suffolk nuts

hi there we have a mazda 6 we would like to ship back to the uk would your advice be to sell it here in oz i suspect we would lose a lot of money on it as it is less than six months old what our the pit falls of getting it back on the road in the uk any advice greatly apreciated

pajones

Hi, I will keep an eye on this thread. Can you let me know if you have any luck on information about taking the car back to the uk.Our car will be twelve months old 1st may.We are returning to the uk at the end of march. And are unsure what to do regarding the car. Plenty of people will give you their opinion, but it would be nice to hear from someone who has actually done it and knows what it costs etc.. Cheers Paul.

clougherty family

Hi,

We were thinking of shipping ours back but in the end we worked out that we would be better off selling it. Apart from the shipping cost involved, there's loads of paper work this end and it cost's more to insure imports and they are not worth as much here. Also, some of the models are different than in Oz so parts could be a problem. I had an 8mth old Mitsubishi Outlander and managed to sell it for good money. It's a personal choice but I think if you've got cash and buy a car here it's a safer bet.

Hope this helps

Joxx

Dave_Was

Chances are when you come into the UK you'll have to go through a SVA test. Think of this as an MOT test on steroids. They check everything, costs a couple of hundred pounds and you have to have it done at a special center. There isn't anyone to help you with this and the advice I got from the inspector, was take the test and fail and then you'll know what to fix. You maybe okay as it's a right hand drive and hopefully all the lighting is okay.

Secondly, insurance can be more expensive for imports and resale is impacted, but you should put that into your initial calculations.

Third, is that parts maybe a problem.

I've imported a car twice and to be honest I won't do it ever again. As well as the straight financial costs it's all the time and hassles involved. Remember until you get the car through the SVA you can't register the car, so you can't park it on the street, so you need a garage to store the vehicle too.

joh117

Check out this post we shipped a car in July 2006 and I listed all the costs

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=396925


We were going to loose too much on a subaru liberty and could not afford to leave it. We intend to keep it for a while. We are now insured with Tesco so you can insure with some of the more popular insurance comanies after the initial year.

It was not any hassle with paperwork the guy at Derby (Donnington Race Course) did it all for us and got the car through the dvla

Any questions just ask

Jo

fitz

i shipped my car {2006 toyota rav4}back to the uk a couple of months ago.
there is a lot of paperwork and you have to get certain modifications done to bring it in line with uk vehicles,i had to buy a brand new speedo head as i could not get the dial simply changed to mph as it's all the one mould,
it cost £849.00,yes that's correct ! the dvla have also registered it as a 2005 model instead of 2006,i am indispute with them over this.the insurance cost £420.00 which is more than double what i used to pay,i also have to provide them with a certificate stating that the immobiliser is thatchem rated or it will not be insured against theft,toyota in australia have been no help at all and are simply not interested {there's a surprise ! }the model i have is different from uk models so car was insured against the top of the range uk rav4,
shite i know ,,,
all in all it probably has been worth it as the equivelant car here would have cost thousand of pounds more than i paid for mine new last year.


one word of warning though....i was told i could get parts no problem but should there be a major engine malfunction they would not be able to check it out as the computer system in the uk is different from australia...

hope this helps....

pajones

Yeah thats great information, thanks very much.Our car is a Holden Viva which i know they don't have in the uk so I want to find out if i can get the speedo changed and fog lights fitted.Other wise we will sell but will lose thousands.Going home the end of March so we will have only been here 12 months.Anyway cheers for the Info, Paul.

suffolk nuts

thanks for all your info it has been a big help but with weighing everything up we are going to sell it here its just to much hassle to get it sorted out its a shame because its a lovely car need to find a buyer now another headache to sort out any body interested in a mazda 6 sports

choccydog

Shipped my car back (see NZ thread) no hassle at all but was over 10 years old so no import duty, VAT, SVA test just rear fog lamp (not necessary these days to change kms odometer to miles BTW) and MOT before registration.

Oh yeah, insured through Tesco nice and cheap they don't mind imports but had to fit Thatchem immobiliser.

lsmethurst

Hi

We moved back to Bolton from NZ on the 6th Aug (no regrets so far), I shipped my Mazda back, packed it with the furniture, it all arrived scratch free, picked it up from the warehouse and parked it on my sisters drive. It was a bit stressful being without wheels for a couple of weeks, but anyway had an SVA test which cost £150, it failed on the fuel capacity of the tank head, sent off to a place in croyden for a cap to be fitted by myself which cost £10 (delivered the next day), I had a rear fog lamp fitted and side repeaters before the test which I was informed it needed, got a free re-test it passed, sent off all the documents to DVLA got them back with 3 days with the letter to to get my reg plates made which took 5 minutes, so in total I spent £150 for SVA, £290 for mobile mechanic side repeaters and rear fog light, and £50 to register with DVLA. Hope this info is useful
Lesley

fitz

you can get the fog lamp fitted and speedo head changed in oz you don't need to do it in the uk,it would be much cheaper in oz.
i went to a garage in perth to change my speedo head,it was going to cost $220, a hell of a lot cheaper than what i paid for new speedo in uk,unfortunately as i stated earlier they couldn't do it as my speedo head is the one mould for all dials,if your speedo is a seperate dial then thay can easily change it.

fitz

hi there,i had my sva test done a few months ago and was clearly told that the car speedo must read in mph.i was with vehicle while engineer at sva station checked it over and he definately checked and confirmed that speedo must read in mph,otherwise the vehicle would have failed test.

choccydog

SVA test might be more strict than MOT!

I also was suckered into buying a mph/km converter (magnetic disc that sticks on top of the original dial) by reading the import literature, too. Complete waste of £20. Never used it.

However, my main Toyota dealership which got my vehicle ready for registration and which is also an MOT garage specifically told me that KPH dial is not necessary these days. Passed MOT without it.

A year later - went to a different garage for MOT - again passed MOT with KPH dial.

My bother has had a Toyota Hiace with KPH dial and so far has passed 3 MOTs with him as owner. This vehicle must have gone through SVA as is under 10 years old.

How much more evidence do you want?

Think about it: every year many tens of thousands of European cars come over to the UK for holidays etc. Nobody questions their drivers' ability to mentally convert KPH reading to MPH.

There's absolutely no insistance on converting dial to MPH from KPH!

You just need to remember your 16x tables

fitz

if the vehicle is less than 2yrs old it must go through an sva test,one of the stipulations of this test is that speedo reads in mph,this does not apply to an mot test.

Dave_Was

Please remember that the SVA test is not a MOT test. The SVA rules are different to the MOT. The MOT is to see whether a car that was once approved for the UK roads is still fit to do so.

The SVA, I think it stands for Single Vehicle Approval, they will literally go through the car and see whether it meets the requirements for the road.

Don't take the SVA lightly. As I was once told the inspector is both the prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner. He is also the appeals judge.

This was told to me by a SVA inspector.

Please dont make the mistake that the SVA is something that you can take lightly.

All the best and good luck.