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

[fosseboy]

We brought 2 cars and it was the name on the V5 that mattered. In fact my wife was a returning Australian and we booked the removal container in her name but then my car was added and we had to change all the import paperwork into my name as it had to match the car owner. Her car came later ro-ro but in her own name as per the V5.

[DKC]

Both my cars' V5s are in my name. Container and shipping is booked in my name but cars are shipped as one in my name, one in her name. No problems at all. So u don't need the V5s to be in different names.

[fosseboy]

OK..I just went on what Robinson's told us and the last minute panic to change all the AQIS import papers which my wife had completed. We had to do them all again in my name.

[DKC]

I guess if you imported the cars separately then it may have to match. However our simultaneous import seems fine. Well I'll know for sure when my cars actually get into Aust. They are at sea currently.

[Iron Chef]

Hey guys,

 

I am new here and I would appreciate your advice,

 

We are planning to move to Oz husband wife and 2 kids. We own 2 cars and a motorhome all of them registered to my name and have been for more than 12 months. All vehicles are used by my wife and myself her name is on the insurance but not on V5

My question is can I import one of the cars and the MH or not ?

 

Your help is much appreciated .

 

Everyone's beaten me to it, but you can import the MH and one of the cars without too much trouble. With the application under your wife's name, just add a copy of your marriage certificate if your name is on the V5. Aside from that, the normal list of docs applies.

[Guest northernlove]

Hi there I have a few questions i have ben in Australia on a whv for a year then a temporary bridging visa for 2 months then a permanent resident for about 3 months, is it possible for me to ship my car over which I've owned for 7ish yrs?

I have more questions but will wait to see if its even possible

[DKC]

I would think you can bring the car in but let's wait for an answer from Iron Lady Imports which will be more useful than my educated guess.

[timkirk1980]

Hi everyone,

The import criteria stipulates that the vehicle needs to be garaged during the 12 months period within close proximity. How is this checked by the authorities and what distance does "Close Proximity" state?

Any help here would be great.

Planning on importing 2 x cars plus a motox bike

[defender47]

Hi Chef,

 

Could use some help and info with my situation.

I have two Porsche 911s One is 1970 911E and the other is 1989 3.2. Both have been owned and used by me on a regular basis for past 10 years.

Both have sentimental value. I have looked on Carsales.com.au and Drive.com.au and the nearest valuation I can find is a 1988 Turbo for $49990. The Turbos are normally much more expensive than the non turbo cars like mine. The valuations on RedBook.co.au shows the value as over $150,000 which is ridiculous. The value here in UK is not much more then £20k or $37,000.

 

What do you advise me to do. Are these guys really sticky on the '89 cut off date as the car was made in I think April 1989.and I could import them both as early classics.

If, as I read I'm only allowed to import one car can I 'sell' my early Porsche 911 to my son who lives in Sydney? He wants it anyway and I would like to keep it in the family.

WE could then ship them over in one 40ft container with the household stuff. I have had a quote for that btw. 2cars and household stuff for £5.5k

Any idea what sort of duties would be payable on both cars?

It's a bl...y minefield.

 

Look forward to your reply.

 

Paul

[defender47]

I forgot to add that my wife and I are applying for a 864 residence visa.

[Jlew]

Hi Chef,

 

Could use some help and info with my situation.

I have two Porsche 911s One is 1970 911E and the other is 1989 3.2. Both have been owned and used by me on a regular basis for past 10 years.

Both have sentimental value. I have looked on Carsales.com.au and Drive.com.au and the nearest valuation I can find is a 1988 Turbo for $49990. The Turbos are normally much more expensive than the non turbo cars like mine. The valuations on RedBook.co.au shows the value as over $150,000 which is ridiculous. The value here in UK is not much more then £20k or $37,000.

 

What do you advise me to do. Are these guys really sticky on the '89 cut off date as the car was made in I think April 1989.and I could import them both as early classics.

If, as I read I'm only allowed to import one car can I 'sell' my early Porsche 911 to my son who lives in Sydney? He wants it anyway and I would like to keep it in the family.

WE could then ship them over in one 40ft container with the household stuff. I have had a quote for that btw. 2cars and household stuff for £5.5k

Any idea what sort of duties would be payable on both cars?

It's a bl...y minefield.

 

Look forward to your reply.

 

Paul

 

nice car choice!! We've an 89 3.2 as well which will be coming with us to Melbourne.

[Savitar]

Hi Chef,

 

Could use some help and info with my situation.

I have two Porsche 911s One is 1970 911E and the other is 1989 3.2. Both have been owned and used by me on a regular basis for past 10 years.

