Importing a classic car

[Zeca]

Hi Forum members

 

We received our VISA in November 2016 and plan to move in December 2017 to Adelaide. I have read most of the posts on the forum about moving cars and the complexity and cost involved. In my particular case I have owned this car from 1972 for 7 years and financially it still makes sense to take despite the costs involved which exclude import duties. Although there is a few posts about taking cars to Australia I could not find one from a member who has actually successfully taken a classic car or a normal car at that from SA to Australia and what there experience was, including which shipping company was used etc. If there is already a post about this I apologise and ask if you could direct me to the post, or any advise or views would be appreciated. 

 

Regards

 

Zeca

[Mara]

@Zeca I can recall quite a number of members bringing in Venter trailers, and I know there have been a couple that brought in motorbikes. With something like this I think you may be better off getting the information straight from the horses mouth, so to speak!

 

I did a Google search for you, there are a number of threads.. enjoy the reading:

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=importing+classic+car+to+Australia&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&ei=vurSWL3oL-rDXo_TmNAO

 

[RedPanda]

Hehe..yes we recently brought in a Venter trailer. We are also working our way slowly towards importing an MG owned by my father in law. @GenDemo is working on that. You can send him a PM if you like. Also, if you find the relevant information, please share it back here.

[GenDemo]

There is a company in Cape Town that can apparently do it for R30k. My dad and I are still looking at this. It is an expensive exercise. I have heard many horror stories of people who's cars' upholstery was ripped and shredded apart in search of drugs. And apparently there are some upgrades that one might need to go to get it on Australian standards.

[Zeca]

On 3/23/2017 at 11:58 AM, GenDemo said:

There is a company in Cape Town that can apparently do it for R30k. My dad and I are still looking at this. It is an expensive exercise. I have heard many horror stories of people who's cars' upholstery was ripped and shredded apart in search of drugs. And apparently there are some upgrades that one might need to go to get it on Australian standards.

Thank you Mara and Redpanda for the reply and suggestion to chat to GenDemo. Thank you GenDemo for advising that there is a potential to use someone in Cape Town to assist in me sending the car. If you could share details it would be great. 

With regards to the standards in Australia it seemed that if the cars where older than 1989 the amount of changes required would be minimal, however any advise is appreciated as there is many views on the web.  The 72 model of is quite simple without airconditioning but has seat belts in the rear. I have a 67 Alfa Stepnose that is also simple but no rear seat belts. I understood that I can import these as classic cars but would need to register and only drive 90 days a year which should not be a problem. 

 

Any advise on who I could use to ship would be appreciated, I will most probably put them into a container as the fluids would have to be drained and hence would not be able to do RORO, which I was told would not be advisable any way. 

 

I'm slowly getting the steps in place, within the next month or so I will apply For a import permit. Holding thumbs that I get the ok.

 

Is there safe storage facilities in Adelaide that I could keep the cars as we most probably won't have enough space in the place we eventually rent to stay. 

 

Regrda

 

Zeca

 

 

[Mara]

@Zeca I did a Google search for you, you can check it out for yourself:

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=long+term+storage+facility+for+motor+vehicle+in+adelaide+australia&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&ei=zO_WWIupHcPr8AeTpJjgAw

 

[Zaprime]

I'm interested in learning more about this process as well. I'm hoping to bring some of our stationary engine collection with or over at a later date. if I can get any useful info from the Australians on the Stationary Engine forum, I'll add it here.