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Hi all,

This is my first time to import a car ever, so I thought I would share my experience with everyone.

The car I want was a v35 skyline

the journey begins in early September, but it was late september when I made a successful bid.

11.09.08

Paid the broker's service fee

$ 1,100

20.09.08

Made the successful bid

22.09.08

Pay Japanese buyer FOB = 1,730,000 AUD/JPY = 87.84

$ 19,695.98

23.09.08

Paid compliance shop deposit

$ 500

24.09.08

Supplier confirmed payment

08.10.08

Car booked on next avail vessel

16.10.08

Car loaded on vessel to Brisbane

21.10.08

Received B/L from broker

22.10.08

Sent paper works to Customs Agent, compliance people not yet obtain Import Approval after 4 weeks!

29.10.08

Car was unloaded

5.11.08

Finally got import approval, took 6 weeks!

Edited by Roma
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I was real pis*ed about the way I was treated by the compliance shop so I will add some detail about the incident.

I was informed by the customs agent on 22nd of Oct that he did not have a copy of the import approval to clear my car thru the customs. This was 4 weeks after I signed the compliance agreement and paid them a deposit.

So, called up the compliance shop, they couldnt find the paperwork about my car at first, after quite some time they found the papers and sounded quite surprised. Then the person start getting upset after I asked why it took them so long when I was told getting the approval would only take 2~3 weeks at most. The person start telling me I should not have ship the car before I got the appoval and it might be send back and stuff all that was said in a loud and angry voice. in the end I was told to just sit and wait, the approval will come in the NEXT FEW WEEKS!!

Then after 2 weeks went past I got a call from the comliance shop and was told the approval is finally here, this was 6 weeks after I paid them! I then ask how long it will take to compliance my car and was told they got NO IDEA when it can be done and I will just need to wait!

So now, I gota pay for 1 week extra storage fee due to the approval not being ready and wait until they can be bothered to find some time to comliance my car.

  • 2 weeks later...
Hi all,

This is my first time to import a car ever, so I thought I would share my experience with everyone.

The car I want was a v35 skyline

the journey begins in early September, but it was late september when I made a successful bid.

11.09.08

Paid the broker's service fee

$ 1,100

20.09.08

Made the successful bid

22.09.08

Pay Japanese buyer FOB = 1,730,000 AUD/JPY = 87.84

$ 19,695.98

23.09.08

Paid compliance shop deposit

$ 500

24.09.08

Supplier confirmed payment

08.10.08

Car booked on next avail vessel

16.10.08

Car loaded on vessel to Brisbane

21.10.08

Received B/L from broker

22.10.08

Sent paper works to Customs Agent, compliance people not yet obtain Import Approval after 4 weeks!

29.10.08

Car was unloaded

5.11.08

Finally got import approval, took 6 weeks!

hey ,

I brought my car on 18/09/2008 . I still havent got it yet and waiting for some approval from canberra. I paid 1,744,000. It's a silver v35 2003 6 speed manual. It's got a few extra's including 19" advan 151c wheels (HOT ?!) , Fijitsubo exhaust , impul ecu (whatever that is ) , rear camera , recaro seats , HUD (Heads up display) , and sexy neon lights under the car and aftermarket panasonic dvd player . And its a preimum too , so brembo's etc.

I didnt transfer the money into the bank until 29/09/2008 and the exchange rate was 86.80 i lost 2 yen for some reason with the bank.

The problem im having is that i have to bring the car back to standard condition which is a joke taking of things and putting them back on. According to the shop i should have the car next week . But no idea how much the compliance is suppose to be costing i got a quote of $2,500.00 but i think its going to be much more!!

The problem im having is that i have to bring the car back to standard condition which is a joke taking of things and putting them back on. According to the shop i should have the car next week . But no idea how much the compliance is suppose to be costing i got a quote of $2,500.00 but i think its going to be much more!!

surely you didnt import a car under the raws scheme knowing that it must be STOCK FACTORY CONDITION and now just realised there would be cost involved ?

V35 parts can be expensive and hard to get , if you have to source them yourself it could get expensive . not every compliance shop has every oem part especially for newer cars like v35

I am sure your broker fully made you aware of this though after all you paid him $ 1,100 to do that.

surely you didnt import a car under the raws scheme knowing that it must be STOCK FACTORY CONDITION and now just realised there would be cost involved ?

V35 parts can be expensive and hard to get , if you have to source them yourself it could get expensive . not every compliance shop has every oem part especially for newer cars like v35

I am sure your broker fully made you aware of this though after all you paid him $ 1,100 to do that.

What actually happened was , when i saw the car i asked the broker if it would be a problem and he asked the compliance shop and they said no its fine. And now that the car is here they are saying no ,no ,no.

My broker has been great and he also imported another v35 himself. So they are changing the parts with my car and then putting them back on apparently. Are the neon allowed thru compliance i wonder if they ahve to be taken off too ?

Im paying $2,500.00 for compliance well im hoping is that the average price not ?

That's actually a very cheap price for compliance, so I wouldn't blame the workshop if they thought they should be charging more for labour to remove/refit.

