Importing a car from Australia

[Swiss Toni]

Has anyone any experience of importing a car from Oz?

Shipping costs, taxes etc

Does it make any difference that the car is a 1970 model?

Thank you

 

[miro]

Has anyone any experience of importing a car from Oz?

Shipping costs, taxes etc

Does it make any difference that the car is a 1970 model?

Thank you

Seeing as cars are much cheaper in the UK you would be losing the resale value and the shipping cost.

 

[R/T.E49]

Well, being an MB tech from Sydney and now here I can tell you the difference in condition on older models will blow you away! Most Mercs are very well cared for, we still had W109's and W111's in our dealer workshop!.
Rust is much less of an issue, obviously this is vehicle specific, I own an 83 W123 in Syd which has none whatsoever as it lived the first 19 years of its life in a garage....this is fairly normal. Just can't answer the question you asked.

 

[DC_insider]

Has anyone any experience of importing a car from Oz?

Shipping costs, taxes etc

Does it make any difference that the car is a 1970 model?

Thank you

I can't comment on shipping costs but I doubt that VAT would be payable as the car is obviously not new.

 

[grober]

What make/model of car are you thinking about?

 

[kikkthecat]

Top Gear did a buyers guide on importing cars that may be of some use.

Top Gear Buyers Guide

 

[miro]

Top Gear did a buyers guide on importing cars that may be of some use.

Top Gear Buyers Guide

On any given day a C32 AMG in London is the same price as a C240 in Sydney. Add shipping and handling to that and you can draw that comparison to C32 vs C180.

 

[Vlad]

I recently exported a G Wagon to Hong Kong and I was amazed at how cheap the shipping costs were....£525 with the car packed into its own shipping container.

Speak to Elite Shipping on 01246 451231 and ask them for a quote

 

[miro]

I recently exported a G Wagon to Hong Kong and I was amazed at how cheap the shipping costs were....£525 with the car packed into its own shipping container.

Speak to Elite Shipping on 01246 451231 and ask them for a quote

I costs more to ship a car from Brisbane to Melbourne than it does to ship it Brisbane to Los Angeles. The documentation fees alone would cost around about that much.

We can only envy those prices in Australia.

 

[74merc]

I imported a 74 280e from Oz in 1998. It cost about £900 for shipping plus a bit extra on this end for customs clearance etc. I didn't have to pay any import duty but I did own it when I lived there. All I had to do to get it on the road here was MOT it then pay £25 to register it. The speedo will be in kmh so you might have to change that to mph.

 

[imadoofus]

Recently shipped an Alfa Romeo to QA. Shipping was £1,300.

PJ

 

[benno]

On any given day a C32 AMG in London is the same price as a C240 in Sydney.

Sheesh, you're damn right on that count! We could talk all day about sending cars the other way. A search on a C43 in carpoint (respected car buyers guide site in Oz) yields one advert stating POA ("Price on Application!" / Owner thinks it's a CL65 obviously). I later found one for $50K AUD. A Good cond C36 goes for about $30K+ back in Oz which is about low mileage 51 reg CLK55 money.

An SL320 of about M reg age can still fetch circa £32K (GBPs) but most Aussies will have kept the mileage low (as they paid too much in the first place).

Bringing a 'loved' one over when staying here permanently is the only time I could conceivably understand anyone wishing to bring one from there to here.

The comment about body work is absolutely correct so a classic is always going to be a better proposition from down under!

If you're ever going back, leave it there ;-)

 

[miro]

Sheesh, you're damn right on that count! We could talk all day about sending cars the other way. A search on a C43 in carpoint (respected car buyers guide site in Oz) yields one advert stating POA ("Price on Application!" / Owner thinks it's a CL65 obviously). I later found one for $50K AUD. A Good cond C36 goes for about $30K+ back in Oz which is about low mileage 51 reg CLK55 money.

An SL320 of about M reg age can still fetch circa £32K (GBPs) but most Aussies will have kept the mileage low (as they paid too much in the first place). That means some sellers (usually anxious private sellers) ask for silly prices.

Bringing a 'loved' one over when staying here permanently is the only time I could conceivably understand anyone wishing to bring one from there to here.

The comment about body work is absolutely correct so a classic is always going to be a better proposition from down under!

If you're ever going back, leave it there ;-)

Australian car prices are unrealistic in the second hand car market. Some people fail to understand that www.redbook.com.au is the highest, not lowest price you can expect to pay.

When it comes to classics I also think that I dont want to be on ice roads and among 4x4 without ABS and ESP. All it takes is one bingle to ruin your health and those old clunkers are not up to scratch any more.

When it comes to mileage I would tend to think that Hong Kong has the lowest distance cars seeing as they cant even fit all of the cars they have on the available road length.

Generally cars like SL are low mileage because the owners live close to the city and dont drive them far to get to work. You hardly ever see an SL in the suburbs but I do know of a few AMG examples and they all get whipped to within an inch of destruction.