Importing Car - Complete Car Care, Seven Hills, Sydney

[martincburgess]

If are one of the numerous people who is emergrating to Australia and are looking to take their car with them, this post is for you. I can honestly say that there was very limted information when I was in the same situation before our move to Sydney in November last year.

 

I am delighted to tell you that my beloved Volvo S60 is now sitting my secure garage in the Western Sunburbs of Sydney. It was very expensive and as I couldn't get a reasonable price for it in the UK, due to it being 18 onths old and Godon Brown introducing a scrappage scheme (devastating second hand values - effectively a negative equity situation!) There was also a sentimental element - so decided to take it with me.

 

My Removal company told me that in the last year that they have seen a 50% rise in people importing their cars. So you maybe likely to go down this route. You will need to ensure that the car is in a good condition and as clean as possible but the Australian Customs will steam clean it whatever happens and it is expensive. You will need a Personal Import Licence via ACT and this takes sometime. DO NOT IMPORT your car unless you have this piece of paper. Your Removal Company should tell you this.

 

We arrived in Oz in Dec 2009 but the container didn't arrive until February and we didn't see the contents until much later that month. See a separte post on this - not best pleased by our removal company - as car and contents sat in the UK for a month before even starting the shipping process.

 

I found Australain rules and regulations very complicated and the RTA in NSW is a complete nightmare. Red tape in Oz is significantly worse than the UK - beware!! Whilst fighting the battle with the RTA I had an agency recommended to me. In short, they were superb and looked after all the paperwork, registration and minor modifications needed to the car (replacement mirror to drivers side and child restraints to rear seats>

 

They were:

 

Complete Car Care,

Seven Hills

NSW 2147

 

 

 

If you are importing to Sydney mero area or beyond - give them a call - Ask for Robert and I can honestly say that the service was excellent and he will provide the level of service you don't often find in Australia. He was helpful and courteous. All you need to do is sign a Power of Attourney and then he will do the rest, just pay the bill and collect the car.

 

Although it was expensive it was certainly worth it. Good luck.

 

One final thought - unless your car is precious to you - it would be worth offloading before getting to Oz. You can get good value for your Dollars over here (subject to a decent exchange rate!). The total cost to ship my car was about £6,000 - not worth it unless the car is of some value!

 

Happy to answer any further queries you may have on the importing experience.

 

Tracey Burgess

(via Martin's log in!)

[Guest dunkyboy]

thanks for that information Tracy, I have been trying to decide whether to ship my Nissan X Trail to Perth, can you tell me how the tax side of it works ?

by that I mean how do they assess the value of your car and what is the rate of tax you have to pay on that ?

 

thanks in advance

Duncan :notworthy:

 

PS. does anyone know of a company in Perth who will arrange everything for you to ship your car from the UK ?

[Mongrel]

thanks for that information Tracy, I have been trying to decide whether to ship my Nissan X Trail to Perth, can you tell me how the tax side of it works ?

by that I mean how do they assess the value of your car and what is the rate of tax you have to pay on that ?

 

thanks in advance

Duncan :notworthy:

 

PS. does anyone know of a company in Perth who will arrange everything for you to ship your car from the UK ?

 

Dont know mate but be aware of 2 things , the insurance cost of insuring it for the road and resell value ,be ok if you are gonna keep it till it dies

[nickyc88]

Hi Tracey,

 

Thanks for this... we are considering shipping our car and have struggled to find info. Would you be able to break down the £6k to give me an idea of how much to expect at each stage? Also what is ACT and RTA?

 

If anyone knows of a similar company in the Brisbane area that would be great!

 

Thanks,

Nicky

[Guest dunkyboy]

Dont know mate but be aware of 2 things , the insurance cost of insuring it for the road and resell value ,be ok if you are gonna keep it till it dies

yep, the plan would be keep it till it dies, I am sure I could easily get another 10 years from it

[Bod]

Hi Tracey,

 

Thanks for this... we are considering shipping our car and have struggled to find info. Would you be able to break down the £6k to give me an idea of how much to expect at each stage? Also what is ACT and RTA?

 

If anyone knows of a similar company in the Brisbane area that would be great!

 

Thanks,

Nicky

 

 

RTA Road traffic accosiation????????????????

 

ACT= Australian capital terrartry = Canbera

[martincburgess]

thanks for that information Tracy, I have been trying to decide whether to ship my Nissan X Trail to Perth, can you tell me how the tax side of it works ?

by that I mean how do they assess the value of your car and what is the rate of tax you have to pay on that ?

 

thanks in advance

Duncan :notworthy:

 

PS. does anyone know of a company in Perth who will arrange everything for you to ship your car from the UK ?

 

Duncan - GST is payable on an imported car - 10% based on the value of the car as assessed by Australian Customs. As the Volvo we imported was a manual diesel... (most cars are automatic in Oz and there are no deisel S60's over here, although the engine appears in other vehicles, making it serviceable - but thats another story!)...the value was actaully less than anticipated. The car was 18 months old and we had assessed it at being worth about 14k pounds - in Oz they thought the equivalent of 11k - which from a tax point was good news. Of course comparisons will need to be made at the current exchange rate. An appeals process applies, but in the scheme of things, unless the valuation is wildly out, it is probably best to go with the flow.

