Importing car

[WNTED.1]

Does any one know how much it would cost to bring a car from the States over and get it all road worthy and changing over the steering wheel??

A. is it a waist of time?
B. is it worth it?
C. is it massive trouble?

I'm selling my 350Z and wanting to get a Merc CLK 320 Soft top 2005 i've been looking at the one's here a 2003 would cost around $70K, and a 2005 in the states on e-bay cost's around $20K+ and of course if im going to buy it i be going up there to pick it up.....

ie. eBay Motors: Mercedes-Benz : CLK-Class (item 370048456409 end time May-09-08 18:53:01 PDT)

Any thought's please tell me

Thank you.

[Hemi57]

Ummmm, you are being a bit optimistic and ambitious I feel.

The shipping cost from the US is likely to be the cheapest part of the whole project, about $3,000 via agents that advertise in Unique Cars.

RHD conversion, my guess is that could run towards $20,000, but may be cheaper if you can pick up secondhand parts from a wrecked local car.

Meeting ADRs is an unknown quantity to me but you could PM me and I will provide you with a a couple of Engineers who have done European import compliancies.

It is likely MB will not want to know you with a car that does not have a VIN which they imported so support and parts could be an on-going issue.

I do not know what the current import duties are but they are likely to be a healthy injection of funds to the government.

One route which may be a better option is a car from Japan or Hong Kong. These are RHD but all the other issues will need to be dealt with and you are likely to get a car which smells like an ashtray.

[Aussie300]

Additonally a car that is a private import is always worth around 1/2-2/3rds what a locally delivered car is. MB will not support you with aprts, I know how difficult it si to get a Nissan dealer to talk to you when you have an import, (I have one), so a MB dealer would probably just wipe their hands.

Hope that helps.

[exotica]

hey mate, dont waste your time. It will cost you probably close to $60kAU by the time you finish and yes your car will most likely have no AU support through the dealer network. Your better of buying a clean used second hand one here. Pick them up for $60 odd if you negotiate hard for an SRT8. Yeah the US$25K price tags looks better than our prices here! If we where in the states no doubt ide own two of them and a SuperBee for the price we pay here for a fully optioned SRT8 at $100k

[Benji]

i don't know the exact details but, if it was worth it, everyone would be doing it (300c's are cheaper in the US too)...............get a car and an overseas trip for cheaper that buying the car over here, you'd be crazy not to, sounds like a good idea but.............unfortanately it's not that easy. correct me if i'm wrong.

[WNTED.1]

Well i like to thank every one for opening my eyes here..... The price tag is super good.... but then true.... head aches and ongoing issues, and big $$$ being drawn from me.... probably make me hate the car by the time its ready, might as well just buy one here and start driving straight away....

Thanks every one....

[AIR22]

A & C easy one