was just 3 years old. £4300 for a 3 year old car? Think about it.

bigAPE

I have actually started charging $1 a view now and I am personally going around to the home of each person who has read it to collect.

As I understand it, it is possible to buy and import a 4x4 from Australia but you will pay through the nose and you will have to use a broker to purchase, import, deal with engineering standards/roadworthy and then sell it to you. In the same way that a BMW dealer imports BMWs from Germany. The car would be registered as new (as I understand it).

If you mean that you want to do it personally, as Ned has said you need to have lived with the car in the UK for at least 12 months (and have paperwork to prove it) prior to importing.

Sorry

Al