nicolamoon

Hope can someone give us a bit of advice please??

Moving out to Perth end of Feb 2008, hopefully? Have a car on finance that if i sell privately will stand to lose bout £800 by the time i pay off the finance!!! Should i take it with me and carry on with finance from OZ? Anyone know how much it is to take the car roughly?? Hubby has a new motorbike, which he loves and has been quoted bout £800 to take it with us. Just wondering if anyone else has a similar dilemma????? Would i be better off standing the loss and buying a second hand run around in OZ? Nothing flash mind!!!!

Confused

Grayling

As far as I know you would have to pay a big lump of tax on any imported vehicle.

G

tripawaymars

Hi
I have just looked into all of this.
For a motorbike you will have to pay 10% of the value of the bike in tax for it to clear customs as well as about £500 extra to have it crated in with your luggage..some firms charge more than this. There is also a clearing fee but this is often included in the cost of the removals quote. We have worked out that two motorbikes to the value of £9000 will cost us £2000 minimum to get there, plus the hassle of registering them. We are therefore selling them here and buying there.

For cars you can add another 10% on extra for taxes at customs (that is 20% of the value of your car) plus a lot more in space as it will take up half a container almost.

i would say unless you are packing your own container to save a bit of money (then you would have to worry if you have secure it enough with no crate) or your bikes or car are custom built then it will cost a lot of money. Bikes are no more expensive second hand out there.

Hope this helps.

nicolamoon

Thanks to all for answers

Think thats cleared up our dilemma. The car and bike stay and we go Been looking at second hand cars in Perth on website. Hopefully pick something reliable when we get thereup

Cheeres

nicolamoon

Hi
Looked into price of Triumphs comparably the same only thought I have lookig at properties there aren`t many houses with garages hmm

tripawaymars

Where are you moving to? We moving to Cairns and most houses have at least a single garage!

nicolamoon

Perth

kevinbloomfield

I'm not sure that I've seen a house without a garage, even a lot of units (flats) have at least a single garage.

nicolamoon

Seen a lot with car ports but will look around

Cheers

Leisa

We brought our bike with us - mainly cos it fitted in our container and we would have got pennies for it in the UK. OH had serviced it and knew it would be reliable transport.

You have to pay GST at 10 %, get it inspected and registered this end but doesn't appear too much hassle have a look at www.dotars.gov.au

Leisa

kevinbloomfield

Are you looking in areas with lots of public housing? I don't know anyone with a car port. Anyway, you can buy a big tin shed for not a lot of $$ to store a motorbike in

comet555

I'm going to guess it's the cost of housing that is making you see mostly car ports. If you looked up a price bracket or two you'd probably find more garages.

Whether or not you need a garage is up to you.

morley_sarah

Hi Nicolamoon,

If you need any help on the bike & car front, let me know.

OH rides a Suzuki GSXR600 and is a member of Perth Street Bikes and often members get rid of their bikes on their cheap and there's heaps of lovely people to go riding with on there.

I work for a car dealer and if I can help you anyway on the car front, let me know

znaylor1974

Don't forget the hidden ORC (on-road costs) - count on an extra 10% of the stated value.

Nickc278

I looked into this in detail when i came out and it was going to cost me c£8k to get my car here and on the road legally. Of that only about £1k was the actual cost of shipping, the rest was inspection fees and taxes (by the way the Aussies LOVE paperwork - get used to it).

Additionally most imports have sod all resale value here so unless your car has REAL emotional value to you its not worth it.

The other thing I've found is that your mentality changes as to what you need in a car here because:

1. The roads are not good (at least here in Brissy they are). i thought English roads were poor but these are worse so big alloys and sports suspension are literally a pain in the arse and likely to get damaged;

2. The speed limits are slooooooow here and rigorously enforced so anything that makes you drive like your pants are on fire is a waste of time. (Why Aussies love big V8 saloons is beyond me - you rarely get above 60mph.)

3. If you take to the outdoor lifestyle and make use of the countryside around you, its worth buying something that you can chuck surfboards / mountain bikes on the roof or in the back and head off in;

4. You can drive on a lot of beaches, so a 4wd is actually useful sometimes and not just an urban pose.

5. Its HOT here - white cars are cooler, literally - there are lots of them. Dark cars may look cool, but they are anything but that when you get in them when they've been in 40c sun for a few hours.

6. European cars are F'ing expensive to buy and service here and dealers are few and far between (my nearest VW garage is over an hour away) so buy Aussie (Holden or Ford) or Japanese.

There are loads of white Land Cruisers / Pajeros / X trails etc here - now I know why, they make sense. Unless your UK car fits what i said above - you might as well just buy one when you get here.

(my 2 pennies worth anyway)

Nick