In recent years, there have been huge changes to the domestic automobile manufacturing industry in Australia. Many vehicles that were previously household names have simply ceased to exist and some people believe that there is not enough choice in the marketplace, any more. If you've been looking around and don't like what you see in a typical showroom, you may be thinking about importing a vehicle from overseas. If that's the case, there's good news for you as recent changes to the law have made this a whole lot easier. What do you need to know about these changes?

New Rules

The good news is that from 2018 onwards, as a private individual, you will be able to personally import a new car to Australia for your own use, once every two years. This applies to a large range of new motorcycles and cars, so long as the country you are importing from has standards that are similar to Australia. Many people are choosing Japan as their country of choice, due to the range of first-class automobiles available.

There are certain conditions. For example, the car has to be less than one year old and have no more than 500 km on the clock. It must be right hand drive, as well.

Auction Savings

A good way to do this is to find cars that are up for auction in Japan. Many manufacturers and dealers will shift cars from the showroom to these auctions, when they are ready to bring in a new model and typically these cars will be 'as new'. When you do this, you'll be able to save quite a bit of money in comparison to the likely cost when buying a new car otherwise.

Sometimes, these vehicles are referred to as 'demonstrators', but they will be in excellent condition. Not only that, you could also save a lot of time waiting around for your new car order to be processed by the manufacturer.

The government is also expected to remove a special duty on imported vehicles to smooth the process.

Answering Your Questions

There have been a lot of changes in this industry in a short space of time and no surprise that there is still a lot of confusion amongst would-be car buyers. If you're keen to get hold of an overseas car for your own personal use, it's a good idea to get in touch with car importation specialists first.