This is probably one for Pickles but I'd be grateful for any advice on the process of taking my Defender to Australia.

Now I have done some research and obtained an estimate from Iron Lady Imports

My principal questions relate to both the market value and customs value of the Defender. Now, I've been given figures of $31,000 and $16,000 respectively. Having checked carsales.com.au for the typical market value and the Red Book, the market value quoted by Iron Lady is around $40k-$50k below that for comparable vehicles for sale in Aus. I get that the values will be understated so as to reduce the taxes but are Aussie Customs really that naive? But if the vehicle was written off in transit would the insurance only cover up to the reduced market value or customs value rather than its true value?

Is a Defender exempt from Luxury Car Tax?

Apart from trim levels and maybe cold climate pack, are Defenders produced for the Aus market the same as for the UK and therefore would a UK model comply with Aus regulations and therefore not require Registration compliance?

As this is all new to me I would be grateful for advice and recommendations as to the most cost effective way to import my vehicle and would appreciate to hear other member's experiences to help me navigate this minefield.

A few details to help:

Shipping costs:
£1,100.00 Ocean Freight & Export Customs
Insurance (up to 1.8% of FOB) What is FOB?

Import Costs:
$1,900.00 Customs, Quarantine & Port
$775.40 Import Duty
$1,753.90 GST

Registration Costs:
$1,150.00 Compliance
$835.60 Registration
$1,011.84 Stamp Duty

Other Costs:
$50.00 Import Approval Application
$330.00 Australian Customs vehicle valuation
$990.00 Iron Lady Imports fee ('A' Package)

The vehicle:
It's a Defender 90 2.2 Tdci 2015 in Montalcino Red with Black Pack
Premium upgrades pretty much throughout, premium seats, sunroof, cold climate pack, air con etc. (including carpets throughout that Aussie Defenders don't seem to have!)
Additional mods include: soft A bar, roof rack, BAS Autobiography remap, Momo steering wheel, LED lights and headlights, NAS tow step, KBX grill/vent set.

I've owned and driven it for the last 14 months.
UK value? I honestly don't know but would appreciate some guidance on that.

Anyway, I look forward to your responses and hope you can enlighten me.

Cheers

Russ 2015 90 XS CSW TDCi - Beautiful
2007 110 XS DCPU - An itch that needed scratching
2005 90 Td5 XS CSW - Utterly brilliant
2001 Discovery 2 ES Auto - A phase I went through
1996 90 Tdi CSW - Uber reliable
1989 90 2.5 Petrol Hardtop - My first proper Landy
1985 Range Rover Vogue V8 -Troublesome

Wow, best part of $10k to import, that's not a cheap exercise! Have you looked at Aussie dealers to see if it might be cheaper/easier to buy a new (second hand) one in Oz? James
MY2012 110 2.2TDCi XS SW Orkney Grey - http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic43410.html
MY1990 110 200TDi SW beautifully faded Portofino Red - https://www.defender2.net/forum/post743641.html#743641
MY1984 90 V8 Slate Grey - https://www.defender2.net/forum/post744557.html#744557
Instagram @suffolk_rovers

FOB is an incoterm for shipping. Free On Board (FOB) Use of this rule is restricted to goods transported by sea or inland waterway. In practice it should be used for situations where the seller has direct access to the vessel for loading, e.g. bulk cargos or non-containerised goods. For containerised goods, consider “Free Carrier FCA” instead.
I think they are suggesting that your insurance will be 1.8% of the declared value at shipping. So $500 or so. 1995 Defender 110 CSW
1971 SIIA Lightweight

I have done this. This is not straight forward.

Firstly are you moving to Australia? Do you have residency/citizenship or are you on a long term skilled work type visa (457etc) or are you an Aussie moving back?

Before you do anything else you have to get Import approval from the relevant people here to be able to bring it over.

https://infrastructure.gov.au/vehicles/imports/

If it gets here without the relevant import approvals from the Aus Government it will likely be impounded/returned at cost to you. Don't even consider shipping it without this

I put the true value on my import paperwork. Customs then decided to use their own value which was about half what i put as a value. Don't even consider putting a fake / low value on the paperwork.

