THE
WONDERFUL
IMPERIAL OF
OZ

My first stop before any offer was made on the Imp was the R.T.A. (Roads and Traffic Authority). There was no point in going any further if the RTA was going to rain on my parade. I went to their web site and read everything connected with importing a motor vehicle. I read it, re read it then phoned them to make sure that everything I had read was correct. Not satisfied with that I phoned them again and spoke with someone different. Everything I read, everyone I spoke to said the same thing – I could import a 1960 Imperial LeBaron Sedan without having an Australian Compliance plate or having to convert her to right hand drive. I only have to do 3 things to have her registered in NSW.

1. The seatbelts must conform to Australian standards.
2. The headlights must be able to be dipped down and to the left from high beam
   and
   
3. The blinkers must be amber in colour. None of these conditions would prevent me from getting the Imp. (The amber coloured blinkers I will work on those later as I may get away without them)

Next I was off to chat with the Tax man, my favourite person -- NOT. In Australia a couple of years ago our Federal Government introduced what is called a Goods & Services Tax (GST) Just about everything you buy incurs a tax of 10%. What were they going to slug me? The thoughts raced through my head. Well as usual they had good news and they had some bad news for me. In other words what they give with one hand they take with the other. In all their wisdom it was decided that because the vehicle I intended to import was more than 30 years old I didn’t have to pay any import duty on it Yipeeeeeee. However, I had to pay the GST on the purchase price and the shipping costs Booooooooo. Ok I was happy with that -- another hurdle overcome.

Next it was off to Customs to see if I could get a piece of paper with the heading Permission to Import a Motor Vehicle. Here I had to declare a fair bit of info about the vehicle. I emailed off to the owner and requested info such as the VIN number, when the vehicle was last registered and some type of bill of sale. WHAT!!! A %$%#%^$ bill of sale – hang on a sec. They want me to buy it first and then they will consider wether they will issue a Permission to Import Certificate. Well the next question is very obvious, what happens if I buy the vehicle and they don’t issue the certificate? Their answer to that was nudge nudge wink wink don’t worry it will be issued. It was crunch time, I had to either commit to the deal or let it go. No %$^^% way, I SAW IT AND I WANTED IT (and I got it). It was about this time the Aussie dollar was climbing the charts -- go baby go, Up Up UP she went which meant the price of the Imp was costing me less less less. I made the first payment and the owner was happy to write out a receipt in such a way that it was accepted by Customs. I received my Permission to Import a Motor Vehicle. This has to be issued before you start shipping out. Looks like it was all systems go.

While all this was going on I was looking up shippers both here and in the U.S. I also needed the services of a tow company. I asked for quotes from just about every Company I came across and the range of the quotes were very surprising. One shipping Co. quoted me about U.S. $17,000. I emailed back stating that I didn’t want to buy part of his company all I wanted was to ship a car out to Australia. As if I would pay that -- who was he kidding? After much searching over a month or so I narrowed it down to 2 companies. One was located in Los Angeles and the other in Seattle. Both were fair in their prices, offered the same services and were very nice to deal with. The L.A Company was a little cheaper - however, by the time I towed the Imp to L.A the price was about the same. I settled for the Seattle Shippers Millenium Marine Corp. My logic was - they are a lot closer to the seller.

 
The tow guy, Dean who owns Dean’s Towing lived near the seller and was familiar with the dealings of dropping off a vehicle to the Seattle shippers. If something was to go wrong all parties are fairly close to each other. I decided that the Imp would sail from Seattle and that Dean’s Towing would take her there.

By now I had the shipper, the towy, and the Certificate to Import and had paid a third of the Imp’s price. Things were moving along - slow but steady.

As with many quotes there are always extras which have to be figured in. The following are the charges I had to pay to get the Imp from the Shippers holding yard to my driveway. They do not include the Imp’s purchase price, the towing costs, cleaning costs, tyre costs, bank fees and other bits and pieces.

There is a whole lot more involved than most people realise including me.