shipping car & motorbike

[kazb67]

We are moving to Melbourne from Scotland in Jan/Feb & want to ship our car & bike.

Volvo XC90, 2015, 24861 miles & Ducati Multistrada 1260 Pikes Peak, 2018, 1604 miles.

I can see though that you can only import 1 registered vehicle per year. My partner deals with the buying & registering of cars so theyre both in his name even although I use the volvo daily.

Is there any way around this?

Edited October 16, 2019 by kazb67
incorrect spelling

[fosseboy]

I took my Volvo XC60 to Australia and used Iron Lady. Very helpful. The car was less than 1 year old but I got special permission to import it.

But here is my experience-

The compliance officer tried to reject the car as the tinted glass was too dark. The Iron Lady agent argued successfully that the windows were factory standard but had to get proof from Volvo.

The licensing office tried to charge stamp duty but the agent had warned me that duty was not payable on a personal import.

The RAC wouldn’t insure it. Shannon’s was the only one but premium was fine.

I had checked that Volvo transferred the guarantee.

After a month, I had a puncture - split tyre. No spare wheel so I had to get RAC to recover car to a Volvo dealer. They are few by the way - only one in Western Australia.

Volvo agreed to cover the car for recovery.

The dealer then advised that the tyres were different to Australian models so I had to buy 2 new tyres. I ordered a space saver spare, realising that I could be stranded if I ventured too far and had a puncture. The puncture repair therefore cost me $2000.

I found great service from Volvo but luckily the one dealer was 15 minutes away.

The sat nav could not be converted to Australia as the car is programmed to the original country and cannot be changed. I appealed for help from Sweden but they could not change it. This really upset me as I needed GPS and had to use google maps.

Software updates were available but the dealer had to sign into Volvo Sweden for this.

Spares and service is expensive. My 4 year service was $2000.  I now have a Mazda CX 5 and the equivalent service was $460.

We moved one hour south. I had minor problem with faulty seatbelts but local garage couldn’t help as the tools to remove the seat squab were unique to Volvo. That meant a whole day driving back to Perth, waiting around so I decided to sell the car and buy one with local dealers.

The Volvo dealer would have taken a part exchange but new prices were over $90k.

Toyota and Mazda dealers would not touch it. So I sold privately and a European guy bought it and wasn’t worried about lack of sat nav.

I loved my Volvo, but had to give up. I had Volvo’s in the UK for years.

Hope that helps.

 

 

 

 

 

[kazb67]

All in all sounds like more hassle than it’s worth?
I read about the tinted window but thought because it was factory standard it’d be ok.
I love the car, it’s perfect for the kids.
Defo worth thinking about, thanks.

[fosseboy]

Hi - obviously it’s your decision but I just wanted you to know what I experienced.

i suggest you look at what you can sell the Volvo for, add the savings on cleaning, transit and inspection and clearance fees, look at car dealers near your destination and prices of cars. 

I had never looked at Mazda and Toyota SUV’s yet alone driven one. But I was pleasantly surprised how good the Mazda range is and the new CX8 and 9 are really good to compare with the XC90, which I had also owned in the UK.

And new car prices are cheaper in Australia except for European luxury cars which have an extra car tax.

So a new Mazda car will be $57000 to 70000, a Volvo XC 90 over $90000 but look at used cars as well.