Importing a car to Australia - All the facts... Hopefully!
Discussion
custardtart said:
WhereamI said:
Hitch78 said:
WeirdNeville said:
As far as I see it, you have a wealthy(ish) population, freely available credit and finance, and a similar interest in getting the "new" model. Where do all the old cars go?!
Nowhere near the personal credit exposure of the UK though. custardtart said:
All up it's taken me 3 months from the time it arrived in Sydney to this point and I learnt today that it's the only Mondial 3.2 Cab to be brought in so I feel like a bit of a pioneer!
I have probably ended up saving a small amount of money v buying one here but it's not the big savings it appeared when I first started the process. Having said that, the choice is limited here and I haven't yet seen one that's comparable in terms of condition and miles.
I have just received Vimports approval for my '88 911 3.2 Carrera and soon it will be loaded into the container to join our stuff. I have probably ended up saving a small amount of money v buying one here but it's not the big savings it appeared when I first started the process. Having said that, the choice is limited here and I haven't yet seen one that's comparable in terms of condition and miles.
Did I read you right that it took 3 months from arrival in Sydney to the point where you could legally drive your Mondial on the public road?
I am in Victoria, does anyone have experience of gaining all required approvals for a pre-89 911 in Vic?
WhereamI said:
custardtart said:
WhereamI said:
Hitch78 said:
WeirdNeville said:
As far as I see it, you have a wealthy(ish) population, freely available credit and finance, and a similar interest in getting the "new" model. Where do all the old cars go?!
Nowhere near the personal credit exposure of the UK though. 
tty old bangers being driven?! What are these people spending their borrowings on?Hitch78 said:
That's a surprise and it begs the question...why so many stty old bangers being driven?! What are these people spending their borrowings on?
Housing mainly, I would guess. Few places have experienced such a mad property boom as Australia. But equally cars cost stupid amounts, I've been involved in importing a car that was worth less than $20k in the UK but worth over $50k in Australia.tty old bangers being driven?! What are these people spending their borrowings on?And then there are the groceries....
ariddell said:
Yep, brought in 2 pre-89 Bentleys into Vic a couple of months back, drop me an email and will let you know the process and can give you some decent contacts.
Yes- I have shipped pre-89 911's among others. not cheap- whatever you think its going to cost- factor at least for $40k for an average one costing you 12-15k gbp in the UK including car purchase. Then also factor in the time and effort.
If your set on a 911 - mine is currently for sale. 1985 911 carrera cab, grand prix white with oxblood interior. I looked at about 50 in UK and here - this was the best by far. Also fully reg compliant with all documents and Rego.
up for $43k which is a $1k loss over what it cost me - but I have had a 911 for the last year so not all bad news.
Hi James
I recently imported a BMW M6 to Australia Sydney and it arrived on 25th June. I have paid for the following:
Duty/GST and Entry Fees (Estimate)
Port and Statutory Charges
Cartage ex Wharf to Depot
AQIS/DAFF Inspection Fees
Customs/AQIS/DEWR Clearance Motor Vehicle
Steam Clean Motor Vehicle
Container Lifts, Unpack and Depot Charges 20ft container
Valuation by Approved Valuer
I was hoping you can help me and let me know which insurance company i should use to temporary insure the car and also who I should use safety and compliance inspection?
your help will be much appreciated.
A
I recently imported a BMW M6 to Australia Sydney and it arrived on 25th June. I have paid for the following:
Duty/GST and Entry Fees (Estimate)
Port and Statutory Charges
Cartage ex Wharf to Depot
AQIS/DAFF Inspection Fees
Customs/AQIS/DEWR Clearance Motor Vehicle
Steam Clean Motor Vehicle
Container Lifts, Unpack and Depot Charges 20ft container
Valuation by Approved Valuer
I was hoping you can help me and let me know which insurance company i should use to temporary insure the car and also who I should use safety and compliance inspection?
your help will be much appreciated.
A
Edited by Agetii on Tuesday 2nd July 14:08
After reading through the info here I thought I may share my experience as I'm not sure anyone has covered the alternative to the personal import scheme, the Carnet de passage en douanes (Carnet for short). Not a permanent fix by any means but a potential significant money saver.
I imported my bike from Texas.
