Dave and Lyns

Hi All!

I saw Beef W's thread on containers but has anyone got any opinion's or costs on shipping a car over? Would you have a container that you could fit your car in then have enough space for the rest of the house stuff?

Also, we have a Vauxhall Astra (2002) so what are parts like over in NZ and is it worth bringing over?

Cheers for help in advance

Dave

Lisa T

We have been given prices from both Crown and PSS. Very similar from both companies. We are intending to pack up a 3 bed house and bring the majority of things. We were then told that we were just over a 20 ft container and would need groupage for the other things.

I suggested taking the car and having a 40 ft container. This would have put the costs up by 1800-2000 GBP. However I contacted a car dealer in NZ and asked their opinion on bringing in UK cars and they said that they had just been sorting out a UK couple who had brought their car and that there was so much red tape etc that they felt it would have been better to sell it in the UK and buy again.

NZ Climber

Cars are really cheap here if you're happy with a runabout. If you want something fancy then you'll pay through the nose but for jap imports and Vauxhalls (called Holden here) parts and cars themselves are dirt cheap. Basically they are the same in dollars as you'd pay in pounds for equivalent cars (so nearly a third the price). That doesn't make much difference if you're spending Kiwi dollars but if you've got a stack of Pounds, you'll be laughing.

The red tape in taking a car over here is hideous by all accounts, we looked at bring both my Ford Focus and the better half's motorbike and were told that it totally wasn't worth it. As it turns out Crown were right on one count (the car) and wrong on the other (the motorbike). If you can sell your car for a decent amount in the UK, you might as well use the money to buy something here that you don't have to muck about with in terms of reregistering etc etc. The car fairs are a good place to get started, or the auctions. Dealers tend to stock only new and expensive second-hand cars here.

Motorbikes are worth bringing as they are extremely expensive here though.

OOOIwannagosoon

Some friends shipped 2 cars with Excess International last year. They have all the info on their website. They said the prices were quite competitive (about a £1000 each).

They weren't shipping a whole container of househiold stuff though.

When we first went to NZ 15years ago everyone took a car. Now the market in NZ is awash with cheap 2nd hand imports from Japan, so you would expec`t the dealer to tell you to buy from him. That said, you should really look at better quality Euro imports such as Mercs, BMWs, Jags, Volvos, Land Rovers etc.

Lisa T

Are you saying that it is better to bring in Mercs etc as it was a Merc dealer who gave me the info? (Sorry to appear thick but am in middle of packing things up for storage before shipping so have total brain numbness.......). I have an ML 270 CDi only 2 years old and hardly any mileage......

Carkedit

When I was in NZ a couple of months ago I was taking to my friend, who is a mechanic, about cars and importing mine (just coz I LOVE my car)he said Euro imports are expensive to repair as not every mechanic is able to fix them, Jap imports yes, but not euro cars-bit more specialised.

When I was there on a work visa I bought a Ford telsta for $600 and it was great and I eventually sold it for $900 :-) All it took was a bit of polish (and 2 new locks after some little *@?!*!@ broke into it while it was parked in Kelston) to up the value.

Radio Ham

Thanks for this thread. I was considering shipping my merc ML having seen a few in Auckland, but now I'll just sell and repurchase there.

Now I just need to convince OH to sell the cats too...

Rad

OOOIwannagosoon

'Course the dealers gonna tell you to sell here and buy there!!!

He gets his $10k markup that way!

I checked with my friends and they dealt with a girl called Darielle at Excess - 0800 7831 085. She was very helpful and knowledgeable they said.

You can always check the value with car price guides, or just email an NZ dealer.

I shipped a number of cars during the 90s and then there was always value in it. On a couple of occasions we made it good.