fosseboy

I have no connection with Iron Lady at all but their agent in Perth handled everything. And be aware if things go wrong, they know the system. For us as I have said before in this forum, Fremantle docks lost the Clio for 4 weeks and then tried to charge storage. The agent had proof of the car's arrival and them being turned away when they went to collect it. The Compliance guy didn't believe that the Volvo tinted windows were standard and the agent got proof from Volvo. The licensing centre tried to charge stamp duty on collection (not classing it as a personal import) but the agent had warned me to challenge it. A supervisor had to be called to the desk to clarify the rules as the officer was arguing that it was thousands of dollars.

Just to add Nissan, Suzuki, Mitsubishi and Subaru as well. We brought 2 cars. My Wife is Aussie but I had a spouse visa so we had no problem bringing in 2 cars as long as they are registered in the separate names. We added my XC60 to the furniture container and then had to change all the declarations as the container had to come in the name of the car owner, not the returning Aussie. We sent the Clio later by RoRo. By the way, my Wife had more problems with Medicare and Medibank etc than I did as she had to prove that she was returning permanently. She hadn't resigned a job, the container of furniture was in my name, she had rented her UK house out and not sold it, not changed her passport to her married name, had property in Perth but it was all rented out and so on, so had to file a Stat Dec before Medicare would accept her change of residency and issue a new card.

I have to say that the Volvo dealer gave great service but it is seen as a foreign car and the dealer has to plug into the factory software for the UK car. So you get all the recall stuff done under warranty if they have extended it to Australia before you leave and service correctly here. But had I known I couldn't use GPS (which I really needed in Perth) I would have left the car behind because I could have put the shipping and clearance costs towards a new car. I had to hire a car anyway as the container didn't arrive until 3 weeks after us and left the UK 8 weeks before we left. If you bring the car, and we also brought my Wife's Clio Sport (which also had some tales to tell here as parts were different to the range sold here, they had to come from France via Sydney as Renault won't ship direct to Perth etc) then Iron Lady were very helpful with both cars. If it hadn't been for their local agent, I would have unwittingly paid stamp duty of several thousand dollars and would have accepted that I had to change the tinted windows on the XC60. The agent had to get info from Volvo to show that the windows were factory originals and not aftermarket additions. It depends where you plan to live. Where I live now south of Perth is over an hour to the only Volvo dealer in this enormous State. Also the roadside assistance has limitations (and expires) so a breakdown recovery more than 100 kms from a dealer becomes a cost so if we visit say Margaret River I would be worrying about a mechanical fault occurring. So I looked at dealers in Mandurah where I live and chose a car with local servicing and better nationwide dealers. That means Toyota, Mazda, Kia, Hyundai. There is Mercedes and VW here but again limited dealerships outside the City. I tested the CX5 and loved it so have now bought another one after 4 years. Hope that helps.

Just to say check with Volvo. I brought my one year old Volvo over (a 2015 model top XC60) and thought all would be OK as Volvo confirmed the warranty would be honoured in Australia. I used Iron Lady. They helped through their agent in Perth preventing the Licensing centre from rejecting the car because they said it had non standard tinting not of Oz standard. Then RAC refused to insure it. Shannons was the only insurer who would cover it, did at a great rate and we have stayed with them because of their service and premiums. But the biggest bugbear was the GPS which could not be converted to Australian maps as Volvo said the car was built for Europe. I asked for help from Sweden as I didn't believe this and got a rather nasty note back to say it was true and in future just deal through the Australian Volvo Office. Then I got a puncture (a split which the inflater wouldnt repair), had to have the car recovered to a dealer and found the tyres were different here and had to buy 2 ($800). Also I ordered the small spare wheel realising that a puncture in the remote areas would be a problem and that cost another $1200. Then selling it was another issue as the dealer was not keen but is required by Volvo to encourage loyalty and part exchange. I sold the car privately for 25% more than the dealer offered to a European who wanted a Volvo XC 60 but wasn't bothered about built in GPS. I bought a Mazda CX5 Akera and am on my second one now. Finally it depends how near the Volvo dealership is for servicing. When I arrived in Perth there were 2 North and South of the City and I lived within 15 minutes of the Northern one. I moved South, was thinking of buying another Volvo but Volvo closed the Southern one, reduced the dealers to one IN THE WHOLE STATE , and that was going to be over an hour away.