Both have sentimental value. I have looked on Carsales.com.au and Drive.com.au and the nearest valuation I can find is a 1988 Turbo for $49990. The Turbos are normally much more expensive than the non turbo cars like mine. The valuations on RedBook.co.au shows the value as over $150,000 which is ridiculous. The value here in UK is not much more then £20k or $37,000.

 

What do you advise me to do. Are these guys really sticky on the '89 cut off date as the car was made in I think April 1989.and I could import them both as early classics.

If, as I read I'm only allowed to import one car can I 'sell' my early Porsche 911 to my son who lives in Sydney? He wants it anyway and I would like to keep it in the family.

WE could then ship them over in one 40ft container with the household stuff. I have had a quote for that btw. 2cars and household stuff for £5.5k

Any idea what sort of duties would be payable on both cars?

It's a bl...y minefield.

 

Look forward to your reply.

 

Paul

 

The IronChef is the expert (but also AWOL currently). As far as I am aware you will be in luck :

 

- You can import as many pre 89 cars as you want, anyone in OZ can, I.e. you don't need to do it as part of the personal import scheme

- So you can import both, one under the personal import scheme and one for the pre 89 scheme

- If you are traveling with a partner you can import a car in their name, even if every document is in your name....as long as it can be seen as obvious (I.e they are on insurance)

- You can't "sell" your car to your son as a way around things. The rules are simple, if you want a personal import car (post 89) then you NEED to live with the car in the UK for 12 months prior to import. If he lived in Aus, there is no chance.

- Once you get the cars into OZ you can do what you want with them (sell, keep etc)

- The redbook value you will see at first is the selling price when new, look for the second hand price to get a better value.

 

I run a separate thread on my opinion (for what its worth), feel free to go there if you want and I can give you a separate view...

[ArrowsEng]

Hi Chef,

 

Could use some help and info with my situation.

I have two Porsche 911s One is 1970 911E and the other is 1989 3.2. Both have been owned and used by me on a regular basis for past 10 years.

Both have sentimental value. I have looked on Carsales.com.au and Drive.com.au and the nearest valuation I can find is a 1988 Turbo for $49990. The Turbos are normally much more expensive than the non turbo cars like mine. The valuations on RedBook.co.au shows the value as over $150,000 which is ridiculous. The value here in UK is not much more then £20k or $37,000.

 

What do you advise me to do. Are these guys really sticky on the '89 cut off date as the car was made in I think April 1989.and I could import them both as early classics.

If, as I read I'm only allowed to import one car can I 'sell' my early Porsche 911 to my son who lives in Sydney? He wants it anyway and I would like to keep it in the family.

WE could then ship them over in one 40ft container with the household stuff. I have had a quote for that btw. 2cars and household stuff for £5.5k

Any idea what sort of duties would be payable on both cars?

It's a bl...y minefield.

 

Look forward to your reply.

 

Paul

 

I have talked to Iron Chef last week on the phone, so he is around but maybe not seeing the forum at the moment.

If your moving to Melbourne, there's no question, you always bring a Porsche to Australia!

I have just helped a guy comply his 2008 Porsche 911, 3.8 DI, nice car that one!

If both the cars are in your name and you have owned the 1989 for more than a year, then apply for the 1989 as a Personal import, this is the only way to bring a post 88 Porsche into Australia. For the 1970, you apply for it as a Pre 89 car and when you want to register it you only have to make it comply to the Australian Design Rules in force in 1970, these are ADR 4 - Seat belts, ADR 5A - Seat belt Anchorages and ADR 7 - Hydraulic brake hoses and possibly ADR 20 (if built after July 1970) - Safety rims.

Due to the race car modifications, you might get some issues with a road worthy certifcate but as long as the car is sound and not structurally damaged then it should be ok.

 

I'm a VASS engineer in Melbourne, which is one of the guys working for Vicroads that certifies Personal imports or Pre-89 to be registered on Victorian roads.

 

I also brought a 40ft container back from the UK about 7 years ago with 3 cars in the bottom of it and it was about 6-7K in UK pounds for shipping and insurance.

 

Hope this helps you.

Regards, Blake A.

