Shipping cars

[Guest jakeandshelley]

Hi,

 

just wondered if anyone had shipped an audi to Oz. We have an A6 3L Le Mans and we are toying with the idea of taking it with us as they seem to be quite expenisve to buy in Australia. If anyone can advise how much it is likely to cost and if it's difficult to do that would be appreciated.

 

 

Thanks,

Shelley.

[snifter]

Have a read of this thread over on Poms In Oz

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/transport-shipping/97053-transporting-your-car-oz-everything-you-need-know.html

 

and also this one

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/transport-shipping/133529-shipping-your-car-via-container-new-rules-jan-1-2012-a.html

[Guest Libra91]

Hi there,

i was thinking to get some cars parts like bonnet and bumper from uk to adelaide, by shipping ,

does anyone have idea how much it will cost me ?

many thanks

[Guest Crushfamily]

We have recently moved to Adelaide from the UK and decided to take with us our trusty 2005 Passat. It was worth very little in the UK £3000 but thus far had proven to be a good car.

First step was to get an import permit http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/vehicle_regulation/bulletin/importing_vehicles/general/application.aspx

 

You need to have owned/run the car for at least 12 months and need to be able to prove it (insurance tax etc).

 

You must make sure the car is scrupulously clean – it took me a day. I removed all wheels, both undertrays and had underside, wheel arches and engine bay professionally steam cleaned by a chap who had experience in prepping cars for shipping. I also cleaned the inside including boot area and under seats. You can opt to have the car picked up at your home so you don’t have to drive it – thus getting it dirty again having spent all that time cleaning it. I found a relatively dry day and drove it the 50 miles to London to the agent. When I was about a mile from the depot I rewashed it underneath at a jet wash as there was a little splashing from the road. When it was inspected in Adelaide Customs still managed to find “plant material”. Luckily they decided that they did not want to charge me $400.00 to re-clean it as I had made a “fair effort”!!!

 

Shipping costs vary. If you are moving with a 20ft container it might be cost effective to go for a 40ft and take the car also. We opted to share a container for the car this cost £1375 then you have to add insurance. Usually this is at 3% but we negotiated a rate of 2.25%. Be careful of using other insurance as your shipping agent might not accept it. Also did you know that if you do not take insurance you are exposing yourself to a greater risk as if the boat sinks , you are liable for a percentage of the cost of the loss of the vessel itself!!!

 

Next you have an unloading fee $800.00 aud.

 

A customs inspection fee $250.00.

 

As above if you are not thorough enough you may get a re-clean charge.

Although a personal import you will still have to pay a fair wack in taxes. No depreciation costs are applicable so if you have owned the car from new you are in trouble with 5% duty being levied on the price you bought the car for. I had paid £5200 so they converted that figure to $8000. Unfortunately for me that was two years ago and the car had done 40,000 miles less. You will also pay GST 10% on that value + the shipping cost. For us the duties were $1600 aud. Once this has been done you will get a customs cleared certificate.

To take the car away from the docks you will need a permit to drive and unregistered vehicle. $55.00

Next you need to send away 3 copies of the original paperwork you would have been sent by the Vehicle Import people in Canberra to the Department of Transport at Regency Park together with your customs clearance certificate. They will then write to you with a list of items that the vehicle will need to comply with. In our case it was a 17 point list. The only two items of concern were that the odometer needed to read distance in km (the speedo like most UK cars already had a ring around it with kph). On a VW I had a scan tool of my own which enabled me to recode the instrument cluster to metric but a dealer would probably charge you between £100-150 to do it.

 

The second item was I had no tether straps for mounting child seats. I was able to buy the mountings here from a car spares shop and found that I could mount them into the rear seat backs (there was provision for it).

Next I had to book a road worthiness inspection – these are done at Regency Park or Lonsdale (on a Wednesday or a Thursday). This cost $259.00. I also had to have a vehicle id check at $74.00. To take it there I needed another permit – only $40.00 this time.

 

After successfully passing these I had to pay stamp duty @ 3% on the declared value of the car. A further $240.00.

We then had to pay the years rego charge which everybody has to pay approx $700.00. We had already arranged comprehensive insurance $500.00. All in all it cost us $5600 approximately.

