Transporting your car to Oz - everything you need to know!

[JoandGareth]

In spite of the vehicle not being officially registered in your name yet?? Would you mind quoting the reply if it was an email?

I am quoting what i was told here:

 

 

Q. For the purpose of satisfying the minimal length of ownership ofthe vehicle, does ownership begin from the date of purchase (wherethe date of registration is two weeks later), as shown on the dealer'sinvoice?

 

A. The 12 months will start from date of registration.

 

Hi there,

 

This was my question

 

Hi Sue,

 

 

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

 

 

Can I just clarify that I will be able to apply for the VIA from the 17/03/2013 onwards if I purchased it on the 16/03/2013?

 

 

 

On the V5 document please can you confirm what date you use. It states that I acquired the vehicle on 16/03/2012 but near the doc ref no it states 02/04/2013,but i think this date changes everytime you make a change i.e change if address or change to a private reg etc. which I assume you allow.

 

 

 

I'm just trying to work out if it is worth bringing our car or selling it prior to departure.

 

 

 

Kind regards

 

 

 

Jo

 

 

This was their response

 

Dear Jo

 

 

 

Yes, you can apply from 17 March 2013. We use the date that states when you acquired the vehicle.

 

Regards

 

Sue

 

Hope this helps, I wil definately be keeping these emails for when we apply.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Jo

 

 

[Guest Guest67761]

Hi, thanks for all the in of iron chef

do you know of anyone who can give an approximate customs valuation using photos etc before i bring my car into oz? Also I understand if the car is worth over a certain amount, then there is a luxury goods tax also??

thanks

 

At this stage the only valuations are done by viewing the car in person once it arrives at the port in Australia and there is just no way to know exactly what that valuation will be, however we can make an educated guess based on detailed information about the car and photos which show all relevant areas. If you wanted a per-valuation estimate then please forward the following by email to craig@ironladyimports.com

 

Vehicle Details

- year of manufacture

- make, model & variant

- body type (coupe, convertible, etc)

- engine size & fuel type

- transmission

- mileage

- any special features or options

- does it have aircon

- realistic current UK market value

 

Vehicle Photos

- exterior (all four corner angles)

- interior (seats, dash/gauge cluster, etc)

- engine bay

- any special features and/or current damage

(around 6-12 photos in total. Minimum photo resolution 800x600)

 

Please note that and pre-valuation we give will be just a best guess based on our experience. It is NOT a guarantee of what the final valuation will be once the car arrives.

[andy2008]

Hi Iron Chef,

 

I've posted this on another topic as well -we're flying over to Perth in early June and I'm now wondering whether it's worth taking the car over. Could you tell me how long it could take, costs involved and whether it can be done between now and June?

 

Audi A5 Quattro Sport

2008

2.0 TFSI petrol

54,000 miles

top spec, full leather, rear view camera, 20 inch Audi alloys etc

6 speed manual

air con.

approx value £18,500

 

Also would the car be difficult to sell on in the future?

 

Many thanks,

 

Andy

[Guest Guest67761]

Hi there,

 

This was my question

Hi Sue,

 

 

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

 

 

Can I just clarify that I will be able to apply for the VIA from the 17/03/2013 onwards if I purchased it on the 16/03/2013?

 

 

 

On the V5 document please can you confirm what date you use. It states that I acquired the vehicle on 16/03/2012 but near the doc ref no it states 02/04/2013,but i think this date changes everytime you make a change i.e change if address or change to a private reg etc. which I assume you allow.

 

 

 

I'm just trying to work out if it is worth bringing our car or selling it prior to departure.

 

 

 

Kind regards

 

 

 

Jo

 

 

This was their response

 

Dear Jo

 

 

 

 

Yes, you can apply from 17 March 2013. We use the date that states when you acquired the vehicle.

 

Regards

 

Sue

 

Hope this helps, I wil definately be keeping these emails for when we apply.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Jo

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect! :biggrin:

[Iron Chef]

With travelling outside of the country during your 12 month qualifying period, DIT give a leeway of approximately two weeks TOTAL.

