My dads an importer and has been doing it for over 10 years. He knows exactly what he is doing and has formed some very close business partners over in Japan now. When he 1st started off he had so much difficulty doing it. And most the time the cars wouldnt arrive the way we expected them to be.
However now his cars all come in top condition and its because of the people he knows now. They dont stuff him around anymore. For the 1st time again after many years we have just used a new company that we have never delt with before. Because they dont know us and we didnt know them, they dont go through the effort of gettting your car here on time, as in they just see us as another customer instead of a long time customer like the companies. The car from them is the car iv just imported atm. Id never go through a new company again. They stuffed me around so much it wasnt funny. I am picking up the car 2day finally...but it should have been complianced and rego'd by now..
what im tying to say is i guess, that if u have never done it b4, then dont do it. In reality, you dont really save that much you know. Its up to you though, theres alot to learn if you havent done it before and I guess its always an experience. And if you dont do something on time, then you delay your car on other things.
For example, make sure you apply for your vehicle import approval b4 the car is due to arrive to melbourne and have your compliance plate ordered for you aswell.
..and ur taking a risk in importing a car if u havnt done it b4