I would look at what dealerships are near to where you will be living as some European models have dealers spread out. For example in WA, there is 1 Volvo dealer, 1 Jaguar dealer and maybe 3 BMW dealers, 3 Renault and so on. Where I live 80 kms South of Perth, it is not practicable to own some brands because of the distance to a dealer . We bought a Volvo XC60 with us 12 months old and found that the Volvo GPS could not be converted to Australia and a split tyre puncture in the first month cost 2 tyres as the tyres on it were not availble in Australia and you cannot mix on an axle. ($2000 for a puncture as I also had to buy a temporary spare tyre kit as well as it was obvious that relying on an inflation kit in Australia is not sensible). Our Renault Clio Sport was sold in Australia but some parts were different (coil, igniters etc) and had to come from France (via Sydney) so the car was off the road for 4 weeks. We did sell privately to other Europeans, but car dealers were not interested in part exchange because of potential warranty costs when they resold. I would wait and buy here from a franchised dealer so you get a warranty. But if you want to import (you have to have owned the car for12 months) then we found Iron Lady to be great. They had good local knowledge, collected the car from the dock, argued their way through bureaucracy at the dock and at the compliance centre and made sure we didnt wrongly pay stamp duty.

And I also found that the $2000 warranty extension was not transferable to a new buyer unless it was a Volvo dealer. I was offered $15000 part exchange by dealers against a $60k new car, $16000 by a Volvo dealer against a $100k car. The car was under 5 years old.

And then you also have compliance issues as you would with a trailer caravan - gas, electrics, fridge capability, no air con etc....which is why we didn't bring our caravan 8 years ago.....

We imported 2 vehicles in our separate names as you use the name the vehicle is registered in. Also my car went in the container as the general shipping was in my name. My Wife was a returning Australian but still had to comply. I don't know how old your Volvo is but read my post before I cannot speak more highly of Iron Lady who were great and their agent in Perth saved me being wrongly charged thousands in stamp duty. (You have to collect your car from a compliance centre. The licensing centre tried to charge stamp duty on its shipped value - does not apply to a personal import - but luckily the Iron Lady agent had warned me to object. The girl had to ask her supervisor who then accepted it was a personal import.) And collection and compliance were handled smoothly for us. But in hindsight I would not recommend bringing a UK Volvo to Australia unless you realise what may happen and have money. Volvo were good in extending the warranty for Australia but I then paid $2000 for a 2 year extension (on advice from a dealer) as parts are expensive and may have to come in from Sweden. I couldn't adapt the GPS for Australia. My 5 year service cost an arm and a leg - I thought the dealer was joking with me as he read the numbers singly...2, 1,...2..4...then I looked at the invoice and it was 2 thousand 1 hundred etc....Since writing the post, Volvo have closed one of 2 dealerships in Perth (and one now covers ALL Western Australia) and, had I bought a new Volvo, I would be facing a 90 km trip each way on the most congested part of the freeway to get it serviced or repaired. And fears of being stranded if more that 150 kms from Perth (the generally applied recovery limit unless its a brand new car). Don't want to be a killjoy. Been here 8 years and love it.

Hi - obviously it’s your decision but I just wanted you to know what I experienced. i suggest you look at what you can sell the Volvo for, add the savings on cleaning, transit and inspection and clearance fees, look at car dealers near your destination and prices of cars. I had never looked at Mazda and Toyota SUV’s yet alone driven one. But I was pleasantly surprised how good the Mazda range is and the new CX8 and 9 are really good to compare with the XC90, which I had also owned in the UK. And new car prices are cheaper in Australia except for European luxury cars which have an extra car tax. So a new Mazda car will be $57000 to 70000, a Volvo XC 90 over $90000 but look at used cars as well.

