I am looking at Importing a KG through a licenced importer, and am in need of some advice.

I am aware of the compliance issues, but do not have much of an idea as to the actual cost associated with those issues. So I am looking for your disater stories, if any, so I can get an idea of a worst case scenario. (Am hoping to find an importer that will do compliance for me Good/Bad Idea?)

I will be wanting to drive it rather frequently too so if anyone has had Insurance or Rego disasters I would appreciate some anecdotal warning of those aswell.

Also if anyone has had a good experience importing, could you enlighten me with any essential info that you feel would help me along? or possibly some organisations that you were particularly happy with?

It will most likely be coming in from the US, so would be a leftie.

The main appeal with Importing is hopefully a better price due to the bigger market, basically i want to know if the associated cost would make it unrealistic?

Any advice/feedback/direction will be much appreciated

Send me a PM message of the licenced importer as there are so shonks around

Sorry, I can't PM as yet, am too new. Should be able too soon tho.

But I have asked JDS to have a look (I know, i know, they are a bit ricey, but they have an office nearby), not yet committed to giving them any dosh yet, taking it carefully.

hi , i imported a ghia n bought one locally, since the dollar has gone down , i reckon u better off buying locally. u pay the price of the car plus 40 percent on exchange, then u pay 3.5k for shipping minimum, then 10 percent on the overall total. aust customs may chage u 350 to wash the car down and another 800 in handling charges, so it adds up.

Ok, thanks for that,

A Hypothetical,

if i got an importer who was claiming to be able to get the car on my doorstep between a quoted range (including customs, shipping, compliance) so effectively the "now owning a foreign car in my garage" kinda situation, knowing how much the car itself wll cost to be on my doorstep. Is it safe to assume that there could be some major hassles with registration? as in will i have to get it registered as a special interest? limit my usage, that kind of thing?

Sorry but my local Service Tas office is kinda useless, and thought it might be easier just to ask someone who has gone through it?

So yr in Tasmania ???

i havent registered mine, using most parts n selling the body. but from what i read it isnt too hard to register it. but i am not sure of tasmanian laws.

You need to get import approval from the federal government (DOTARS) from memory. Once you have approval, you can import it and as long as it passes a roadworthy, you can then drive it. You do not have to change it over to right hand drive if you don't want. Either you or the company importing the car MUST get approval first though and this can take up to 6 weeks.

Good luck.

Yogie

make sure on the import papers that it doesnt mention for parts only as you wont get it registered anymore then
it is quite easy to register a lhd, you must make it fit aust standards, that includes windscreen,seatbelts,change yellow parkers(if later model) and cant really remember what else.MAKE SURE YOU GET A GOOD ENGINEER!i had quotes from other engineers from dept of transport and they wanted intrusion bars and all sorts of crap at first and were going to charge a fortune, luckily i found another who done a lot of vws and he was good and cheap.And i agree with grogy, with the us dollar the way it is it may be cheaper to get one here.

Yeah, the company i am looking at have bought over Soarer for a mate of mine, not my kind of car, but my mate was happy with the service he got, and reckons it was pretty cheap too.

I am taking into account the exchange rate at the moment too, What I am trying to get from the importer is a quoted range, so a maximum and minimum price. Once i get that quote, I will take the maximum as the working amount and then decide if it is worth it.

Below is their import process in two options, I will probably do the everything at their expense option and see what sort of quote i get (will post the quote on here once i got it for anyone elses reference):

http://www.jds-auto-imports.com/import-process 
These guys do mainly Jap Imports, but also source from US.

Can anyone see any loop holes in this process that may end up costing big?

And if I do end up buying locally, how hard is it to find those nice Towel Rack bumpers in Australia, this guy I spoke to in Vic about a US 1971 KG that is for sale on carpoint ( http://www.carpoint.com.au/used-car/VOLKSWAGEN/KARMANN%20GHIA/Victoria/csn659... ) reckons they only come on the American cars?

A small segway i know, but i reckon they look the bees knees those bumpers.

Have a look in the new australian vw mag there is a ghia in there for $7500 I imported one and Buying and importing cost more then that.

Thanks for that, I will have a look at it.

I also saw this at Shannons from their last auction, just missed out.

http://www.shannons.com.au/pages/auctions/lot.jsp?id=QF798NF5BFU32O8K 

also $7,500. what a bugger!

Million (a couple) to on http://www.carsales.com.au/used-cars/VOLKSWAGEN/KARMANN_GHIA/private-results....

Yeah, I have called up all the contacts on carsales, carpoint, etc with KGs in my range.

They are going to act as my measure to see if importing is worth it. especially the two yellow americans 71 and 74 (13,000 and 15,000).

At least i know i can find the odd bargain at home if i wait long enough, as per that shannons gem that i didn't notice until it was too late, am gutted about that, what a price!