ArrowsEng

You could talk to the member M005, on this thread: http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/victoria/218161-what-happens-when-i-import-my-car-victoria.html, as he is also looking to bring his VW T5 camper. also has a couple of pics of his.

Check out the thread '[h=1]Importing a Caravan from UK to Australia[/h]On the second page it gives you a link to website about what you have to go through and approx. costs. Generally it would be worth it.

Why would you need to use Eastlink? From Berwick you take the Monash Fwy into town, through the tunnel then turn off onto the bolte bridge and drive straight up to Tullamarine. That way you only use citylink. Its also a lot quicker than trying to get through the top of melbourne when you get off the eastern freeway.

Can you give a better description of the car and where you are? How many km's, Auto or manual, engine size, what equipment level, is there RWC or blue slip? etc.

Hi Rich, Because your car will be a Personal Import, there is NO requirement to change the speedo. Also, as its an SLK (only 2 seats) there is no requirement to fit Child Restraint Anchorages, so your car is one of the easiest to do. Let me know when it gets to Melbourne and I'll help you through the process. Regards, Blake A.

Looks like a very neat and tidy setup. Happy to help when you get it to Melbourne. Phone number is 0430507676. Email: blake@arrowspe.com.au Regards, Blake A.

Someone like Iron Lady have a service where they value your vehicle for customs purpose, its usually a bit less than you can buy a car for as the valuation takes into account the mileage and condition of the vehicle. I am about to do a VASS and registration for a campervan in a week or 2 for someone. The only difference with a campervan to a normal car as in import is that we have to fit a fire extinguisher and get any 240V electrics or cooking / heating gas system certified, which is quite straight forward. When you compare campervan prices in OZ compared to UK then I think a Personal Import is the best way. Here are 2 VW campers for sale at the moment, not cheap! http://www.carsales.com.au/dealer/details/Volkswagen-LT-2004/AGC-AD-16612892/?Cr=2&sdmvc=1 http://www.carsales.com.au/private/details/Volkswagen-Transporter-2009/SSE-AD-3043375/?Cr=1&sdmvc=1 I would the valuations would be half of these but best to ask a valuation expert.

Bring the 2 bikes and some clothes in your luggage allowance, donate the furniture and appliances to family/friends/charity shops and send the rest in a couple of tea chests. That way you travel light! I went to the UK 16 years ago with 2 suitcases, I returned to Oz 6 years ago with a 40ft container, a wife and 2 kids. Always best to start by travelling light as you never know what you will gather along the way!

Hey mate, I think the red book value for a 2004 Fiesta would be closer to $4000. A 2014 fiesta would be around $14000.

Give Kristian a phone call +61 (0) 402 904 069, he answers the phone but is quite busy and can take a little while to answer emails.

Go for the Hyundai I30 or Mazda 2 or the Honda Jazz. All very good in their own way.

Start by going through the pages on the Departments website: https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/vehicles/imports/ The main thing is you are allowed to bring in 1 vehicle for each category for everyone over 18 years of age. So you can bring 1 personal import, 1 pre-89, etc. You can't personally bring 2 cars and a van.

If your car has no air con and you are moving to Perth, forget about bringing it over. A car in Oz with no aircon is useless, nobody will buy it when you want to sell it and during your first summer in Perth with 40degree temps you will be begging for an air conditioned car.

As much as I think the Mazda 2 is a great little car for the city, I think there is a huge difference between a Mazda 2 and the Range Rovers mentioned above. Anyone coming from the UK with a Range Rover, Audi, BMW, Mercedes or any of the higher valued luxury or semi luxury cars I would recommend they bring over, especially if they have any attachment to them. I still kick myself for not buying a Porsche 911 or Merc when I lived in UK and bring that back to Australia when I came back 6 years ago. All the good luxury cars which are not allowed to be parallel imported, such as Porsches, Mercs, BMW, Audi, Range Rovers, Mini's, Lotus, Ferrari, Aston Martin or even Lexus, is worth the effort if you want to keep the car yourself.