I took my Volvo XC60 to Australia and used Iron Lady. Very helpful. The car was less than 1 year old but I got special permission to import it. But here is my experience- The compliance officer tried to reject the car as the tinted glass was too dark. The Iron Lady agent argued successfully that the windows were factory standard but had to get proof from Volvo. The licensing office tried to charge stamp duty but the agent had warned me that duty was not payable on a personal import. The RAC wouldn’t insure it. Shannon’s was the only one but premium was fine. I had checked that Volvo transferred the guarantee. After a month, I had a puncture - split tyre. No spare wheel so I had to get RAC to recover car to a Volvo dealer. They are few by the way - only one in Western Australia. Volvo agreed to cover the car for recovery. The dealer then advised that the tyres were different to Australian models so I had to buy 2 new tyres. I ordered a space saver spare, realising that I could be stranded if I ventured too far and had a puncture. The puncture repair therefore cost me $2000. I found great service from Volvo but luckily the one dealer was 15 minutes away. The sat nav could not be converted to Australia as the car is programmed to the original country and cannot be changed. I appealed for help from Sweden but they could not change it. This really upset me as I needed GPS and had to use google maps. Software updates were available but the dealer had to sign into Volvo Sweden for this. Spares and service is expensive. My 4 year service was $2000. I now have a Mazda CX 5 and the equivalent service was $460. We moved one hour south. I had minor problem with faulty seatbelts but local garage couldn’t help as the tools to remove the seat squab were unique to Volvo. That meant a whole day driving back to Perth, waiting around so I decided to sell the car and buy one with local dealers. The Volvo dealer would have taken a part exchange but new prices were over $90k. Toyota and Mazda dealers would not touch it. So I sold privately and a European guy bought it and wasn’t worried about lack of sat nav. I loved my Volvo, but had to give up. I had Volvo’s in the UK for years. Hope that helps.

We used Iron Chef and he was very helpful. It was great having our cars here as in WA used cars are expensive compared to the UK. We used Shannons for insurance as RAC won't insure imports but the premiums were good, and service excellent. Having said that, we sold the cars a couple of years later for other reasons (one was a Volvo and there are few dealers but servicing was expensive. In addition I had a split tyre and had to buy 2 new ones as tyre sizes here were different.) The Clio Sport was low mileage and 10 years old at time of import but parts had to be ordered from France most of the time as the spec was different here. Iron Chef pointed out that we knew its history and would not lose out when selling. And that was true. We sold to a French lady who was looking out for this model.

Yes roller bars work at a our friends house. Cheaper than some enclosures and you still have your outdoor area free of mesh. There is a WA installer and a website and he had Oscillot rollers installed.

Some areas limit the number of cats you can have without a licence. Where we live it is 3.

We brought 2 cats to Perth from snow to 30 degrees within 2 days. They didn't enjoy the quarantine but luckily because of a bush fire they were released to home quarantine after 2 weeks. At first we built a cat run and they went out doors - but we soon discovered that they just moved to a shady bush and seldom moved. We then bought a large holiday apartment and found to our surprise that when we returned to the house, the cats still preferred inside living and would come in all the time. The apartment has 2 large balconies and they love sitting out there in the summer, looking out over the water. There is no way we could have left them behind. They are registered, chipped as before. There is a curfew here at 10pm for cats but as I said ours have become indoor cats and there is no sign of them wanting to escape etc. But there are great cat runs and a new roller bar system on top of the fence which a friend has installed which keeps cats in the run, and others out. Yes there are people who think cats are terrible predators but they never talk about killing snakes, crows and other wild creatures that devour wild life.

We also insured our house and contents with Shannon’s and got a discount. Surprisingly, RAC wouldn’t insure the first house we moved to as it didn’t have window locks. When we asked them for a security survey, they refused as the house had asbestos facia boards (as many houses do in Australia).