Can You Import A 964 / 993

[Steve88]

Hey guys just a quick one as i thought i may tap into the wealth of knowledge on the site . Can you import a 964 / 993 from OS into AUS . 

My general understanding is that it has to be pre FEB 90  ( build date). My family has imported 5 cars in the past but they have all been between 65-69 so it really doesn't help 

964 would be my ideal import . I do see heaps of HK cars and other asian imports always marked as a personal import . Does this mean the seller or a past seller has resided in that country for year of long period in order for them to bring it over ? Even so imports like this are not guaranteed as they have to be approved , is this correct?

Just fishing around here as 964 prices have exceeded my budget for the short term and they don't seem to be calming down anytime soon .

If anyone has any experience in bringing in these later models please chime in and let me know what you think , how you have done it ect. Any info as always appreciated . Steve

 

[DYBPK]

Your understanding is right.

Personal imports for post 89 cars must have been in the possession of the owner for a set period (12 months I think) and that owner must be able to demonstrate that the car was theirs while they were living there. .

If you want to import a car without owning it first in the country of importation, then it has to be pre 1990.

Of course that assumes you want to register it. You may just want to track it. I recall a certain QC who owned a RHD 964 RS a few years ago that could not be registered in Australian and was being sold for less that $90K.

[Claywong]

I think this is why the 964's and 993's are valued so highly here in Australia when compared to overseas

[Coastr]

Your understanding is right.

Personal imports for post 89 cars must have been in the possession of the owner for a set period (12 months I think) and that owner must be able to demonstrate that the car was theirs while they were living there. .

If you want to import a car without owning it first in the country of importation, then it has to be pre 1990.

Of course that assumes you want to register it. You may just want to track it. I recall a certain QC who owned a RHD 964 RS a few years ago that could not be registered in Australian and was being sold for less that $90K.

Yes.  To be precise, manufactured before 1 Jan 1989, not just pre 1990.  So no tasty 1989 3.2s either.

I think this is why the 964's and 993's are valued so highly here in Australia when compared to overseas

Yes...the price difference to 993s in the US and UK is nuts.

 

In general, if it is registered, it should have a yellow personal import sticker affixed to it somewhere obvious, and this has to have the matching VIN. It may also have a modification plate for fitment of things like child restraints.  If it has been in the country for much longer (e.g. US/UK imports from the 70s and 80s) it will just have no Australian compliance plate and no import sticker.  Basically if it's already registered you'd be fine as I don't think I have ever heard of a car being de-registered once they are on the road.  However, if you were blatantly breaking the law by driving a car brought in for off-road use then you'd risk serious fines.  Cars brought in under the personal import rules have to have the documetnation kept by the owner (even if sold to a new owner) for 5 years after importation date.

But you're out of luck if you have seen a 964 or 993 on a foreign auction site.  There's no way around the rules unless the government changes the laws.  They should, of course, but will they? Who knows.

[Beaker]

Having done this with my 928, yes I can confirm what has been said above.  At the moment, if you're living here in Oz it will need to be manufactured before 1 January 1989.  It's treated as a classic car and as such it's no real threat to the Australian manufacturing .....

However the government no longer requires a yellow plate to be fitted to vehicles bought in under these rules.

If you want to bring in something newer, then you can only do it under either the SEVS scheme or as a personal import.

SEVS covers things like the Skylines where it has to go through a registered workshop that has compliance approval for that specific vehicle type, so workshops that can comply skylines can't do other types like the Porsche.  Car bought in under this scheme will have a green SEVS plate / sticker fitted in the engine bay.

Under the Personal Import scheme, you have to live outside Australia for at least 12 months, have owned the said vehicle for 12 months and have evidence that you have used it during this period.  It's quite difficult, and it's designed to make it difficult for us to do this, again to protect the Australian manufacturing.  Car coming in under this scheme will still have the yellow plate / sticker fitted.