LCT will depends on what value they put on it, but Defenders new here didn't attract this so its very unlikely you would be hit with this

If you meet the very strict rules for bringing it in. Ie prove ownership and use for the last 12 months, and they grant approval which they may not (especially if you are on a 457 type visa) the car will then need to be engineered and complianced for the state into which you are moving

Defenders are pretty good in terms of needing many modifications to meet the rules here. On mine (2001) the glass, seatbelts and so on all met the regulations here. Lights were obviously correct as well. Speedo should be KM but they let mine through as it had both on the scale

I will see if I can find all my paperwork shortly and give you more specifics on what this cost me in 2007

They have slightly changed the rules recently to relax them in certain conditions but I believe that only applies for cars up to 12mnths old 2001 90 HT 6.0LS/Auto
2014 90 XS SW 2.2

Thanks for the replies so far, much appreciated.

Quote:

Firstly are you moving to Australia? Do you have residency/citizenship or are you on a long term skilled work type visa (457etc) or are you an Aussie moving back?

Yes, 457 is on the way, sponsorship visa is approved and a labour agreement is in place

Having checked all the personal and vehicle ownership requirements I qualify on all of them so should be good to go on that score.

Good advice about declaring the true value if not just for insurance purposes. Good news about LCT

I think the next step, once the 457 comes through, is to make the application and then figure out shipping.

I'll post up the progress but if anyone has any tips or recommendations in the meantime, please feel free to share. 2015 90 XS CSW TDCi - Beautiful
2007 110 XS DCPU - An itch that needed scratching
2005 90 Td5 XS CSW - Utterly brilliant
2001 Discovery 2 ES Auto - A phase I went through
1996 90 Tdi CSW - Uber reliable
1989 90 2.5 Petrol Hardtop - My first proper Landy
1985 Range Rover Vogue V8 -Troublesome

Hey, mate.

Found your post and was wondering how you went with this. I'm hoping to import a 110 Utility Wagon myself (one I don't currently own) and thought I'd get your insight

@abbztract if you don't own the vehicle then I'm not sure you have a route to import it. First thing is that you need an import approval for the vehicle from Dept of Infrastructure (Vehicle Import section) and a cargo agent won't do anything without one (my experience anyway); if by some means you got the vehicle on a boat and it arrived in Australia without a vehicle import approval then it would be stored (at your expense) whilst things were sorted out.

My understanding is that there's three routes to an approval; SEVS, RAWS and the Personal Import scheme (I've successfully done the latter and investigated the other two). SEVS is based on a list of vehicles that were never approved for general import into Australia by the manufacturer though some may have come on low volume imports when new (Lamborghini for example) whilst RAWS is for low volume import of specific vehicles by a registered workshop where the workshop is approved for that specific vehicle; they are limited to 100 or so per year and basically they source a vehicle overseas, arrange shipping, check compliance when it arrives, register and then typically sell it (Japan is a popular source). They may import your vehicle but will charge a fee over and above the other costs (I was quoted $5000 for the compliance check 5-6 years ago by one).

The problem you have is that Land Rover doesn't appear on the current SEVS list (http://rvcs-prodweb.dot.gov.au/sevs/sevsindex.htm and https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/vehicles...09-20.pdf) nor is there a RAWS workshop listed that does Land Rover's (see http://raws.infrastructure.gov.au/rawswebp...#results).

Personal Import option is only available to Australians or migrants who've bought the vehicle overseas, lived overseas for >12 months and have used that vehicle; that's the easiest route if you qualify (one I've used).

Net is that I don't think you have an import option other than follow the advice on the DoI website (https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/vehicles/imports/) to call around a few RAWS workshops that import similar vehicles and see whether they'd be prepared to do the paperwork to take on a Land Rover - depends on whether they see a business opportunity in buying Defenders cheap overseas, importing them and selling them here at a profit.

(The above is my interpretation/understanding and bear in mind I'm not an expert ...)

just as a fyi, when i moved here 15 years ago (yes another pom) we were informed as we were coming on
a 457 temporary Visa we were not allowed to import our Discovery series 2.. If we had come on a permanent
skilled workers visa or a returning Australian citizen/resident, we would have been okay.., i believe the 457 has
been replaced by the 482 visa, may be worth checking if the rules have changed..


Click image to enlarge yet another pommie bar steward down under

MY20 110 P400 SE Defender
MY10 3.0 RR Sport

@andyh What did you import? I'm working through a potential pathway at the moment except I have to make sure that the vehicle I import meets certain criteria. Is your a Puma series Defender? If so, could you do me a massive favor by telling me what your VIN is? I'm trying to compare a UK-sold Defender VIN to a locally-sold Defender Vin to identify any difference in the specs and see if this will be successful.

Hi Guys,

Looking at importing a '96 Defender 90 under the 25 year and older rule.

Have any of you had any experience with this? What are pitfalls you experienced?

Thanks in advance.