Does anyone know a car import expert please

[livinginasia]

Dear all

Looking for some assistance here please and need to find a real expert to help me bring my wife’s car into the UK, if it’s in any way possible. Any recommendations will be very welcome please. We have tried “ship my car” dot com and they are stuck. The situation:

Wife bought the car new in 2017 in Indonesia.

It’s a Honda model that is also sold in the UK, albeit not with the same engine.

Indonesia doesn’t have any agreement for car shipping in the same way that Japan does, so it is unknown if it meets European safety standards

We have no way of getting a Certificate of Confirmity as it’s Indonesian spec and Honda in Jakarta have no clue about EU or UK regulations

Her TOR has expired so that doesn’t help

All in all it looks like a disaster, but the car has sentimental value to her and “happy wife, happy life” etc.

I have a shipper who will export it and sort out export paperwork but can only land it in the UK in a container and do no more. I need someone that can navigate IVA and other paperwork to get it registered. Import fees etc are fine as the value of the car make it worthwhile.

Just looking for recommendations of someone that may be able to assist please.

Many thanks in advance!

[samoht]

When I bought a car from Japan, Autospecs just exported it from Japan and put it on the ship, and sent me the Japanese paperwork. Sounds like you have that covered.

I then got https://www.kleerfreight.com/ to sort releasing it from customs at Southampton. They were helpful, so potentially worth talking to them.

I don't know about IVA for your wife's Honda, other than that if you can park the car up for a couple of years (until it's 10 years old) then you can just put it through a regular MoT at any garage, and then register with DVLA and good to go. (may need a rear foglight to pass MoT)

[SS427 Camaro]

Kingstown Shippers of Hull. They have bought several in for me, inc my Camaro, top service every time, highly recommended.

[livinginasia]

samoht said:

When I bought a car from Japan, Autospecs just exported it from Japan and put it on the ship, and sent me the Japanese paperwork. Sounds like you have that covered.

I then got https://www.kleerfreight.com/ to sort releasing it from customs at Southampton. They were helpful, so potentially worth talking to them.

I don't know about IVA for your wife's Honda, other than that if you can park the car up for a couple of years (until it's 10 years old) then you can just put it through a regular MoT at any garage, and then register with DVLA and good to go. (may need a rear foglight to pass MoT)

Thank you so much ! I will contact them

[livinginasia]

SS427 Camaro said:

Kingstown Shippers of Hull. They have bought several in for me, inc my Camaro, top service every time, highly recommended.

Thank you so much ! I will contact them as well

[blank]

Is it RHD?

If so it's going to be very expensive if you can't prove it meets the right regulations.

At the very best case you'd have to do a European emissions test which will cost a few grand (and hope it passes!)

Worst case you'd have to do things like crash testing which is obviously counter productive!

Have a look through the IVA manuals online.


If it was LHD it would be a lot easier as it would only need to do a basic IVA.

[DickyC]

blank said:

Is it RHD?

If so it's going to be very expensive if you can't prove it meets the right regulations.

At the very best case you'd have to do a European emissions test which will cost a few grand (and hope it passes!)

Worst case you'd have to do things like crash testing which is obviously counter productive!

Have a look through the IVA manuals online.


If it was LHD it would be a lot easier as it would only need to do a basic IVA.

Why do you think that? My 2012 RHD C Class didn't have any trouble at all. A dealer here dealt with a dealer in Japan who dealt with... you get the idea - all been done umpteen times before. No problems.

My only word of caution would be to get an insurance quote before committing.

[blank]

DickyC said:

blank said:

Is it RHD?

If so it's going to be very expensive if you can't prove it meets the right regulations.

At the very best case you'd have to do a European emissions test which will cost a few grand (and hope it passes!)

Worst case you'd have to do things like crash testing which is obviously counter productive!

Have a look through the IVA manuals online.


If it was LHD it would be a lot easier as it would only need to do a basic IVA.

Why do you think that? My 2012 RHD C Class didn't have any trouble at all. A dealer here dealt with a dealer in Japan who dealt with... you get the idea - all been done umpteen times before. No problems.

My only word of caution would be to get an insurance quote before committing.

There is mutual recognition of Japanese regulations, so Japanese imports are much more straightforward. Emissions is often an issue but if someone else has imported one and done an emissions test and has a "model report" then that can be used.

OP's car is from Indonesia which will make it difficult as there is no mutual recognition of the regulations.

[DickyC]

blank said:

There is mutual recognition of Japanese regulations, so Japanese imports are much more straightforward. Emissions is often an issue but if someone else has imported one and done an emissions test and has a "model report" then that can be used.

OP's car is from Indonesia which will make it difficult as there is no mutual recognition of the regulations.

Thanks. Good to know. In the unlikely event of being offered a car from somewhere other than Japan I would have blithely assumed the situation was the same. You may have saved me any amount of grief.

[livinginasia]

blank said:

There is mutual recognition of Japanese regulations, so Japanese imports are much more straightforward. Emissions is often an issue but if someone else has imported one and done an emissions test and has a "model report" then that can be used.

OP's car is from Indonesia which will make it difficult as there is no mutual recognition of the regulations.

Yes this is exactly the problem, no mutual recognition and we have no idea what emissions / crash safety etc it has and how we prove them anyway. Hence my hope that a good importer might know what to do.

I guess we could wait until it’s 10 years as that might make it easier.

Thank you again everyone

[samoht]

I'm 99% confident that you can put any old carp on the road provided you can show it's >10 years old and it passes the MoT test appropriate to its year. So the backstop is, maybe get a 2 year lease on something cheap and park the Honda up until it turns ten.

Obviously if you can find a way to get it on the road sooner then great.

The issue always was the fabled "model report", if someone else had done that exact car before then it was tractable, otherwise it'd be almost impossible to show compliance as a private individual bringing a single car in. But I don't know if that's changed at all more recently.

[livinginasia]

samoht said:

I'm 99% confident that you can put any old carp on the road provided you can show it's >10 years old and it passes the MoT test appropriate to its year. So the backstop is, maybe get a 2 year lease on something cheap and park the Honda up until it turns ten.

Obviously if you can find a way to get it on the road sooner then great.

The issue always was the fabled "model report", if someone else had done that exact car before then it was tractable, otherwise it'd be almost impossible to show compliance as a private individual bringing a single car in. But I don't know if that's changed at all more recently.

Thank you and yes, I think we may have to go down the route of getting it into the UK and putting it in the garage until it’s 10 years old.

She has another car to use so she can use that for the next couple of years. She honestly doesn’t need this car over in the UK, but it has sentimental family value and she doesn’t want to sell it, or just leave it there.

Thanks again