However, with the announced withdrawl of GM / Ford and Toyota from local manufacturing, the above schemes are all under current review.  The last I heard through the guy used to import mine, is that the government is seriously considering allowing personal importation of cars 5 years and younger under a scheme that is very similar to the current pre 1989 scheme.  That is, as longs as it meets the relevant ADRs then it's OK.  Again this is all under consideration by the relevant federal body and governments tend to work slow on these things.  Dunno what it means for cars in the 1989 - 2012 year gap, I'm hearing that these will still be excluded. 

But if you're prepared to wait, think of the possibilities.....

[turboT]

Looked into this extensively earlier this year. Came to the conclusion that the only loop hole would be to re-engage with all my Aussi mates who have left to work overseas, buy them all a Porsche, and get them to 'gift' me the cars on their return

 

[Coastr]

The yellow plates are for personal import scheme vehicles.  Pre 1989 cars are a different process, I don't think they get a yellow plate.

[ByronBayChris]

Mine is a 72 on full qld reg and has no yellow or blue plates attached. Imported last year

[ANF]

I thought that the original intention was to allow cars 30 years and older - when we get to 2019, the cutoff year would increase by 1 every year? (1989 was chosen for some reason to start with)

[Beaker]

I thought that the original intention was to allow cars 30 years and older - when we get to 2019, the cutoff year would increase by 1 every year? (1989 was chosen for some reason to start with)

Yes it was.  1989 was chosen at the time as that was the date which corresponded to the then existing 15 year rule which was being changed.  The plan was to increase the date to a thirty year rule once 1 January 1989 became a 30 years elapsed.  But that was made with assumption of Australian manufacturing.

Looked into this extensively earlier this year. Came to the conclusion that the only loop hole would be to re-engage with all my Aussi mates who have left to work overseas, buy them all a Porsche, and get them to 'gift' me the cars on their return 

Yes this is probably the only way to get around it, but I'm pretty sure they don't have to return to Australia with it.  Legally I believe an ex-pat can import to Australia one car per year as long as they have been over seas with it for at least 12 months.  I believe coming back to live in oz with it is optional.

[poli84]

 

However, with the announced withdrawl of GM / Ford and Toyota from local manufacturing, the above schemes are all under current review.  The last I heard through the guy used to import mine, is that the government is seriously considering allowing personal importation of cars 5 years and younger under a scheme that is very similar to the current pre 1989 scheme.  That is, as longs as it meets the relevant ADRs then it's OK.  Again this is all under consideration by the relevant federal body and governments tend to work slow on these things.  Dunno what it means for cars in the 1989 - 2012 year gap, I'm hearing that these will still be excluded. 

But if you're prepared to wait, think of the possibilities.....

Not going to happen. The current consideration by the ex Minister Briggs was the personal importation of new vehicles only. This would mean a vehicle that is less than 12 months old and less than 500kms from UK, HK and Japan only, 1 allowed per person every 24 months. This was the recommendation through the Motor Vehicle Standards Act Review however, with the departure of Minister Briggs (who seemed to be only one of a few keen on this rule change), it is unsure whether it will still be signed off. 

[Norm]

This is extremely frustrating and did nothing to help local manufacturing.  Holden and Ford did a good enough job of putting themselves out of business without any competition from overseas.  

What it means is a relatively small number of enthusiasts are paying a lot for classic cars. 

[MFX]

Most of the current owners of 964's and 993's wouldn't want this to change either, as the value of their cars would drop to balance the market. The same thing happened with local R32 GTRs and 300ZXs when they began importing them. There would still be a premium for Aus delivery but only to an extent. 

[Coastr]

Yes it was.  1989 was chosen at the time as that was the date which corresponded to the then existing 15 year rule which was being changed.  The plan was to increase the date to a thirty year rule once 1 January 1989 became a 30 years elapsed.  But that was made with assumption of Australian manufacturing.

Yes this is probably the only way to get around it, but I'm pretty sure they don't have to return to Australia with it.  Legally I believe an ex-pat can import to Australia one car per year as long as they have been over seas with it for at least 12 months.  I believe coming back to live in oz with it is optional.