 

I would say that Nissan X Trails are common over here and pro rata car prices are a lot cheaper - if your model is not unique, would suggest considering moving it on and starting over in Oz.

[martincburgess]

Hi Tracey,

 

Thanks for this... we are considering shipping our car and have struggled to find info. Would you be able to break down the £6k to give me an idea of how much to expect at each stage? Also what is ACT and RTA?

 

If anyone knows of a similar company in the Brisbane area that would be great!

 

Thanks,

Nicky

 

 

Nicky, I think this may have been addressed but apologieis for all the shortcuts - ACT is Australian Capital Territory, where they sort all the paperwork for car imports and RTA is the Road Traffic Authority (that is what its called in NSW anyway)!

 

The 6k breakdown in the broadest sense was: 2.5k removals (part of a 40 ft container), 2k agency costs, which included servicing, port duties, registration and additional works to car, there was also 1k of GST to pay on the imported car. With extra odds and ends it came to about 6k. Can be done more cheaply if you have the time, patience and tolerance to deal with the red tape!! Fortunately we both found work reasonably quickly, so had some funds (but not the time!)

[julzcary]

Hi Tracey,

 

Thanks for this... we are considering shipping our car and have struggled to find info. Would you be able to break down the £6k to give me an idea of how much to expect at each stage? Also what is ACT and RTA?

 

If anyone knows of a similar company in the Brisbane area that would be great!

 

Thanks,

Nicky

 

My car should be arriving in Brisbane this week. I have been recommended a guy that looks after the import/modications/registration which at $770 inc GST, which I didnt think was too bad to take the hastle out of things. I've just been given the details of another guy who someone I know imports from the States and uses him all the time. I'm going to give him a call tomorrow to see how much he charges. If you send me an email with your contact details to juliecary@hotmail.com, I'll send you the contact details and let you know how much it cost and whether its worth it. For me, my car fit into the container with the rest of our possessions, so there wasnt really any additional expense for shipping, other than insurance, which was £300 for a £20,000 valuation of the car. Dont know how much the import duty will be yet, hopefully no more than $4,000:skeptical:

Hope that helps.

 

Julie

[julzcary]

Forgot to say that in Queensland (dont know if its the same elsewhere), you pay stamp duty on the car the first time you register it, which is about 2% of the value :mad:

[Bod]

Forgot to say that in Queensland (dont know if its the same elsewhere), you pay stamp duty on the car the first time you register it, which is about 2% of the value :mad:

 

 

Same in NT

[Guest Paul in UK]

I'm on the edge, to import or not. I have a BMW 325i, 2003 model. It's not flash or new but a nice car that i'll only get around £4000 for. I know it will be around £2000 to ship it, which is fine, but i'm unsure about all the rest of it, i.e. GST, Duty and what ever else needs to be done to it. I just want a decent quote up front.

 

Is it 10% Duty and another 10% GST based on the price in the 'red book'?

[julzcary]

From my experience its not as straight forward as looking at the red book! I have a 2004 mercedes CLK which I reckoned I'd have got 10 or 11k for it in the uk but the equivalent (even though there isnt an equivalent model of mine here in oz), was probably over $30,000. The end value for import duty as it takes into account other costs such as shipping, insurance etc, was $22,000. The duty is now reduced to 5% not 10%, but GST is still 10%.

 

I then had the following costs:

1. AQIS inspection fee which was a couple of hundred dollars,

2. cleaning of the car by AQIS (rip off!!) $550,

3. the compliance works, test, temporary import plates at $770

4. rego (which is your car tax which you would pay on any car you buy). Cant remember the exact amount.

5. Stamp duty the first time you register it which for a 5 or 6 cylinder engine is 3% of the value of the car. However, everyone declares a lower amount for this purpose and provided you dont go daft, then dont usually question it. I declared $18,000 for mine'

6. Third Party Insurance which is compulsory and separate to any normal third party or fully comp insurance. Its to provide cover to persons, not cars. This is about $347 for 12 months and you need this before you register the car. After that its included in your rego.

7. Finally - fully comp insurance which I only found one company to insure it. They didnt quibble or ask for proof of my no claims, they just accepted it and it was $911 for my merc with full no claims. Remember, this is on top of your CTP insurance. Probably ended up paying about the same as in the UK.

 

I havent totted up what that all comes to, dont really care as its done and I've got my relatively nice car here and I dont have to go and buy another one. However, I will say its driving like a bag of s**t since it arrived! I think the injectors are clogged up with being lain up for 4 months. One of those jobs I need to get sorted.

 

Anyway, hope that helps.

 

Julie

[julzcary]

Forgot to add the valuation cost for the car which was about $250 from memory.

 

Also, the import duty and GST came to $3,200 based on a valuation of $22,000. That should give you some idea as to how much would be due. I would say that your BMW would be less than that, but hey, I'm not a valuer.

 

Cheers

[Guest DORE4]

Duncan, just arrived in Perth and in a similar position re bringing my car to Aus from the UK. Did you find a Company in Perth or anywhere in WA that could help with a door to to door service?