 

If you've been on an extended holiday during that period, and the total (for example) is 4 weeks' worth of holidays, you'd need to add that amount to your twelve months to qualify (i.e. own and use the car for 13 months minimum)

[AndrewRomford]

Hello,

 

I love my car and it is in excellent condition, I don't know how to calculate if it is worth shipping this vehicle to Australia or selling it here and buying a car out there. I think I will be struggling to buy a good VW out in Aus.

 

It is in excellent condition with only 16,000 miles, barley a scratch. I am trying to find out through a couple of VW dealers in Oz if they would be able to service it as I don't believe Tourans are available out there. The thing that worries me is what the taxes and charges are like, is there anyone who can estimate what these are before I need to make a crunch decision.

 

Some people have said definately take your car, others say, no way too much $$$ and hassle

 

Hope someone can help

 

Andy

[Guest Guest67761]

Hello,

 

I love my car and it is in excellent condition, I don't know how to calculate if it is worth shipping this vehicle to Australia or selling it here and buying a car out there. I think I will be struggling to buy a good VW out in Aus.

 

It is in excellent condition with only 16,000 miles, barley a scratch. I am trying to find out through a couple of VW dealers in Oz if they would be able to service it as I don't believe Tourans are available out there. The thing that worries me is what the taxes and charges are like, is there anyone who can estimate what these are before I need to make a crunch decision.

 

Some people have said definately take your car, others say, no way too much $$$ and hassle

 

Hope someone can help

 

Andy

 

Hi Andy,

 

You are heading up the right path to find out about servicing in Australia however I would also suggest that you check out a few insurance companies to get quotes as well because unusual models can be hard and/or expensive to insure in Australia. Many companies will have online quote systems which may not give you a price immediately but they should at least be able to get back to you with something without having to spend hours on international phone calls. Doing a Google search for "car insurance site:au" should return a good number of result to start with.

 

We would be more than happy to run the numbers for you and give an idea of what its likely to cost you to get this vehicle to Australia and on the road here, however we need a little more information before we can do the calculation:

 

- year of manufacture

- make, model & specific variant

- body type (coupe, convertible, etc)

- engine size & fuel type

- transmission

- mileage

- any special features or options

- does it have aircon

- realistic current UK market value

 

Once we have these details I can at least give you a starting point so you can see if its worth following up any further.

 

Regards,

 

Craig.

[AndrewRomford]

Hi Craig,

 

- year of manufacture - 2009

- make, model & specific variant - VW Touran S TDI 105, 1896CC Diesel, 7 seater

- body type (coupe, convertible, etc) - 7 seater Model

- engine size & fuel type - 1896cc Diesel

- transmission - 6 Speed Manual

- mileage - 16,500 miles

- any special features or options - Nil

- does it have aircon - Yes Airconditioned

- realistic current UK market value - £12000

 

Thanks

 

Andy

[Guest Guest67761]

Hi Craig,

 

- year of manufacture - 2009

- make, model & specific variant - VW Touran S TDI 105, 1896CC Diesel, 7 seater

- body type (coupe, convertible, etc) - 7 seater Model

- engine size & fuel type - 1896cc Diesel

- transmission - 6 Speed Manual

- mileage - 16,500 miles

- any special features or options - Nil

- does it have aircon - Yes Airconditioned

- realistic current UK market value - £12000

 

Thanks

 

Andy

 

Hi Andy,

 

It's hard to give a really exact estimate because we can't know what value Australia Customs will give the car for calculating import duty and GST when it arrives, however at my best guess it seems that it's likely to cost you somewhere around $8,700 to get this vehicle to Australia and on the road including shipping costs (port fees, import duty, GST, etc) and on-road costs (Australian compliance, roadworthy inspection, etc) as well as 12 months registration (road tax). This would give you a total outlay including the current vehicle value of around $28,500 in Australia.

