Does importing parts really save you money?

[Gary820]

I've imported various things over the years and there's never been a pattern to the charges for me, the kaymar wheel carrier I bought 2nd hand that Ben shipped over to me, vat, import duty and a handling fee, it was still cheaper then buying in the UK as not exactly loads of them around.

When had the blue isuzu I imported £2.5k of suspension in one go from the states, didn't get any charges at all.

A load of steering parts about £500 got a handling fee.

A diff lock I got hammered for the lot.

Stuff I import is generally not available in the UK so I guess has worked out cheaper to import it.

 

[Chris]

Yes sometimes it's the ONLY choice given the supply issues here. When I bought my EFS suspension, I paid duties on that but comparatively, against what I paid this week, nothing like the same percentage.

 

[Rob Cowell]

120 spiral cable for the steering wheel. UK £286 inc VAT, with some discount applied from the RRP , PartSouq £108.34. I will pay £21.67 VAT, and I know Fedex will charge me £12.50 at some point in the future when they bill me for the VAT. So all in a little over 50% cheaper. It helps that the part doesn't weigh much. My experience is it typically takes 4-5 days to get parts from PartSouq to my door.

But to demonstrate how important it is to keep checking the UK sites, I noticed this morning that Milners have this part for £105 inc VAT and delivery. So I'm £25 down on that deal!

Also noticed they now do the bottom part of the steering column, that Toyota UK wanted more than £300 for last year, and which cost me about the same as Milners want but from UAE including the postage. Although now the dollar is so much stronger I assume this is also cheaper from Milners.

 

[clivehorridge]

New Toyota electric window rubbers they had them in stock, in Doha Qatar, QR 631 the lot, all 4 windows! That's £139.

Part nos. 68151 60010 front and 68142 60011 rear.

Now I just need to sneak them back into Romania !

 

[Rob Cowell]

New Toyota electric window rubbers they had them in stock, in Doha Qatar, QR 631 the lot, all 4 windows! That's £139.

Part nos. 68151 60010 front and 68142 60011 rear.

Now I just need to sneak them back into Romania !

Bargains to be had there. The Leu probably hasn't suffered so much against hard currency than on the little island where I live.

 

[clivehorridge]

Bargains to be had there. The Leu probably hasn't suffered so much against hard currency than on the little island where I live.

I must note that I didn't put all the part nos.

Chris has just reminded me that there are 4 part nos, one for each door, which figures as they're handed ... silly me.

 

[clivehorridge]

Bargains to be had there. The Leu probably hasn't suffered so much against hard currency than on the little island where I live.

True, the £ is suffering from self inflicted wounds, but it makes your exports (if there's any) cheaper.

Not much comfort when ordering parts in.

The dealer gave me 18% off and there's no VAT

We'll see what happens when I get to the green zone

 

[chapel gate]

New Toyota electric window rubbers they had them in stock, in Doha Qatar, QR 631 the lot, all 4 windows! That's £139.

Part nos. 68151 60010 front and 68142 60011 rear.

Now I just need to sneak them back into Romania !

Last time i crossed the border from hungary into romania, it cost me 100DM and a bottle of scotch to jump to the front of an epic que.. you should be alright clive.

 

[clivehorridge]

Last time i crossed the border from hungary into romania, it cost me 100DM and a bottle of scotch to jump to the front of an epic que.. you should be alright clive.

I'm flying in, with it all stowed in my suitcase. I guess it's pot luck whether I'm "chosen" or not.

They even have wi-fi on the plane now, how cool is this?

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