your car coming into Oz..

[NXTIME]

Well, let me put my situation in perspective. I found my '89 GTR back in April 2003. After alot of agonising emails and phone calls and 3rd (if not 4th) party arrangements, the car was finally purchased and put into storage in May. I paid for it in June and it was to be stored in Japan until it was eligible for import in Jan 2004. Then DOTARS changed the 15 year rule implementation, so I was faced with a further 11-12 month wait (so 20+ months all up) before I even had the car in the country.

Thankfully, after much complaining, DOTARS gave in and provided an exemption for vehicles already purchased overseas. So I was allowed to bring it in from Jan 2004. The demand for 15 year imports, and hence shipping, was so great that I could only get import approval and finally shipping booked for end of Feb 2004. the car finally arrives in Brisbane in March. I pay the shipping, brokerage and customs fees etc on a tuesday only to find out the next day that the broker had gone into voluntary receivership. And since I had paid the money into his account in cash (in order to speed up the process), I was not able to get my money back anytime soon.

So, 6 months later, I am faced with a huge storage bill, as well as the customs and shipping fees that I had already paid to the broker. I get sick and tired of the runaround and waiting for my money, so I bite the bullet and pay all the money (again) and get the damn car out of customs/bond storage. This was 2 weeks ago. I picked the car up last Monday. I just happened to be missing some vital components, like fuel pumps, ECU, AFM's. It also had some damage to the front bar and body, plus broken rear wing. Currently, it has been already complied and engineered. Just waiting on some parts and we can finally start the sucker.

Was it all worth it??

HELL YEAH!!!

"patience is a virtue" anyone?

[SteveL]

HELL YEAH!!!

"patience is a virtue" anyone?

Great to see you've still got such a positive attitude even after all that time and money.....by comparison the few day extra wait I had pales into insignificance.

[lwells]

sewid: thanks -- its certainly been an experience Unfortunately the damn B/L has still not shown. Geoff says he expects it to arrive first thing tomorrow at the latest, so heres hoping.

Re: R32 with R34 MFD, see here: http://www.geocities.co.jp/MotorCity-Circu...t/2496/mfd.html

funkymonkey: no probs. I still have the originals I photocopied from Troy's manual (that was a f*cking PITA: the diagrams are like 4 A3 sheets long!).

SteveL: Yeah, weird.... I made sure my customs agent had everything booked in advance, and they got a copy of the B/L ASAP via email which is apparently good enough for most of the processes that the car has to go through (except for actually being released).

[NXTIME]

Great to see you've still got such a positive attitude even after all that time and money.....by comparison the few day extra wait I had pales into insignificance.

And all that positivity over a stock R32 GTR

LW, patience...patience

[lwells]

NXTIME: Patience? Urgh :uzi:

I may not have waited as long as you, but its still been over six months since I purchased

I really hope the B/L does show tomorrow.. then I can :Party:

LW.

[lwells]

Well, the B/L arrived this morning, but too late for the courier so it look like the car will be ready to go on Thursday morning

Sigh.. fscking annoying. Time to ring the compliance and towing companies to let them know things have been delayed.

Lucien.

[Beer Baron]

Spewing. At least it arrived though...

not long now mate.

Richard

[lwells]

Yup, thanks goodness: no two or three week wait.

Its irritating, not so much because of the delay, but because I had today free whereas I will now have to reorganise the remainder of my week to get down to the docks, not to mention having to let the towing company and compliance place know.

LW.

[sewid]

When CGL gave me the "too late for courier" line i bitched at them and one of them (possibly Colin) drove the B/L into the city themselves to clear it for me.

Shoulda tried that

[lwells]

I'm not a whinger by nature Besides, he was probably influenced by the R34 GT-R reality distortion field... mine is just another R32 GT-R, so it doesn't have the same effect

LW.

[sewid]

Patience is the theme of the Importing forum.

At least you wont have to wait for DOTARS to pull their finger out of their asses and approve your compliance plate. I'm currently stuck in the void of DOTARS where 1 day DOTARS time is equal to any number of actual days in the real world.

[PHATR32]

i just called the people at the import approval place to see if the fax made it, and she said its currently being processed and that i should receive the approval some time between 27th - 29th!

steve

[lwells]

PHATR32: heh, if only that was the end of the process

At the moment it feels like my car is just an expensive folly that sucks up far too much of my time... I'm sure come thursday (or whatever fricken day I get to pick it up from the docks) my mind will be changed.

As others have said, its all about having immense reserves of patience.

LW.

[rev zone]

After importing in excess of 40cars i can assure you that nobody steels anything

i suggest you use a agent as he usually knows all about what is entailed

Have the agent in japan throughly clean under car especially under inner gaurd panels and arond top of pertol tank also have the car fumigated so that anything inside will be dead by the time it arrives here. he should supply you with a certificate most of the cars come on the kiwi carriers ships which usually dock down at patricks or the one next door. if you use an agent the car can be picked up most times the next day it has landed. all the cars are held in a compound the has strick security with cameras everywhere. the reason i use a agent is that you dont get dicked around he knows the procedure. Also remember useless you use a trade plate or get a permit from vic roads its a $500 fine if caught driving it

In all the years i have not had one thing taken from any car.

Also if you a worried that something might be taken have the agent take pictures

of anything you like as proof. If some items are loose have him post them to you

cheers Daryl

[lwells]

rev zone: that's very interesting, because almost everyone I have talked too that has brought something through the Queensland or NSW docks have had things pinched: everything from gear knobs, to steroes, to gauges and dials, and in the most extreme case, $2500 worth of parts in the boot. Perhaps its a case of those that loose something complaining loudly, whereas those that don't loose anything say nothing. Either way, it doesn't seem an uncommon occurance.

Maybe the Melbourne ports are better?

Some good advice on minimising risk but regarding posting parts, when they are worth a lot of money you get slapped by customs, and if you send them by sea they take forever. Also, photos don't help because the Australian docks are just as likely to claim the stuff was stolen on the Japanese docks or in transit.

You can try and get to the car when it hits the Australian docks, but as I said in a previous post, apparently its a real pain to try and get an inspection of the car when it hits the Sydney docks so its almost impossible to get photos once it arrives.

Lucien.

[Mr R32 M-Spec]

good luck mate, I hope everything goes well from here on out.

so you just faxed the forms and thats it? didn't post the originals down?

mark

[KILL HSV]

gtr=owned!!, picked it up from the docks today, and to my dismay the paint has shat itself in like 4 different places, and is safe to say it needs a respray(candy red here we come)

the main thing i was worried about was things being stolen out of the car, but nothing gone so all good, even the remote for the stereo is still there.

[SteveL]

gtr=owned!!, picked it up from the docks today, and to my dismay the paint has shat itself in like 4 different places, and is safe to say it needs a respray(candy red here we come)

the main thing i was worried about was things being stolen out of the car, but nothing gone so all good, even the remote for the stereo is still there.

Congrats...did the paint damage occur when the car was in storage ??

You need to change your profile from "89 gtr soon" to "gtr=owned!!"

[KILL HSV]

Congrats...did the paint damage occur when the car was in storage ??

You need to change your profile from "89 gtr soon" to "gtr=owned!!"

i'd say it was damaged in storage, like parked under a tree with weird sap or something, but apart from that i love it, even the key is cool

[lwells]

KILL HSV: Glad to hear you got your car, and without bits being stolen, but sorry to hear about the paint damage. Perhaps contact your broker and suggest they let the storage place know that parking under a tree = bad. That's partly why I asked for a car cover on mine (although that can have its own problems)

Tomorrow looks like the big day for picking up the car...

LW.