Need Advice: should we ship our Honda Odyssey to UK?

Thank you so much for all the advice, it's much appreciated.  The military will ship 1 car for us, so the expense of shipping and compliance costs aren't an issue.  I had read somewhere else about the grabby, pinchy thing for tolls, etc - it's a great idea!  My biggest concern has more to do with the vehicle's size than much of anything else. 

On the other hand, there's nothing more thrilling than trying to pass someone on a country road in Cornwall.  You can't see oncoming cars until you're already out on the other side of the road.  Thrilling is the only word for it.   

This was great advice too, thanks!

Hi Yumamom,

The Honda Odyssey isn't 'big' at all, it's the same sort of size as lots of UK similar minivan types. You'll have zero issues with it's physical size in this respect.

It's a bonus the military will ship the car over, and if some time down the line, they'll ship it back, they've paid for the £3000-5000 or so ($4500-7500 USD) it would've cost you!

When you drive left hand drive in the UK, the quote you've got there from Transpondia is actually incorrect. You quickly learn to stay back more from the car in front, enough so that you can lean a little over to the right and get a good view ahead. This of course all depends on how straight or twisty the road you're travelling on actually is. You'll have a bit of an advantage in that you'll sit a little higher up so will have an increased field of view with perhaps less requirement to lean over.

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

We're in exactly the same boat. PCSing to UK in July with a 2006 Touring. Nearly all the answers so far involve info that's true of any left-hand drive vehicle you choose to ship (ie, driving position and mods needed). Likewise, the shipping cost is moot, as Uncle Sam picks up the tab for one vehicle. So, the only issue remaining unique to the Odyssey is its size. We're going to take our chances, as we want the versatility of additional seats for all the visitors we're expecting! One note: if you've got the PAX tires, ditch 'em for regular tires on new rims. PAX are hard enough to replace in the states and way too expensive. You won't be under warranty anyway, so you might as well change them.

Cant belive nobodys mentioned the price of petrol here in the UK. Thats another factor to concider when importing a large truck/van etc from the USA.

Certa.

Good point, Certa.
If the minivan has a 20-gallon (US gallons, not imperial) tank, that's 75.7 litres. If petrol's averaging out at about £1.30 a litre, that's £98.41 to fill it up, or $154.34.
The darn van only gets about 20 miles to the gallon, doesn't it? So if I'm not wrong, that's 400 miles per tank, which evens out for about 24p per mile, or $.38 per mile.

In comparison, right now in Yuma, AZ gas is about $3.28/gallon. That's about $65 a tank, or £41.

I THINK I've got my figures right, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I'd hate to be giving the wrong impression. Additionally, who knows - you might be able to get American-priced gas on the base.

One other thing, and I'm sure plenty of people are going to disagree with me about this, but if you are interested in assimilating, I would not move your car over. It'll make you stick out like a sore thumb, or at least it would up here in Scotland. However, this might not be a big deal to you, especially if you're only planning on being in the UK for a couple of years.

And for the price that its going to cost to ship the car over, modify it, and ship it back, the US gov't could probably buy you a car over here for the same amount. It drives me mad that taxpayer money goes to pay for something like this.

Sorry, I'm at home on maternity leave and this chance to flex my brain-muscles has left me positively high.

Hi,

Certacito - The price of UK fuel is a consideration for any size car ! I understand what you mean in this context though, people carrier and SUV sized vehicles which aren't exactly very aerodynamic will drink the fuel at the same rates but at considerably heavier financial cost here!

eatmoomey - I'll disagree with you on the point of having a US car in the UK. If you bring over a 'typical' modern SUV or People carrier, it'll blend in quite well if it's one the variant models offered here. Things like the Chrysler grand voyager and other's from Honda, Hyundai etc are offered in the USA and UK. If you decide to bring in a domestic USA vehicle then yes, it will be 'different' but not to overly negative levels. There's a good acceptance from UK motorists of USA vehicles, it does tend to be the much more interesting type cars of course but running a US vehicle doesn't bat an eyelid most of the time here.

As for the perks of US service people having their vehicles flown over for free, being allowed to use them on UK roads without having to register them for a while etc is just one of those things. The US armed forces have better perks like that, however I'd be very very green with envy if US bases here in the UK offer fuel at US prices !!

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

An old friend of mine had his US Grand Cherokee shipped to the UK, via the UASF!

He does save $, by filling up with petrol on the base, but the shop that did the modifications for the headlamps (for driving on the left) and installing a rear fog lamp, totally screwed up the electrical system, and caused a fire.  He's very upset that his Jeep was never the same again.

My friend's advice.......

Sell your US vehicle for the best price you can get, while you're still in the States.  When you get to the UK, then buy your car. There's a TON of good used cars in the UK market, but I don't know why alot of them are diesels? I guess the UK folk get a better deal on their engine tax?

Best of luck to you.   

Hi

The reason there's so many diesels here is due to a few reasons. The major one is the perceived notion that Diesel cars are much better with fuel economy than petrol cars. Whilst this is mainly true, it's not so if you have short commuting and general town driving as the main use. For optimum fuel economy a Diesel engine takes longer to warm up than a petrol one, so in actual fact they can be just as heavy or heavier for short commuting and use distances. For these sorts of uses a petrol car is better overall. If the distances are longer and the engine does warm up well then Diesel's are more frugal than the equivalent sized petrol model of the same car. The government saw in the mid 90's that Diesel variants were becoming more popular with private owners of vehicles and thus now Diesel costs more per litre than petrol. This further narrows the gap between the actual pricing and MPG factors between the two fuels. However, the 'masses' still see that they stick in £30 and get X miles from the amount compared to slightly less if they had a petrol car and automatically believe they're saving money - when in fact the vast proportion of private diesel car owners aren't actually doing so.

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Very interesting, & logical Dennis.

I Agree with Dennis. I,ve switched back from Diesel to petrol & have noticed the diffrence. Less fuel stops & less money going into the tank. Diesel is only ever going to be efficient if you are pounding the Motorways for 30,000 miles a year.

Certa