Anyone shipped a car from U.K. to U.S. ?

Hi, i am thinking about shipping my car from London to the States..well to NY and plan to drive it to CA..want to travel across the country and thought this might be a great idea.

The car is LHD Honda , its an Import from Ausrtia so does not have UK specs per say.

Exploring at this point really...just wondering how much $$ it might cost ? I wouldnt mind a cheap on deck type transport, ( i.e. not in a container..whatever is cheaper).

Any pointers much appreciated.

Cheers
Zu

Hiya

I did it the other way an imported a Ford F150 from the US to the UK, but generally speaking, you'll be able to ship from here to the US without too much fuss. Pricing wise, I think you'll pay approximately the same US>UK and UK>US, things like shipping in a open container, sealed container, amount of insurance, timings, handling etc is what will make the difference.

We shipped the F150 from Texas, it cost us £1250 (ish) in an open container, I think a sealed one was at least about £200 more, seeing as we had full insurance etc, we just opted for the cheaper option, subsequently, we 'should' have gone for sealed as the truck was Filthy when it arrived but thankfully completely undamaged which according to sources is quite rare!

From what you've said, are you permanently taking the car out of the UK? if so, you'll need to inform DVLA and complete the appropriate paperwork etc. Also, are you planiing on keeping it in the USA? if so, you'll need to find out if it's US road spec legal - and from my enquiries, the US is a bit backwards when it comes to importing cars into it's borders - a lot of red tape and stupid requirements basically, if your Honda doesn't meet the criteria, then it's pretty much pointless taking it over. You need to take into account making the car US road legal (headlamp beams and patterns, rear lights & indicators/blinkers, bumpers etc)

If you are just doing a temprorary thing, then you'll need to do the basic stuff above and check for individual states you'll drive through local requirements. Check that the car can also run on much lower grade unleaded petrol - UK has a minimum of 95 RON octane petrol and the US I think it's lowest grade is 89 RON and the highest is 93 RON - Octane boosters may help - otherwise if you're car cannot handle lower grades, it'll be pointless to take it.

there's probably more, but the above is most of it-

Hope it helps!
Dennis! West London & Slough UK!

Thanks Dennis..

I have  lot of sorting out to do...I am hoping London to NY wont be as expensive as your trip..the other bummer is that i would probably need to register the car at point of entry before i can drive it cross country.

It would be a permanant move for the car , we are planning to drive it from NY to CA and  leave the car in CA. We do have family in NY so perhaps registering it there wont be a big problem...although i dont know how it will work out if we are going to drive to CA..not sure what the down time (red tape) would be like.
Yea i would need to see what the specs for importing our " Austrian honda " would be.

Thanks for the headsup!

We shipped the F150 from Texas, it cost us £1250 (ish) in an open container,

Wow... i'm surprised at how cheap it is to do that!  I thought it would be a lot more!

Is there no import duty?  I would have expected there to be some (a lot) when importing to the UK, if not the other way around.

Hi elyl

Yes, there is 10% import duty to pay on the GBP value of the purchase price. On top of that, there's also VAT to pay. The Truck in US dollars in 2003 was an absolute steal for it only being 9 months old! but landed here in the UK the taxes and costs soon added on a large chunk of costs!

As the OP is asking to 'export' out of the UK then of course there's no import duty to pay here, but rather when it lands in the US an equivalent tax undoubtedly be applied. There are exemptions etc - I've only breifly looked at 'sending' cars from the UK to the US and that was a couple years ago now so things may have changed etc.

Q-G, that price is from memory, and it was in June 04 that it was shipped, I can't remember if it was shipped from a port in Texas or if the frieght/shipping co. picked it up from the Dallas dealership and transported it to further on the East coast somewhere in order to ship it. I guess nowadays the price wouldl be anywhere from 10-30% higher than 2004! but I think weight is the most expensive element and then size dimensions etc. So shipping containers around the world isn't 'really' that expensive as such.

Cheers! Dennis! West London & Slough UK!

I just shipped a car from the UK to Chicago in a container. I paid a small amount of tax when I plated and registered it. If the car is 5 years or older there wouldnt have been any tax. I dont know how you would go about w/registering it in NY. Give me a day and I will get you a price from my shippers for your car.

Cicero_Jc

Thanks..that would be a great help.

For the record my car is 1990 Honda Civic , its got 45K original miles and drives like new. Its s 3-door hatchback...so i guess i would not need to pay the tax then eh ? Also, one other note is that it was passed on from family...dont know if that will have any bearing on VAT or other fees.

Thanks for the update Denice the Menace..

Cheers
Zu

Just a thought, but wouldn't it be simpler for you to just BUY a car in the States? You ought to get quite the deal for $2500--if not even a whole lot less! Would save you quite the hassle as well.

Coffeebean-

Yes but this is why i want to find out, depending on the shipping fee, wether it would be worth it or not..Low miles like that on a HONDA costs between $4,000-$4,500 where i come from (CA). We got the car as a gift from a family member so we did not actually purchase it.

Cheers

I just recieved this from my shippers:

Please note that the export from Felixstowe port to NY port is:
 
Freight port to port: £1659.00 all in**
 
**inclusive of Freight, THC, Docs, export customs entry UK, BAF, CAF, AMS, CUC and Fuel surcherge.
 
Proof of ownership will be required.

Let me know if that works.

Thanks heaps for that speedy heads up..I guess its what i suspected, that will be over $3,000, which would not be worth it then, in our case.

Just curious though, is this in container or out of container ? Do you think there might be any other way to do it cheaper than £1,659 ?

thanks again

Just curious though, is this in container or out of container ? Do you think there might be any other way to do it cheaper than £1,659 ?

thanks again

That price was for a 20ft container. I am unaware of any other method. Maybe there is some sort of drive on ferry between Europe and the east coast. My guess is it would be out of Rotterdam.
Goodluck

i see..ok thanks again

Hiya,

I forgot to mention in an earlier post, and it's turned out what I sort of suspected anyway..  the 'usual' reasons of shipping a car INTO the US is becuase it's a special or particularly sought after car. This usually means things like top end BMW's, Mercedes, Ferrari's, Maserati's etc as well as sought after classic cars etc.

'Normal' cars are just not taken into the US, the costs involved usually dont stack up against the value of the car and then there's the whole ensuring it's US road legal spec thing.

Unless you have deep pockets or are particularly sentimental about the motor, sounds like you'll need to leave it here - could you not re-present it back to your family member?!

Anyway..  Good luck !

DtM! West London & Slough UK!