As the same vehicle wasn't available in Australia we can't say if this will make your car good value to import or not so it would be your choice if you wanted to bring it along or not.

 

Regards,

 

Craig.

[paulswin]

Hey guys just wondered if you received our email with all the photo copies for the import licence. I sent it to the ironlady email on the 2nd April?

[Guest RayRays]

Hey all,

 

Cracking forum with copious amounts of info!

 

The wife and I are looking to move to Melbourne in January 2014. I'm trying to decide if I should bring my 2005 Porsche 911 Turbo with me.

 

I've read all about the rules and regs around importing my car and Iron chef has been helping me a lot with the finer points to get a total picture however one thing that concerns me is if I need to give up my Porsche (because the missus wants white picket fences and all the trimmings that go with it..., unreasonable, I know) what the resale value of a UK import is in Melbourne or Australia.

 

I've read so many conflicting arguements around this from various people on this forum and beyond. Some people say maybe $10K less, others say it wont be worth half the value of Aussie made. Has anyone actually physically gone through this process and sold their UK born Porsche in Australia and can provide some insight?

 

I dont want to give it up but fear I'm going to be fighting a losing battle.....

[Guest Guest67761]

Hey guys just wondered if you received our email with all the photo copies for the import licence. I sent it to the ironlady email on the 2nd April?

 

I assume this was sent to Kristian directly (kristian@ironladyimports.com) as I can't see anything from you in the main email account (info@ironladyimports.com) around that date. Otherwise please resend it whenever possible.

 

Thank you,

 

Craig.

[Guest Guest67761]

Hey all,

 

Cracking forum with copious amounts of info!

 

The wife and I are looking to move to Melbourne in January 2014. I'm trying to decide if I should bring my 2005 Porsche 911 Turbo with me.

 

I've read all about the rules and regs around importing my car and Iron chef has been helping me a lot with the finer points to get a total picture however one thing that concerns me is if I need to give up my Porsche (because the missus wants white picket fences and all the trimmings that go with it..., unreasonable, I know) what the resale value of a UK import is in Melbourne or Australia.

 

I've read so many conflicting arguements around this from various people on this forum and beyond. Some people say maybe $10K less, others say it wont be worth half the value of Aussie made. Has anyone actually physically gone through this process and sold their UK born Porsche in Australia and can provide some insight?

 

I dont want to give it up but fear I'm going to be fighting a losing battle.....

 

With a lot of experience both importing and selling imported models in Australia, specifically Melbourne where I live, I can offer some good advice.

 

One of the main reasons a personal imported car from the UK would sell for less would usually be if it was a lower spec or notably different from a local Australian model and basically stands out as being different. A good example would be a 2006 BMW 530d imported from the UK and resold in Australia - all 5 series BMW's here are automatic with leather interior, this one was a manual transmission with no leather so it was substantially lower spec and obviously less appealing - this car sold for $28,000 when a normal Australian model would sell for around $35,000.

Other than being a physically different spec the other reason imported cars will sell for less when buyers are obviously aware they are imports is because of an unknown past. There has been a massive scare campaign in Australia for many years claiming that many imported cars have been in massive accidents and repaired poorly and/or had the mileage wound back massively, so there is a fear for many buyers out there too.

 

If you are bringing a car that is the same specification as Australian models then most buyers would never know it was imported and therefore these unjustified fears would not be a concern and you could get the same price as any normal Australian model car. On the other hand if your car has some minor differences and is seen as an import, but nothing specific that would make it less desirable to own, then its just the unknown history that could cause you to get less for it unless you have a good history with the car (owned it for a long time, full service records, etc.)

 

You will find that is also depends on the type of car because different vehicles will attract different types of buyer. For example, someone looking to pay $200,000+ for a near new Lamborghini would only buy an imported car if there was a full history and absolutely nothing out of place, and if it was already out of the factory warranty period otherwise they would get a local Australian car with warranty, etc ... If you are importing a more common car that could be purchased by anyone (eg. Audi A3, Mazda RX-8, Volkswagen Golf, etc) then most buyers wouldn't care too much either way as long as the car was the same specification, well maintained and in good condition.

