Shipping car

[missshelly 11]

Has anyone had problems getting speedo changed on car to ship back to UK we have a Prius and cannot get the speedo changed not even Toyota will do this it's only a year old and bought before we decided to move back we want to ship back rather than lose so many $$$$$ any ideas

british customs will not accept into country unless speedo changed from KMs to MPH

[beach pig 399]

Buy a uk speedo online from the uk get it shipped over. Then get a auto electrician to change them over.

[Guest]

I don't think that is correct - for it to be road legal in the UK the speedo must show mph but this can be done after it is imported.

 

We decided in the end it was not economically viable to bring our car back but the process we were going to follow was to have the car collected from the port by a friend with a car trailer, get the required work done at a local garage and then have it transported to a test station for inspection. There are of course companies that arrange the importing and everything else for you...for a price.

 

From the forums there is mixed views on simply driving the car from the port yourself...there is an allowance for the car to be driven to 'pre-arranged appointments' so I guess if you made an appointment at a garage for the work to be done then you could pick it up and drive it straight there legally - but you would need 3rd party insurance so it could get messy. Details here: https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/overview

 

The detail of the test stations and what is required can be found here:

 

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-approval/single-vehicle-approval

 

Are you sure the speedo is all that is required?

 

If so, you don't actually need a new speedo unit, you can get a conversion kit such as this... http://www.lockwoodinternational.co.uk/dials-for-imported-vehicles-c53.html

 

I would think long and hard, I know it is painful to make a loss on such a new car (we did the same going out with a BMW M-Sport that was less than 2 years old!) but by the time you add together all the costs plus the additional cost of insuring an imported car and the fact it's re-sale value will be less in the UK then it is difficult to make it work financially. The decider for us was looking at how much the identical car would cost us in the UK, with car prices being cheaper there once we took into account the cost of shipping etc. and what we could sell our car for in Australia then it made sense to simply replace it in the UK.

 

Don't look at what you are losing from new, look at whether replacing in the UK would be less than the current value of the car in Australia plus shipping costs.

[Gbye grey sky 6,388]

 

Don't look at what you are losing from new, look at whether replacing in the UK would be less than the current value of the car in Australia plus shipping costs.

 

This advice is spot on and the defining reason why we decided not to ship our car to Oz next year. An important point also is that as an imported car it's resale value in the UK may be affected; this I understand was certainly the case in reverse so factor that in too. Obviously if you are planning and expecting to drive it for years and years this is less of a factor.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Gbye grey sky
Correction