Cryoslider

Hi all, new member here, am due to move to Auckland next March with my wife and baby boy and amongst lots of other things we are currently discussing the pros and cons of buying a car here within the next month and having it shipped down versus buying a car in NZ , my wife is a kiwi though been here 13 years so she doesn't know too much about what the best option is. Does anyone here have experience of the same thing? Did you find it cheaper in the long run to buy here despite the shipping cost and GST ? Any advice much appreciated, cheers.

LittleGreyCat

Tricky one.

The answer may change with the exchange rate.

With $2.4 to £1 it was cheaper to buy in NZ.
At $1.8 to £1 it may make sense to buy a car and ship it because the UK pound cost of the car will be the same, but the cost of buying in NZ will have gone up by 1/3.

It also depends on the cost of the car. If you are buying a $5,000 car you aren't going to save money because the shipping and modifying will be a large part of the cost. If you are buying a $50,000 car then the shipping is a small part of the cost.

All you can really do is chose the car you want, then price it in Autotrader in the UK and Trademe in NZ.

People have saved money shipping caravans and motor homes, but there is a constant stream of second hand Japanese cars arriving in Auckland so cars are generally reasonably priced.

escapedtonz

Insane idea buying a used car specifically to bring along. That car is going to cost you at least 2000 GBP's to ship, then factor in another 500 GBP's to get it cleaned, through compliance/WOPF/Registration etc plus you'll be charged 15% GST on the value of the car + shipping by customs. What a waste. You may as well buy here. They aren't as expensive as many people make out. If you know where to look and are patient there are great deals to be had here plus you'll have the peace of mind that the car you buy is to NZ spec with odometer in KM's and KPH and not miles.

snaps

Far better to buy in New Zealand. There is a great choice of imported Japanese car on offer at very decent prices in Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranaga. You may get hit with a hefty fine/cost if anything is found in the car. You are not able to store anything in the car either. You'll may have to collect from the port too. You normally have to have owned the imported car for a length of time before importing I believe and then you have to own it this side for a fair length of time before selling/exchanging too. Then there is the cost of moving from there to here. You'll be without it once it's gone too...just when you need a car most. My thoughts are not always correct so it will be worth checking yourself. Good luck.

MrsFychan

if you own anything less than a year you will pay gst on it.
you will not be able to drive it on any roads any till it has passed inspection, been registered and wof'ed. you will also have to visit customs and sign a form stating that if you sell within 3 years you will pay a lowering amount, all explained with costings on the form
Will you be able to source parts easily?

saying that we bought ours over as just did not any funds to buy one. Whilst we waited we were lent a car by one of my OH's work colleagues.

A4Ron

It depends on what you're after - if just a general runabout that's 2+ years old then buy in NZ.

If you're after a new semi-premium/premium European car then definitely buy in UK and ship over - you will save thousands, even when shipping, rego and on-the-road costs are factored in. This is how all the specialist European dealers here make their money!

The mark-up from the main official European dealers here is ridiculous and they're ripping the population off. However, if you're after a run-of-the-mill Japanese family car or Aussie Holden/Ford, you may as well buy in NZ

A4Ron

Also, if you order and buy a brand new car in UK and ship to NZ, you won't pay VAT (20%?) on the vehicle, but you will pay GST (15%?) once it lands here, so that's a further saving. A friend of mine specced and bought a brand new Mini Cooper this way and saved about $8,000 after everything was factored in.

mickey_d

I always wonder if we should have brought our Toyota with us. We sold it in 2006 for what would be around $5500 now. To get same model/year here now 10 years on seems to be between $6.5 - 8K

A4Ron

Wow, that's interesting. What model and year was the car?

The used car market continues to baffle me here. In the UK you can get a half-decent 10-year-old runabout for around £2000/$4500, but at that price here there's a lot of lemons.

simonsi

Because at that price point they are 20yrs old?

Baffles me why people think the UK car market is great because they use salt and the damage it causes affects values...

Cars maybe relatively expensive compared to the UK but the whole market depreciates slower in NZ so the car holds its value for longer. Only Brits would think that is a bad thing! :-)

BTW my car is 14 years old, drives pretty much like new and has zero deterioration due to rust etc - so why wouldn't it hold more value?

Stormer999

Exactly the reason why we dumped our two motorbikes before coming and re bought two bikes not ex salt and less likely to rot away, and yes we did make sure the replacements were not UK imports.....

Cryoslider

Cheers for all the advice and info, we have done comparisons on auto trader and trade me and seams for some makes we can save money by shipping a car over even with the extras on top but not for all makes, so further thinking needed but alas time is short!
We are moving to Papakura, South Auckland to start with so I'm guessing public transport is pretty poor?

A4Ron

Incorrect. It's all about supply - UK being in the heart of Europe has 12x the used cars in its market, not to mention Japanese car factories churning out cars in England, too. The reason why used cars are cheaper in UK is simply because there is plenty, plenty more to choose from and a stones throw from Germany, France etc.

If you buy a 10+ year old car that has been used as a daily in the North of England/Scotland then yes, chances are it would've suffered rust. But given that the Midlands and South experience as much snow as Christchurch for example, and that car body quality is much higher now than 20 years ago, buying a used car 1-6 years old you're very unlikely to have rust on it, unless you've been slushing on salt-laden roads 300+ days per year.

Consumables on a car and 14 years of mileage will still deteriorate a vehicle, rust aside. Used values of NZ cars are simply down to much lower supply and choice, plus higher new prices to begin with. Hopefully more and more imports flooding the market will rectify this though

Op, if you want European new or nearly new you're better off buying in UK you may even turn a profit after a couple of years of ownership if it's built in relatively limited numbers

Stormer999

Coming from the UK midlands and being an all year round motorcyclist I can assure you that you are very wrong in your statement. Snow fall does not enter into the major use of salt on UK roads it is wet/damp conditions that freeze overnight creating black ice making roads unusable without road salt. Chch roads are usually dry and only have to put up with minor frosts which hardly cause driving/riding problems very early morning. Ground temperatures are very much lower in the UK compared with Chch NZ hence ice conditions on UK roads being a very much bigger problem. One of West Midlands biggest concern used to be using up their salt mountains before winter finished making the buying of extra media very expensive.

simonsi

Disagree, there are plenty of NZ car yards, all stuffed with stock and plenty of choice, not sure how much more supply would be needed to shift it by that mechanism. As with many markets perception of value is all.

Not sure about your comment on consumables, they are consumed and replaced...modern oils have pretty much stopped engine wear in its tracks (or at least pushed it way along the road in being an issue).

Anyway the market is the market buying and selling, its high on both sides so Brits stop moaning, only the price of entry is different, once in you'll get back more of what you paid to compensate.