Transporting a car

Hi ..... we have heard that buying second hand cars is very expensive compared to over here in the UK. Has anyone transported their car with them when they emigrated? If so, was it a straight forward process? Approximately how much did it cost?

Any advice, comments etc would be gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks ..... Katy

I haven't done it but there have been threads about this before.

As far as I recall, unless you have a super-de-duper car which you would hate to sell then it probably isn't worth the hassle/money to bring it over.

Our main car cost us $20,000. 3 years old, a wagon, low mileage.

We are now looking for another, 4x4, older and higher mileage acceptable, max price $15,000.

Not sure if that's very expensive or not now, you kind of get used to the numbers really!!

if its a bmw or merc or similar, may be worth it. when u get here, buy at the auctions, u will save plenty and pay the same price as the dealers do. Try this guy he will do it for u and save u heaps

Bid 4 U: professional bidding, purchasing agency, private treaty negotiation service, expert representation, bidding at auction and locating items at auction

We're taking our car and bike, merc and new bike so worth it but i think even if not could still be. Most people go down the route of using the obvious shippers that do the household shippers, I got in contact with a firm called Iron chef who for $990 deals with the whole cutoms and compliance process and he gave me a contact to get the shipping part sorted, plus this way is quicker 36 days at sea compared to 8 minimum if in own container more if shared. This way has saved about £1000 on the shipping side of things!

The customs duty etc will be the same. I got told about £5000 for car for everything but that was before I found this cheaper way! To me thats worth it for my car I would get about £8k sale and would have to pay the same again on top to get the same car if i was lucky so bit of a no brainer. I think as long as you haven't got a banger its still worth it, just consider whether you can get the parts for repairs as thats what could make it not worthwhile.

Don't forget the import permit and to de gas the air con! Also try and find out what the compliance points are for your area, its probably easier to sort here, its nothing major- you need head rests, seat belts, child seats if you have kids, not heavily tinted windows, can't have convex wing mirrors and speedo must have KMs. There pretty much universal points but the guy at iron chef is going to see if theres any others for my car type.

We're taking our car and bike, merc and new bike so worth it but i think even if not could still be. Most people go down the route of using the obvious shippers that do the household shippers, I got in contact with a firm called Iron chef who for $990 deals with the whole cutoms and compliance process and he gave me a contact to get the shipping part sorted, plus this way is quicker 36 days at sea compared to 8 minimum if in own container more if shared. This way has saved about £1000 on the shipping side of things!

 

The customs duty etc will be the same. I got told about £5000 for car for everything but that was before I found this cheaper way! To me thats worth it for my car I would get about £8k sale and would have to pay the same again on top to get the same car if i was lucky so bit of a no brainer. I think as long as you haven't got a banger its still worth it, just consider whether you can get the parts for repairs as thats what could make it not worthwhile.

 

Don't forget the import permit and to de gas the air con! Also try and find out what the compliance points are for your area, its probably easier to sort here, its nothing major- you need head rests, seat belts, child seats if you have kids, not heavily tinted windows, can't have convex wing mirrors and speedo must have KMs. There pretty much universal points but the guy at iron chef is going to see if theres any others for my car type.

I think we're in a similar position to Rose. Our car (also Merc) would sell for about £8-9k in the UK but is probably worth more in Aus. We're finding it hard to work out how much the import costs will be.

Rose - how are you considering shipping your car now? Are you still using a container, or a RORO ferry? We've heard that the ferries can be cheaper than containers but I don't know if theres an additional risk to doing it this way.

I think we're in a similar position to Rose. Our car (also Merc) would sell for about £8-9k in the UK but is probably worth more in Aus. We're finding it hard to work out how much the import costs will be.

 

Rose - how are you considering shipping your car now? Are you still using a container, or a RORO ferry? We've heard that the ferries can be cheaper than containers but I don't know if theres an additional risk to doing it this way.

I was planning on letting the car go in a container with house stuff, but we had a bike that we wanted to go early so we had something when we first got there. The problem was the time they took and that we were doubling up on port and custom fees. Plus there is comliance and registration to get through.

The cost for shipping alone was £1990, plus the cost of someone sorting compliance. Once the car gets to Oz the fees are port charges (approx A$200), aqis (A$200) plus you can be hit with cleaning, you then have customs tax based on value (5%) then GST (10%) plus complinace and valuation fees. I got a rough estimate of about £5k to take the car.

