nsa

Yes i did keep the Japanese plates in English (i would have thought JAF the carnet issuer would ask them back, but no). In fact i never used them because Australian regulations require you drive with the usual plates from the origin country (my mistake in message above stating i drove with Japanese export plates, in fact i drove in Australia with the Japanese plates in Japanese), police and onlookers were confused enough (many thought the plates were in Arabic). You don't even need a "J" sticker on the back of the car. Also the cars were not entirely delisted in Japan, the registration was only suspended (as if the cars were in storage and never driven on a public road for example) so technically it is possible to send them back and re-register them easily after an ordinary shaken; not sure if i'd have to pay Japanese import duties or pass any other type of import inspection in this situation, there would not be in case of return on carnet. As a consequence i do not receive a certificate of mileage upon deregistration (or maybe i could have asked for one even for suspension of rego, but did not) but as owner all along i have all maintenance docs (including previous shaken papers) to prove genuine mileage. Upon suspension of Japanese rego i did have to return the regular Japanese plates to the rego office (Samezu); the process was done months after the rego had expired with no consequence. From memory it went like this: Jan 2013: Japanese shaken (rego valid 2 years), carnet issuance by JAF (valid 1 year), shipping out of Japan March 2013: carnet entrance into Australia, quarantine (steam) cost but no customs cost, driving with Japanese plates Jan 2014: renew carnet for 1 extra year at AAA, inform JAF April 2014: submission of PIS based on very long dated student visa May 2014: PIS granted, receive VIN sticker but keep on driving with Japanese plates Dec 2014: weighbridge, do minor modifications (top tether belt anchors), blue slip Jan 2015: PIS activated, no quarantine but pay Australian import duties + VAT + luxury car tax, release JAF bond, get Australian rego, drive on Australian plates, expiration of Japanese rego July 2015: return of Japanese plates and suspension of registration at Tokyo rego office Also pay all Japanese yearly car taxes/CTP while driving in Australia on carnet, and worry quite a bit as you are in uncharted territory for a good part.

Did not need to send it out and bring it back again. Customs law in general allows to permanently import what has been initially a temporary import - it can be intentional but also a consequence of the goods being stolen for example. In my case the carnet (temporary) was switched into PIS (permanent) as a result of the PIS application leading to import authorization. I drove in Australia with the Japanese export plates for almost 2 years (until the Japanese rego, which i had renewed just before exporting from Japan, was due to expire; 1 year carnet had been renewed for an extra year at AAA) until the day i got the Australian plates. I drove to the weighbridge and the blueslip inspection with the Japanese plates, with no rush at any time between PIS authorization (which i had confirmed has no expiry date) and shaken (Japanese rego) expiration, making the Aussie rego process quite comfortable and very cheap compared to a regular PIS. The quarantine was already done on carnet but i had to file for change of import nature (small fee). I paid custom duties, GST and luxury tax the same as for a PIS based on car value at time of temporary import, not of switch to permanent, which was tricky as PIS usually calls for an expert valuation on arrival but carnet does not, and as expert valuation could not be done 2 years late, they had to agree to my own expertise in car valuation. At some point they wanted to base the duties on carnet value (which was much higher as it serves a purpose of bond) but in the end i won against this at the Admin Tribunal. Quite complicated overall but intellectually satisfying for succeeding (maybe the only person ever to do so ?), and super low cost.

Got my vehicle import approval while on a long dated student visa (5 years), all other criteria matching the PIS. Must be a rare case. Even more exceptional as vehicle was already in Australia on carnet (from Japan) while on a previous, shorter student visa (1 year). Just to say that with careful planning, some flexibility can be found but adding a lot of complexity. Well worth it in my situation, and happy to have succeeded, but I do enjoy this type of administrative challenge.

This is what i did back in 2013 but it seems exceedingly rare so my experience may not translate into yours. .... Now some legal technicalities. Entry with CPD belongs to the broad category of "temporary imports". It is not uncommon for a temporary import to become permanent, so when the temporary import happens you have to fill a customs form (showing value) and if ever the item is not re-exported you pay taxes as per the declaration on this customs form. However there is no such custom form when entering a car under CPD as CPD effectively replaces the local documentation. Hence no Australian "declared value" upon CPD import, and Canberra customs admitted in my case that the CPD value did not constitute a proper value under the tax regulations: as a result the valuation of a car moving from CPD to PIS is in limbo, you have to retroactively value the car as a PIS on the date it landed with CPD, which after months or even 2 years elapsed is hard to do.

