Thread: Car import rules to be relaxed from 2018

Need the Australian dollar to heal up a little, but a great plan. May order my MY18 Defender direct from Land Rover!

Originally Posted by Avion8

Need the Australian dollar to heal up a little, but a great plan. May order my MY18 Defender direct from Land Rover!

Unlikely to be a Defender in 2018, or at least not as we know it!

But at least it will mean that the current 1989 cut-off for imported classics will now become a rolling 25 year age limit.

Originally Posted by Avion8

Need the Australian dollar to heal up a little, but a great plan. May order my MY18 Defender direct from Land Rover!

Although technically possible I doubt the dealers would allow it, try buying a Harley or Goldwing from the U.S.A., where both are half of the Australian prices.

I assume the buyer would have to pay the cost of actually shipping the vehicle to Australia, getting through quarantine etc, which could easily exceed $5000. And what about ADR approval? Would the vehicle be legally registerable?

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Unlikely to be a Defender in 2018, or at least not as we know it!

Maybe is possibility of a new look alike of present Defender being available in 2018 with sanctions against Iran apparently being lifted. See www.morattab.ir There is now a diesel Morattab Herour, which should be a better proposition than the Morattab Pazhan with a Hyundai V6 petrol motor. Would have to check if they make them in right hand drive and what may have to be done to them to comply with Australian design rules. Maybe needs someone to send them a message of encouragement to get their website properly organised and have a native English speaker tidy up the final English language version.


Morattab has been producing Land Rover look alikes in Iran for many years. This was apparently done with help from Santana in Spain, which produced Land Rovers under licence. Santana has more recently been closed down due to recession. Earlier they produced the PS10 models, which could be described as something like a Series 4 - without coil springs or constant 4WD. Then this was replaced by Iveco Massif, of which sales were apparently disappointing.

The new proposed laws would mean that new vehicles which are compliant with UK or Japanese standards would be compliant here. No special Australian compliance plates needed anymore.

But how do you buy a new car in the UK? I haven't been able to find a "tax free export" dealer advertising Land Rover's in the UK, but there is a dealer offering this for Jags, so I can't see why not LR too.

Watford Jaguar Tax-Free Sales - Home

Tax Free means the 20% UK VAT is not payable. They build the car to your specification. So right hand drive, whichever market spec you want.

In the past these Tax Free Export sales guys had big disclaimers on their site saying "not available for sales to Australia" but it's not there now.

The warranty seems to be covered too, as per the Watford site;

All new Jaguar's come complete with the following After Sales benefits:
? Global 3-year unlimited mileage warranty
? Overseas support available through the International Jaguar dealer network.

So now, it's a matter of checking out if it's worth doing it or not...

Let's pick the new Range Rover Sport SVR as an example.

In Australia they are $245k new, excluding on road costs
In the UK they are ?78,941.67 excluding 20% VAT and on-roads.
At todays rates that's $162k

And as for shipping and import costs, have a look at this calculator tool LCT and Customs Duty Calculator for $162k Luxury Vehicle Import to Australia

Which shows an SVR being $230k "landed"

So in reality it's $15k more expensive here, on a vehicle that costs well past $200k it's not a huge amount really, especially considering there is $40k extra in LCT... I think you could knock $15k off the sticker price at a LR dealer here on a car like that. So it might not actually be worth the bother.

Other brands/models have much bigger price discrepancies though. The difference on a new Jag XJR works out at around $75k, Mercs, Porsches, similar numbers.

I think being able to import will be more useful than actually importing, gives you some leverage on the price of a locally delivered new car.

Originally Posted by Cambo351

The new proposed laws would mean that new vehicles which are compliant with UK or Japanese standards would be compliant here. No special Australian compliance plates needed anymore.

But how do you buy a new car in the UK? I haven't been able to find a "tax free export" dealer advertising Land Rover's in the UK, but there is a dealer offering this for Jags, so I can't see why not LR too.

Watford Jaguar Tax-Free Sales - Home

Tax Free means the 20% UK VAT is not payable. They build the car to your specification. So right hand drive, whichever market spec you want.

In the past these Tax Free Export sales guys had big disclaimers on their site saying "not available for sales to Australia" but it's not there now.

...<snip>.

It's a bit premature to be advertising export to Australia, given that the scheme will only change in 2018 when Australia is no longer manufacturing or assembling cars here.

You also need to watch that both GST and Luxury Car Tax will be payable in Australia as well as other import and inspection fees.

Originally Posted by mox

Maybe is possibility of a ....

Morattab has been producing Land Rover look alikes in Iran for many years. This was apparently done with help from Santana in Spain, which produced Land Rovers under licence. Santana has more recently been closed down due to recession. Earlier they produced the PS10 models, which could be described as something like a Series 4 - without coil springs or constant 4WD. Then this was replaced by Iveco Massif, of which sales were apparently disappointing.

Just like Santana in Spain, in Iran they were a Land Rover assembly plant which moved onto building under licence.

You could suggest it was similar to PMC using genuine UK and local manufactured parts.

The net result is that the Morattab have a direct lineage to the pre-Defender name Land Rover.