Learn me, Oppo: vehicle importing

"twochevrons" (twochevrons) 09/27/2015 at 11:15 • Filed to: importing, question, Triumph, old car, shipping

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It sounds as though it has become time for my grandmother to part with the Triumph 2000 Estate that her late husband bought new in England in 1968 and shipped out with them when they moved to New Zealand. I would hate to see a car that is, at this point, pretty much part of the family, go on to just anybody, so I suggested that it could go on to me instead. After all, it has great sentimental significance to the family, and I’ve always had a soft spot for it anyway. The problem is, while the car is in Auckland, New Zealand, I am half a world away in Minneapolis.

If anybody reading this has had experiences importing old cars to the US, I would be really interested to know. Flying out to the coast and driving it home would be the adventure of a lifetime, and it would be truly wonderful to have a piece of family history over here.

Some photos from the family album over the years:

Agrajag > twochevrons 09/27/2015 at 11:28

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That’s super cool. I have no advice, but hope you’re able to get it home safely.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > twochevrons 09/27/2015 at 11:29

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I do know that importing a car that old should be about 20 times easier than importing a car that’s just barely old enough. Should be very doable.

Boxer_4 > twochevrons 09/27/2015 at 11:36

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A couple people here have imported cars before. They will be the best ones to ask. I seem to remember that Bird has imported a few cars before (I believe he runs Roadtrip Motorcars).

Yours should be relatively simple since you are well past the 25 year rule.

stuttgartobsessed > twochevrons 09/27/2015 at 12:26

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I feel like the most important tidbit I’ve gleaned from all of the “I imported a car let me tell you how hard/easy it was” articles is this: HIRE A CUSTOMS BROKER

Bird > twochevrons 09/27/2015 at 16:52

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For that car it wouldn’t be all that hard. It sounds like you have family there so getting it to port shouldn’t be a problem. I’m not sure what paperwork you will need to get the car out of New Zealand though. For Japan the car must be de-registered before being shipped. There will be a couple different people involved in the process. There will be a freight forwarder in New Zealand, the shipping line, and a customs broker here in the US (and possibly a freight forwarder here). There are companies here in the US that can handle all of it for you, but you’ll pay more for a one-stop shop. If you have someone that can help with the processing in New Zealand, you could book it with a shipping line yourself and deal with a separate customs broker here.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics is one shipping line that has routes from New Zealand to the US. There are others as well, but I’ve shipped with them. There are a lot of customs brokers to choose from, I can recommend a friend for that as well. Send me an email at bird@roadtripmotorcars.com and I can see if I can point you in the right direction.

What port would you want the car to come into? I would thing New York would probably be the best option for you.

twochevrons > stuttgartobsessed 09/27/2015 at 22:33

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Heh, as somebody who applied for, and got, US residency through marriage, I’m in two minds about that. Part of me thinks that if I survived the bureaucratic hell that is the immigration process, customs should be a doddle. But part of me is also reminded at just how it always manages to be even more complicated and bloody-minded than it first seems. It makes a lot of sense to pay somebody to handle all that mess on my behalf.

twochevrons > Bird 09/30/2015 at 23:14

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Wow, thanks! I followed your Aerocabin saga with great interest – it was one of the things that made me realise that something like this could be feasible. Thanks a bunch for the advice!

I was in two minds about the port situation; I’m about equidistant from either coast, so it probably doesn’t matter a whole lot. Ideally, I think that it would be a whole lot of fun to just road-trip it home, but I could imagine that trying to get it registered quickly enough in order to do so could be a challenge.

Given that it’ll be winter here soon, I might see if I can put it off a few months so that the car arrives in the spring, but I’ll be sure to drop you a line when things start happening. Thank you so much!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > twochevrons 02/21/2016 at 11:15

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That’s a great set of pictures! I love the first one, the old square aspect ratio print, though there’s something absolutely wrong about it...