I was given a contact of Kristian from Iron chef, he will deal with customs clearance, compliance and registration for A$990 (£550), he then gave me the details of a firm based in Oz to sort out the shipping (RO RO). They have quoted about US$1000 (£600ish) to shipping car, I then have UK port charges which i think are about £120. So appears to be cheaper, i am only in the planning stage but at face value seems good! All the other charges are the same but the 2 benefits of this way is that you have Kristian managing the whole process and hopefullly saving you money in fees and time, secondly that it is quicker 36 days at sea plus about 3 weeks to get through customs and clearance the other way takes 8-12 weeks plus the 3 weeks!

The risk is probably slightly more but I don't think its anything major so I'm going for it! With the bike and car we're saving about £1000!

Let me know if you want the email of both contacts, after lots of research these were the most helpful and cost effective.

Rose

Hi Rose!

Thanks for posting the info. about shipping cars, etc. Would you mind emailing me your contacts and letting me know how you get on?

Thanks, and good luck! When and where are you going? (PM me if you can.)

Rose,

Thank you for the figures - very useful. I'd also be grateful for the contact details you've used.

It looks like Iron chef are based in Adelaide and we're going to Perth so I'm not sure if they'd still be able to help though.

Thanks from me too Rose - it's great when you can 'talk' to someone who is actually going through the process.

Triple Sec - we are going to Perth too - so it would be good to know if Iron Chef have contacts in WA.

I was planning on letting the car go in a container with house stuff, but we had a bike that we wanted to go early so we had something when we first got there. The problem was the time they took and that we were doubling up on port and custom fees. Plus there is comliance and registration to get through.

 

The cost for shipping alone was £1990, plus the cost of someone sorting compliance. Once the car gets to Oz the fees are port charges (approx A$200), aqis (A$200) plus you can be hit with cleaning, you then have customs tax based on value (5%) then GST (10%) plus complinace and valuation fees. I got a rough estimate of about £5k to take the car.

 

I was given a contact of Kristian from Iron chef, he will deal with customs clearance, compliance and registration for A$990 (£550), he then gave me the details of a firm based in Oz to sort out the shipping (RO RO). They have quoted about US$1000 (£600ish) to shipping car, I then have UK port charges which i think are about £120. So appears to be cheaper, i am only in the planning stage but at face value seems good! All the other charges are the same but the 2 benefits of this way is that you have Kristian managing the whole process and hopefullly saving you money in fees and time, secondly that it is quicker 36 days at sea plus about 3 weeks to get through customs and clearance the other way takes 8-12 weeks plus the 3 weeks!

 

The risk is probably slightly more but I don't think its anything major so I'm going for it! With the bike and car we're saving about £1000!

 

Let me know if you want the email of both contacts, after lots of research these were the most helpful and cost effective.

 

Rose

Hi Rose,

Did I get this right? The total costs would be:

Agent - £550

Shipping - £600

Port charges - £120

Customs tax - 5% of value of car (on a £10k car, £500)

GST - 10% of value of car (on a £10k car, £1000)

Plus:

De-gassing

Cleaning

So about £3k all in for a car of 10k value? Seems very reasonable.

Our car is a merc, worth about £20k, so may incur another £1500 in taxes/duty?

Are there any other costs I've missed? Also, you have to have owned it for a year is that right? Any idea if its impossible if you've leased it for 3 yrs, then bought it with less than a year ownership?

Thanks

Shaz

Hi RoseBrown1972...

Sound interesting and would be grateful if you could PM the details of your contact.

One other query I have is with regards to the valuation of the vehicle. Do they make their calculations on the value of your vehicle in the UK or Aus? I'm surmising it's the AUS cost which would mean our charges would be higher. I'm taking an XK8 which is worth about 13k in the UK but the equivalent of between $60 - 75k in Australia so it's a big difference.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

S

Hi Rose,

Did I get this right? The total costs would be:

Agent - £550

Shipping - £600

Port charges - £120

Customs tax - 5% of value of car (on a £10k car, £500)

GST - 10% of value of car (on a £10k car, £1000)

 

Plus:

De-gassing

Cleaning

 

So about £3k all in for a car of 10k value? Seems very reasonable.

 

Our car is a merc, worth about £20k, so may incur another £1500 in taxes/duty?

 

Are there any other costs I've missed? Also, you have to have owned it for a year is that right? Any idea if its impossible if you've leased it for 3 yrs, then bought it with less than a year ownership?

 

Thanks

Shaz

Hi Shaz

I think there is customs fees missing in there, they are a bit unknown until arrival but shouldn't be much and complaince and registration fees. Compliance points are different for each car but Kristian can help with that, I've heard mixed reports how much but largely depends on the condition of your car, a merc should be ok.

Yes you have to have owned it for a year, not sure on the leased part might be best to ask import people.

Rose

Kristian told me to expect to pay 25% of the value of the car in taxes plus a few other minor charges at the port.

But I'll know more for sure once it arrives in about 4 weeks time...