[earthschoice]

Hi everyone, mat here im in uk at present visiting family for 1 yr, after 15yr away,....at present im converting a campervan and totally aware of all the difficluties ahead when I export it to perth where I lived for the last 5 years,....im ozzy citizen and uk citizen,..was just looking through the web of paperwork I need to upload to there via forms,..nothing says I need to upload every single page of my passports just the photo pages is this correct,

Do they actually check every single persons movements through immigration etc when all your doing is bringing your vehicle home with you,...why dont they do us all a favour and say yes you can bring your vehicle with you with only one form to fill in that stops you selling it for the first 5 yrs,.....problem solved,... but then we all know that they wouldnt make much money from that, seems crazy im fitting my van out for me to use indefinately live in travel in use for work etc etc, and at the end of the day its all my own blood sweat and money gone into the huge stressful task of fitting it out,....then they just stick there hands out saying ahhh mate we will have this much for that vehicle please for doing jack shhhhhh,...make me angry that they think we are not allowed to make any profit for the work carried out through our skills,.....just typical of the ozzy government though as I seen for the last 15yrs,....there hell bent in taxing and taking from people that have busted there back side to achieve something. Any way hope some one has the answer to the question at top,....would love to take me van so I dont have to get ripped off buying yet another one there with a million kilometers on for afound 60, 000 dollars

[timkirk1980]

Hi everyone, mat here im in uk at present visiting family for 1 yr, after 15yr away,....at present im converting a campervan and totally aware of all the difficluties ahead when I export it to perth where I lived for the last 5 years,....im ozzy citizen and uk citizen,..was just looking through the web of paperwork I need to upload to there via forms,..nothing says I need to upload every single page of my passports just the photo pages is this correct,

Do they actually check every single persons movements through immigration etc when all your doing is bringing your vehicle home with you,...why dont they do us all a favour and say yes you can bring your vehicle with you with only one form to fill in that stops you selling it for the first 5 yrs,.....problem solved,... but then we all know that they wouldnt make much money from that, seems crazy im fitting my van out for me to use indefinately live in travel in use for work etc etc, and at the end of the day its all my own blood sweat and money gone into the huge stressful task of fitting it out,....then they just stick there hands out saying ahhh mate we will have this much for that vehicle please for doing jack shhhhhh,...make me angry that they think we are not allowed to make any profit for the work carried out through our skills,.....just typical of the ozzy government though as I seen for the last 15yrs,....there hell bent in taxing and taking from people that have busted there back side to achieve something. Any way hope some one has the answer to the question at top,....would love to take me van so I dont have to get ripped off buying yet another one there with a million kilometers on for afound 60, 000 dollars

 

Hi guys, trying again to see if the vehicles need to be garaged by importing? do they check this?

[Savitar]

Hi everyone, mat here im in uk at present visiting family for 1 yr, after 15yr away,....at present im converting a campervan and totally aware of all the difficluties ahead when I export it to perth where I lived for the last 5 years,....im ozzy citizen and uk citizen,..was just looking through the web of paperwork I need to upload to there via forms,..nothing says I need to upload every single page of my passports just the photo pages is this correct,

Do they actually check every single persons movements through immigration etc when all your doing is bringing your vehicle home with you,...why dont they do us all a favour and say yes you can bring your vehicle with you with only one form to fill in that stops you selling it for the first 5 yrs,.....problem solved,... but then we all know that they wouldnt make much money from that, seems crazy im fitting my van out for me to use indefinately live in travel in use for work etc etc, and at the end of the day its all my own blood sweat and money gone into the huge stressful task of fitting it out,....then they just stick there hands out saying ahhh mate we will have this much for that vehicle please for doing jack shhhhhh,...make me angry that they think we are not allowed to make any profit for the work carried out through our skills,.....just typical of the ozzy government though as I seen for the last 15yrs,....there hell bent in taxing and taking from people that have busted there back side to achieve something. Any way hope some one has the answer to the question at top,....would love to take me van so I dont have to get ripped off buying yet another one there with a million kilometers on for afound 60, 000 dollars

 

Sorry, what is your question? Are you asking if they will check your passport? The answer is yes....they want to know you genuinely owned and lived with your car....For my application i was away from home about 6 months of the year I applied but as it was genuinely for work (I.e. 1-2 weeks at a time to the same location, returning to Edinburgh each time PLUS a letter from my company confirming the work trips) it was fine....

 

What is your concern?

[earthschoice]

Sorry, what is your question? Are you asking if they will check your passport? The answer is yes....they want to know you genuinely owned and lived with your car....For my application i was away from home about 6 months of the year I applied but as it was genuinely for work (I.e. 1-2 weeks at a time to the same location, returning to Edinburgh each time PLUS a letter from my company confirming the work trips) it was fine....

 

What is your concern?

Hi there.....yes was wandering if they also need uploaded images of every page as some people say.....

another queries is...During my 12 month owning period the vehicle will be undergoing some work and I may return to oz for few months during this time...will this affect my application....., which shipping company did you use....

Thanks for reply

[Iron Chef]

Argh, sorry guys, I'm back. Not sure why I didn't get a notification that there were updates. I'll go back through and answer your questions.

