Importing For Migration Purpose

[svimlesh]

Helo Guys

I would like to import my personal RB20DET Drift build (https://www.facebook.com/fearmefiji/) from Fiji (Suva) to Melbourne, hopefully it was not damaged by TC Winston. It has too many modifications so will not want to rego or road worthy just for tracks. What options are there to get it here. Are there any agencies that can handle the Import/Freight/Customs clearance etc.

Any assistance would be highly appreciated.

[niZmO_Man]

Hey man, you might be better off stripping the car and finding a locally registered ceffy/R32 and transferring the parts onto that.

[Burger]

Hey man, you might be better off stripping the car and finding a locally registered ceffy/R32 and transferring the parts onto that.

You're on to something here. Take all of the fruity goodies off and shove them in a registered shell.

[lidz]

If only using it for track work then race import it, need a cams license though. Could possibly bring it in via personal import also though would need rwc this way. Talk to any of the brokers on here, they'll sort you out. Iron Chef, J-spec, etc

[foibles]

I think what the OP means is more along the lines of someone to manage the logistics (although admittedly the import approval > compliance process cannot be overlooked).

You could try mobs like Clarke Customs, CPS, Seaway, NMT Shipping - all are in Melbourne.

Freight from Fiji to Australia may be nigh on impossible, especially as there will be no car carriers, only very infrequent bulk carriers, etc - would not be surprised if the cargo needed to go via Singapore intermodal hub, and then be changed over (I have zero knowledge on sea freight between Fiji and Australia). You'll also find that the costs of freight to port and from port are high - especially if cargo only lands in BNE not MEL port.

Almost no doubt that you would be better off just selling it as it is, or if you have the stock parts, getting it returned to stock, air freighting your goodies back to Mel, etc...but unless you think that to buy that same car here would cost you $30K or upwards, I'd encourage selling it there.

Out of interest - how did you get the car into Fiji in the first place? Did it come straight from Japan (I'd have though shipping from Japan to Fiji would be limited too)

[niZmO_Man]

Fiji gets the old taxis, etc. from Japan. But that also means they can get some cool stuff. It's very expensive to buy though.

Usually freight goes the other way (Aus -> Fiji lol). It's really not that much worth it, would be a lot of effort to get it registered considering it's modified.

You can find local registered ones for $10k or less.

But if you really want to, I guess you can make it happen. No idea on what companies would ship from Fiji to Aus sorry.

[Prestige Motorsport]

If you're really attached to the car then it's not technically difficult to import it to Australia. Firstly you can use the race import approval option, for which you would need a CAMS license. Contact a Customs Agent in Fiji to find out what it will cost to organise a container, as a rough guide you might be looking at $2,000 to $2,400 or so but it's variable depending on ex rates to the USD and also location and worldwide demand at any point in time. Clearance costs on the Aust side are also fairly expensive for containers so the shipping part won't be cheap. You have 5% import duty and 10% GST to factor in on top of the vehicle price and shipping.

As mentioned above already, if you want to use the personal import option you could do that, but you'd need to factor in registering the car once here which may be a bit of a drama with all those mods. You'd also need to be legitimately living in Fiji with the car for more than 12 months and have it registered in your name etc. with all the paperwork. And you'd need to show that you're returning permanently to Australia with the car -- they are very strict on this and will require evidence of you moving.

So it will depend how much you love that car as to whether you think it's worthwhile. Sometimes emotion is more important than final cost, sometimes only the $$ count !

Dollar wise, gut feel is that importing probably won't stack up compared to what you could buy something similar here for, as someone has already commented. Consider of course that you know your own car intimately, compared to buying another unknown vehicle.

[Prestige Motorsport]

Also, depending on the build year you may "soon" be able to use the new 25 year rule for Australia, perhaps from about late 2017 (late 1992 and above models and so on). You'd still have the registration issues but if the rule is similar to the existing 1988 and older rule, then it should allow you to import your modified car at which point you could decide just to use it on the track.

New 25 Year Import Rule for Australia - Prestige Motorsport