i recently got an import and had no trouble getting it on the road, picked it up from the shipping yards on the tuesday, it was at allan boons workshop by the thursday, cost about 1k for the intrusions, seatbelts and mirrors, this was done by the following wednesday, then had to get tint taken off and immobiliser put in, it was regod by the friday, so in all less than 2 weeks it was on the road. at the transport department they werent very thorough, maybe due to having a engineers certificate, but all they checked was lights and the height off the ground, and i was told that i had to pay $152 at the pits, but getting it done at boons, an engineer went over it and certified it so it only cost $52 at the pits.
car is immaculate and runs like a dream, its a pretty easy process, just have to be a bit patient, the car i got was at the docks for a little over 6 months before it finally got on the ship, the guy that initially bought it was tired of waiting so i took it over when it finally landed. just be careful of quarantine tho, they supposedly went over my car but when i had a decent look at the exterior and under it there was lots of grass and 2 spider eggs, so just make sure you burn anything live so it doesnt get into the environment, the ashtray was also full of some guys cigarette butts!.....
also had no problem getting insurance, went with 'just car insurance' only problem with them i found is you can only pay yearly, they dont allow monthly or quartaly payments, but to give and of you an idea, the car is insured for 12k and its 920 a year which isnt too bad i thought