[dharder]

I am going to take my car, and had anticipated having to clean it rather thoroughly. I just got a quote from a company that cleans cars and certifies that it has been desinfected. Rather a lot of money, I should add, even though it'll be nice to have a clean car for a change (just have to keep the kids out after having it cleaned...)

Two questions, though. If I have this done, and there are 4 days between disinfecting it and driving it up to the container, will the certificate be any use at all, or will they just assume it got dirty again during the four days?

And the other, if anyone has shipped their car, have you had this done, and did they ask for it? How clean did they want the car?

Any hints and tips greatly appreciated :)

Daniela

[albion54]

told me at the London expo that cleaning must be done in the 24 hrs prior to loading into the container or it's not valid.

[Andy&Mel]

The only experience we can give so far is at the UK end as our van is on it's way to NZ.

The advice from John Mason was to thoroughly clean the car inside so we hoovered and then scrubbed and then finally 'back to blacked' it all until it was like new again. The agreement with them was that they would do the most important underside of the vehicle (steam cleaning to get rid of mud and insects/eggs etc)

Outside we washed and polished it but we then had to deliver the vehicle to Liverpool (about 1.5 hrs drive away). When it arrived John Mason agreed to power wash the van to clean it up.

So far no problems ;)

Hope that helps
Andy & Mel

[Pip]

Just a warning - we had ours steam cleaned by John Mason earlier this year before they put it in the shipping container and MAf still insisted on sending it off for steam cleaning at this end (which we also had to pay for). After a wrangle with JM, I got the charge I had paid them for steam cleaning it refunded, but they admitted to me that MAF seem to be sending virtually every car to be steam cleaned on arrival...

I'd clean it to the best level you can - but don't be surprised if MAF take it anyway..sorry!

[neilw71]

I agree - don't pay for any extras in the UK, as it will count for nothing when it arrives here. We just gave it a good clean around the corner from the shippers depot and then dropped it off. MAF charged for a steam clean here, so it would have been a complete waste of money back in the UK

Neil

[dharder]

Thanks for your answers, everyone.

We talked to MAF yesterday, but the representative essentially just tried to talk us out of bringing the car...

He basically said what has been written here, to clean it as good as possible but that they still might take it to be cleaned. He didn't say anything about 24 hours, btw, when we asked about the difference between cleaning and shipping.

So we will try to get it done as neatly as possible here, and fully expect to have to pay again at the other end. Sigh.

Thanks for the tips,

Daniela

[incredible hulse]

We've brought 2 cars in; 1 from UK 20 months ago that Doree Bonner steam cleaned for us at their depot and we had no issues with MAF. 1 recently from Japan (that looked spotless prior to leaving) that MAF cleaned on arrival at a cost of approx 350 dollars - I suspect it's another money making scheme rather than anything else and the shippers indicated to us that MAF's policy was now to steam clean every vehicle that hadn't been done in Japan (they have a certified depot there which is used by Kiwi Carriers)