Lee Lee

I'm sorry to anyone who has already answered this question - i know its been on here but i cant find the thread!

Do you think its worth shipping your car over or buying when we get to NZ?

Any thoughts greatly recieved

shirl

http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/importing/

The above is a link to importing. There have been lots of discussions on this topic. The concensus was I think that unless it is really of special interest or value then buying here is preferal. No one really cares what type of car you drive here. There is no keeping up with the Jones' well not where I live anyway. There is no number plates to let on what year it is like back in the UK. Personalied plates are very popular but mostly it is 3 letters and 3 numbers for you plate and only you know what year it is unless you are a car fanatic and can tell the latest models LOL!!!

alanmacc

I agree, unless you have a car that you are really attached to I would just buy over here, most if not all cars are Japanese imports and tend to be well looked after with a decent mileage.

The one thing you would need to be aware of if bringing in a car is the speedo NZ is KMH so if you have a MPH you could soon clock up the fines for speeding ............

newkiwi

most cars here are good quality 2nd hand cars, lots of imports from japan. you can probably budget NZD 10-15k for a really nice 2nd hand car, but you can pick up reliable "runners" for less.
So I dont think it is worth the hassle and cost of importing a car.

teebrown

We bought over here and are very pleased with what we got, we didn't buy new.

Here is a website we have been looking at to buy a town car from, you can watch the live auctions (if you are up at 7am and have nothing better to do) but you will get an idea of what is around and what price they are going for.

http://www.turners.co.nz/ABOUT/Pages/About.aspx

Lee Lee

Thanks everyone

Broaders

Hi Lee.

I have just gone through the process.

What car are you looking at importing?

We brought a Nissan X Trail over (5 years old but low mileage for its age and in good condition) - we checked out the car prices before we came of NZ cars and looked at the price we could sell it for in the UK which was not a lot. It was probably worth more in NZ as looking at the price of other cars there seem to have a lot higher mileage and also a lot older for the price.

On top of that though you have the additional cost of the shipping and insurance - for us the increase of container size from 20' to 40' was about circa £1200 and the insurance was about £200 - £300.

You will have MAF costs (about $300NZD for the vehicle) at this end to pay and believe you me they will find something for you to pay as we found out - we were supposedly charged $600NZD for additional steam cleaning and vacuuming for the car (we had cleaned the car before it came out including having it professionally valeted twice). Upon inspection after receipt they had not touched a thing on the car!!

Also you will need to arrange transportation from Shippers to Compliance Centre (between $80 and $120NZD)

The main additional cost came at the Compliance Centre though (where your car goes immediately once it is released by Customs).We were stung with rust underneath the car (bit of joke really when you see the state of some cars overhere!!) - we had to pay an additional $1300 NZD to have it sandblasted and resealed - we were also stung for $650 NZD for new brake pads and disks (one can only assume that they did need doing and that the Kiwis are not trying to get one over on you!!).

The general Compliance Centre procedure is about $400-$500NZD and then the road tax for the car is about $375NZD.

The process is left a bit of a sour taste in the mouth, however, it is nice to have the car overhere.

If your car is a diesel further requirements may apply and you will also have to pay an adiditional road tax based upon the kilometres you do each year and the weight of the vehicle (I believe) including what you might be towing.

Also if you sell the car within 3 years of arriving you will have to pay GST on the value of the car at date of import (the GST amount does go down each year).

What the actual value of our car will be in several years we don't really know as it has a mph speedo and is manual control (the vast majority of cars overhere are automatics) but overall I am pleased that we brought it over - just not happy about the feeling of been 'shafted'.

Finally, if it is vintage motor or a very expensive make/model be wary - Kiwis are terrible drivers. Nice people but get them behind a steering wheel they become absolute a**eholes. The amount of cars you will see driving round with dents on the bodywork is amazing (frightening I suppose). Make sure you get fully comprehensive insurance whatever you do.

Good luck.

Steve.

lapsed kiwi

So, you paid around $7500 (at $2.5 to the pound) all up. A five-year old x-trail (auto, with a kph speedo and no GST liability) would cost about $15-$17k - so provided your was worth less than 4k pounds in the UK, you've probably done the right thing in money terms - plus you have a car whose history you know. It must feel quite strange driving a very familiar car on the other side of the world?

Charismatic

Most of the cars I've heard of people shipping where supply issues (Lotus for example are very popular but with the exception of one dealer in Auckland I can't think of anyone who imports them). The frontal impact and left hand drive laws make it a pain in the ass for enthusiasts .

Broaders

Hi.

Yeah - the selling price of similar X Trails in the UK were going anyway between £4k-£5.5k (the backside had well and truly fallen out of the used UK car market before we left) and as we would have needed to sell it quickly it would have probably been at the lower end of the spectrum.

Without all the 'add on' costs the exercise was definately beneficial and I suppose even now it still has - just don't like been left with the feeling of been 'shafted'.

Driving over here is generally a doodle - especially outside of Auckland - just need to be wary of the mad kiwis once they get behind the wheel that can only just about cope with automatics (god knows what they would be like with manual cars!!!) and 15 year olds driving to schools in a variety of cars that all have one thing in common - a large exhaust!!!!