Importing a car to Australia - All the facts... Hopefully!

[mgbond]

... forms here...

Perfect, was just looking for those links.

I'm planning on fitting a charge cooler (in line with the IC) on the car before shipping it as the OZ heat won't help the intake temps as the IC on the Noble is not best placed. Do you think this will be an issue as its a hand made car to pretty much what ever spec anyone wanted so not quite std. It also has a BOV but you can't hear it over the air intake noises and I understand they are not liked. Will I have to remove it (as it helps preserve turbo bearings). I know I could fit a re cir one so may look at that.

Cheers

Bondy

[deviant]

mgbond said:

... forms here...

Perfect, was just looking for those links.

I'm planning on fitting a charge cooler (in line with the IC) on the car before shipping it as the OZ heat won't help the intake temps as the IC on the Noble is not best placed. Do you think this will be an issue as its a hand made car to pretty much what ever spec anyone wanted so not quite std. It also has a BOV but you can't hear it over the air intake noises and I understand they are not liked. Will I have to remove it (as it helps preserve turbo bearings). I know I could fit a re cir one so may look at that.

Cheers

Bondy

I think bringing a car like yours in is always going to come with a certain amount of grey areas and I suspect nobody really knows what you can and can not have with a personal import.

I think the inspectors would have never seen a Noble before and are unlikely to have a build manual lying around so as long as the intercooler is installed to a high standed I cant see them jumping on it....if you are that worried leave it off until you are on the road.

Yes fit a re-cir BOV. It might be the stock part but they dont like the noise and they dont like the emission of unfiltered air through it. They also dont like the puff of soot some cars give off with the moment of rich running when it vents air.

[mgbond]

Cool, cheers

I think I'll fit it as I want the space in the car for other bits when shipping it. I would have thought they may question all the car parts in the car when it arrives if I don't.

Bondy

[mgbond]

Do you have to have a place to stay or a visa before even applying or can you still apply on the basis of getting a visa and a place to live.

Bondy

[Bob the Planner]

TVP993 said:

...
Thanks Bob. Did you also get your car valued in Australia or in the UK?

Got mine valued in Australia however printed the valuer a whole bunch of similar aged vehicles from the UK (ie about GBP 16k at the time) so I ended up paying tax/duty etc on A$24k avoiding luxury car tax.

[Bob the Planner]

mgbond said:

Do you have to have a place to stay or a visa before even applying or can you still apply on the basis of getting a visa and a place to live.
Bondy

I did not have a place to live at the time, however I would at least wait until you have the visa sorted.

Section 6 on page 2 of the forms indicates the sort of documents requried and you need to substatiate an intention to stay in Australia. Getting an Australian bank account should be fairly simple and its worth applying for a Tax File Number too both of which can be useful in providing evidence of your intention to stay.

I must get my Australian driving licence sorted too !

[Google [bot]]

I also stumbled upon this PHer who has just brought a 355 over. Some info and an invite here

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0... Order Mistress arrives in Oz - F355

[ron down under]

Google [bot] said:

I also stumbled upon this PHer who has just brought a 355 over. Some info and an invite here

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0... Order Mistress arrives in Oz - F355

Ok , I'm here, I imported my car under RAWS. The car is currently undergoing compliance.

[Savitar]

Hi all,

Sorry to divert the thread a little. I bought a 2004 M3 in the UK in late June 2009 and am thinking of shipping it back to Aus (Melbourne) as a test for the process before shipping back a 1996 - 1999 F355 (which I am looking to purchase soon). My two main reasons for the process of the two is to make money out of it AND to be able to drive some amazing cars for the next few years that I would not be able to afford in OZ.

As there appears to be a few people on here that have done this before I was hoping to get a few questions answered.

1. The M3 cost me $35,000 (converted at the time). Do you think I can ship it to OZ with all the costs and make money out of it? The average price for a 2004 - 2005 M3 in Melbourne appears to be between $70,000 and $80,000.
2. I have been on many holidays outside of the UK over the last 9 months (mostly weekends away, some work trips to the US for a week and three weeks to OZ for Xmas). Do you see any snags in proving I was in the UK as an owner of the car?
3. As I am not driving it that much, its unlikely to need servicing during the time I own it (the M3 that is), will that be an issue to prove it was my car during this time as I will not have servicing receipts to show?

