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


Iron Chef

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Guest Guest67761
I know that we have to demonstrate that the car is owned and used for at least 12 months. My question is whether there is a minimum mileage limit?

 

My car is parked at my residential address, full Tax disc and comprehensively insured for domestic, social and pleasure (no commuting) usage. Annual mileage limit 2000 miles only. Would this low mileage be a problem? Do I need to increase it even though I don't use the car much?

 

Thanks!

 

They actually want the car to be "available for use" which means as long as you live in the same country as the car for the full 12 months then there should be no issues. There is no requirement to actually drive the car during this time.

 

Regards,

 

Craig Moor

Iron Lady Imports

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Hi Aaron, we do have shipping options that allow inner cargo, but for obvious reasons you'd want to make sure your tools a packed in fairly well - I'd hate to see what state the van was in if you left a tool box loose in the back for the whole trip! If you fill out the details on our site, we can give you a breakdown of costs. It's a bit hard to advise you on whether or not it's worth it without more info.

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  • 3 weeks later...

On April 14 i got VIA (vehicle import approval) for my car (personal import, discretionary base as in theory my visa doesn't allow it).

 

Two questions:

- how long is it good for ? can the car reach customs, say, in January next year ?

- how does the 5 years rule work ? is it time between two VIA approvals or time between two actual import (ie, going through customs) ?

 

Cheers,

Nicolas

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On April 14 i got VIA (vehicle import approval) for my car (personal import, discretionary base as in theory my visa doesn't allow it).

 

Two questions:

- how long is it good for ? can the car reach customs, say, in January next year ?

- how does the 5 years rule work ? is it time between two VIA approvals or time between two actual import (ie, going through customs) ?

 

Cheers,

Nicolas

 

In short:

 

- theoretically it's good forever, January won't be a problem.

- dates go 5 years between the date your first approval is issued to the date you apply for the next one.

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Guest Guest67761
On April 14 i got VIA (vehicle import approval) for my car (personal import, discretionary base as in theory my visa doesn't allow it).

 

Two questions:

- how long is it good for ? can the car reach customs, say, in January next year ?

- how does the 5 years rule work ? is it time between two VIA approvals or time between two actual import (ie, going through customs) ?

 

Cheers,

Nicolas

 

Hi Nicolas,

 

There is no expiry date on import approvals normally so in theory you could ship the car anytime you like. The 5 years would be time between import approval applications however you also need to satisfy the other criteria for each application as far as living outside Australia and using the car for the full 12 months prior to moving back here to live.

 

Regards,

 

Craig Moor

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Guest Guest67761
Thx to you both, Iron Chef and Kakimoto33. Had been working for 2 years on my car import, finally possible (am on a student visa and initially DIRD had said no).

 

You are exceptionally lucky to get an approval on a student visa as they almost never issue them on this basis. You must have presented a very good case for them to consider your application. Well done.

 

Regards,

 

Craig Moor

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Guest auzsci

Wonder if anyone can help me with this? We've decided to take our family car with our personal effects in a 20ft container. Had a couple of shipping companies over to give quotes. They've both given similar quotes, so not sure which one to pick. I understand that they'll deliver our personal effects to our house in Melbourne but not sure what happens to the car? Both said they'll hand over the car to their overseas partner and then we deal with these new people. Is it better to use someone like Iron Lady Imports? What are the advantages/disadvantages of using the shipping company's agents vs Iron Lady Imports?

 

PS. We've already got the import approval. The process was not as bad as I originally thought. Everything was done online and we received the approval within two weeks via email.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest gusworld

Please can you help us decide if its worth taking over our trusty landrover. It is a 2007, Landrover Discovery 3 TDV6 SE with aircon. 65k miles. UK price about £14k and aussie about $28k?

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Guest The Pom Queen

ADMIN NOTE: Please note that Craig (Kakimoto) no longer works at Iron Chef/Iron lady if you have any car shipping enquiries Kristian user name @Iron Chef will be more than happy to continue assisting. If you have been dealing with Craig and you are wanting to bring your car over please drop Iron Chef a pm or email he can be found on this thread or here: http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/members/44908.html

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ADMIN NOTE: Please note that Craig (Kakimoto) no longer works at Iron Chef/Iron lady if you have any car shipping enquiries Kristian user name @Iron Chef will be more than happy to continue assisting. If you have been dealing with Craig and you are wanting to bring your car over please drop Iron Chef a pm or email he can be found on this thread or here: http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/members/44908.html

 

Thanks very much for this post The Pom Queen!

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Please can you help us decide if its worth taking over our trusty landrover. It is a 2007, Landrover Discovery 3 TDV6 SE with aircon. 65k miles. UK price about £14k and aussie about $28k?

 

My brother imported a car when he came over some years ago and he found it expensive to repair because it wasn't an Australian made or sold car. Before you decide to bring a car over check how common they are here. You might be better with a locally purchased Ford or Holden.

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Landy's are quite common and plenty of places for parts so that shouldn't be a major issue.

I think that a 7-8 year old vehicle that will cost a few grand to get here plus getting it compliant will probably cost as much once it has arrived as buying second hand here.

