Importing From Japan

[hamma3]

hey

i have recently been thinking about importing a car from japan and i really like the Toyota celsior/LS400 and i think you can pick one up over there fairly cheap but i was just wondering how much its going to cost me to make it road legal in South Australia??

any help will be of help to me

cheers

Edited April 16, 2009 by hamma3

[kakimoto33]

Unfortunately the Toyota Celsior is not allowed for import to Australia because they were sold locally as a Lexus LS400. There was a lot of them imported a few years back under the "15 year old" import laws which have since been replaced by the "1988 and older" rules which excludes the Celsior as it wasn't built that early. Your only option would be to purchase one that is already in Australia which was imported before those laws changed.

[changi]

hey

i have recently been thinking about importing a car from japan and i really like the Toyota celsior/LS400 and i think you can pick one up over there fairly cheap but i was just wondering how much its going to cost me to make it road legal in South Australia??

any help will be of help to me

cheers

I have imported two cars [not toyota] and another member of our family imported a toyota about three yrs ago. personally, I cant see the value in this any more, with the $AU at 70-ish yen and the delay/availability problems you will have getting spares for 'exotic' vehicles is a real pain. insurance companies also baulked and wanted extra cash to cover the expence of importing accident repair parts.

I could see the value when the $AU was around 100JPY, and it seems to be clawing it's way back recently.

anyway good luck with this.

[hamma3]

That sucks you can no longer import them because I live in south Australia and there are very few here and I really like them. Oh well thanks very much for your help. cheers

[Mr Eps]

umm. buy interstate?

that's better than importing. could work out cheaper...

[Iron Chef]

lol I had a VIP Celsior sitting around unsold for ages - Murphy's Law...

[Hank Scorpio]

LS400's are quite cheap these days I believe due to getting older and having a 4L V8. I'm sure you could find one somewhere in Australia, I was quoted about $1,200 to get a car moved from Qld to Perth, that's gotta' still work out good $$$ wise.