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Shipping Car

Shipping Car

Old Jan 25th 2011, 6:26 pm
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Default Re: Shipping Car

Originally Posted by NatashaB
We brought my husband's (older than 25 years) mini with us. It was pretty easy, we just shipped it in our container, filled out a customs declaration form for it and it was delivered separately from the container a week later, as customs had to check it and it had to be delivered on a tow truck. There were a few hundred dollars in customs charges but we never got a breakdown so not sure whether they related to the car or the storage charges whilst we tried to sort out the bike saga below. All pretty simple.

My husband also brought his (not 25 year old) bike. Next time he might listen when I tell him not to do something, it was a nightmare. He thought it would be OK because the bike is essentially the same in the UK and US. It wasn't. Even though the specs are the same, the bike had to conform to the RECOMMENDED specifications (even if the same bike in the US doesn't).If anyone does do this I would suggest you contact the manufacturer well in advance (months!) to get the necessary certificates from them regarding emissions, specifications etc and find out exactly what it is you need from them, because the customer helplines are not really familiar with the importing process. You need to be absolutely clear about what set of specifications the vehicle needs to conform to, and make sure it does.

In the end we had to tick the box saying that we were only importing it temporarily for a year, to get it through customs and get the rest of our container released and stop racking up charges. We were about to tell them to destroy it (at our cost!) when we finally got it sorted. He is hoping he can pull it apart, put all the parts on a new frame and have the original frame destroyed (still need to check if this is allowed, we have until August to sort it). I don't believe that he's allowed to ride it under the temporary import restriction. Customs agents did say that if he had imported it as parts originally it would have been OK - but we weren't allowed to do that since we had already brought the bike in whole.
Just wondering where the 25 year stuff comes from. I know that the US did not impose safety standards until Jan 1968. I used to own a 1968 VW Type I Beetle -- it had the new bumpers at regulation height and had the "throne" seats for the headrests. Since the car was brought over in 1967, it had only the lap belts, albeit with the anchors for the three-point harness. I upgraded the car at my own expense [I had purchased it used].

I later owned a 1967 Sunbeam Tiger -- since most of them were exported to the States, the car was discontinued.

I mention this because the original Mini was not imported after 1967. I remember the "Austin America." I've seen old Minis, but I can't recall the last time I've seen an America.

Last edited by S Folinsky; Jan 25th 2011 at 6:30 pm.
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