Out of curiosity

[Damoo]

Just out of curiosity, If i bought an 05 Mustang from Ebay, how much extra would i be looking at to get it shipped, tax and converted to RHD + anything else i need for it to be legal here?

Thanks.

[68pony]

well before you could even buy it you need to organise who will convert it cost $33,000 then you have %10 gst %8 import tax and %25 luxury car tax but i think u can,t get a second hand one converted unless its a personel import, that means u have had the car regst in your name in the states for 1 year , i looked a while ago and was told i could only convert a new one and u have to state who is doing the conversion on the import papers and the conversion guys were a little hesitant in doing it as they want to convert and sell but there a more companys doing conversions now so maybe things have changed, shipping is arounnd $2,500-$3,000 jpony knows alot about this as he has a new mustang i think its a 06 then u have the usual rego and stamp duty fees which are huge cause the cost of the conversion is added to cost of the car
cheers chris.

[johnpony]

Well Damoo a 05 V6 is about 14kUS and a GT arround 20kUS , say about $500-700 transport cost to long beach then 3k for slow shared container or 7k for single straight fast container, not sure what customs inspection fees are, 43% taxes,RAWS,Transport to who ever you get to convert, rego inspection, stamp duty , compliance plate and registration. I'm fairly sure you can bring in a second hand Mustang as i know melbourne motorsport do.
I would say somewhere arround 65k-75k on top of the purchase price but as you can see lots of variables. if you are really interested make some enquires to some converters, importers, RTA and compliancing.
Good Luck the S197 is a fantastic model.

[Damoo]

Yeah, i'm just looking at the V6 one, a used one, no fancy engines, etc etc. It looks like it is going to be VERY expensive. But i can't exactly throw down $75,000 that i dont have :S

Thanks guys :)

[tbk]

I've never done it myself however looked into it extensivly back when i was drooling over F250's and Dodge Ram's ...

My best advice is you MUST have import approval before shipping anything - our gov is particularly nasty if you dont follow the rules in this area.

They do warn they will confiscate the vehicle if approval is not done before hand, and they wont give import approval for a vehicle already in the country (their warnings).

That import approval is of course the ticket to get the vehicle registered.

And yeah, as said above there is some other strange rules in regard to the year of the vehicle vs length of ownership of it.

Do research, and lots of it.

[Damoo]

Just a question again, sorry:

If i got my uncle to do the conversion to LHD to RHD, how much money would i save? Then i need to pay for compliance yes? (assuming after import tax, shipping, actually buying the car etc etc).

How would you go about buying a car from another country? Fly over and go straight to a dealer?

[Red71]

Hi Damoo.

To import a car you first need to obtain an import approval. I have a link to the DOTARS website and an import approval form. It is self explanatory - tick the boxes and it will tell you if the car you wish to import is permitted.

http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/safety/bulletin/doc/VSB10_Form.doc

As for your uncle doing the conversion, it depends on his background and qualifications - so it's your call. What you must remember, however, is that you will need an engineer to sign off on the work that your uncle does. I think your 1st step should be to join you local MOCA club and go from there. You don't want to make any costly mistakes. It is probably better to buy an older car and then register it LHD, or buy one already converted.

[GJW]

Originally posted by johnpony
Well Damoo a 05 V6 is about 14kUS and a GT arround 20kUS , say about $500-700 transport cost to long beach then 3k for slow shared container or 7k for single straight fast container, not sure what customs inspection fees are, 43% taxes,RAWS,Transport to who ever you get to convert, rego inspection, stamp duty , compliance plate and registration. I'm fairly sure you can bring in a second hand Mustang as i know melbourne motorsport do.
I would say somewhere arround 65k-75k on top of the purchase price but as you can see lots of variables. if you are really interested make some enquires to some converters, importers, RTA and compliancing.
Good Luck the S197 is a fantastic model.

Hi guys, I had pretty much the same question as original poster. Noticing $100-200K pricetags for cars here, that are $15-30K in the USA.

Having lived in the USA for a number of years I was a bit dismayed by seeing this when I got back to Australia.

I know you just explained but I'm a complete newcomer to this, anyway it can be explained slower for us laymen who have no real idea on any of this? Specifically I'm after the "WHY" it is this way, surely if I own a car I should therefore be able to import my property, or something like that?

Seems not?

Whats the deal with the 1year must own a car and registered in your name before you can move it? How much does this cost if you do not? Etc. Does this only apply to new vehicles? Used Vechicles? Vehicles over a certain age? Etc.

Any assistance would be great :D

[Frank70]

GJW,

I'm pretty sure all these taxes etc. were added a while back to protect the Australian car industry from imports. Back then I think it needed it - now I think we can hold our own with the quality of our cars. Pity the taxes are still there.

As much as I would like a SN197 GT or Shelby and I am sure they are great cars, for the price you could get a new M3 V8 and enough left over for an XR8 for the family. Having owned 2 M3s, I know which one I would have.

I think I'll still with the classic 'Stangs.
Cheers,
Frank.

[GJW]

Ahhh that's why. Well if Australians made better cars there wouldn't be an issue ;).

I see a lot of people referring to classic stangs, are they also covered by this law? Or does this only refer to more current models, or models that are currently in production?