importing prado to australia

[Bzuko86 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Bzuko86]

looking to buy my first Prado '90 series turbo diesel'.
searching through many Australian online car sales for this particular model is slim pickings :P
so which it brought me to some Japanese car auctions websites, i have a few questions about doing so

1, has anyone done it before?
2, what things have to be changed for compliance?
3, should i go through a middle man, or am i able to do this "online" shopping myself"


loving the site, one of which is right down my alley lol and plenty of thanks in advance cheers

[dereki Member Find all posts View Profile Close dereki]

Re: importing prado to australia

some years ago I imported some cars. The rules may have changed. I imported cars that had never been sold in aus so had special rules.

My vague memory so please verify.

Because the Prado 90 series was sold in Aus it won't be on the list of small volume imports. This means unless you have owned the car (registered) in another country for 12 months or so import duty on the Australian value of the car will need to be paid. Not what you paid for it over seas. Compliance centers are used to dealing with the cars on the import list so may not know how or have parts to help convert the prado. Things that usually need replacing are headlights, possibly bullbars/nudge bars, tow bars and if your unlucky safety things like seat belts, wing mirrors.

The other annoyance is air conditioning gas. To import a car with gas in it you need some sort of gas importing license.
Then you have to deal with Quarantine. The car will have to be as clean as a new car. Any dirt in a chassis rail and it will fail, or even a single seed in the radiator. Not the end of the world but it will cost to get it cleaned to spec.

It was too hard for me so I used a middle man, and unless the car was on the import list, it was uneconomical; even though I could get the cars for almost nothing.

Like I said, things may have changed now. Give a middle man a ring, they will know the answer straight away.

D

[Bzuko86 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Bzuko86]

Re: importing prado to australia

sorry for the late reply,

cheers heaps dereki for the info, i will most likely ask n go through the middle man, sounds like less hassles and headaches that way hahaha 8)

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

Re: importing prado to australia

Where are you? There's a few good 90s out there if you look hard enough. My own brother is trying to sell his t/diesel 2000/2001 manual having purchased a new 150 GXL. You can even find a few that have never been off-road.