4. Similar to question 1, with the current exchange rate its would cost me around $56,000 to $72,000 AUD for a 1996 - 1999 F355, would it be worth it financially to import for the purpose of profit? At the moment in OZ the cheapest F355 i can find is $135,000 and most are around the $150,000 mark.
5. Someone on this thread said that it was very hard to insure a personal import other than going through Shannons or the like and paying through the nose (which would be a potential road block for people willing to buy the car) but I tried a few websites in OZ recently and they appeared to be OK with personal imports. Does anyone have any experience there?

Sorry for all the questions, just hoping to get a little more input before I do the ship and then the purchase of the F355.

Thanks in advance.

[ron down under]

ron down under said:

Hi Savitar:
I'm doing a F355 now. The car is in Oz and is at the compliance stage. Rather than go through the story again. Here is the story so far:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

You have the personal import option while mine is under RAWS.

[thebunyip]

hi, we are due to move to oz in a couple of months. we are taking our 911 with us, the mot is about to run out. does anyone know if it needs a current mot to be exported?
thanks louise

[ukdennis]

thebunyip said:

hi, we are due to move to oz in a couple of months. we are taking our 911 with us, the mot is about to run out. does anyone know if it needs a current mot to be exported?
thanks louise

it doesn't

[E60 530D]

Hi Guys, great info...I Have purchased a 530D, would like to take it to Aus (am Aus citizen in UK). We have only had the car since 1/2/10, and would like to know if we can take the car home within 12 months? I have read about compliance letters-where to apply for one for the BMW????
Some ppeople have said that you can ship your car 42 days before the full 12 months own and opearte is complete-is this correct (given that I will not be away from car at all from date of purchase). I was thinking of going home 42 days before the 12 month aniversary of ownership (December 26/2010) then shipping car about 2 weeks beofre 1/2/2011 meaning car will get to Aus around 6 weeks later??? Thus me having owned the car for over 12 months???
Any guidance would be great-oh and the name of a valuer in Aus. I can't see Customs taking the 8000GBP I paid as customs value when a 2004 530D is around $45 in Aus....

[deviant]

As I understand it you must have owned and lived with a car for the full 12 months before applying.

I have never heard of being able to ship the car early and its certainly something I would not risk doing without import approval.

[tim the pool man]

deviant said:

As I understand it you must have owned and lived with a car for the full 12 months before applying.

I have never heard of being able to ship the car early and its certainly something I would not risk doing without import approval.

I would ensure you have a watertight approval and don't try to bend the rules, I know of at least one case where a car had to be returned to UK due to a very minor discrepency in dates...

[E60 530D]

Thanks Guys. Once the Import approval has been provided by Canberra, is there any reason why the car should not be allowed in?

[deviant]

E60 530D said:

Thanks Guys. Once the Import approval has been provided by Canberra, is there any reason why the car should not be allowed in?

As long as you have your paperwork in order and you jump through the hoops I dont see any problems. It can't be stressed enough though that your paperwork MUST be in order otherwise you will not even be allowed to remove the car from the dockside unless its going off to the crusher or on to another boat to go home! You also can't fight the procedures and the system, the rules are set and that is how it is.

Have you found a workshop that can do the compliance work yet?

[MCFADDEN]

Does anyone know how much would you need to add to the purchase cost of bringing out an £80k car from the Uk, to cover all Oz fee's & Luxury Vehicle Tax, asssuming all import criteria was met ( 1 year ownership etc )

[Bob the Planner]

E60 530D said:

....Any guidance would be great-oh and the name of a valuer in Aus. I can't see Customs taking the 8000GBP I paid as customs value when a 2004 530D is around $45 in Aus....

I gathered a whole bunch of adverts from the classified on here and gave them to the valuer. Valuation was agreed based on the UK adverts (£16k) rather than the price of the only one for sale in Aus at the time ($100k)

MCFADDEN said:

Does anyone know how much would you need to add to the purchase cost of bringing out an £80k car from the Uk, to cover all Oz fee's & Luxury Vehicle Tax, asssuming all import criteria was met ( 1 year ownership etc )

This varies from state to state. On importing to NSW, I had to pay import duty and GST however other states don't.

Edited by Bob the Planner on Tuesday 18th May 23:06

[MCFADDEN]

In my case bringing into Queensland?