Importing a car from the US

Jano

Jano

Jano

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I wondered if anyone had any experience of this? I know there are a few US cars being driven by people on the forum but no idea if they actually imported them. Long story short the girlfriend is looking into the new Mustang. While I know they are going to be available here, she could get one in the US relatively easily and would not have to pay the cost of shipping one over, only importation, duties and whatever else there is to make it road legal. I've read if she gets the car and keeps it in the states for 6 months, then brings it over here and keeps it for over a year, she doesn't have to pay tax, does anyone know if that's correct still? The information I've been able to find is relatively old.

She's totally fine with it being left hand drive, it's literally just down to working out if its worth the faff of getting it over, and if it works out cheaper to get one over there rather than here.
 
Make sure she's set on the LH drive thing. It's all well and good saying "oh, it's fine", but actually using that day-in day-out might end up being inconvenient.
 
Yea I know, but she is a woman after all. She's had plenty of experience driving both here and abroad in a LHD car and her commute is tiny, literally 2 miles a day in total. As long as she likes the car she'll keep it, she's had her current car for 9 years and this is the only car, other than a VXR (which I've talking her out of as it's a terrible car), that she would even consider changing to.

From what I can tell the savings are pretty big, she thinks on the US configuring tool she can get the spec she wants for under $30000, this is the V8 version so it's high spec. The equivalent one here would be around £37000, so even if she had to pay tax on top it's still a lot cheaper.
 
The price on the US site is before sales tax, which you'll have to pay.

Shipping a car over is also reasonably expensive - unless she is US military how is she getting it done for free?
 
Her dad is a pilot and gets one free large container shipped over a year, so the shipping isn't an issue apparently.
 
You'll still be hit with hefty charge - 10% duty on the purchase price and shipping costs, and then 25% VAT on the price and duty - when it lands. Then, say, £1k to get the lights properly sorted, it MOT'd and registered. Hefty chunk of change.

Add 30% of the list price to the total cost of the vehicle and you'll probably be in the ballpark. I believe the six month ownership (and then a year in the UK) for exemption is still valid, though.

Funnily enough Mike Brewer (at least not that I've noticed) never mentions the import charges - just the shipping costs. Only a few things are exempt, too:

Customs has issued a Public Notice, from which the text below is taken:

Motor Vehicles of Historical Interest:
(Tariff Notice 05/2005)
Please note: The Revenue and Customs classification category is not the same as the DVLA historic vehicle taxation class, which includes any vehicle constructed before 1 January 1973

"Certain criteria has to be met for a motor vehicle to qualify under 9705 'Goods of Historical Interest', which means that vehicles are eligible for exemption from Customs duty and have to pay just 5% VAT. Motor Vehicles manufactured pre-1950 are automatically classified."
Click to expand...

Basically it has to be pre-1950 or of particular note to be exempt - i.e. a rare model. Not sure how much flexibility there is in that definition, mind :)
 
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I "think" (man maths alert) that all in it would probably cost her around £30k, which is still substantially cheaper than buying one here ($30000, exchange rate of 1.5, plus the duty and vat, then any modifications to make it road legal here)? It would potentially be bought outright over there and she would pay her dad back. This is obviously all potential figures here and it may be that what she wants may be more or less than she's expecting, and then she hasn't even driven the car yet and might hate it... I've also been telling her it may be worth her while looking into any options you can get over there that you won't be able to get on the car here, although I'm not sure there is any.
 
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