Importing my 2001 BMW 530i Sport

[richard300]

Hi, myself, my wife and our 2 young children are beggining the first stages of our planning and neccesary paperwork with an aim to emigrate to perth.

I was just wondering when it comes to 'cars' is it worth me looking into shipping my 2001 BMW 530i Sport to Australia?

I ask this, as someone told me that buying used European cars in Australia is very expensive, so picking up the same kind of car in Perth might be more expensive than my shipping my car over there.

Anyone know the proceedures and projected costs for doing so?


I have to say that one of the very first things i plan to do in Australia is buy myself an old V8 Holden or Falcon BUT i would still like something European.

[SGOxon]

Hi Richard, there are quite a few threads on here that you ought to look at; importing a car into Australia is a 'sticky' and always remains at the top of the Australia page, for prices for your BMW, check out carsales.com.au I am in the process of importing my 1989 Porsche 911 and all I can say is that you need to do the research. There is a lot of great expertise on here and there is no substitute for investing some time to go through it all. In my experience, dealing with the Aussie authorities is quite bureaucratic. That could be because I am on a temporary visa, whereas if I was on another visa type, that may have opened up other doors.

As a general rule of thumb, Euro cars are indeed more expensive, so it may well be worth it. You know what your car is worth in the UK, and after checking out carsales you'll know how much it will be worth there. Once you get your head around the costs of importing from the threads on here, you will be able to do the sums and see if it is worth it.

PS Are you sure about the Holden, or just being polite?!

[richard300]

Thanks for the reply... i'll do more online research.

Having looked on the website it would appear that a nice 2001 530i Sport with similar mileage would cost me $12000 (£8250) In this country i would be looking at selling it for £2400 ($3478).

However - i guess i have to take into account that if my car was over there and advertised for sale, it may not be worth £12000 - as it would be an import model?

I will investigate the costs and legal aspects - as i was hoping to get into the business (as a sideline/hobby) of importing Jaguars and BMW's from the 80's and 90's over to Australia for resale. And i thought i would dip my toe in the water with my own car....

[ariddell]

Probably wouldn't bother personally based on those sorts of figures unless you are hugely attached to the BMW and want to keep it.

Any profit is going to be pretty small for the hassle of doing the import.

If it was an M5 it would probably be different, but your average Aussie 530i buyer I suspect would be likely put off my it being an import, more on the aspirational outer suburbia kind of purchaser's wish list here than an enthusiast choice given the small by Aussie standards engine.