I live in Vermont, which is great for families, possibly not best suited for couples looking for the night life. Keep to the train line corridors, the express train on the Ringwood/Lilydale line stops at Blackburn, Box Hill, Camberwell, glenferrie and Richmond stations, so suggest anywhere around those stations as good places. Box Hill is great for Asian food (large Asian population) but Camberwell or even Mitcham or Heatherdale are very nice for shops, restaurants, pubs, supermarkets etc. without too long a commute to the city. Other possiblity is Glen Waverley, good shopping at the end of the Glen Waverley train line but not the express train into town.

I rang and talked to him on Thursday, Kristian answered the phone straight away. If you can ring him during australian business hours he's very good.

We live out in Vermont in Melbourne, our kids primary school runs holiday programs during school holidays at $50 to $60 per day and runs before and after school care at $18 for after school (3.30 to 6pm) and $10 for before school (7ish to 9.00).

Check the moneycorp guys on this forum to get a good way to exchange your pounds. Why not keep your bank account open in UK and bring your money over when you need it, rather than exchange it straight away? I also believe that sometime next year the UK interest rates will start rising and when they do the pound will start strengthening and go back to historical norms of above $2 to pound or even $2.50 to pound. Also look at xe.com as they have up to year or greater graphs of what the currencys do.

Toyota sold the larger Avensis Verso in Australia but discontinued them around 2010. You can get a 2005 model with 60,000 miles for around $12,000. The smaller Corolla Verso was not sold in Australia. A lot of people in Australia now tend towards the smaller "Soft Roader" SUV's such as Nissan Dualis +2 or the like if they want an occasional 7 seat people mover, the +2 started in 2010 and you get 40,000 mile versions of these for around $19-20,000.

I don't like to but into others conversations (too much) but I do need to correct Savitar a little. The Skoda Superb is sold in Australia as a 2.0L TDI in 103kW (103TDi) and 125kW (125TDi) versions so parts are not an issue. I would still agree with Savitars advice that bringing over a Skoda is probably not in your best interest and I say this as a Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDi owner. This is mainly due to the servicing costs of a diesel Skoda in Australia are very expensive as they come under the VW group of companies. The worst services are every 60,000km they want to service the DSG transmission and will charge you around $1000. Then at 105,000km you need to change the camshaft belt and this service is around $1500. As fuel efficient as our Octavia is (and your Superb should be), we average 6.0L/100km, even if you buy a Holden Commodore or something of equivalent size to a Superb, you would get an average 10L/100km on petrol. Unfortunately Skoda's as yet do not hold much value, our Octavia was $30,000 in 2008, now worth around $12,000, so the depreciation and service costs against the fuel economy savings don't really match up. All up, I'd get the best you can for the Superb in the UK and put that into buying a new car "off the lot" in Australia, I have read on this forum a couple of people have had dealerships deliver new cars to the airport for their arrival, so they didn't have to rent a car - interesting thought if you know exactly what you want. Personally I still like test driving what I'm going to buy. One last note is that Australians tend to buy SUV's or smaller run arounds, each count for about 25% of the new car markets nowadays rather than big sedans - a lots changed in 25 years in Australia! Regards, Blake.

Hi Savitar, I would be interested to know if you made a profit on selling your second M3 and was it hard to sell a UK car in Australia and if you got a similar price to what Australian M3's are selling for? I'm a car person too, so this is just for interest.

How old are your kids? You'll make friends with the parents of the kids that your children go to school with or with people you work with. I wouldn't worry about friends too much as long as you have work to go to and your kids will start school at the end of January, so enjoy the summer weather and things will flow.

