Lee Lee

I change my mind on this one on a very regular basis but at the moment I'm thinking we should take our car with us. Its fairly new (58 reg.) and I think at the moment we would throw away so much money (that we're still paying!!!) by getting rid of it to then have to buy another one in NZ. Its nothing special but its quite new, and I'm comfortable driving it. I remember someone mentioning before about the speedo, but I've been told by my hubby that ours also has kilometers on it... cant say I've noticed

Also, we dont have a whole bunch of stuff but really dont want to share a container so it will make good use of any free space

Has anyone on here taken their car with them? If so, whats your thoughts on it? Also, what sort of things do you have to go through when you get to NZ, do you have to get it checked over and registered etc.

Any thoughts on it would be great

alchris

we looked into taking ours aswell, not as new as yours but in good condition and very low milage.- one careful lady owner who likes to shop! Anyway after looking into everything and the cost we decided to leave it here and when we go a freind of OH will sell it for us. Then at least we have it till we depart. I got most of my info from the removal companies reps. There were if I remember several checks on it once in NZ, and that they might clean it again, more cost.

RobClubley

What sort of car is it? Make sure they're sold over here for a start.

I brought mine and I'm glad I did, but it was damaged in transit and had to be repaired.

If it's nothing fancy, sell it and buy here. There are loads of reasonably priced cars to be had here.
Don't forget you'll still be car-less for at least 6 weeks when waiting for your stuff so there's hire car cost on top of the import fees, reg fees, checks etc.

Lee Lee

Its nothing fancy, the new shape fiesta. I think you have them there dont you?

RobClubley

Yes. Not many around yet as the Japanese small cars are cheaper
The concern if it wasn't sold here would be that you wouldn't get a frontal impact test cert - which means it can't be registered but a Fiesta will be fine.

I weighed up the cost of import versus the loss of selling and my car was cheaper to bring.

4 years ago my car cost about 1200 GBP to ship, 700GBP insurance, about $800 on-road costs in NZ

Plus I spent a couple of hundred dollars on a rental car, then found out after a couple of weeks that the car had not been shipped as they were waiting to fill a container around it. I ended up buying a banger on Trademe for $1100 then selling it later for $1000

My car was about 3 months from drop off to me collecting it here but if you're putting it in your own container you won't have that problem.

Wooly_Cow

Make sure the exact model has it's safety and emmsions test for NZ. I had a new Galaxy and it didn't have the correct tests done in NZ so i couldn't bring it.

There are also horror stories of the cost of maintaining and repairing European make cars (3 or 4 times the price of Jap makes).

RobClubley

That's definitely true. I usually buy parts from the US or UK as even with shipping they're between half and a fifth of the NZ price!!
I have a Skoda so it's all VW/Audi parts

lapsed kiwi

I think the mistake here is thinking that you haven't already thrown away the depreciation on your car. The price you paid, minus whatever you could sell it for, is gone forever, and shipping a commodity item like a Ford Fiasco half way round the world makes about as much sense as filling your container with cans of baked beans. My advice would be sell it for whatever it is worth and use the proceeds to buy a good used car here in NZ. Car dealers are struggling in NZ as much as anywhere and there are some good deals around.

Just my $0.02 worth mind you

RobDon

We sold our car (Skoda Superb 57 plate) before we came over and kept the money seperate to buy us a car when we got here.

We now have a Mazda MPV bought outright, which we could never have afforded to buy or run in the UK!

TeamEmbo

Personally I won't. We sold two near new PT Cruisers and a Nissan Navara double cab before we came. We bought a Toyota Celica when we first arrived (I loved it but not very practical family car!) for $4,500 which at the time was equivalent of 1,570 GBP. We then traded that and got a 4WD Mitsubishi Pajero and paid equivalent of 2,785 GBP.

Wiz'n'Ton

I agree with the majority - sell it, swallow the depreciation, and buy a spangly Jap car when you get here. Bang for buck is great, it saves you hassle, and you can be on the road within hours of arriving if you head down the car lots straight off with an idea of what you want. Cash will buy a lot of car here right now.

Unless your vehicle has particluar sentimental, classic or aesthetic value ( I wish I'd bought my motorbike, an older - now quite rare - 250cc model) then ditch it and move on.

We run a Peugeot 307. Lovely car, but parts costs are just crazy ($400 for a 1 rear wheel bearing set! ). Bought it outright for a song though, so swings and boundyrouts on that score!

Justcol

For what it'll cost you in shipping, import duty, gst, compliance test (the brakes WILL have to be done)
and registration fee's your gonna be paying out half the the cost of the car again to get it on the road.
Sell it and buy a new one here they are $26k for a 1.6 top spec model
or $20k used 1.6 manual 5 door 11000 kilometers on the clock

Lee Lee

Thanks for looking in to it colandros, and thanks everyone else for your input. After taking it all on board, looks like my little fiasco will probably be staying behind... shame its nothing posh, but its a smart little car, good to drive and most of all... I like it. Better get rid quick and stop paying for it Still at least I will get to pick a new car when I get there

simonsi

But you can avoid the import duty and gst for an immigrant's car, can't you (have owned for a year etc), and the on-road checks (effectively a new MoT) would come up on a used car at some point anyway??? so is there really much more than shipping and initial import reg costs???

Cadibel

Hi,

We have just shipped our Toyota Celica out here - cost about £1000 plus about $2000 dollars what with MAF and reregistering it. There is no way we could get a similar car here for the same cost (it is very low mileage and fairly new) because we looked into it - so we would have lost about $8000 to leave it in the UK!

We filled ours with good ies and shipped over 6 weeks before we left - sure it was a couple of weeks late - but all those bits and bobs came in really handy while we wait for our container.

I don't think it's the depreciation in the UK that you need to look at so much as how much it would cost to buy a smilar car in the UK - you can check this out on sites like Trademe. Bear in mind though, that there are costs when you get here - like for MAF to do sweeet FA (no, they didn't notice the seeds in the grill at the front or the dead beetle in the gear stick pouch, but charged us $250 for an imaginary steam clean and we also had to pay over $1000 to have some 'rust' removed from the underside of the car - bloomin' cheek when I look at some of the rust buckets on the road!)

All in all, I am glad we did it, but does involve SOME hassle - but then, deosn't everything about emigrating