Wednesday, December 05, 2007 - 09:21 am, by: Ross Francis(Au_celsior)
Mike Bomhoff wrote on Wednesday, December 05, 2007 - 03:16 am:
So can you bring in newer Celsiors 94+?
Gday Mike, no, we cant import them easily anymore. Used to be that any vehicle over 15yo could be brought in, but that changed a couple of years ago. Now the cut off date is 1st Jan 1989, so its stopped off alot of the imports. Apparently, some of the manufacturers, like Toyota especially, lobbied the govt. to change the laws because they didnt like anyone bringing in 15yo cars, they reckon it was going to hurt their local used car business. Cars newer than 1/1/89 can be bought in, but they have to go through an extensive compliance process which makes them alot more expensive, and even then, its only vehicles that are on an allowable list which is basically cars that werent sold here new. Yes, alot of dealers really made a killing a few years ago, and good luck to them, but its very sobering to find out just how cheap the cars were at the auctions in Japan, as compared to what was being asked for them here.