I was considering importing a California from South Africa, red tape seems to make it almost impossible, has anyone successfully imported a car from SA to Australia?
Announcement
Collapse
1 of 2
<
>
Email Notifications Failing (mostly Telstra)
Hello everyone. Seems there is an issue with Telstra (possible others) blocking email from our server. If you are trying to sign up I would suggest a different email if possible. If you're trying to reset your password and it fails please use the Contact Us page:
2 of 2
<
>
Welcome to the new look VWWatercooled
After much work and little sleep there is a new version of the forums running on more powerful and recent hardware as well as an upgraded software platform.
Things are mostly the same, but some things are a little different. We will be learning together, so please post questions (and answers if you've worked things out) in the help thread.
Things are mostly the same, but some things are a little different. We will be learning together, so please post questions (and answers if you've worked things out) in the help thread.

The new forum software is an upgraded version of what came before, it's mostly the same but also a little different. Hopefully easier to use and more stable than before.
We are learning together here, so please be patient. If you have questions, please post them here. If you have worked something out and can provide an answer,
See more
See less
Import
Collapse
X
-
-
You can partly blame the big importers here in Australia , up until earlier this year restrictions were lifted allowing people to personally import a vehicle from over seas without the 12 month waiting period and the usual import duties and tarrifs . Seems to me that those big importing companies got in the governments ear about the possibility of losing sales as people by-passed local dealers , so my take is they succesfully lobbied Turnbull and his kind and they oveturned the decision . Now there is also the local car makers who have been protected for the last 50 years who used local production to keep the system as it was , now with the demise of local production that doesn,t hold water anymore . I hope you get some info to help with your import .
-
Yes that was the rule about owning the car for 12 months and like I said they announced a few years ago that they were dropping that rule to coincide with the end of local car production , but my theory was that big car imorters got the feds to recind the promise so as to keep their profit margins high . It was from memory to start earlier this year but sadly not any more .
Comment
-
One of these would be nice!
http://https://www.caradvice.com.au/674596/volkswagen-grand-california-launched-europe/?source=plistaLast edited by Gold Coaster; 13-08-2018, 08:39 PM.
Comment
-
The only problem is that the sliding door is on the wrong side, so i can't see VW AU bringing it in.
I still think VW would have a winner if they did a California LWB, that extra 400mm makes a big difference2017 VW T6 3200KG GVM LWB 132kW 7 Speed DSG (Campervan Conversion)
Comment
-
Originally posted by LogicprObe View PostThe 'Luxury Car Tax' is still in operation as well.............that was to protect the local car industry...........?
Australia Set To Relax Car Import Laws
Comment
-
Originally posted by Kombi View PostI was considering importing a California from South Africa, red tape seems to make it almost impossible, has anyone successfully imported a car from SA to Australia?
Comment
-
Some Links that might help (or confuse)
Importing Vehicles into Australia
Specialist & Enthusiast Vehicle Scheme (SEVS)
I thought that some news was announced recently about relaxing some importation limitations. This might be covered in one of the areas in the second link.
Either way "they" don't make it easy. I really feel that if a local importer doesn't offer a model that is sold in the UK or Japan or another RHD market and where that countries safety regualtions are not dissimilar to our ADR's then we should be able to import that vehicle without restriction. Then again I see no reason to maintain our ADR's and in fact the government is (too) slowly bringing them into alignment with OS regs.
Comment
2025 - Below Forum
Collapse
Test Slow
Collapse

Comment