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Mar 31, 2006 20:49:42 GMT
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Has anyone here imported a car from the US? I'd like to know exactly what's involved. I have a vague idea of the costs, but that's about it. Any clarification here would also prove helpful. This is giving me vibrations cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4626455483I don't have the money to buy right now, but I'm hoping I will have the opportunity later in the year, maybe late summer, early autumn. I'd like to be prepared though so that when I have the money I will be in a position to frantically bid away on a 510, safe in the knowledge that I can get it back home ;D.
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Mar 31, 2006 21:12:01 GMT
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Wow, dunno, but if anyone can...
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it doesn't matter if it's a Morris Marina or a Toyota Celica - it's what you do with it that counts
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Mar 31, 2006 21:44:40 GMT
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looks very much like a two door mk1 cortina - but I'm biased
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Someone just shot the elephant in the room.
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Mar 31, 2006 21:52:03 GMT
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Yup, I'll tell all in the morning.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Mar 31, 2006 21:57:12 GMT
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check the seats!!! ;D
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once again rocking with 1117cc and 4 gears!
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Mar 31, 2006 22:02:02 GMT
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Perhaps I should ask his 'buddy' to deliver it at $1.00 per mile ;D
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Buying from the US: Not a definitive guide, but the experiences of various friends and myself.
Find the right car @ the right price Might sound obvious. But really, theres no point in dragging something 1/3 the way round the world if its not what you really want. Don't "settle" - hold out for the model you want with the spec you want and in the right condition. This is going to cost ya, so get what you really want.
Next up remember than on eBay you are bidding against the world. In the US there are people with HUGE disposable incomes and they will pay telephone numbers for muscle cars now so its dragging the price of all other 60s/early 70s cars upwards too. The best priced cars tend to be on owners' club forums and the like. Seek them out.
Also watch for scammers who copy other peoples auctions and register with fake IDs. There have been a few cars on eBay which don't really exist.
"Rust free" California cars, may be rusty North Dakota cars that moved to California 3 years ago. Check. Some ads state "California car from new". Also don't get too excited by "rust free". What this phrase means is "little significant actual rot". Set your expectations and you won't be disappointed. Also dry state cars tend to have wrecked interiors, all the rubber seals and windlace is dried up so first British rain storm and you have a soaking interior. Budget for seals etc. to be replaced even if the interior looks OK.
Beware of the attack of the clones! The real performance varieties are rare and fetching big money. People are dressing up plain jane models as SS SSS W30 R/T and selling them as if they are the real thing and trippleing their money. If you have your heart set on a performance model make sure you know how to spot a fake. Its rife. Finding a US owners forum is good as there will always be some guys who are mega anal on the details and love nothing better than ripping eBay auctions for clones apart. Nothing wrong with a clone so long as its described as a "replica". Same as people dressing up Mk1 Escorts as Mexicos when they aren't.
There is no HPI for older cars in the US. Accident repairs done in the 70s on a 60s car may be of a shody standard. Also beware stolen cars. There was a recent story in the papers about a 1968 Corvette which was being exported to Sweden. When the US Customs guys checked over the paperwork they discovered the car had been stolen in 1969. The car was returned to its original owner and the Swedish guy was left with nothing. Always make sure all paperwork is 100% in order. Again, the US forums are good for this as they will be able to explain local state laws on title far better than anyone over here can.
There are a number of Auto Appraisal Services. This is like getting an AA inspection. Typically costs about $200. You'll get like 150 photos and a full written report on the car. Even down to stuff like "fuel guage reads high, speedo needle wobbles at 50 mph." If the seller won't work with an acreditted appraiser ask yourself why? If the car arrives and is not as described you can sue the appraiser.
Learn where the dry states are and look where is close to a port. With shipping within the US @ about $1 a mile and the fact that your car could be 2000 miles from your shipper's port you can see how this can add significantly to the cost of the car.
Chose a shipper Theres a bunch of shipping agents in both the US and the UK. In the UK talk to the likes of Kingstown and Rybec. I've heard nothing but good about Kingstown. Thing is you are paying these guys in pounds. You pay an American shipper in dollars. You can save a fair few quid dealing with a US shipper - but - if anything goes wrong a UK company is easier to gethold of, deal with, and is bound by UK laws so would be easier to get redress if there is a problem.
Some shipping companies will quote door to door prices, some quote shipping only. Understand whats included to avoid nasty and expensive surprises later.