After having a good look around for what Perth Had to offer I thought it best to import (found the prices shockingly high for average machines) so looked into the PIS for a permanent import. After an appointment with WA customs at perth airport I was informed that import duty can be charged at anything up to 50 % and is assessed on a case by case basis depending on the value of the vehicle in WA. It turns out that this info was not correct at all (this was common i found with perth customs) but was enough to scare me into pursuing other methods of import. The agent I used specialised in US imports and exports and is http://www.hillshipping.co.uk/ . He pointed me in the way of the Carnet as an alternative after the tax scare (the mechanics of the scare being the only other similar spec'd bike in WA was for sale at 35K AUD, I had paid 8K USD in Texas and then another 8K USD for mods in the UK) SO the value of the bike as far as I was concerned was far less than seemed to be charged for it on the WA market.
Anyway, to cut a long story short the costs of Import (all approx) were:
Shipping 1000 AUD
AQIS Inspection 148AUD
Voyage insurance 300AUD
OVP (overseas vehicle permit i.e. going over the pits) Inspection 150 AUD
48hr permit to ride to inspection 50 AUD
Carnet cost was 300AUD
Steam Cleaning before departure from US 100 USD
Customs inspection was free as was logistics in Aus as I used my MSIC to collect it from Freo docs myself and to meet the AQIS inspector. I knew little of the requirement of approval to import before the vehicle got on the boat so didn't get it. That was almost a problem when it arrived, even on a carnet. But acting as my own import agent I had a couple of trips to customs out at the airport. They initially took the carnet to stamp and then phoned Queensland customs for approval (Oddly they seem to be run from queensland) before refusing to stamp it. I then had to get the Carnet issuing body to have some stern words with them about honoring the carnet agreement through RAC WA, and in the end they stamped it and I had a good year here with it still on its texas plates.
Looking at the costs of import from PHers using the PIS, the carnet represents a far cheaper method of import as long as you don't mind exporting it again after a year.
I had to put down a bond of a percentage the value of the vehicle, which sat in a high interest account and then was released after 1 year so the money never technically left my bank. The other condition is that the vehicle is taxed in its country of origin (Or rego paid in the case of USA). I got pulled once or twice by police who didn't know that foreign plated vehicles could be ridden in WA but to their surprise when they entered my texas registration into their computer, it would always come back that my WA rego was paid with my current address matching my WA license courtesy of the OVP. Its worth mentioning that the bike was heavily modified, with almost twice its original power output and a large supercharger hanging off the side, this posed no problems when it had its pit inspection.
The cost of re-export was a little more at around 3000AUD all up, this was because I had less time to spare to do the running around, meeting customs officers,filing out release forms etc so i dropped it with a chap at Welshpool who handled it all.
This was a bare bones service from start to finish, it used a method known as RoRo (Roll-on Roll-off) whereby your vehicle isn't given a container but ridden or rolled or driven onto and off a vessel at the ports. Many owners don't like the extra risk this involves and have nightmare visions of donuts or burnouts being performed by the dockers in their pride and joy. For me this was never a factor and the prospect of being able to ride it out of the port 2 days after the vessel arrived was far more valuable than having it sat in a container waiting to be unloaded before the inspections and paperwork could begin. That said, I did find the re-export costs a bit of a sting, coming in as they did at almost 1.5 times the cost of the original import.
The rocket was featured in an american Cruiser mag and may be seen about SW-WA here:
http://hillshipping.co.uk/search.php
I imported my bike from Texas.
After having a good look around for what Perth Had to offer I thought it best to import (found the prices shockingly high for average machines) so looked into the PIS for a permanent import. After an appointment with WA customs at perth airport I was informed that import duty can be charged at anything up to 50 % and is assessed on a case by case basis depending on the value of the vehicle in WA. It turns out that this info was not correct at all (this was common i found with perth customs) but was enough to scare me into pursuing other methods of import. The agent I used specialised in US imports and exports and is http://www.hillshipping.co.uk/ . He pointed me in the way of the Carnet as an alternative after the tax scare (the mechanics of the scare being the only other similar spec'd bike in WA was for sale at 35K AUD, I had paid 8K USD in Texas and then another 8K USD for mods in the UK) SO the value of the bike as far as I was concerned was far less than seemed to be charged for it on the WA market.
