importing a car FROM Oz TO the UK...nuts or what?

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Hello, I've just joined PH with a view to getting insights to this question, but with any luck I can stick around and become a worthwhile contributor here too.

In short, my missus has just received her visa to live and work in the UK. I hope to double down on this, with my own visa soon.

We currently live in oz.

I understand the laws regarding the importation of vehicles from the UK to Australia very well, including the fact that this can be quite lucrative.

However....and my question is....are there any vehicles at all, which could represent a worthwhile investment of time and money, to bring with us from aus to the uk? From the many hours I've looked into this...it doesnt seem to be the case....however aside from trying to navigate the complexity of the dvla website on this subject....i simply don't understand the various rules and categories which govern such imports to the uk. Obviously, exchange rates affect the viability of this consideration too.

I know quite a few people have taken hsv sedans and utes with them, however this is presumably more out of attachment with their car...as it doesn't seem like a financially rewarding thing to do.

Are there any rules regarding personal imports into the uk, which make this more favourable?

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Thanks for the input so far everyone, I greatly appreciate this.

I have to say that the odometer issue is a problematic one....i know that some cars I've imported into oz from England but which originated from Japan or oz, simply had the km on the kmh sign on the dash, pasted over with the letters mp to give mph, and then had a convertor fitted.

Obviously many new cars have digital dashboards, so you simply configure the display from one to the other with ease. But this almost certainly won't apply to ford or fpv, as they were never designed for euro markets.

I assume that it is an absolute requirement for every car registered in the UK to show and measure mph, regardless of make, year of manufacture, ownership, etc?

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mattdaniels said:

I don't know the rules for importing in to the UK but I hope it's less painful than it is taking your car to Oz.

I guess this sort of reinforces my point. You see, I don't find the PIS (Personal Import Scheme) for taking cars into Aus that difficult, largely because I've assisted others in the past - and now it is merely a process. But as with any process / procedure, you need to be familiar with the rules. I'm certainly familiar with the rules for UK to Oz imports (and despite the significant - and partially unnecessary - bureaucracy) and it is still a 'viable investment' (of time, money, etc). Sadly, it seems that - irrespective of how simple or complex the Oz to UK process may be - there are essentially no cars for which this is worth doing.

For instance, a nice cheap FPV turbo 6cyl ute in Aus may be around $14K AUD (7500 GBP), but probably wouldn't fetch more than 10-12K GBP - hence once freight, customs, inland transport, taxes and mechanical costs are considered....if one did make anything, they'd lose it on the pie and chips they'd be eating whilst doing it.

I'll stick to some of the classics - and restrict my search to the likes of Ferrari 328GTS or an old VW Kombi etc etc

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TheAngryDog said:

MidnightXR6 said:

Far from it. Bought a new Atomic forged engine for it and had some fun.

Sold it few months back but always on the search for the right FPV F6 or XR8

Nice. How much does an XR6T cost to buy and have shipped over?

Just go to carsales.com.au - best source for finding vehicles. You'd usually be able to shave $1000-3000 AUD off the asking price of any car, for a few reasons a) our market is not healthy at the moment b) the seller would not have to get a RWC (similar to MOT etc) as it would be of no use to a UK buyer and c) the seller could 'cash in' their remaining registration.

On the downside, most sellers would think it to be a scam, and be pretty inflexible when dealing with OS sellers. Also, getting the car to the wharf and on-board the ship, cleared for export, etc could be a little problematic. Still, if you are prepared to dump $12-25K AUD+ into their accounts, they probably do not care.

Can you even import FPV directly from the UK, as opposed to bringing the cars in as personal imports? I've not heard it done before?

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MidnightXR6 said:

Mine was bought new in 2004 for AUD38,000. Speced hard lid, leather different brakes.

All in was roughly AUD40k to ship over and the exchange rate at time was around $1.90 to the £

Im still on lookout for another but i have a few good friends out there that i can use to source me one and a couple that actally own Ford tuning and parts companies out there.

Im willing to pay that little bit extra for them to look at them and get me the best one for a budget.

You must have done exceptionally well...because carsales tells me that the 2004 Falcon XR6T was about $46K AUD before dealer costs, and before add ons! I guess you negotiated a good price for a demo perhaps?

But when you say it cost you $40K landed ($2K to ship it and pay taxes and duties) - this is my point...I guess this may have been exempt from tax for being a personal import perhaps, but if you got one sourced for you now....I presume it would cost you extra (or should I say normal amount) in duty and VAT?