[Lara Croft]

Hubby is hoping to take his car with him, since he only bought it a couple of months ago he really can't bear to leave it behind. Has anyone else done this? Can you give me any advice / suggestions / ideas about cost & procedure?

Thanks!
Jane

[dharder]

Hubby is hoping to take his car with him, since he only bought it a couple of months ago he really can't bear to leave it behind. Has anyone else done this? Can you give me any advice / suggestions / ideas about cost & procedure?

There are people who specialise in this from the UK, we are shipping ours from a German port, so not much help regarding costs and procedures.

However, there is a time limit how long you have to have owned a car to import it as part of your personal belongings, so if he really only bought it a couple of months ago and you are leaving soon-ish, there may be a problem.

NZ Landtransport has a lot of helpful hints, though I have yet to find them helpful over the phone...

The AA (NZ) has information as well, and is one of the places where you can get registered once the car is in NZ.

If I had to organise this again, I'd get a 40 instead of 20ft container and have them put the car in there.

Good luck,

Daniela

[Smiler]

Hubby is hoping to take his car with him, since he only bought it a couple of months ago he really can't bear to leave it behind. Has anyone else done this? Can you give me any advice / suggestions / ideas about cost & procedure?

Thanks!
Jane

Jane, did he buy it new a couple of months ago, If so he's likely to be charged GST/import tax on on it and won't be able to sell it for up to 2 years without paying more. You can check on the LTNZ site www.ltsa.govt.nz (http://www.ltsa.govt.nz) there's lots of info on importing.

He'll also need to check if spare parts can be obtained easily here or pay through the nose for shipping costs on them. i.e Our peugeot exhaust would have been a couple of hundred dollars if it was a regular model, but peugeot wanted $1000 plus for one, we ended up having one handmade at around $400.

You'll need to get a larger 40 ft container, have it scrupulously clean and that won't stop them doing it all again at the cost of $3-400 (just for cleaning) when it arrives here. Plus the extra cost of the bigger container and insurance.

You'll need transport when you arrive, so will have to rent a car or use public transport until yours arrives in 8-10 weeks, add onto that the time it takes to get through MAF, customs, the compliance certs and WOF and registration. This is expensive and isn't a case of just driving it out of the container, they make you jump through hoops.

Has he checked into what he could get for his money here? He might fancy a change of car after all. :D

I've made lots of sad sorry threads on importing our car, the cost and the damage etc and I wouldn't do it again. Well I didn't want to in the first place, OH did. :no

[Lara Croft]

Thanks folks.
The car in question is not brand new (I think it is around 8 years old), but it is rare (a Mitsubishi FTO something-or-other), and it is the love of his life :roll

Now I know this subject has been discussed already, I'll do a search for older threads. :)

Jane

[Chiba]

I doubt it's worth it. He'd likely be better off replacing it with some kind of Japanese import once he arrives. The easiest way to convince yourself is look on Trademe in NZ and Autotrader in the UK. If the difference is the shipping, then it's worth it, if not, then don't bother.

Anyway, with an FTO he'll look like a hoon! :)

[StevieD]

Tons of mitsi's here, many probably better than the model he got!!! Loads of boy racer type cars if he into that too......

[Chiba]

...and there's always the option of doing a personal import from Japan. He'll have to pay tax, but should still come out ahead of dealer prices, and he can buy something silly that's already had a truly authentic "bosozoku" makeover! :)

[Chiba]

Just out of curiosity though, has anyone got an idea of how much it costs? Cheapest option, ideally.

[dharder]

Just out of curiosity though, has anyone got an idea of how much it costs? Cheapest option, ideally.

From Europe?

We are paying 1200 pounds for shipping + some (variable) charges. On the other end, we have to pay around $800 for a statement of compliance, and then about the same again to get it registered and Wof'ed.

We basically calculated what we would get for it if we sold here vs what we would have to pay over there for something comparable (which I haven't seen on trademe or any of the other car or sites yet, so calculating wasn't that easy), factoring in the shipping costs.

We have a 10 year old Volkswagen Van that suits our needs absolutely perfectly, is in excellent condition and has done about 120k km. We figured since this is our ideal car, we like it and the kids are attached to it (the boys helped chose it when we bought it) and it is a bit of 'home', it is worth taking it.

Of course after the preliminary 'okay' from the person doing the Statement of compliance for us, he is now backpedalling a bit and saying he needs more information after all... The car is supposed to be shippped next week, so this will be a rather close call. We have so much stuff that will have to go in the car to come with us, we'll have some serious problems if we now can't take it.

Oh well. No one said this was going to be easy and painless, right?

Daniela