diallta

At this point, I think I've scrapped the idea of trying to bring any used car to NZ. This only made marginal sense to begin with from the perspective of avoiding the GST by owning the car for a year, but the hazards of the compliance process are just too great to offset any potential savings (and the luxury of a much nicer selection of vehicles.) There's no way to authoritatively know if a car is going to go through the compliance process and end up needing nothing or if it will need $20,000 worth of work, and for a car that we're just going to use as an everyday runabout, it's just not worth the risks.

escapedtonz

A sound idea not importing any vehicle. We considered it then after a bit of research decided it was a minefield and too risky so we sold 2 cars and a motorbike in the uk and bought used when we arrived.
A mate of mine imported a 2007 triton 2017/2018. NZTA refused to pass it through Compliance. Told him he needed a new chassis because of surface rust. There was nothing wrong with it, other than it was UK surface rust!!! He got a second opinion but they ruled the same. That was way too costly a remedy so he had it completely stripped down to chassis, bean blasted, resprayed, sealed then all put back together - probably better than manufacturer quality. Cost him $10 grand but was never the same so waited till he could sell it gst free and got rid, bought a few year old Navara. Always said it was the worst decision he ever made. He also brought over a really old VW camper and that too never got compliance but way too costly to fix. That needed a new sub frame or summat so left it and sold it on eventually. Lost a heap of money on those vehicles. Pissed him off so much he built a new house (he's a builder), sold it for huge profit which clawed back some of those lost funds and moved to France.

Another mate of mine brought over a 2007 CX7 from UK and that was refused compliance because of surface rust on steering components/suspension. He fixed it himself with a wire brush and a few cans black spray paint and got compliance a week or so later. Cost him a grand though after paying for a hire car, materials and having it towed to & from NZTA centre a couple times. Unfortunately that car was totalled by your typical average kiwi driver who drives with eyes shut.

diallta

Interesting stories, escapedtonz. There's no way I would want to drive a vehicle that had been disassembled by a compliance workshop and sloppily put back together, so I don't blame your friend for selling the truck.

What I find so frustrating about this is how dimwitted the entire process seems to be. If your friend can take a wire brush and a tin of paint and get his car through (and good for him!) then what are the compliance people even checking for? The color brown? I know for a fact that the standard WOF is also a bit of a joke as my father-in-law runs a spare 1994 Nissan that keeps getting approved every six months, and having personally driven that car the length of the North Island, it can only be described as dangerous. There is absolutely no way that it could get through a UK MOT or a German inspection without major mechanical repairs to the steering, suspension, and brakes. But, it hasn't got any surface rust on it, so safe for NZ roads, apparently.

I'm still interested to see photos of the bottom of a more recent UK car (2-3 years) that was recently imported to NZ.

(And, I've no idea how the U-umlaut in TÜV got changed to an A-tilde in my earlier post! Let's see if it happens again...)

escapedtonz

Yeah I agree, the process is complete bullsh*t. A license to print money at the cost to the unwitting migrant should they take a chance on importing a vehicle. There's so many hoops to jump through and even ticking them all off via an experienced international vehicle shipper doesn't guarantee you can ever drive it on nz roads. Even more ludicrous when you get here and see the crap that does get driven on Kiwi roads.

JaneRiley

Hear, hear!!! Why does anyone import cars? NZ is full of them!

Justcol

And all of them vastly overpriced compared to other countries, and most of them in worse condition than cars in other countries. That's why people import cars