Importing Tyres?

[dbloemhard]

I have been ringing around for prices on Federal 595SS tyres and the cheapest i can find is $220/tyre. Compare this with the US price of $69/tyre, and i think someone is making alot of money.

If i have someone willing to send me the tyres, and assuming shipping wont be too hard, are there any other things i need to consider? Rules?

[raz0r$harP.UK]

AQIS requirements on imports - which may more onerous if you will be using them for commercial purposes (i.e. retailing).

Might be worth remembering that tyres across different regions may have differing compounds to suit the particular locality and may not be as suitable as the local equivalents.

Anyway, moved to GA.

[mad082]

what you have to take into account is that the aussie distributer is paying for them, pluss the freight to get them here (unless they are made here), then putting their mark-up on them. then the retailer buys them, pays some freight as well and puts their markup on them.

plus you would have to take into account the cost for you to import them, then have them freighted to your place. i'd say it would come out to be a lot more that $220 a tire unless you were doing it on a mass scale.

and then if you were planning on doing that you would have to make sure that the companies that currently bring them in don't have an agreement with the head company to be the only importer. if they do and you try to sell them then you could be fined by the company, and you would end up with a heap of tyres that you can't do anything with except use them yourself. you can't even give them away.

there was a big shit fight in the bike industry a little while ago where a shoe company made a limited edition shoe with a bike brand and the bike brand brought in thousands of these shoes only to find out that the company who sold the shoe brand had exclusive rights to sell that brand in australia.

[Bullet32]

I have been ringing around for prices on Federal 595SS tyres and the cheapest i can find is $220/tyre. Compare this with the US price of $69/tyre, and i think someone is making alot of money.

If i have someone willing to send me the tyres, and assuming shipping wont be too hard, are there any other things i need to consider? Rules?

Hi Dominik,

You are right on the pricing diferentiations between contries and sometimes the parity seems hard to beleive.

Please remember that there are additional importing costs such as import duty, freight, currency factors, financing costs, distributions costs, fitting costs, that does start to add up. In addition your local Federal retailer cannot compete with a one off importer who doesnt keep regular inventory, maintain equipment, provide staff to provide service to their customers.

Also as the importer of the tyres directly from the US you will be deemed the manufacturer from an importing and insurance perspective and as such would not be covered by any local policy given any tyre issues. This is an additional cost that all Australian Federal distributors cover every year.

Either way your choice of tyre is no doubt well researched and we welcome your custom.

[Duncan]

I fully understand your point bullet32 and there are lots of good reason including availability, service, additional advice, range of sizes, warranty and returns to buy from a local seller.

And there have been examples where inappropriate tyres have been imported and sold locally, eg the toyo 888s being sold very cheap in a "supersoft" compound that only last a few laps before going off.

Having said all that, in the case of motorsport tyres in particular the cartels of official suppliers are pretty bad, they collude on prices to ensure no-one undercuts anyone else - all selling at the RRP only. I have imported my own motorsport tyres a couple of times and saved a significant amount of money.

This is really no different to choosing a local parts shop like UAS instead of buying from Nengun in japan. You can save money but you should be aware of the risks.

[dbloemhard]

I certainly wouldnt be doing this to sell the tyres. Due to my suspension setup i tend to go through tyres quicker than most street-only cars (excessive camber, about 6000kms for the rear tyres, a bit more for the front). While i fully accept the consequences of doing this, i am just looking for some ways to save money where i can.

I know the exact size wheels i need, and i dont believe i would be covered for warranty even if i bought the tyres locally because of the stretched configuration i run them with. Right now i have Kumho Ecsta's and they have been great value, but when i saw the prices my friend was paying i thought i would investigate that option

Considering the free trade agreement we have with the US, I figure the only costs should be GST and Freight. I paid around $500 to post 6 coilovers to the US by air last year, and that was over 50kg in weight. 4 tyres would weight the same if not less, and when added to the cost of the tyres it would still be less than they cost here. Even cheaper if i did sea freight.

[Paradizzle]

Hey mate, tyres may go by size not by weight when getting a price to freight them....

[Bullet32]

I certainly wouldnt be doing this to sell the tyres. Due to my suspension setup i tend to go through tyres quicker than most street-only cars (excessive camber, about 6000kms for the rear tyres, a bit more for the front). While i fully accept the consequences of doing this, i am just looking for some ways to save money where i can.

I know the exact size wheels i need, and i dont believe i would be covered for warranty even if i bought the tyres locally because of the stretched configuration i run them with. Right now i have Kumho Ecsta's and they have been great value, but when i saw the prices my friend was paying i thought i would investigate that option

Considering the free trade agreement we have with the US, I figure the only costs should be GST and Freight. I paid around $500 to post 6 coilovers to the US by air last year, and that was over 50kg in weight. 4 tyres would weight the same if not less, and when added to the cost of the tyres it would still be less than they cost here. Even cheaper if i did sea freight.

Its good to hear that youre up to date with the trading terms between the U.S and Australia but Im afraid that there isnt a free trading agreement with China yet...

Federal Tyres are manufactured in China and not in the U.S and the free trade agreement applies only to the country of manufacture, if it was any cheaper to import these tyres from America dont you think that we (being the Australian distributor) would be getting them from there?

As I said before, youre choice of tyre is obviously well researched and we welcome your custom.

Edited August 8, 2007 by Bullet32

[LBR33]

All tyres sold in Aus must have the DOT stamp molded onto the tyre as without it they are illegal to use on our roads