Actually, if your well prepared, you can have your car on the road in a week. If you let your VASS engineer know when the car leaves bonded storage, they can be prepared for the car to arrive on the same day, check it out and then post off the paperwork to Niddrie all in the 1st day. By the 3rd day you have the plate fitted and the car off for the RWC. If it passes with flying colors then by the 5th day the car can be at a VicRoads office getting its plates and your happily driving it from there on. As for spare parts, most imports are not much harder to get than Australian delivered cars. I have 2 Australian delivered (European cars) and I get most spare parts from overseas over the internet as they are generally cheaper, even with shipping costs. When you have a car that you know and trust and have lived with overseas for some time, it can be more useful to bring this with you, rather than trying to find a car in Australia that you don't know why someone is selling it and what problems you may get stuck with, especially considering that most cars in the UK cost much less than second hand ones in Australia.

Hi I've decided to put this thread up as I've seen a couple of people unsure as to what happens once they have imported their car to Australia. Every state in Australia has different costs and procedures involved with registering a second hand car brought in from overseas. I can only advise you about Victoria's costs as that's where I live and deal with VicRoads, the licensing authority for Victoria. Once your car has arrived in Melbourne you need to go through the following process. Once the car is in quarantine, you have to budget on it being steam cleaned, this involves the car being put on a tow truck, taken to a special place that blasts it with water and then gets returned on the tow truck, it will cost over $500. Once this is all paid, you can get your car delivered on the back of a tow truck (about $200) or sometimes you can pick it up. If you wish to drive it on the road you have to get a 28 day unregistered vehicle permit from Vic Roads for this, i think they are about $60 but VicRoads only lets you apply for these over the phone so I'm not 100% sure on their costs. The other option is you can borrow a "Trade Plate" from the VASS engineer or workshop that your car is going to and drive it direct from the bonded storage yard. You then need to take the car, with your Personal Import Approval letters (there are 4 in total) to a VASS engineer, there is a list on VicRoads website and I'm one of the engineers on that list - this is for transparency so as you know why I'm writing this. The VASS engineer checks that your car has correct working seat belts for all seats, that the headrests are correct for each seat and that there is an ADR 34 acceptable Child Restraint Anchorage for each of the rear seats. This is where some European cars need these fitted at an approx. cost of $110 per seat (usually 2 or 3 required) but it depends on the car as something like an Aston Martin can be several hundred dollars per CRA due to the complexity. Once this is done the Engineer signs the Personal Import papers and one gets sent to Niddrie nameplates for the yellow PI sticker that gets stuck to the passenger door B-pillar to say it complies. VASS engineers charge $165 to $220 for this, sometimes more depending on complexity. Once the sticker is fitted, you take the car to a Road Worthy Certificate garage, who will check the car is mechanically safe - similar to a MOT but you only have to do this when the car is being registered on changing ownership, not every year as with an MOT. The RWC costs around $265, unless there are issues that the mechanic wants fixed, common issues for older cars are sand blasted, stone chipped windscreens to be replaced or suspension ball joints are worn. These costs vary from almost nothing to many hundreds of dollars to fix. Finally with the Import Approval signed and RWC, you need to make an appointment to go to a VICRoads office and get your car registered but there you get another lot of fees: Appointment Fee: $16.90 Inspection Fee: $27.00 Registration Fee: $270.40 Transport Accident Fee: $443.00 Insurance duty: $44.30 Number plates: $34.00 Motor Vehicle Duty: (4.2% of the value of the vehicle, based on a $3000 car, this is:) $126.00, (based on a $30,000 car it is $1260.00) VicRoads charges in total for $3k car = $961.60, for a $30k car = $2095.60. You can then finally insure your car but be careful not to mention its a personal import, unless you have to, its not dishonest but the insurance companies will put on a premium if they think the car is not Australian delivered. Finally most insurance companies give you the option of Fully comprehensive insurance (covers you and whatever you might hit) or Third party-Fire and Theft if the vehicle is valued under $1000 but this means if you hit someone, their car is covered but not yours. Regards, Blake.

What type of car do you need? How many need to be moved - any kids? Do you plan to do any travelling or just potter around melbourne? I would suggest if you think you might need to go at any stage then a cheaper used car about 7 - 10 years old would be the bet.