Shipping a car from a US port to a UK port costs about $800 last time I checked. Thats about £550. It would be so nice if that were all you had to pay. Theres custom clearance fees, loading fees, maybe storage fees, then unloading fees, port tax, docking charges, etc etc and customs clearance in the UK.
You can do your own customs paperwork this end. I haven't tried it but I know people who have who say its not so bad. How are you with dealing with Government Burocracy? If you're OK with it you can save yourself £60 - £80 or so by handlig all the paperwork yourself. But it needs to be done in office hours at the port so factor time off work and travel costs into it. I live in Nottingham, its worth the money to pay them to do it for me.
keys and paperwork I have been given this advice by a guy who imported a few cars himself. When you get the title documents made up in the US get them to make a second copy, and also get a spare set of keys made if necessary. Get these airmailed to you by UPS or whatever. Its not common, but it does happen that keys and paperwork get lost when the car is shipped and you'll need both to pick the car up!
Taxes and Duty Until a couple of years ago you could get a BTI duty rate for a collectors car on prety much any old car if you could write a good excuse on the paperwork. Now they are tightening right up on it. If youread in an old CC or CA that you can get a reduced rate of duty, ignore it. I heard of a car which was one of 4 made and it was refused collector car status by HM Customs. They say its only for individually significant cars. Put it this way if you bought the 1963 Lincoln that JFK was shot in, and could prove it with documentary evidence, then you'd get BTI. If you import any other 1963 Lincoln you have to pay normal duty. Feel free to try get a BTI. Its free to apply, but must be done before the car is consigned in the US. Customs are very helpful with the paperwork but will be very helpful when they say no.
Duty on a private car is 10%. This is payable on the invoice price of the car. If HM C&E think your invoice value is too low they will make up their own value and tax you on that. So that '62 Corvette you say you paid $500 for, think again! They will charge duty on its "UK market value". Duty on pickup trucks and other "commercial vehicles" is something like 15%, but you need to check this out. You will then have to pay VAT at 17.5% on the invoice value of the car (or "UK market value" which ever is highest), the cost of the shipping and any professional fees, and worst of all you have to pay VAT on the import duty too. Worse, VAT on pickups is 22.5%
If you have the same shipper collect your car from the vendor, ship it and deliver it to your home try and get them to invoice this all separately. That way you only pay VAT on the shoipping and associated fees not on the delivery both sides of the Atlantic too. If its all on one invoice the Customs will try VAT the lot.
Collection & Registration Check out the regs for yourself, but you are on dodgey ground driving the car home. Its got no MOT, TAX or UK registration. I know a guy who took his car straight from the port and rove it to an MOT station and then drove it home on the US licence plates and swore this was legal, but I'm not convinced. Most people I know use trailers. take a spare battery, jerry can of fuel and the spare keys when you go collect it. Its been standing for weeks by now. Also its not unheard of for shippers to drain fuel tanks (container shipping is supposed to require this for fire regs) and people have nicked batteries as well.
Once the car is safely home you need to insure it. Make sure your insurer insures it on the VIN not the US licence plate if it still has one. (again these are often removed by Customs in the USA) you need the VIN on the insurance and some call centre staff don't understand this. You will only geta temp cover note but this is fine. Footman James told me they could only issue 7 day cover but that they would keep popping a 7 day cover note in the post every week until I notified them of a UK registration number.
Then you need an MOT. You'll need to look at lighting mostly, usually indicators and sometimes headlights will fail too. Also check what seatbelts are in the car. US and UK regs differ. Lap belts only are OK in the US until about 1970 whereas in the UK its 1965. Also be aware that most US states have very weak "inspections" compared to the MOT. So you could be failing on bushes, ball joints and a bunch of stuff thats not been checked on your car in 25 - 30 years. The one thing they are red hot on is emissions so you should fly through that part of the test! The MOT tester must put the VIN down as the registration, not the US licence plate if it still has one. Make sure they understand this. Also I'm not sure how the new computer MOT system handles unregistered cars, first person to find out please post up your tale of pain here!
Assuming the car is more than 10 years old all you need to do now is head down the local VRO. These are in yellow pages under lcoal government usually or check the DVLA website. Again they are getting tighter in these places. When I had the Plymouth brought in all that was needed was to turn up with the Customs paperwork to prove the car's taxes and duty is all paid up, the MOT, the insurance and the US docs. Registration fees are about £60 frommemory. They then hand over a tax disc and a "certificate of entitlement to make registration plates". Next stop Motor Spares to get some plates made up and you are legal. The V5C follows in the post.