Bearing in mind the insurance company insisted on placing a value of $15000 on the car, taking into account the value I could have sold the car for and hiring a car whilst it was being shipped – we are probably $4000 ahead of buying a similar spec/age car. However make sure so bring plenty of spares with you – air,oil, pollen filter, brake pads and discs(if not recently changed). Consider also a clutch if a manual car as spares for European cars are difficult to get hold of and notoriously expensive. As a last resort you can always ship parts from England if you are prepared to wait. It is a lot of hassle – am I glad it is here – yes! Would I do it again probably not for all the hassle.

[Guest teamV]

Thanks for taking the time to expain the up's and down's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kev.

[Guest teamV]

Crushfamily ,can I just check that you have to change the mileometer reading ,as I have changed the clock face on my crafter campervan today ,but couldn't change the mileage over to Km's as the vw computer kept thinking it was a merc sprinter ,if it does need doing I can try again next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Kev.

[Guest Crushfamily]

Kev,

It has to show both kph & kms to comply. Most UK cars have a kmh ring on the inside so that is okay. What scan tool are you using? You need someone who has VAG-Com. What year is the VW?

[snifter]

Hi there,

i was thinking to get some cars parts like bonnet and bumper from uk to adelaide, by shipping ,

does anyone have idea how much it will cost me ?

many thanks

 

I think you need to contact some shipping companies for quotes. I'd really not like to say. Don't forget you may have taxes/charges to pay this end on arrival also.

[Guest teamV]

Kev,

It has to show both kph & kms to comply. Most UK cars have a kmh ring on the inside so that is okay. What scan tool are you using? You need someone who has VAG-Com. What year is the VW?

 

Thanks it's a 2007 vw crafter and it only had miles on the speedo face so I bought a new face ,the only one I could get only shows km ,which will be fine .

I went to an independent vw dealer and I think it was a vag system but the crafter and the merc sprinter have a lot of common parts and some times that can confuse the computer.

I've asked this question all over and have had different answers so getting a bit confused ,there is no imobiliser in the dash ,but I think it would need a new chip set to change the odometer from miles to km's .so I don't want to do it if I don't need to ,

 

 

 

 

Thanks Kev .

[Guest Crushfamily]

Should just be a coding issue - I just changed the country code in my instrument cluster from UK to Europe. It was a 5 digit code with 1 digit different for kms. Don't forget the seatbelt tethers for child seats as these will need to be fitted (probably won't have them if a camper as not VW o/e). I took mine out once it had passed its inspection!

[Guest teamV]

Thanks again ,did ring the main agent but they are still thinking about it,here's how the dash looked before ,Im think of ringing up and asking at the rwc office ,do you have a number for them.

 

 

Kev.

[Guest Crushfamily]

Who are RWC?

[Guest teamV]

Who are RWC?

 

Sorry I meant the place where you get the roadworthy certificate done ,I was using my phone this afternoon and can never remember names.

 

The thing is we are bringing 2 vehicles the vw and another which is going to be a lot harder to change the oddometer over, so I'm trying to get round it if I can ,If not I will have to buy a complete dash for the other car.

 

http://www.dpti.sa.gov.au/roadsafety/safer_vehicles/roadworthiness

 

[tinkertailerdog]

The thing is we are bringing 2 vehicles

I thought you could only bring over one vehicle, unless they're registered in different names?

[Guest Crushfamily]

Actually km odometer & speedo is NOT on 17 point list from vehicle standards! That however means nothing! I had more trouble registering my trailer here than the Passat as the trailer did not have an Ozy build plate ( a bit difficult as was a UK built trailer!)

 

TTD - two cars = husband and wife!!

[Guest teamV]

I thought you could only bring over one vehicle, unless they're registered in different names?

 

Be leave it or not we are bringing 4 ,one each as a personal import ,and I've got 2 old lambretta's as well ,they come under the pre 1988 import licence for older vehicles .there is no limit on how many pre 88's you can import.

I have the licence for the camper and the 2 scooters and Vicky needs to apply for the other car next month ,when she will of owned and used it for a year.

 

 

 

Kev.