 

I guess the bottom line is that people will pay what a car is worth and a Porsche 911 will never be worth half its value just because it was originally sold in the UK. Worst case scenario, as long as the car is the same spec, has decent service history and is in the condition you would expect, then for a car of this value you should be able to sell it close to the equivalent Australian value, if necessary maybe around $10k less give or take but I wouldn't expect it to go lower than that unless you were desperate to sell quickly.

 

Typically we find that Porsche models are the best for importing to Australia, they offer the best return on investment in most cases and I have never seen anyone lose on one yet.

 

Cheers,

 

Craig.

[Kopper]

From what I read a motor vehicle is pretty much anything with an engine. So I would say you will need approval. And as far as I know seen as you are only allowed one vehicle per applicant, your twk cars will be the limit.

 

Could be wrong though, but am I pretty sure I am not.

 

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

 

Thanks for your reply

Can any one else help me with this? I cant find any information regarding jet ski and mini quad in the VSB10 information form

 

Thanks

[Guest 2yyiam]

Wanted to get some further advice about importing. IronChef listed my BMW 330d (2004) - 122,000 miles, manual, aircon as a category A car in the PomInOz thread. Apparently it's worth upto $19000 -although I'm not sure how he came to that figure as the car is not listed on Red Book.

However, what I wanted to ask was regarding the running costs of imported cars. My BMW was made specifically for the UK market, albeit with generic BMW parts. In your experience is it difficult to run imported cars in Oz. By that I mainly mean the service costs, parts and repairs. Due to it being an import, is it more difficult to get work done if/when necessary? More expensive to get the parts that are needed? It's ok to spend upto $8000 in importing the car but then am I going to lose out with all the running costs because it is an import?

[pwkl]

I've spoken with a few garages regarding this and the main point is that BMW's are technically 'imported' into Aus anyway as they are not manufactured here. There may be a few local alterations (eg speedo) for this market but the vast majority of parts for a BMW will be the same regardless of where the actual car originated from as they were all pretty much made in Germany in the same factories. As such, parts supply will be the same for imported cars as Aus cars unless your car is very special. The thing to bear in mind is that BMW's attract higher costs generally, but due to being a BMW, and not because it is an import. In the end, it's still a car and there are BMW specialists as well as main dealers who would be willing to service/repair you car regardless of whether you imported it personally or not. My advice is to get any work done in the UK first, bring some additional parts too (consumables but also consider brake pads, discs, spark plug, replace tyres etc) if you can, as you will save money than doing the same in Aus. This would also apply for other prestige cars. My personal opinion on your 330d (I think you said it was worth £5k) is that if you run it for a year barring any major issues then perhaps you'll break even due to age, mileage and engine.

[Guest RickandVik]

I have just spoke with DOTARS this morning about our plan to import our Harley - the bike is registered in my name but our visa and work related documents are in my wifes name, the man at DOTARS has told me that unless my wife has her bike licence (which she does not) then the posibility of them granting import approval is doubtfull.

We have met all the other criteria apart from the name on the log book, even the purchase invoice is in my wifes name,,,,,any suggestions or should I just bite the bullet and buy a new one over in OZ?

[Guest 2yyiam]

Thanks for the advice and it all makes sense. I will be getting all the work done on it prior to coming, ensuring that it is in top shape. Obviously I can't legislate for any new problems, but that would apply to any car.

 

The alternative is to save on the cost of shipping ($8k), sell the car for around £5k and come with $15k to spend on a car in Australia. Looking online, it doesn't seem to buy an equivalent motor.

 

Decisions, decisions....??!?!

[JoandGareth]

Following on from RikandVik post, we where going to import out car but it is registered in my name on the logbook but my husband is the main visa applicant and myself and our daughter qualify as spouse and child. Does that mean that we couldn't import the car as its in my name and not my husbands??