Anyway, to cut a long story short the costs of Import (all approx) were:
Shipping 1000 AUD
AQIS Inspection 148AUD
Voyage insurance 300AUD
OVP (overseas vehicle permit i.e. going over the pits) Inspection 150 AUD
48hr permit to ride to inspection 50 AUD
Carnet cost was 300AUD
Steam Cleaning before departure from US 100 USD
Customs inspection was free as was logistics in Aus as I used my MSIC to collect it from Freo docs myself and to meet the AQIS inspector. I knew little of the requirement of approval to import before the vehicle got on the boat so didn't get it. That was almost a problem when it arrived, even on a carnet. But acting as my own import agent I had a couple of trips to customs out at the airport. They initially took the carnet to stamp and then phoned Queensland customs for approval (Oddly they seem to be run from queensland) before refusing to stamp it. I then had to get the Carnet issuing body to have some stern words with them about honoring the carnet agreement through RAC WA, and in the end they stamped it and I had a good year here with it still on its texas plates.
Looking at the costs of import from PHers using the PIS, the carnet represents a far cheaper method of import as long as you don't mind exporting it again after a year.
I had to put down a bond of a percentage the value of the vehicle, which sat in a high interest account and then was released after 1 year so the money never technically left my bank. The other condition is that the vehicle is taxed in its country of origin (Or rego paid in the case of USA). I got pulled once or twice by police who didn't know that foreign plated vehicles could be ridden in WA but to their surprise when they entered my texas registration into their computer, it would always come back that my WA rego was paid with my current address matching my WA license courtesy of the OVP. Its worth mentioning that the bike was heavily modified, with almost twice its original power output and a large supercharger hanging off the side, this posed no problems when it had its pit inspection.
The cost of re-export was a little more at around 3000AUD all up, this was because I had less time to spare to do the running around, meeting customs officers,filing out release forms etc so i dropped it with a chap at Welshpool who handled it all.
This was a bare bones service from start to finish, it used a method known as RoRo (Roll-on Roll-off) whereby your vehicle isn't given a container but ridden or rolled or driven onto and off a vessel at the ports. Many owners don't like the extra risk this involves and have nightmare visions of donuts or burnouts being performed by the dockers in their pride and joy. For me this was never a factor and the prospect of being able to ride it out of the port 2 days after the vessel arrived was far more valuable than having it sat in a container waiting to be unloaded before the inspections and paperwork could begin. That said, I did find the re-export costs a bit of a sting, coming in as they did at almost 1.5 times the cost of the original import.
The rocket was featured in an american Cruiser mag and may be seen about SW-WA here:
http://hillshipping.co.uk/search.php
Mattt said:
Sorry but I think that's an expensive way of owning a vehicle for a year.
Prices are high here but surely depreciation over that year would be less than your costs.
a little under 5K AUD vs 35K AUD risk for the same vehicle whose history I don't know? Seriously? Prices are high here but surely depreciation over that year would be less than your costs.
Minus insurance costs, rego duty etc you can whack another 1 to 2K off that 5K cost of 1 years motoring.
Even If i cut my losses and sold it for say 10 to 15K in the USA and then purchased the same one down here then I'd be 15 to 20K out of pocket up front followed by whatever running costs on the same one down here.
Whichever way you cut it the Capital expenditure savings were significant and the Operational expenditure savings were minimal whilst mitigating the purchase risk of buying a heavily modified vehicle. If I had a very specific vehicle and the economics were the same I'd repeat. The effect amplifies the more expensive the vehicle.
None of this applies if you want to stay here forever but I have also recently discovered that foreign imports fetch less money in WA than the originals. The protectionism is there for a reason.
ariddell said:
How does the carnet work for repeat imports?
Are you limited to only bringing it in for 1 year and then never again, or could you send it off for a nice cruise to Bali then bring it back in to start the whole process again?
Indeed you can, I considered it. I also considered overlanding back to TX, which would have been awesome if i'd had the time. The carnets are issued with 5 pages, 10 pages 15 pages etc up to 25 I believe and the price is adjusted accordingly, I think the 25 pager is a little more expensive. If you're from the US then they don't actually have a carnet issuing body (Being the international nation that they are) so you have to use the Canadian RAC. In the UK the RAC do the job, a chap called paul gowan used to be the issuing officer but I believe he has gone on a round the world jaunt himself recently. For info email: carnets@rac.co.uk its in Brizzol, if you happen to be in the westcountry you can pop in for a chat. I may post some numbers from one of my spreadsheets later when I have a quiet spell at work. I'm fun Are you limited to only bringing it in for 1 year and then never again, or could you send it off for a nice cruise to Bali then bring it back in to start the whole process again?
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