Vehicle Shipping and Import Costs Extortionate!

[DazAmy]

First original post - sorry about the rant, I'm really quite upset! I've been trying to convince the husband that we should take our beloved 1979 VW Campervan with us when we go to Melbourne at the end of August. He was concerned about the costs and effort vs. value as I am sure most people are. So I go about obtaining quotes and talk him into it as the numbers weren't too bad. However, it seems a large cost was never disclosed to me (out of confusion, nothing else) and now the cost to ship the camper, all the fees it entails etc, is coming out at almost £5k plus insurance - for a camper that's monetary value which is around the £10k mark, it just does not seem worth it to me anymore either. There is a lot more sentimental value of course but money talks.

 

Just when you think you have everything organised and sorted in your head............

 

Sorry again for ranting, I'm so glad I checked the quote again as otherwise I wouldn't know about this particular cost (in the region of $1,900.00) until I had the bill at the other end when I'd have no choice but to pay! Anyone thinking of taking a vehicle, please check you have included allowances for everything and a little bit more.

 

Looks like we will have to sell the camper and buy another :-(

[calNgary]

We didnt bring our vehicle/s because we personally thought cost and hassle wasnt worth it in the end. If there is sentimental value it may well be worth getting a couple of different quotes in ,just to be sure though. Have you contacted Iron Chef one of our members who does car shipping?

 

Cal

[Savitar]

Are you able to break down the costs, I just imported 2 cars and from memory the costs were about :

 

- £1000 for the shipping, i used RORO and it was fine

- 15% of the cars value for import duties

- £1000 for customs fees

- $990 (£550) for ADR compliance

 

So depending on the cars value, it starts around £2,500 before the car valuation costs. If the van gets valued at say $10,000, then you would need to add around £1,000, making the import closer to £4,000, just to be conservative.

 

There are additional costs such are roadworthy, insurance, registration fees etc but you would have to pay these on any car you buy in OZ anyway so they don't really add to the costs (as you would be spending them regardless).

 

Now the question of if its worth it is very subjective. If you can get 10K pounds for it and but a similar one in OZ for around the $20K mark, there is very little in the out of pocket and a significant amount less stress. HOWEVER, if you are looking to import just remember, people in OZ are VERY wary about buying an import so if you do import it and plan on selling it at ANY point, assume you are going to get around 30% less than the market value of an aussie delivered version of the same car. Its stupid, it makes no sense but its the way the market works here...