[pwkl]

Following on from RikandVik post, we where going to import out car but it is registered in my name on the logbook but my husband is the main visa applicant and myself and our daughter qualify as spouse and child. Does that mean that we couldn't import the car as its in my name and not my husbands??

 

I think that would depend on the visa. My wife was main applicant and I was down as spouse on a subclass 136 visa (I think this is equivalent to 175 as I don't think a 136 is available anymore??) and I was allowed to import my car, registered in my name.

[pwkl]

Thanks for the advice and it all makes sense. I will be getting all the work done on it prior to coming, ensuring that it is in top shape. Obviously I can't legislate for any new problems, but that would apply to any car.

 

The alternative is to save on the cost of shipping ($8k), sell the car for around £5k and come with $15k to spend on a car in Australia. Looking online, it doesn't seem to buy an equivalent motor.

 

Decisions, decisions....??!?!

You won't be able to buy an equivalent BMW for $15k, maybe an older, lower spec 318/320 or even the older E36 model? I see lots about...or consider other brands, you get more value in a Japanese car. For the same UK value, folks have to lower their expectations on what car they can buy here. Any german/prestige brands are way more expensive.

[Guest Guest67761]

Thanks for your reply

Can any one else help me with this? I cant find any information regarding jet ski and mini quad in the VSB10 information form

 

Thanks

 

You can import a jet ski without requiring an approval from the DIT so that is good news, its the same with boats in case anyone else wanted to know, however in either case you do still need to apply for an import approval for any trailer that your jet ski or boat uses - you can find information for trailer import approvals on page 10 of the VSB10.

 

It's slightly different for mini quad bikes as they may need import approvals. You can find all of the information on pages 25-27 of the VSB10.

[Guest Guest67761]

I have just spoke with DOTARS this morning about our plan to import our Harley - the bike is registered in my name but our visa and work related documents are in my wifes name, the man at DOTARS has told me that unless my wife has her bike licence (which she does not) then the posibility of them granting import approval is doubtfull.

We have met all the other criteria apart from the name on the log book, even the purchase invoice is in my wifes name,,,,,any suggestions or should I just bite the bullet and buy a new one over in OZ?

 

As the spouse of the main visa applicant you are eligible to bring in a vehicle under the personal import scheme in your name. If the bike is in your name and being applied for personal import by you then you must have the appropriate licence to ride it. Ideally all paperwork for the vehicle will be in your name, and then you provide evidence of your eligibility for a personal import as a spouse with paperwork for your wifes visa, a copy of your marriage certificate and a detailed cover letter outlining all of the above.

 

Your wife would only need to hold a bike licence if she was the one claiming that vehicle as her personal import.

 

Following on from RikandVik post, we where going to import out car but it is registered in my name on the logbook but my husband is the main visa applicant and myself and our daughter qualify as spouse and child. Does that mean that we couldn't import the car as its in my name and not my husbands??

 

You should be eligible to import your car as the spouse of the main visa applicant. Your daughter may also qualify to import a vehicle if she is also on the same visa paperwork, is of legal driving age with the appropriate licence and meets the 12 months minimum ownership criteria.

[redrobbersdog]

Hi iron chef, we brought our car over with us to WA.

We were told that you need to keep the car for 12 months after registration over here, but we have seen some conflicting posts elsewhere which state it's 24 months.

We have looked on wa registration websites etc and we can't find the facts.

Any chance you know?

Thanks in advance.

[Guest Guest67761]

Hi iron chef, we brought our car over with us to WA.

 

We were told that you need to keep the car for 12 months after registration over here, but we have seen some conflicting posts elsewhere which state it's 24 months.

We have looked on wa registration websites etc and we can't find the facts.

Any chance you know?

Thanks in advance.

 

Actually there is no minimum time to own the car once you get to Australia, only the 12 months ownership required prior to obtaining an import approval in the first place. You can sell the car on the very day it arrives if that is what you want.

 

Cheers,

 

Craig.