Importing a car

[radioman]

This seems to be a tricky issue here but maybe somebody knows what I might be in for.

 

Having been been given a car in UK I have two choices, sell it or ship it here. Ordinarily I would just sell it and stash the cash but thing is right now I am sans wheels, not that it's a big problem but it would be nice to be independently mobile again and this particular vehicle would be fun to have here.

 

I know I'm looking at some import hassle but how much. As I understand it the total import cost can run to 157% but of what? New purchase price? Hmm that's stiff especially on a 10 year old car. Purchase price, heck it's free.

 

Paying the sea freight and reasonable import costs would still make this a worthwhile exercise but does anybody know the facts or have any real experience of importing a car.

 

Thanks.

 

 

[cheekyboy]

never known anyone actually do it .the obstacles and money involved do not make it worthwhile at all.

thats why you only ever see very old imports never anything recent makes.

[radioman]

Hi,

 

Yes I agree it seems possibly pointless but I don't really know what the obstacles are yet or how much might be involved.

 

The car in question if sold in UK would probably fetch about 10K in English pounds but to purchase the same vehicle here in Bangkok would cost about 1.6-1.8 million Baht, about 30K in English pounds. Since I was gifted the vehicle I would not object to paying a reasonably significant sum to ship and import.

 

 

[dean]

More sthan likely, you won't find out how much the duty is until Thai custom officials get the paperwork from the shipping company. I shipped back to LOS the rosewood furniture (and a few other things; not a car or motocycle) that I had bought and shipped from LOS 8 years previously. I never could find out how much the duty would be. I ended up paying 118,000 baht in duty. I would think that a car would be considerably more than that. I don't think that a car wsould fall under what a spouce could bring back to LOS duty free. Do you know any Thai custom agents or have friends that know one?

[Mekong]

Not the official Goverment website but some pointers Here

 

Import Duty + Excise Tax Multiplyer + Interior Tax + VAT would be in excess of GBP 11,300 on a GBP 10,000 Vehicle

[radioman]

Thanks, good info on that site and it turned me onto something else. I remembered that a Thai friend told me a couple of months back he was thinking of importing a new Harley. Well it seems he has just done it so I'm arranging to get with him and discuss the details. At least that should give me a fairly good insight to a real situation.

 

Cheers

 

[SiLeakHunt]

I heard that some of the "imports" do so a little pragmatically, you can send the car to a neighboring country and drive it in and for a while taking it on "visa runs" so it's till registered outside the country.

 

I know somebody who shipped a car in and to be fair unless it's a real collectors item or has immense personal worth you're asking for a load of heartache and expense that isn't worthwhile.

 

Buy one locally and sell the one in the UK.

 

Cheers

[TroyinEwa/Perv]

I was thinking the exact same thing as SLH. Save the headache and hassle of dealing with shipping it oversea, then getting to deal with customs and forking over 10's of thousands of baht. Unless the car is just something you can't part with (which sounds like not since you just received it) sell the thing where it sits and buy something here. Probably even have a few coins left over to have a proper night out.

[The_Munchmaster]

There's also the issue of whether the car would comply with Thai vehicle standards (if there are such things). Would there be any modifications you'd have to make and what would be the cost?

[Guest lazyphil]

and if you're from the usa or europe do you want to drive a left hand drive car in thailand?