Howard

25%! Wow, that's a lot. Thinking against the idea now. If the value of the car is about £20k, then its costing a lot to get it there.

We are shipping a campervan, we are using a specialist car import company called 'cargo online' they will give you an instant quote online, they seem very very good, ive been quoted £1672 (sole use of container) from Southampton to Adelaide, 35 days at sea. They also ensure that the valuation is not excessive, they also can deal with all clearance and registration for you.

As they only import cars, unlike the other shipping companies, they know exactly what the whole process is from the vehicle arriving to you actually driving it, have a look at their website, it has loads of info on it

Cargo Online - Import Cars, Export Cars, Instant Car Shipping Quotes

I think we're in a similar position to Rose. Our car (also Merc) would sell for about £8-9k in the UK but is probably worth more in Aus. We're finding it hard to work out how much the import costs will be.

 

Rose - how are you considering shipping your car now? Are you still using a container, or a RORO ferry? We've heard that the ferries can be cheaper than containers but I don't know if theres an additional risk to doing it this way.

Its worth **** all as it will be an import use it to the ground or get **** all trade in

We are shipping a campervan, we are using a specialist car import company called 'cargo online' they will give you an instant quote online, they seem very very good, ive been quoted £1672 (sole use of container) from Southampton to Adelaide, 35 days at sea. They also ensure that the valuation is not excessive, they also can deal with all clearance and registration for you.

 

As they only import cars, unlike the other shipping companies, they know exactly what the whole process is from the vehicle arriving to you actually driving it, have a look at their website, it has loads of info on it

 

Cargo Online - Import Cars, Export Cars, Instant Car Shipping Quotes

Import what you want just better keep it try and flog it andyou wont get a sniff imports are not too gladly over here

25%! Wow, that's a lot. Thinking against the idea now. If the value of the car is about £20k, then its costing a lot to get it there.

Thats on the australian value , been to the bmw dealerfor a bike and seen cars in th e100k racket

ah ok that makes a difference, as it'll likely be valued much higher. Its only 3 yrs old.

Thanks

25%! Wow, that's a lot. Thinking against the idea now. If the value of the car is about £20k, then its costing a lot to get it there.

I've been told the car value will be a lot lower than you think so shouldn't be anywhere near the £20k I heard about half of the Oz market value.

I'm looking at what I will get if I sell it (if I can) and what I would have to add to get the equivalent car in OZ and definatly worth it as I'd pay more to get my car which I can't afford, so shipping is the better option

We are shipping a campervan, we are using a specialist car import company called 'cargo online' they will give you an instant quote online, they seem very very good, ive been quoted £1672 (sole use of container) from Southampton to Adelaide, 35 days at sea. They also ensure that the valuation is not excessive, they also can deal with all clearance and registration for you.

 

As they only import cars, unlike the other shipping companies, they know exactly what the whole process is from the vehicle arriving to you actually driving it, have a look at their website, it has loads of info on it

 

Cargo Online - Import Cars, Export Cars, Instant Car Shipping Quotes

I spoke to these initially but they still didn't deal with compliance and registration(that was in perth tho). When I contacted iron chef about that he gave me a contact for the shipping which was cheaper again. I do agree they were very helpful and I got a fair amount of information from them, the other deal was much better for bike and car for us. They didn't deal with bikes so it meant dealing with another company.

Hi RoseBrown1972....

Thanks for the PM with the details.

Also, you mention that you are taking your motorbike and a car. Are they both registered in your name? I thought you could only ship one vehicle every 12 months. Have also heard this is due to be increased to every 5 years in the next few months.

Cheers

S

:unsure:

Hi RoseBrown1972....

 

Thanks for the PM with the details.

 

Also, you mention that you are taking your motorbike and a car. Are they both registered in your name? I thought you could only ship one vehicle every 12 months. Have also heard this is due to be increased to every 5 years in the next few months.

 

Cheers

S

:unsure:

No problem, no the bike is in my hubbys name. I heard that as well, I suppose that won't affect many people though! Not many people will have more than one car in their name!

Rose

Not many people will have more than one car in their name!

You'd be surprised at the number of people who post here and moan how unfair it is that shipping hubbies beloved motorbike/classic car collection will be a problem.. :jiggy:

I spoke to these initially but they still didn't deal with compliance and registration(that was in perth tho). When I contacted iron chef about that he gave me a contact for the shipping which was cheaper again. I do agree they were very helpful and I got a fair amount of information from them, the other deal was much better for bike and car for us. They didn't deal with bikes so it meant dealing with another company.

Ive just been looking at Iron Chef imports, isnt it just a car importer for people wanting to buy cars from Japan? there isnt anything about shipping? what was the contact for shipping? cheers