Import

[Kombi]

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?

[Sunny43.5]

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 .

[Umai Naa!!]

Get in touch with Kristian at Iron Chef Imports.

He'll point you in the right direction.

[Kombi]

Thank you Howard and Umai Naa. From what I've learned so far, is that the vehicle had to be registered in my name for at least 12 months prior to import. Seperate issue is importing a vehicle not sold in Australia through a dealership.

[Sunny43.5]

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 .

[LogicprObe]

The 'Luxury Car Tax' is still in operation as well.............that was to protect the local car industry...........?

[Bryn23]

For whats its worth, you can buy the VW California in NZ new, leave it there for a year and use it for a few trips and then import it back here.

Although they are $$$

[Kombi]

Thank you all, decided not to try and import California

[Gold Coaster]

One of these would be nice!
http://https://www.caradvice.com.au/674596/volkswagen-grand-california-launched-europe/?source=plista

[Bryn23]

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 difference

[lindlewin]

The 'Luxury Car Tax' is still in operation as well.............that was to protect the local car industry...........?

Could've sworn things were changed like 2 years back according to this article
Australia Set To Relax Car Import Laws

[mnaussie]

I am looking for more info on this topic also, I currently own 2 rabbits and one soon to be 2 caddy's and want to bring back at least 2 of them when I move back after living stateside for over 20 years.

[mbash]

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?

According to the last Weekend Australian Magazine (March 2-3) "Volkswagen Australia plans to offer a factory manufactured right-hand drive/left side sliding door California in 2020. Details have yet to be confirmed, but the top-of-the-range-model will be pretty close, in price and specs, to the Ocean variant."

[Kombi]

With the new 870 parent sponsored visa I can see a new opportunity to import Cali from SA, along with grandma !

[Tornado T5]

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.