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Does importing parts really save you money?

Chris

Chris

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Ordered £257 worth of parts from Amayama recently. That included shipping. Some good prices in there. and all genuine OEM.

Just had a letter from Parcel Farce.

Customs Duty - £8.96
Import VAT - £61.52
Clearance fee - £13.50
Total - £83.98

Pay up or you won't see the parts and we'll take your children.

Well I am OK with some of that, but £84. Jeez, I don't think it's worth it. I am going to have to work it out looking at UK prices. Seems a lot for what I ordered. We need some new free trade agreements
 
I came to much the same conclusion recently after giving it a try for some front diff mounts. When I roughly worked it out there was still a saving, but not a lot. I came to the conclusion that it was not worth it for smallish orders. The only time I’ve not been charged is with “trade samples”. For some reason, the Royal Mail charge annoyed me the most, seemed a bit steep for one letter and a few key strokes.
 
I think the answer is simply... sometimes. I guess if you're not ordering a lot or high value then no, but original cv's from japan at half the price from just down the road...yes!
 
It's a taste of brexit to come, methinks.

I've recently ordered parts and some other products from Australia, the USA, China and Germany.

The German order will be toll free but the rest not.

Sooner or later I'll be paying import on UK goods too ....
 
The incoming VAT looks to be the biggest part of the payment and unless you can claim it back it will be the same story on UK dealer network parts too and dont forget it is delivered to your door.
I have imported parts before and saved some money, if they are of a high value, non urgent and modest size (large parts such as bumpers can be very expensive to ship from overseas) then it has worked out a good saving.
However I would recommend that anyone should check UK parts prices so you can make an informed decision before ordering, I always supply my own part numbers so a quick call to a UK dealer with a number is no hardship.
If you do have the part number to hand run it through Google as I have brought loads of genuine Toyota parts from on line sellers such as eBay, Milners and Roughtracks at a vastly reduced price compaired to the Toyota retail price.
Last week I brought a genuine Auto Trans filter from Roughtrax (IIRC) at a very attractive price compaired to the full blown Toyota retail price.
 
I think if you keep below £160 of total value then it gets through under the radar-, they aren't interested. So two orders may be cheaper even with two lots of shipping. Generally I think it's far cheaper but as above, you need to do a bit of homework, but it can pay off big time.
 
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I just bought a centre diff lock switch from Japan off eBay, it was £85 delivered.
My local dealer quoted £135.
 
4 scraper mouldings off the door tops plus two under the gullwings, in black came in at something like £140 from Amayama UAE as opposed to £75-£95 each from MrT in the U.K. With discount. No import duty, VAT, or handling was charged.
 
I saved around 60% with window rubbers from Amayama compared to a local Toyota dealer. After VAT and ID, Parcelforce still stuck on a 'handling/admin' charge. As has been said, it depends on the parts and where they're from.
I've had stuff in the past (from Canada) which was delivered by DHL who then billed me some time later for VAT and ID which they obviously had to pay at point of entry to get the goods released but they there was no handling charge by them. I guess different couriers have different MO's.
 
Recently bought a pair of Redback work boots from Australia for £50 inc delivery. By the time FedEx had slapped their charge on for something or other the grand total came to £87. I could have bought them in the UK for £88 !!!

£1 saved. No one in the U.K. makes a penny.
I live n learn. Interested in cheap window rubbers though....
 
Buying parts can add up & be expensive more so with delivery charges & import duties ouch been there enough to live & learn like you guys.

Thankfully much like Clive I try to buy parts from countries through family members who visit or I visit them as this saves a small fortune often more than the cost of the parts with delivery & taxes.
 
I am sorry if I don`t follow You all.

The VAT You pay, pays for the wellfare in Your respective country.
The import tax can to a certain extent be debated.
The above mentioned clearence fee (handeling fee for forwarding the parcel through customs, paying for duties up front) I find very human.

I am paying 25% VAT on ANYTHING above 30£ in value. Import duty much depending on where from.
Shipping is seriously expensive. The absolute minimum handeling fee they charge is abt 40£, even if I stand at the customs counter (overland) myself.
If shipped, they sometimes release a parcel before I pay, they bill me later. The "funny" thing is, I never know hom much they will charge me in handeling.... so I have to figure in anything from 40 to 150£....
I guess it is what keeps some people employed....

I am not fond of how they do it & I do try to bring overall costs down. Looking at the stressfactor though.... I am out of pocket seriously.

In short; You CAN be worse off Chris :-D
 
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.
 
The subject of the thread wasn't actually 'Boo-hoo I have had to pay the nasty people some money' It was genuinely, 'Is there actually a saving to be made once you factor in all of the costs you may have to stand?' In some cases the price of the part overseas may be so significantly cheaper that even after tax etc it's worth having. But in some cases what may seem a small saving turns out to be no saving at all. The moral? Pick your items carefully if you aren't going to use a UK main dealer.

Going off topic in my own thread for a second -

Let's look at tax in this country. I already pay 40% on my salary and 9%? National Insurance, then when I buy anything but food, I pay another 20% tax on that. Every litre of fuel I buy I pay over 50% tax on that. I've just been made redundant but get a payout for losing my job on which I get taxed (in part) at 40%, now that's immoral in my view. So I think I'm probably already supporting the welfare of this country quite well. If I then need care such as a prescription I have to pay something like £10 for some pills!!! I even now have to pay tax at 5% on my car insurance. VAT used to be about luxury goods; things that weren't actually essential. Now pretty much everything including second hand car parts gets taxed.

Interestingly now that I am out of a job, I might need the welfare state to come and support me. Err, no sorry, that's not going to happen as I have too much personal wealth in my house, pension and savings etc so I won't get anything at all.

Thing is no matter which government you vote for, there's always be one.
 
Your so spot on Chris we are overtaxed & most cases underpaid. We have never been taxed so much ever as we are today & as much as taxes are important for all the right reasons most is used for unjustified means that do not serve us for the better.
 
Going off topic in my own thread for a second -

Let's look at tax in this country. I already pay 40% on my salary and 9%? National Insurance, then when I buy anything but food, I pay another 20% tax on that. Every litre of fuel I buy I pay over 50% tax on that. I've just been made redundant but get a payout for losing my job on which I get taxed (in part) at 40%, now that's immoral in my view. So I think I'm probably already supporting the welfare of this country quite well. If I then need care such as a prescription I have to pay something like £10 for some pills!!! I even now have to pay tax at 5% on my car insurance. VAT used to be about luxury goods; things that weren't actually essential. Now pretty much everything including second hand car parts gets taxed.

Interestingly now that I am out of a job, I might need the welfare state to come and support me. Err, no sorry, that's not going to happen as I have too much personal wealth in my house, pension and savings etc so I won't get anything at all.

Thing is no matter which government you vote for, there's always be one.[/QUOTE]

Agree with you completely Chris.
I'm not gonna turn it into a political rant either or we will have to move it to the other forum.
If i (was to) order parts which will incurr taxes on import say from the states, I'll forward them to a friend in the US who will simply remove the invoice and mark the item as being a gift to the value of 10 pounds.
The cost of postage for said friend to relay the item to me (would perhaps) often be a lot less than the charges otherwise incurred.
When taxes are being evaded to the tune of billions by corporations with the approval of government, i wouldn't feel at all guilty about it.
Besides i replaced my moral compass with GPS a few years ago and ive lost the charger for it somewhere ;)
 
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