As for the neons, yes they need to be removed....preferably permanently....

I was real pis*ed about the way I was treated by the compliance shop so I will add some detail about the incident.

I was informed by the customs agent on 22nd of Oct that he did not have a copy of the import approval to clear my car thru the customs. This was 4 weeks after I signed the compliance agreement and paid them a deposit.

So, called up the compliance shop, they couldnt find the paperwork about my car at first, after quite some time they found the papers and sounded quite surprised. Then the person start getting upset after I asked why it took them so long when I was told getting the approval would only take 2~3 weeks at most. The person start telling me I should not have ship the car before I got the appoval and it might be send back and stuff all that was said in a loud and angry voice. in the end I was told to just sit and wait, the approval will come in the NEXT FEW WEEKS!!

Then after 2 weeks went past I got a call from the comliance shop and was told the approval is finally here, this was 6 weeks after I paid them! I then ask how long it will take to compliance my car and was told they got NO IDEA when it can be done and I will just need to wait!

So now, I gota pay for 1 week extra storage fee due to the approval not being ready and wait until they can be bothered to find some time to comliance my car.

broker and compliance shop names pls via PM. I'd be interested to see if its a shop that I do work for.

actually fire across your chassis # as well. (CPV35 /PV35/HV35/V35 - 000000 ) if its on my list of cars to do I'll know who it is.

Please PM me the name of this workshop - this sort of thing seems to be happening more and more lately. It's getting very frustrating!!

kristian,

if you already know this I would like to as well pls.

That's actually a very cheap price for compliance, so I wouldn't blame the workshop if they thought they should be charging more for labour to remove/refit.

As for the neons, yes they need to be removed....preferably permanently....

+1 on the neons

as for pricing - thats cheap. I know a 3 shops here in brissy that are above that. now if you are complaining on that price for the amount of work they have to do, the 2-3 people that they have to pay for the two days the car will tie up the hoist whilst they are returning the car to stock then in opinion I would have done a LOT more research into it.

+1 on the neons

as for pricing - thats cheap. I know a 3 shops here in brissy that are above that. now if you are complaining on that price for the amount of work they have to do, the 2-3 people that they have to pay for the two days the car will tie up the hoist whilst they are returning the car to stock then in opinion I would have done a LOT more research into it.

Before i purchased the car the broker informed them about the extra's (exhaust, ecu , wheels) we didnt have any idea there was neon's under the car . The compliance workshop in sydney said that's fine yes yes no worries so il see what happnes. The good news is the car is suppose have finished being complied and just waiting for some plates / documents from canberra. Hopefully monday or tuesday. Im very curious to see what they think they are going to charge me .

wtf? fob price was 19K and you had to pay more than 15k to get it on-road?? thats bullshit.

With the compliance i wont say the exact figure but i had a agruement with them. The way they looked at it , they helped me out with some things , like the xenon lights and the impul chip and the recaro seats they didnt touch . Too be honest with the seats they aren't that comfortable .

It took the shop nearly 4 weeks to comply dont know what they did either.

From 19k i had to pay for shipping , brokers fee's , customs duty , g.st. , customs broker fee's (all of which was the price of the car's purchased price) , steam cleaning , towing , compliance , green slip , blue slip , registration , transfer payments

But in the end i got a car that goes the way i wanted and looks the part. The advan wheels i have are worth alot and look really good. I went to the local tyre shop today and some boys came out and took some photo's .

post-55737-1227882199_thumb.jpg

Hi Guys does anyone know which shop did the compliance? And this is in Brissy correct? Just because i have my car going to Brissy for compliance and i would like to know if it is the same please.

Anyone please PM me the shop name if they know.

Cheers Deano

reckon its a sydney RAW myself. none of the ones I do are this slack..

Hey

sorry for the late reply~ kinda busy for the last few weeks with uni, work and stuff

The compliance shop IS in Brisbane, I wont reveal the name or address until I got my car, just in case those people decide to take even longer or anything while working on my car :D

one thing I dont get is, they WONT tell me when I can expect to my car!! all they willing to say is, " we got lots of car on our hand, and they all left the ship before you, so you just gota wait!,"

How hard is it to work out when a customer can get his car? i dunno anything bout car compliance, but it CANT be that hard to estimate when they can get around to a certain car is it??!!

I can understand if there really are lots of car or it does take a while to compliance a car, but they seem to know nothing about anything I asked!!

so, my car been sitting at the compliancing centre for around a month now, and that was after it was left in the dock for around a week because they did not get my Import approval 2 weeks after the car landed!!

Can i just get the car towed home and do the compliancing thru others after xmas?

Edited by Roma

ok, i know i said i wont reveal anything about the compliance shop before i got my car

I have been trying to control my frustration of being kept in the dark about everything by the compliance shop

I have decide to give them another week or so to see if they will finally work out when they will be able to start work on my car or I will just get the car towed.

one hint bout the compliance shop. Chris, I think you know these ppl, because thats where I got your business card from :D

also, does any know the average time for a car to be complianced and registered at a REASONABLY efficient and PROFESSIONAL compliance shop?

Edited by Roma

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