Import questions

[gone0-60mph]

Morning People,



With the lack of JDM AE86'S for sale at any sort of a reasonable price I have been thinking about importing. Can anyone shed some light as to exactly the costs, quarintine, registering process etc. I am just looking for info from when the car arrives in Australia. I have the whole shipping process and car purchase covered. Thanks in advance.

[Matt]

Add at least 5-7k for expenses... There are companies out there who will import them for you justjdm etc.

Its not unreasonable to expect it to owe you at least 10-12k or more by the time you land it.

[gone0-60mph]

Thanks for the quick reply mate. Any idea of the breakdown of cost?

[hayashi]

These were my costs about 6 years ago, so prices may have gone up/down depending on the market value. Prices are in AUD. I used J-spec imports.

Cost of car: ~$9000
For a car with minimal rust, expect to pay at least this much. For pristine condition cars, they're around the 13 to 20k mark. In retrospect, I should have saved up a bit more to get a car with less rust. Bear in mind engine condition as well, most 86's have been thrashed if they've been alive this long.

Cost of shipping: ~$4000
There are 3 costs associated here. There's a base charge that's calculated on the volume & weight of the car, and a percentage of how much you bought the car for. You will also be charged import duties & quarrantine charges when the car lands at the dock, which will also include degassing of A/C units if your car is equipped with one.

Cost of compliance: ~$1000-$2000
You won't need to un-modify any mods because of the 15yr import rule, but you will need to add safety features such as pretensioning seatbelts for front & rear seats, parker lights etc. How many features that must be added will be dependent on your state's rules. Seatbelts are the killer here, because JDM 86's came with no pretensioners, and only lap sash belts in the rear. Expect to have some parts of your interior panels cut to make the rear belts fit. grrrrr!

Cost of registration: ~$1000-$2000
There's the cost of registration, but to get there you need to have the car in a roadworthy condition. This is usually seperate to compliancing, cause they only give you an engineers report, not a roadworthy. Some of the roadblocks in obtaining a roadworthy are:
Ride height of car, suspension not working, fluid leaks, exhaust noise, excessive rust etc. This will be heavily dependent on how strict your state's rules are, and how strict the mechanic you go to is with their roadworthys.

[gone0-60mph]

Thanks for that very helpful reply hayashi!! I have imported cars to Ireland before so I know the costs of buying and shipping etc. Pretty sure from my contact in Japan that I could have a decent ae86 bought an shipped to Australia for a lot less than 13k. I was just unsure as to what other charges there may be once the car arrives in Oz. For instance when it arrives at the port do I have to pay port fees, quarentine etc etc.... I highly doubt I can just rock up an collect the car? Who would I have to get to comply the car? Rwc and rego I understand what has to be done. As a person with no import licence can I just purchase a car in Japan and have my contact ship it to Melbourne and go from there or do I have to go through some of the importers? Once again thanks for the help.

[hayashi]

You need to share the love & hook me up with this contact! Where were you 6 years ago???

Yes, you will have to pay for port & quarrantine, import tax etc. You will also be charged for de-gassing the A/C if your car has it. I forgot to mention that, sorry.

With the paper work, you can infact just rock up & collect it, and drive it home provided you have a temporary road registration. That's how I drove my car around while trying to get things sorted at different workshops. For convinience sake, I had my car transported to my residence via truck.

There are various compliance workshops here. A Google search should help you locate one closer to your area. I'll update this post with the one I used, I can't remember the name, I'll have to dig up the paperwork when I get home.

You can DIY import, it just means you have to organise everything yourself, which will be easier for you since you have a contact in Japan. Going through an importer just reduces the amount of work you have to do yourself, for a small fee.

Give that a read, it has some good info on DIY'ing.

[gone0-60mph]

Once again.... Thanks for the help! This is the man in Japan! Very helpful ! Looks like an ae86 is definitely the way to go due to being easier to getting it complied. Can you remember how much the compliance cost you? Who decides how much the import duty and gst is? Obviously depending on the value of the car but who values it?

[john84ie]

I don't think you would get one on the roa here for any less than 12k if ya got a car at a ok price. It would be a load of hastle and dicking around. You would buy one here for 9-12 easily and would be so much handier. Plus you can inspect the car before you buy. Anyone I've talked to who has imported here said you wouldn't have any change out of 15k

[hayashi]

Sorry, bad news, I couldn't find the name in my documents. I was pretty sure it was Lena Engineering, but that shows up at a completely different address in Google, unless they've moved.

Compliancing costs were listed in my breakdown. The seatbelts & parking lights were the only things they needed to change, and a small hole welded shut in the floor. If the car your importing has alot of extreme mods, eg. rollcage, aftermarket brakes, it will take alot longer to compliance as they have to run tests to prove on the engineering report that these items meet safety standards. This extra work would obviously incur extra costs.

The cost of the car will determine the import duties. The value is however much you paid for it. When you buy a car, there will be documents pertaining to the amount paid, and other registration details. These documents are used by customs to calculate the tax.

Matt & john84ie are right when it comes to total cost. Using J-spec, the amount I paid to them was very minimal in the grand scheme of things. Even if you decide to DIY with the help of your JP contact, I would leave a buffer stock of cash for any hidden costs that might arise. Contingencies for contingencies. Also, make sure you get your contact to go over it with a fine tooth comb when they're inspecting the car. It's very easy to miss something especially when you're not the one physically doing the inspecting.

Whatever decision you make, I wish you all the best, and hope you find the car you're looking for.

[85Kai]

Here is a little something I wrote at the time I went through the compliance process of my car in June earlier this year. I don't think it's really possible to do it any cheaper than this as I had the advantage of friends who work in the industry helping me out. I also did as much work as I could once the car arrived in Australia and the fact that it was a pre-1986 model meant it didn't need things that later models would need. I also had the advantage of flying over to Japan in January and finding the right car to send back and after living in Japan for 6 years I can tell you there are plenty of shitbox 86s you don't want to purchase simply by judging the little pictures on the internet. A close inspection is a must to avoid a dud. I hope this helps:




I'm yet to get my air con regassed in Australia ($130). That gets done this Friday as it's getting hot here in Brissy. All up, I'm still looking at a bill of around $13,000-$14,000 from memory. For me the wait was worth it because I now own a very nice, unique example. However, I can't really see a decent JDM 86 being registered in Oz for $9k. In my opinion only do it if you're after something unique. I originally hoped to pick up a nice JDM KE70 or AA63 Carina but had bad timing. If you're just after an 86 to slide then it's quicker, easier and around the same price to get something already here.