Selling and sending a car overseas

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dublo, Mar 21, 8:45pm
I have been asked for advice (which I could not provide at all!) about selling a car to a buyer in the UK . I guess a bank transfer payment would be required, but are there any complications and risks in the shipping? And I have no idea of how much the sending of a small car to the UK would cost. Any advice or ideas gratefully accepted!

korban, Mar 21, 8:48pm
Make sure it is all legit, there are lots of scams like this

dolsen, Mar 21, 8:49pm

gusthe1, Mar 21, 9:34pm
Probably not the sellers best idea to ask advice from someone who doesn't know the answer.

tygertung, Mar 21, 10:23pm
That is definitely a scam. There is nowhere further away from the UK than NZ and there is no reason why one would buy a car from here and ship it over. There are way more cars available in the UK than here, and probably cheaper.

mrcat1, Mar 21, 11:27pm
My stupid sister wants to ship a modern VW from the UK to nz when she shifts back, its not like you cant buy a VW here, and other scenario is whether it would comply.

s_nz, Mar 22, 1:15am
As other's have said, anything asking you to shipping a vehicle offshore is highly likely to be a scam. Basically they make some kind of payment Either overpay and ask for a partial refund, or ask for money to be forwarded to a shipper. Inital payment then get's reversed, and the seller is out of pocket.

I shipped a car in from the UK to NZ. Because the price difference in vehicles made it cost effective to do so. Freight alone was at least $3500. Then need to add in my buyers agent fee, Sales tax, Compliance into NZ, etc. Highly unlikely it would be cost effective to go the other direction unless the car was extremely rare, collectible & valuable. In the latter case the buyer would likely arrange for a buyers agent in NZ to buy & collect the car locally.

Generally cars that are valuable enough to be worth freighting across the world are cheaper in the UK.

s_nz, Mar 22, 1:20am
If it is a really nice car worth NZD45k+ (especially an electric one like an e-golf, or i.d.3) they are often substantially cheaper in the UK than NZ. Well worth the cost and hassle of shipping.

Generally compliance isn't a big issue for modern car's, but I do know one BMW i3 that failed due to heaps of silt behind the wheel arches (indicating it had been in a flood).

kazbanz, Mar 22, 7:34am
My view is to avoid any involvement with shipping. That way responsibility for the vehicle stops at your gate. It will weed out the scammers pretty fast too

tygertung, Mar 22, 8:14am
But it certainly is a scam.

vic008, Mar 22, 8:26am
Well if you know their nefarious tactics,couldnt you withdraw for cash any payment they make, and say stuff em. You win. Otherwise I handle scams by telling them yes, yes, but I'm strapped for cash this week and if they could advance me $500 to get my car back and then I can get to the bank to get some money for them.

kazbanz, Mar 22, 8:50am
What year/make/model is the car?

kazbanz, Mar 22, 8:57am
She might not be being stupid. It does depend on the specific vehicle but it MIGHT be a sensible idea.
If its coming on its own it will cost ABOUT $4300 all up to ship and comply it here in NZ provided there are no corrosion issues.
Keeping in mind that UK used car values drop like stone
If she was serious I would find out what is involved in converting the speedo /odo to km/h

serf407, Mar 22, 9:19am

bill-robinson, Mar 22, 9:26am
as has been pointed out. money in the bank, car at the gate, all costs forward

tygertung, Mar 22, 10:51am
They don't make any payment, they just pretend they have. They send an email which says they've made payment, or on remote access scams they just edit the HTML on your banks website to make it look like they've deposited money.

Check out Kitboga on youtube, very entertaining viewing and informative too.

dublo, Mar 22, 1:35pm
It all sounds very complicated! All my fellow one-make car club member really wanted was a rough idea of the cost of shipping a small 1960s car to the UK, so he could advise a potential buyer if it was practicable. (Rust-free examples there go for much bigger money than similar cars in NZ.)

onl_148, Mar 22, 2:02pm
This prospective buyer are they actually in the UK or are they on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean, on a ship or the like and are purchasing the car for their son / daughter ? . are they in a hurry ? willing to pay the asking price plus a bit more, just to secure the sale ?
Basically if the car is special enough / rare etc etc that a buyer is willing to spend a lot of money to obtain, they most likely they can afford to hire a NZ based or UK based agent / company who are in the business of doing this sort of thing.

dublo, Mar 22, 2:08pm
The car has not even been advertised, yet! There may or not be potential buyers in the club in the UK (the most likely market for the model there, and we are talking of only some thousands of dollars, not multiple tens of thousands.) All we ask is for some idea of the approximate shipping cost.

kazbanz, Mar 22, 2:23pm
If its coming on its own it will cost ABOUT $3300 all up to ship

tygertung, Mar 22, 3:21pm
Oh I see, it wasn't the scam for the car which was listed then.

dublo, Mar 22, 3:53pm
Thanks, Kazbanz, just what I needed to know! Not as high as I would have expected, and I would expect a buyer would arrange insurance in case of disaster. I don't believe there would be the hassles of compliance checks such as we have here, before the car was let loose on UK roads

mrcat1, Mar 22, 4:14pm
It will only be some cheap sh!tter, worth less than the freight.

serf407, Mar 22, 8:13pm
Prime Australian flood rescued utes heading to nz soon by the looks of this vid.
Not entirely submerged but close to.

https://youtu.be/BLrL1Gf2w4c?t=51

namtak, Mar 23, 10:30am
Aussies getting rid of their garbage again eh?