Kirkhams in Australia

[Paintwerks]

Originally Posted by Towmaster

I think the issue is you can't import a whole car unless you have owned and registered / driven / used it overseas for 3 consecutive months....... but you can import car parts.

To bring in a vehicle of any age from a foreign country, you need to have owned the vehicle for a minimum of 12 consecutive months and also have lived abroad in the same country the vehicle is located in (at minimum) for the same period of time you've owned the car. You cannot buy the car, leave the country and then apply one year later to import it. And you still need to apply to DOTARS for import approval and this must be approved before you can import the car to Australia. This is called a 'Personal Import' and the registration/compliance standards are much lower.

I successfully bought a motorcycle over from America under this scheme.

You can also bring in a (classic) vehicle older than 25 years of age providing you have applied for, and received import approval from DOTARS. You do not need to have owned the car for a minimum period and you need never have even visited (let alone lived in) the country you are exporting it from. As with the personal import, you need DOTARS approval before you can import the vehicle. There's nothing stopping you from buying the car before applying, but in addition to having to store the car while you are waiting for import approval, IF the approval is denied, then you are left with the sale (or costs for disposal) of the car in the foreign country.