You do have to supply travel details with the importation to show you're arriving within a coo-ee of the car.

Easily fixed though - if you plan the whole thing then you have to add the cost of an airfare on top.

It is the only way around, and pretty easy to do if you have a trusted friend/relative.  In fact I bet a big chunk of personal imports are of this variety.  Why, I might even know of one myself.

Not going to happen. The current consideration by the ex Minister Briggs was the personal importation of new vehicles only. This would mean a vehicle that is less than 12 months old and less than 500kms from UK, HK and Japan only, 1 allowed per person every 24 months. This was the recommendation through the Motor Vehicle Standards Act Review however, with the departure of Minister Briggs (who seemed to be only one of a few keen on this rule change), it is unsure whether it will still be signed off. 

We wouldn't expect anyone in Canberra to actually represent the wishes of the people now, would we?

Number of Australians disadvantaged by allowing in more personal imports without 12 months ownership : 0

Number of Australians advantages by allowing in more personal imports without 12 months ownership : x0,000+

As always, the Government is hell bent on saving Australians from the scourge of cheaper cars, cheaper energy, cheaper parts, cheaper anything.

[Mike-S]

I brought 2 cars in when we emigrated here from the UK 4 years ago, my 2005 Range Rover Sport and my wife's 1979 Trimph Spitfire. As I recall, you can only bring in one car every 5 years (used to be one a year) and Canberra certainly don't make it easy. Having said that and gone through it twice, if you're methodical it's actually quite straightforward, the hardest part is finding a genuine engineer to sign off the VASS certificates who isn't just into it to make a load of money for doing nothing. I spent ages talking to a few local ones when I arrived here, luckily finding one who wasn't completely out to milk it, albeit he did leap straight into the back of the Ranga looking for the child restraints as "all your European cars don't have them, we'll have to weld them into the floor for the certification", he looked a bit pissed off when I pointed them out to him (mine is a worldwide spec car). At the time they knew of a chap in Melb who had brought in an Aston Martin Vanquish and was $20k down and counting, having work done to make it comply. Sounded to me like an engineer having a lend of a customer to be honest, I'm pretty sure Aston spent more than that making them safe in the first place...

Having said that, when I first spoke to him about the Spitfire, we had it coming in on the pre-89 permit despite owning it for over 20 years. He was instantly mortified, said I should change the permit to the personal import permit, so despite the fact it was already at the docks in Melbourne, I re-applied and got the permit changed in a couple of days and for that bit of advice I was incredibly grateful. The rules are that under the pre-89 permit the car has to meet the ADR's applicable to the year the car was built, which for the Spit meant it needed door bars installing and had to meet emissions rules. The emissions would've been near on impossible to meet, certainly several thousand dollars of work and as I'd literally just finished a 4 year restoration of the car before putting it in the container, I wasn't up for cutting holes in the doors to fit bars that quite frankly would be a joke, bearing in mind the rest of the car would fold in that kind of accident. He spent quite a lot of time going through the rules with me for each car, advising me on the "classic car friendly" RWC inspector locally and generally being helpful, I wouldn't hesitate really to use them again. 

The ridiculous part with the doors was I could buy an old set from the US (which had bars as standard), fit them for the test, take them off once I had the certificate and put the old doors back on. By bringing it in on the personal import permit his words were "you've owned the car for so long that essentially, you've accepted it's failings in regards to the ADR's so they don't apply".

For him to sign off the VASS certificate was $250 per car. Took them less than 15 minutes to inspect and sign them off, once I turned up with the RWC basically it was check and note down the numbers of the seat belts and windows, check the engine and chassis numbers matched the import paperwork and sign the documents. Send one copy off to Niddries for the yellow plate sticker for the bulkhead and off to VicRoads once I had that to get them registered. I'd do it again, but think carefully with the change in the exchange rate in the last few months.

Last time I looked into it, the rules may have been up for change but it wasn't much use, car had to be less than 12 months old and 2000km on the clock.