Help with Importing from america

[Mike1993]

Hi all,

Hoping someone can help me. Not sure if its me being daft.

Would me buying a car from America whilst on holiday be as easy as getting there, purchasing then shipping back or would there be something more to it.

I can,t find anything and would appreciate advice or someone to point me in the right direction.

Thanks
Mike

[MissChief]

It is possible but is a whole lot of hassle and trouble and when you are finally able to drive it here you'll find you've saved very little compared to buying something already imported by a dealer. What car are you looking at?

[Truckosaurus]

There's import duty (rate depending on type and age of vehicle) and VAT to pay.

Then you'll need an IVA of some sort once you've put on reversing lights/indicators/foglight/etc: https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-approval/individual-veh...

There are, I believe, several firms that will arrange the shipping/tax/modifications/paperwork for a fee but it is doable yourself if you have the time/inclination.

[Mike1993]

At the moment I have no ideas. Just im saving for my trip to the USA later this year and was an idea that popped up in my head.

I thought if i was to import my self it would save on the profits the specialists make.

[Viper]

buy close to a dock as transporting a car isnt cheap (i take it you wouldnt be driving it yourself due to no insurance)

if you buy from a US dealer depending on which state you can avoid the US sales tax by not actually driving the car away yourself, but having it put into a container at the dealership

[V8Ford]

Maybe worth asking in the American cars section? You might also get some good advice on places that will do IVA modifications properly, as I have seen my fair share of bodged wiring!

[NNH]

It's not all that cheap to do, but if you find a car that's expensive or hard to get in the UK then you could be in luck. For "historic cars" the rate of duty is reduced to 5%, and VAT is nil, but you need to make sure you get it right (Quentin Wilson wrote a useful column on this in this month's Classic Cars).

When I imported my Cayman from the US, I paid no import duties or VAT because I'd owned it for more than 6 months while living in the USA. Other costs were:
US$1300 for shipping from Los Angeles (it was only $200 cheaper from my home port of Philadelphia, which was all the incentive I needed to do a coast-to-coast road trip...)
1.5% of the value of the car for shipping insurance
About GBP3k for a UK firm to pick it up from the port, get it registered and tested, sort out the headlights to point in the right direction, etc.

Probably you could do some of this a bit more cheaply, but I felt it was well worth getting a professional to sort it out rather than potentially making expensive mistakes myself.

From port to pickup in London took about 10 weeks, of which almost 3 weeks was lost waiting for the relevant civil servant to come back from summer hols, according to my importers.