Turner heads - import warning
Hi All,
I went down the Turner Eng. 'performance' head path early this year. No problems with the quality of the head and associated parts. The thing to watch out for is being VERY heavily stung by Customs when it gets here!
I ordered the performance head along with a new set of head bolts and gasket. The total came to just over A$1000, where GST kicks in for imported orders. I wasn't too concerned about having to fork out ~$100 for GST. What I wasn't prepared for is the total kicking you get from Customs and DHL if you exceed the $1000 limit.
The total bill from Customs came to $242 - about 23% on top of the actual costs of the parts and freight. They hit you for 5% Duty on the value of the goods, then 10% GST on the value of the goods + the freight + the Duty (yes, GST is charged on the Customs Duty!) and finally, 50-odd bucks in fixed Customs fees. No wonder the Govt is not too concerned about trying to collect GST on orders under $1000- they more than make up for it stinging silly b*gg*ers like me who just exceed it!
DHL also tried to charge me extra for customs paperwork, over and above the GBP100 quoted for the delivery. They cocked-up notifying me the order had arrived and several times wrongly calculated the Customs fees, so I finally got them to drop their extra charge. But I wouldn't touch them again with a barge pole.
Now, far be it from me to suggest anyone try to circumvent the laws of the land but... Had I ordered the head separately, and a few days apart from, the bolts and gasket set, I may have paid a little more for freight. However, I believe I may have had my two (<$1000) orders both sail through Customs with costing a cent. Others may choose to try this, but I couldn't possibly recommend it.
Our 'Daphne' Discovery is again happily roaming the highways, complete with 'performance' head, rodded radiator, all new hoses, thermostat and new injectors, ready for another 360,000 km or so. Just need to re-tune the fuelling to suit the new head and a little extra boost, using those excellent Tdi Tuning Notes written by the nice bloke at ThermoGuard - Hey, that's me!;)
Ian