[Iron Chef]

Hi there.....yes was wandering if they also need uploaded images of every page as some people say.....

another queries is...During my 12 month owning period the vehicle will be undergoing some work and I may return to oz for few months during this time...will this affect my application....., which shipping company did you use....

Thanks for reply

 

No you only need to upload the identity page of your passport (with your photo on it). They don't bother checking them all these days, as new electronic immigration systems mean passports don't get stamped like they used to.

 

If you go to Oz for non-work related reasons, then it will extend the time you need to own the vehicle. ie if you're here for 3 months, you'll need to own the car for 15 months before you're eligible.

[DB9er]

Hi IronChef!

 

I'm new here and would like to seek your advice on exporting my car to Australia.

 

Just got my PR late last year and I am thinking of exporting my ride to Australia when I move over.

 

I am from Singapore. Not sure if you are familiar with the taxation over here but there are all kinds of fees/taxes/costs in owning a car.

 

Here is an example (all figures in SGD, current AUD/SGD is about 1.05):

 

A brand new Toyota Camry 2.5 (Automatic) costs $160k.

 

The OMV (original manufacturer value) is about $28k. This is what the car would cost without any additional fees/taxes/costs/dealer margins.

 

Around $5.6k comes from the customs duty (import duty).

 

Around $2k come from GST (goods and services tax)

 

Around $30k comes from the ARF (additional registration fee) which is a form of tax.

 

Another $70k comes from the COE (certificate of entitlement) which is yet another form of tax on ownership.

 

The final $24k is made up of the dealer's margins plus miscellaneous fees.

 

At the end of the COE validity period (10-years), the car owner needs to either send the car to the scrapyard, export it or bid for another COE.

 

If he scraps/exports the car, a PARF (preferential additional registration fee) of around 50% to 55% of ARF is refunded to him.

 

This translates into an effective 10-year "lease" price of $145k for the Toyota Camry.

 

The advice that I hope to seek from you is if I export this Toyota Camry to Australia at the end of the 10-year period, would the $145k price-tag (depreciated over 10 years) be considered the purchase price of the Toyota Camry and used to compute the landed value when it touches down in Australia?

 

Or would the more reasonable OMV of $28k (depreciated over 10 years) be used to compute the landed value?

 

Your advice would be much appreciated!

[nsa]

Neither. Afaik, the car would be valued as per its landed value in Australia, that is how much such a model would be worth on the local market here minus all the costs necessary to make the car available on the market (landing & compliancing). The Chief will surely confirm.

 

Can you also get a partial refund of COE if you export the car ? In case you sell the car, is the buyer paying you for the unused portion of the COE ?

[DKC]

The original purchasing cost ($145k) doesn't really matter. The car will be assessed against the market value of 10 year old Camrys in Aust, adjusted to reflect that it's untaxed sitting at the port. This will end up being around 60% of the market value.

 

A quick search on carsales.com.au shows that 2005 Camrys cost around AUD 5000-6000. (of cause these will have done more kms than Singapore cars). So I guess the "tax" value of you imported Camry will be $3000-4000.

 

This is hardly worth importing as the shipping cost will make this pointless. I suggest selling your car in Singapore and then buying something else here.

 

It's more worth while importing if you're importing high value cars from countries that sell them cheaply (eg luxury cars from UK).

Edited February 9, 2015 by DKC

[nsa]

If the OP has something else in mind (a DB9 maybe ?) and if he can get a COE refund and PARF then just maybe... it could be worth pursuing. But it's true that moving a car from SG to AU is not an obvious choice.

[DB9er]

If the OP has something else in mind (a DB9 maybe ?) and if he can get a COE refund and PARF then just maybe... it could be worth pursuing. But it's true that moving a car from SG to AU is not an obvious choice.

 

Hi DKC and nsa,

 

Thanks for your insights!

 

Actually the car that I intend to bring over to AU is indeed a DB9. Based on a 2006 DB9, any idea how much the customs value would be so that I can do a quick calculation of the LCT and other fees?

 

And yes, I would be able to get back the PARF (55% of ARF) at the end of the 10-year COE (2016) before I export the car to AU.

 

Cheers!

[nsa]

Extremely roughly: based on

http://www.carpoint.com.au/car-valuations/?N=2994+4294937167+4294843919+4294965618+4294193434+4294830947&search=1#ctl08_p_d_ctl08_cboMake=4294937167&ctl08_p_d_ctl08_cboModel=4294843919&ctl08_p_d_ctl08_cboYearMade=4294965618

the car would be worth around $100k so taxable as an import at maybe $70k and the tax would be (simplifying again) 15% of that, therefore in the vicinity of $10k and you'll have a one-off stamp duty to pay as well when registering the car (if in NSW: $3100 for an $80k value).