Tokenaussie

It may be that since your car exports to the Oz market it has anchor points already installed.

Have I found the right business to contact ? This was all I could find on google.

NEW PRESTIGE WORLD

440 WICKHAM STREET
QLD 4006 BRISBANE-FORTITUDE VALLEY

phone +61(7) 3252 1464

email [email protected]

Alfresco

Nah that's not right. I have sent you a PM with the email address to contact.

Cheers

Tokenaussie

Turns out that address is right as the guy (Kevin London) replied on that email. He was quick and to the point so he sounds like a good bet for anyone importing a car to Queensland.

His reply :
-----------
"The Tucson had isofix & child anchor points fitted. If your VW has a rear seat & seat belts it will require child anchor points fitted. These are best fitted here in Australia; we have had one car from the UK, one from NZ & another from South Africa this last 6 weeks, all had prior anchor points fitted in the country of origin & all were wrong either in where they were fitted, wrong thread or wrong type. Cost for 3 points fitted is about $280 to $350AUD. Regards Kevin"
-------------
So there you have it. The Tucson was an exception. Unfortunately (for the rest of us) other cars must be modified if they don't already have child anchor restraints fitted to Australian standards. Until the Australian standards come into line with international standards that will remain the case.

Alfresco

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-au; HTC_Desire_A8183 V1.25.841.5 Build/ERE27) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

Glad you got the info you were looking for. Looks like I was lucky.

Tokenaussie

You certainly were lucky. Maybe you could summarise your car import experience here for the benefit of others ? Who you used. What to expect. How much things cost etc. If you have the time it'd be really helpful.

Alfresco

Check out this thread:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=600334

Tokenaussie

Derek, if you are out there somewhere. I REALLY need to know of any importer who has dealt with a T5 California. From looking at the Australian gas standards I can't see how the California can get certified. The European approach and the Australian approach are like chalk and cheese.

freddie_

Hi all. I'm looking at doing the same for a VW facelift california. I'm having serious problems converting the speedo to KPH, as there is no KPH replacement instrument cluster for a UK car.

has anyone managed this?

Tokenaussie

Your speedo should already have km/h in the inner ring. This is adequate for Australian use.

Tokenaussie

What I have managed to find out is the gas system will not comply with Australian standards. The stove is not certified and neither are the pipes or the gas bottle. The electrics should be OK as they are dual pole (European standard) rather than the older UK standard. I have had one suggestion that the gas cooking system could be replaced with a spirit stove. Personally I'm finding the whole process very hard going. Side door should not be an issue as there is still an access via the left passenger door.

In regard to my earlier post on the air-con it appears they have changed their policy on this and it should be OK.

freddie_

you'd think, wouldn't you!

sadly not. here's a pic of it:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/creativ...es/5747503943/

Tokenaussie

Strange. I can't understand why, given these vehicles are likely to spend much of their life driven in continental Europe. This is a new one for VW who have always put the km markings on the inner ring.

If the LHD Euro models don't fit your best best may be to lift one from a RHD Australian T5 facelift. If you can get information on the connectors, pinouts etc you could compare with the Australian speedo. Perhaps your VW dealer can help. Failing that you could investigate whether you can get appropriate markings put on your dial.

freddie_

I know, it's madness, given that people buy a cali precisely to drive to Europe in.

my next step is to check out my local VW dealer here in Munich (I'm working in Germany on a contract) and perhaps buy a LHD replacement. the latest quote was EUR700, which is a lot to pay for just a dial face.

Did you get anywhere with the gas certification? Or do I need to rip this out before I leave and replace / reinstall once I've passed the inspection?

Tokenaussie

Sounds a lot of money for a dial.

Gas system can't be just ripped out and replaced as being a camper it must have a certified cooking & electrical system in place. The best I have is the gas piping could be left in place but the hob would have to be replaced with, say, a spirit stove. Replacing it with gas would require re-plumbing to Oz standards, new externally accessed gas bottle chamber and new hob. Even if you were then to switch it back the regulator would need to be adapted to fit to a propane bottle as CampingGaz is not available in Australia.

I'm debating whether to ship mine at all now. We leave for Oz in October but I have some 6 months to decide whether to ship the van. Hopefully in that time I can have some discussions with people and resolve some issues.

billymacker

try this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SPEEDO-OVE...item45fc1f8c7d