ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

hello Guys !

Just wonder has anyone got experience for shipping a car over to California ?

My husband bought his Jag last year. If he sells now, he will lose quite a lot money on it obviously. he is now considering to take it over . I am not too sure if it make any sense , at least it is not going to be convenient .

has anyone done it recently? if you have, which removal did you use ?

thanks

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

Can't imagine it would be street legal in CA and if it's possible to make it so it will cost many $$$. AIUI it's difficult to import cars into CA from other states, let alone from abroad.

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

Having lived in CA for 18 months, with a daily commute on the 405, I can't imagine driving a right hand drive vehicle and not being in a wreck.
Then there is this
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/de...s/howto/htvr9a

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

Stating the obvious, the steering wheel will be on the 'wrong' side ... which if nothing else will make resale a struggle. May also have insurance implications.

And as the other guy said - probably won't be legal 'as is' due to higher / different emissions standards in CA, I don't think. From what I've heard, each country has its own set of emissions standards, which is thinly veiled protectionism.

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

To get it on the road it will need to conform to CA emissions standards... and CA is more strict than the other 49 states.


It might make more sense to put it in long-term storage.

Ian

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

As much as my hubby loved his Jag, we sold it before moving to the US.

It was just not worth the effort of shipping (probably his company would have said no to that request anyway) and driving with the "wheel on the wrong side" would have been a nightmare!

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

You cannot register a privately imported car in the US unless it is already 25 years old. It simple isn't possible. So while everyone above makes good points, they don't come into play because of the insurmountable issue of not being able to register it.

I believe that hypothetically your husband could import it, not register it, and then keep it as a museum piece or track car.

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

He could drive it on it's UK reg plates in the US for max 12 months (assuming he could arrange insurance) before either removing it from the country or moth-balling/scrapping it.

I (re)imported a Euro spec C5 Corvette that I had in UK before I moved here.
I ran it on its UK plates for a year (insurance coverage was under a blanket policy my company had for a number of vehicles).

Being a US built car, when it came to registering it, it had a recognizable VIN, i.e. issued in the US and FL DoT registered it for me, despite the car's lighting being Euro Spec - the only comment being that the speedo went up to 300 (switchable mph/kph) which US market cars didn't have.

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

Do you know someone who has a garage where they could store it? And drive it around a bit to keep it in good running order, but obviously not add too many miles. I did that with my car, a very good friend put it in his barn, took out every now and then for a brief drive and then about 2 years after I left, I went back and sold it for a good price because it was low mileage for it's age

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

But surely it was still a lower price than if you had sold it when you first left? :unsure:

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

thanks for all your replies. really happy we can always find answer here !!

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

No, if I had sold it straight away I would have lost loads more. I suppose you have to work out how much the depreciation is likely to be. I think for a lot of cars, the first few years are the worst

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

So are you saying that you car appreciated in value while it was stored in a barn? :confused: .... It wasn't a Mercedes 540K Spezial Roadster, was it? :lol:

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

Canadians import their cars when immigrating to the US, so it depends.

Doubt it would be worthwhile in this case.

Re: ship car to califonia , good or bad idea ?
 

But they have to be North American spec vehicles.