Hi, has anyone ever taken an aussie car back to the UK? I am returning in August and will probably need a container for other stuff, but I'm also considering taking my car? does anyone know if this is complicated?
thanks a lot
weomara

I would also be interested in this one as i have just bought a new car and if i go home i want to take it home......

Cheers
Suzanne

Importing a car into the UK, essentially has two steps.

1, Getting the car out of customs at the port of entry.
2, Getting the car on the road.

Depending on when you bought the car, etc, you may have to pay duty and VAT on the vehicle to get it released at customs. You will also have to show how you will take the vehicle home. If you are planning to drive it home, you will have to get insurance. Insurance companies will insure the car on the chassis number. This is also how they insure new cars in the uk. If you are insuring the car you will have to show proof, then customs will give you a waiver, for not having MOT or registration and allow you to drive home. Of course you could trailer it home too.

Once your car is at home you have to register the vehicle. For this you have to show insurance and also it's inspection for road safety. Depending on the age of the vehicle, this could either be a MOT or a SVA. Hope for a MOT. The SVA, is the single vehicle authorization, it's like an MOT test on steroids. I didn't find any garages that would take me through the process. The advice I got from the SVA center was take the test and then fail it and then you'll have a list of what needs to be corrected.

Once you have the car tested and insured just go down to the DVLA and register the vehicle as normal.

This is as I understand it.. but what I have done twice on vehicles.

Good luck.

check previous threads,there's loads of them.
i took my car back from oz in october last year,put it in a forty foot container along with my wordly goods,you'll need to buy wheel chocks and secure the car in safely,i strapped mine in and surrounded it with my bed mattresses,it seemed to do the trick fine.you'll have to have owned the vehicle for six months and to have lived permanently in country {australia }for a year to avoid paying tax.
the full sva test is available on the dvla site,i had a new car,test didn't last long.
the car must have a fog lamp fitted and instrument panel must read in mph{if car is less than 2yrs old}.
i have a toyota rav4, fog lamp cost and fitted by toyota £85.00 {rip off }
new instrument panel £820.00 {yes ,that's right!} i couldn't get a single dial or mph sticker fitted as instrument panel was all the one mould,you may be able to get these changes done in oz before you come home.
the only problem that you may encounter,as i have done,is insuring the car with immobiliser,most companies want to know the immobiliser number to make sure that it's thatchem rated.
i've contacted toyota australia and they have been totally uninterested,as have toyota uk.
all in all it's been worth it as uk equivelant is much more expensive.
good luck with the move.

forgot to say that i have insured the car no problem but until i provide the immobiliser number it is not insured against theft.

Thank you so much for your detailed answer! I really appreciate it.
Sounds manageable! Did you pay very much for your container?

Thank you so much for your help. I didn't know where to start with this but it sounds OK. I appreciate it.

Well first I would look into the costs with shipping and doing any conversions. Conversions usually consist of adding a fog lamp with a lighted switch that can be seen from the drivers normal seated position, or that's at least as I rememebr it and making sure you have mph speedo. The fog lamp isn't that expensive and if you do it yourself a fiver from halfords. Depeding on whether you can get to the speedo, you can get overlays for the mph. A lot of the guys that used to import sabaru's and evo's had to do this. Otherwise it's a new instrument cluster, which as has been said previously is expensive.

Talk to your shipping agent, about where they will deliver the car. My shipping agent when I relocated back to the UK, delivered the car to the door and I 'just' had to get the registration done.

Just ask questions, on what you're unsure about and I'm sure that we'll do our best to help.

Just one thing to note. It has been 8 years since I shipped my stuff back, but you can use my experience as a bit of a guide.

Good luck.

i arranged a self move ,40ft container cost roughly $7,500
if arranging through a recognised shipping agent expect to pay double as they pack and load container.
i arranged shipping with transmarine shipping in fremantle and opted to pack container myself{saved a fortune}
you are allowed to drive the vehicle "unregistered" to and from sva test centre and to have modification done but you do need to insure the car against the chassis number before you can drive it on uk roads.