You won't have the issue of getting a grey import insured, possible lower resale value for that reason, issues getting compliant and don't forget as well, it has been subjected to the British weather for the last 7-8 years.

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Please can you help us decide if its worth taking over our trusty landrover. It is a 2007, Landrover Discovery 3 TDV6 SE with aircon. 65k miles. UK price about £14k and aussie about $28k?

 

Disco 3 and up makes sense financially. I doubt I'd bring an earlier one in though. As furkew mentioned, check underneath for rust, as they're very hot on anything resembling structural rust in Australia when registering them. Parts aren't a problem for Land Rovers.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest DeanBarr

I have a 2004 Mercedes CLK270 CDI Avantgarde Auto - it's a car I love, probably not worth as much as it was, but I do love it, it's in a stunning nick, and would happily drive it until the engine fell out. Probably only worth about £5000 here now - worth shipping out to Australia?

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I have the same car and year and I've just looked on auto trader and am gob smacked at how cheap they are. Between about 2,500k - 3500K (I dont have a pound sign on my pc here!) I brought mine over 4 years ago and still have it, although looking at selling it pretty soon,but I have no idea how much its worth here. I know for the money that it would be worth in the UK, here you would get an old car here probably looking at a 1997 car! So yes, cars are much more expensive here. Problem is our car isnt here in australia so its difficult to get a value on it. I know when I came here, the insurance company (which I hasten to add, I could only find one company to insure it), had to go away and deliberate on the valuation on it for replacement value and 4 years ago, they put it at $30,000.

 

If I get a value as a trade in, I'll let you know.

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Have a look here...........http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/results.aspx?silo=stock&q=((((((((SiloType%3d%5bBrand+new+cars+in+stock%5d)%7c(SiloType%3d%5bBrand+new+cars+available%5d))%7c(SiloType%3d%5bDemo+and+near+new+cars%5d))%7c(SiloType%3d%5bDealer+used+cars%5d))%7c(SiloType%3d%5bDemo+and+near+new+cars%5d))%7c(SiloType%3d%5bPrivate+seller+cars%5d))%26((Make%7b%3d%7d%5bMercedes-Benz%5d)%7b%26%7d(Model%7b%3d%7d%5bCLK280%5d)))%26(Service%3d%5bCarsales%5d))&vertical=car&sortby=~Price

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Hello

 

I have been living in Adelaide for over two years now. Due to concerns over whether we would stay here we have kept our house, furniture and cars stored just in case things didn't workout. We are now applying for permanent residency and now want to ship my Touareg over here to South Australia. My question is this, I have installed a Seikel suspension on the vehicle and it now sits around 30mm - 40mm higher than the OEM suspension. Will this cause me issues when trying to get the vehicle on the road.

 

Also, from your experiences, what other things have you had to change on the car - speedo from miles to kilometres etc.

 

My feeling is that this process isn't going to be cheap

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry I've been missing these replies! It seems my spam filter is catching my notifications...grrr...

 

Hello

 

I have been living in Adelaide for over two years now. Due to concerns over whether we would stay here we have kept our house, furniture and cars stored just in case things didn't workout. We are now applying for permanent residency and now want to ship my Touareg over here to South Australia. My question is this, I have installed a Seikel suspension on the vehicle and it now sits around 30mm - 40mm higher than the OEM suspension. Will this cause me issues when trying to get the vehicle on the road.

 

Also, from your experiences, what other things have you had to change on the car - speedo from miles to kilometres etc.

 

My feeling is that this process isn't going to be cheap

 

I know we've responded via email, but the suspension shouldn't be a problem. As long as the car has a km/h gauge on it somewhere (most modern cars have digital gauges somewhere on the dash), it will be fine.

 

I have a 2004 Mercedes CLK270 CDI Avantgarde Auto - it's a car I love, probably not worth as much as it was, but I do love it, it's in a stunning nick, and would happily drive it until the engine fell out. Probably only worth about £5000 here now - worth shipping out to Australia?

 

It would be worth running it through the calculator, I suspect. Email us via the website if you'd like to do the numbers.

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I did this about 7 years ago, returning to Melbourne, from the UK, with 3 cars in the bottom of a 40ft container and having a mezzanine floor built above them that then had the household goods. If the one container has car and goods, I'd keep to the same freight forwarders to cover the whole container. The trick with the car is not letting the freight forwarder charge you too much to have it steam cleaned. Every car coming to Australia will get transported to a quarantine site to be steam cleaned on the outside, no matter how clean it is and for this you will be charged. Try not to pay more than $500 but some will try and charge over $1000.

Then contact a VASS engineer from Vicroads website, who can sign your import papers (ranges from $330 to $660 depending on number of child restraints that have to be fitted) and get a roadworthy from a RWC workshop and you can then register your car in Victoria.

You can get a 30 day permit from VicRoads that allows you to drive your car, unregistered, during daylight hours, while your getting the above work done, to save using a tow truck.

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Anyone know the costs associated with exporting a car from South Australia to the UK and associated costs in making it UK road legal?

 

It's a little bit tricky from SA, but it can be done. Are you looking at sending an Aussie car over? It's actually a lot easier getting cars registered in the UK than it is the other way around.

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