I have heard that some VROs insist on sending the paperwork back to Swansea and you get your V5C and tax disc in the post 3-4 weeks later and you can't drive the car in the mean time. This may even be new regs, again, I've not imported a car recently.
Some VRO's will insit on inspecting the car as well, this may be a case of an inspector calls to your house, or a quick look round it in the car park.
What does it cost? Allow £1000-£1200 in shipping fees. Of which the actual shipping is £500-£600. The rest is made up of other costs. You will be asked if you want maritime insurance. This only covers the total loss of the car if the ship sinks, not any damage done to it. However, maritime insurance pays out on a bizarre scale and most people say its not worth having. Shipping prices will vary by port, shipper and time of year.
You can save a few quid if you can pursuade the vendor to deliver the car to your shipper for you. A mate brough in a Delorean fromNew York and the guy drove it to Jersey docks for him for the price of a cab ride home. Not all sellers are so accomodating.
Lets look at a typical $2500 car.
Buy car - $2500 ( £1450) delivery to port - $100 ( £60) Shipping and fees - £1200 Import Duty - £145 VAT - £490 Collect from port to home - £150 Sundry bits to make lights meet UK regs - £20 MOT - £45 DVLA licence fee - £60 number plates - £15
Grand Total = £3635
You can see that this process makes better economic sense for more expensive cars than it does for bargain cheapies!
I have also used "high estimates" and tried to include every cost I can think of. You make have an extra $20 for a duplicate set of docs, $10 for a duplicate set of keys, I haven't included appraisers costs either.
If you get some good prices, own a trailer yourself, etc etc you might do it for £3200 or so. I can't see you doing it much cheaper.
How long does it take Ages.
Shipping your car is the single most important thing in the world to you. But to everybody else its a minor inconvenience. Say your car is waiting at the docks and theres 40 spaces on the boat, and a big importer has 40 Dodge Rams turn up. What do you think happens to your car? Thats right, it waits for the next boat. Also agents don't own the boats. They haggle for space on them. At times of high demand your shipper may genuinely not be able to get a space for a while.
This is how it went for a mate who broght a Duster in last year.
He found the car, thats when the clock starts ticking.
Negotiate with seller about payment and collection arrangements - 1 week.
Send certified international bank draft to vendor - 2 weeks. An international wire transfer will take about 4 working days but not everybody will accept one.
Wait for transport company to come collect car - 2 weeks.
Car in transit - 1 week.
Car at shipping agent waiting for processing - 2 weeks
Car in port waiting for loading - 3 weeks
Car on boat - 3 weeks
Car unloaded and paperwork done - 1 week
get a day off work to go fetch car, arrange trailer etc - 1 week.
Prepare car for MOT, get test done - 1 week.
Wait fr DVLA to process paperwork and issue documents - 0 to 3 weeks.
So to get the car back to you and on your drive takes about 16 weeks (just under 4 months). You may be lucky and do it in less time. A mate got a car from New York and it was deal done over the phone, paid by credit card as it was at a dealer, car was heading down to the shipping agent the next day. It still took 3 months before he got it due to a shipping shortage - it was in the docks 5 weeks waiting on loading!
A local guy brought in a Mercury lead sled and its taken him 6 months from it arriving here to getting it on the road due to MOT issues and paperwork issues.
You may just want to ask an iporter to find a car for you. This has the disadvantage of costing a bit more as they are taking a cut. The advantage is that you just turn up on the day and write one cheque.
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Last Edit: Apr 1, 2006 9:31:47 GMT by akku
1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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I looked into aimporting one from Germany a while back, a '68 Dodge Corronet in fact. The beuty of the EU is that there is no duty to pay. I aksed HM C&E and said, what, I just drive back thought he "nothing to declare" channel and thats it? You need to get a form from HM C&E to confirm that the car has been imported from an EU member state and there are no duties to be paid, then its off to your local VRO with German paperwork, customs form and VIN based insurance & MOT in hand. Easy peasy. Never done it, but thats how the DVLA and HM C&E described the process to me.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Thanks for taking the time and trouble to post this valuable information alistairk.
I think you've pretty much covered everything there. It seems fairly straightforward.
I'm going to be looking to buy late summer, but I can start looking now so that I can judge prices, etc.
Now all we need is the definitive guide to importing from Japan and Australia and we're all happy :-) Anyone care to volunteer that information?
