JBO76

Thanks for your quick reply Exile - much apprecaited.

I have been through a lot of the site covering this topic and have to thank Kristian of Iron Chef imports for providing so much useful information. My problem is that when consulting the Red Book it is hard to get a feel for a realistic resale value. In particular, I have no way of knowing how negatively the car's import status would impact its market price.

I am currently considering taking a car over to Australia when we head out next year and am really interested in hearing other members experiences of doing this.

It would be great to build up a picutre of other's experience so that this could help inform POI forum viewers as to whether this is a good move both practically and economically.

I am thinking of taking over a BMW X5 and amcurrently trying to put a costing together to see if the sum of UK purchase cost + shipping + import taxes + registration and valuation fees etc are greater than the Australian $ value.

It would also be great to get feedback on how personal import cars are viewed in the second hand market and whether they are worth significantly less than non-import models.

We received an email back in 18th March saying that we would get a CO in 3 months but have still not heard anything. The 3 month period is not up until mid June but am just wondering if anyone else is in a similar position?

Am I right in assuming that we will be contacted by email when we get a CO?

Many thanks Iron Chef for all of your advice on this topic. This is a really helpful thread.

We connected briefly in the chat room and I mentioned that I had a Mazda 5 which sadly has never been released into the Oz market. I like the car a lot but not so much that I would be happy to get stuck with a big loss when we come to sell it. Selling a car that no-one has heard of will not be easy and I dont fancy doing that.

Given that we are not coming out for about 18 months we have time to buy an alternative and bring that with us instead. We would need another family car with big boot etc and am wondering if you have any advice about particular makes/models that could make export a lucrative option.

We will be brining our furniture out also so am also curious to know whether I am best to bring the car in a container or RORO?

Many thanks