This is what i did back in 2013 but it seems exceedingly rare so my experience may not translate into yours. First, the Australian Automobile Association in Canberra allowed me a one year extension to the CPD and apparently that was common practice. During that 2nd year of CPD i applied for a Personal Import which was granted and was authorized to not have the cars being shipped back (there were 2, one for me, one for wife). However, 2 caveats: - while driving in Australia (Sydney area) with foreign licence plates i got pulled by police numerous times and each time had to show not only CPD but also explain the whole thing to incredulous police force, so be prepared - a taxation issue arose when the status of the cars changed: value as written on CPD or value as usually set for personal imports ? In my case the prices were hugely different and customs (CPD is managed by a branch in Brisbane) tried to tax me on the CPD declared value which was a lot higher than "street value" commonly used for personal imports, i paid "under protest" and it reached the Administrative Tribunal where i won the case (Canberra customs admitted that Brisbane was in the wrong) so i spent the good part of 2 years fighting the fed govt over this to get refunded the excess paid

Actually this is a very interesting point that all readers of this thread may want to think about. If your car lands in Australia without the top tether anchor points, these will have to be installed by a certified engineer - even if all it takes is screw them on. If you do it yourself before the car ships, it will not be possible for the inspection to know whether or not they were factory fitted, and that will save you the engineer fee (as long as you do it properly of course). At least that is my experience with my Audi.

Indeed i forgot LCT, 33% only on the fraction of value above $62k, that's another $2700 you have to pay. Compliancing the DB9 may require only installing top tether anchors for child seats in the back, which may be as simple as screwing the parts on, or may need more substantial engineering work be done if the bolt holes where these attach are not present on your chassis. Keep this in mind in the total cost. Check the picture of back seats here: http://www.carsales.com.au/dealer/details/Aston-Martin-DB9-2005/AGC-AD-17226374/?Cr=10 and you can see the anchor points above. That is what you'll have to get installed on yours. Others will have to reply on the shipping cost and related services. But $40k ? It would seem to me more in the $20k range. We assume your car is RHD of course.

Extremely roughly: based on http://www.carpoint.com.au/car-valuations/?N=2994+4294937167+4294843919+4294965618+4294193434+4294830947&search=1#ctl08_p_d_ctl08_cboMake=4294937167&ctl08_p_d_ctl08_cboModel=4294843919&ctl08_p_d_ctl08_cboYearMade=4294965618 the car would be worth around $100k so taxable as an import at maybe $70k and the tax would be (simplifying again) 15% of that, therefore in the vicinity of $10k and you'll have a one-off stamp duty to pay as well when registering the car (if in NSW: $3100 for an $80k value).

If the OP has something else in mind (a DB9 maybe ?) and if he can get a COE refund and PARF then just maybe... it could be worth pursuing. But it's true that moving a car from SG to AU is not an obvious choice.

Neither. Afaik, the car would be valued as per its landed value in Australia, that is how much such a model would be worth on the local market here minus all the costs necessary to make the car available on the market (landing & compliancing). The Chief will surely confirm. Can you also get a partial refund of COE if you export the car ? In case you sell the car, is the buyer paying you for the unused portion of the COE ?

One issue with RHD though is the pedals placement, especially on cars where the front axle is near the cockpit (any compact, but also many middle or rear-engined cars like Porsche): the accel pedal ends up being in the middle of the foot well, with no knee support for the right leg. For that reason alone i've come to think LHD is the best car-driver positioning. This is not an issue with RHD larger cars or with front engine sports cars (RX7, S2000) where they placed the front axle way ahead to improve balance. I've driven both RHD and LHD in Tokyo and there was nearly no difference in such traffic condition. I think some buyers in Japan prefer a LHD european car because that's the way it was originally designed and the switch to RHD is not always complete, ie center consoles unchanged (BMW swaps them left-right, not Audi, for example), winker stalk staying on the left side of the column making it difficult to operate both winker and gear lever from the left hand. Some also say that in narrow Japanese streets, being in a LHD car allows to go closer to the wall - same reason trucks in some continental european countries are being operated RHD (i think i saw that in Italy ?).

Actually, getting a RHD Alpina in Japan is now a lot easier than it used to be. The first RHD Alpina imports were E46 chassis i believe - a friend owned one (B3 3.3) and it was a hard find at that time. A quick look on goo-net today gets you over a dozen RHD Alpinas offered throughout Japan, out of a total of nearly 100. And they are offered new in either RHD or LHD. Of course that does not make them available to import in Australia, though it could be planned ahead if given enough lead time to a potential migrant. Cheers all

Hi, Would it make sense to personally import a recent RHD Alpina (possibly ex-Japan) or would the parts issue make it an "orphan" ? Cheers

Thx to you both, Iron Chef and Kakimoto33. Had been working for 2 years on my car import, finally possible (am on a student visa and initially DIRD had said no).

On April 14 i got VIA (vehicle import approval) for my car (personal import, discretionary base as in theory my visa doesn't allow it). Two questions: - how long is it good for ? can the car reach customs, say, in January next year ? - how does the 5 years rule work ? is it time between two VIA approvals or time between two actual import (ie, going through customs) ? Cheers, Nicolas