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tax, duty and registration process is the same for all non-EU countries. Its just the buying end thats different. Aus will be a bit easier than Japan as they sort-of speak the same language we do down there. I kinda fancy bringing up a Dodge Pheonix (RHD badge engineered version of the Plymouth Fury) but unfortunately they only do them in 4 doors I think? I only ever saw 4 doors anyway when I looked. Some of the Valiant/Charger models are also worth bringing up, and theres some nice Holdens.... Hmmmm....
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Last Edit: Apr 1, 2006 10:24:22 GMT by akku
1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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I saw the SR20DET powered 510. Very nice but too rich for me. Importing from Germany is a cinch. As alistairk pointed out, there are no duties to pay. The only tricky part is the language barrier. Provided that you can communicate (you speak German, seller speaks English, you take an interpretor) then your laughing. You obtain temporary insurance, register the car, then the German VRO will issue a new reg no, you then get the reg plate made up and your away. All of this takes place at one site, and usually takes less than an hour, but they were very busy the day we collected the Ascona and it took nearly half a day! You can then legally drive the car back to the ferry, there is nothing to declare when you arrive back in England. Technically, as you are a UK citizen in an imported car you are not legally allowed to drive it through the UK until it has been re-registered. You could just try putting a German accent on if you get your collar felt though The rest of the procedure for UK registration is as alistairk described above. Insure, MOT, get an 'import pack' from the DVLA, fill in the forms, including the HM C&E (these still need to be filled in even though there are no duties to pay), the DVLA will then issue a UK reg no and you get your new plate made up. Simple. Once I sent the forms in I had my new reg within three days. I forget the exact cost of the German registration procedure, but all in, it came to less that 100 Euros for insurance, registration and having the cool plates made up. It really is that simple. It's worth shopping for the best channel crossing rates as some real savings can be made here. Also, since you're buying an unknown car it's probably worth taking out European breakdown cover. We didn't bother, but had things gone wrong........ Edit* Is the sight really slow today or is it a problem at my end? It took flippin' ages to get my last two posts up.
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Last Edit: Apr 1, 2006 10:23:11 GMT by AsconaDaz
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Stu
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,913
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Interesting reading, some excellent info - I wonder if alastairk's post in particular could be made into a sticky/guide on importing? Importing from Europe seems a heck of a lot easier, glad I'm in German cars and not US ones! ;D
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'89 BMW E30 325i Sport, '04 MINI Cooper S, '09 Volvo V70 D5
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If you are quickish, we have a container bringing our van back from Toronto, Canada at the end of May. It's £1600 all in for a 20ft or £2400 for a 40ft. We have booked the 20ft, but could easily change it. Pay the extra £800 (includes paperwork, loading and chocking, plus transport to customs - although that excludes customs charges this end), and the space is yours!
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There is nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes
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Oh, a far as insurce goes when driving home from the port. CIC will insure the vehicle for 1 month on Canadian/US plates (assuming you can keep them - which we can do for $18cdn in Canada), then it has to be UK registered. This is plenty of time to get the motor MOTable and as far as I am concerned means 1 month free road tax!
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There is nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes
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Want my 2p's worth on importing a Datsun 510? Probably not but here goes. The Datsun 510 in the US is like the Mk1 Escort RS2000 in the UK. It will have had a battered life of mods - some bad and some good, be used and abused, will lack originality and is left hand drive. The Datsun 510 in Japan is a retro cult classic. Less of the abuse and often very well looked after. Clean, less modification, less rust, kept in typical Asian fastidiousness. It is also right hand drive. The 510 SSS coupe which is just sooooo sexy is the one to have and there's almost none in the US and loads in Japan. So, Japan or US as the source of your 510? The language barrier is the biggest problem in Japan but if you use a car sourcing firm like www.monkys.jp they can find what you need. You should also visit www.rinkya.com which allows you to search Yahoo.jp, and try www.carsensor.net (with both of these you need to search for "bluebird" and find the 510 of your dreams. The best one I've seen recently was the red 510 SSS coupe on US Ebay with an SR20DET in it. This had been imported from Japan so was RHD. Charlie
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Thanks for your helpa and advice everyone. It's certainly given me something to think about.
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alistairk or anyone else, what is the gorgeous Dodge reg HWP440 you posted? I thought it was an Impala but the badge on the rear looks like it says something else? Looks a lovely lovely mota - NEED!!
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Interesting reading, some excellent info - I wonder if alastairk's post in particular could be made into a sticky/guide on importing? that was exactly what i was thinking as i was reading it! Hotwire, can we have this placed somewhere on the new site? Thats an excellent guide to buying from the states, cheers Alistairk!
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