Is it worth taking my car to Perth?
 

Hi there,

I can take my 2005 Lexus GS430 in a 40ft container to Perth. I have owned it for more than 12 months and it would cost about £20-22K if I bought it again in the UK, and about £6500 to ship / import / register - so about £27K-ish or circa $AUD55K

To buy the same car in Australia from a Lexus dealer would cost about $AUD75K plus stamp, say $AUD5K total $AUD80K.

I don't know whether my car would be worth less as an import, this info is difficult to come by if you ask a dealer. If I could sell at the Australian price, it looks like the car might be worth around $AUD20K more than I could buy it for in the UK.

However, I am told the Australian satnav DVDs won't work and the car will be worth a lot less - according to Lexus Perth.

I am wondering if it is worth all of the hassle of shipping and importing for the saving, which might not really be a saving if the car is worth $AUD20K less than an Australian version when I come to sell.

Any advice on what to do? It's a tough one!

Best regards,

Marcus.

Re: Is it worth taking my car to Perth?
 

It is worth shipping luxury cars as they cost so much more here. As long as you plan on using it for a few more years then I would do it, if you are just wanting to sell within a few months then don't bother as imports do have a lower resale value. As for the satnav you should be able to purchase a new map of Australia. As for the DVD player if you are unable to set it region free then it will play DVD's without region coding so you could make backups of the Region 4 (Australia) DVD's, UK ones will still work. :cool: