Importing a LC100 into South Africa

[Matt Wright]

Yeah as Ben said, 100 is different to the 105. The 105's seem quite plentiful here. The guy who sits opposite me at work has a 90 and a 105. He got the 105 with all the trimmings for just R230k / £17k in South Africa. for that money it looks well worth getting a 105 here.

I'm getting to the long how to import list.. This is a snapshot without all the logic behind why it's a worthwhile project - which is the whole point behind doing it
My experience was that the big things are cheaper in SA but the specialist things were cheaper in the UK and importantly, a lot of things simply aren't available in SA with the trickery around importing things.. There's no eBay
Have a think about the end product and work backwards. There can be a variable that may out weigh a bunch of others eg. sentiment That defies economics

*** This is not to promote any companies, it's just who I have used and I found good. There are others I found very bad! ***

Import steps :

Call Jan at WiseMoves Ltd. He's been incredibly helpful and is a friend of a member on this forum

Get 3 quotes from Johan Kriek [email protected] (Jan will help organise this as Johan is in Pretoria - this was the single most important step in reducing the import duties to a tiny amount)

Email Rene Van Vuuren [email protected] at ITAC to get a Letter of authority (LOA)
These will be posted to you. I can't remember the amount but this is either free or R1400 odd. It's written on the form

Once you have that, you send that to :

Dewald Horn, Inspector (look up the email address or call him to discuss. NCRS website)
NRCS Cape Town
14B Railway Road
Montagu Gardens
TEL : 021 526 3400
FAX : 086 676 4275
He provides you with the
R50 and takes 5-7 days plus postage. Ask for a scanned copy which is acceptable. They will send out a paper copy as well. Use the courier option so it doesn't get lost
Look for the form on the website or ask for one.

The vehicle gets loaded in to the container, arrives, is cleared by the local customs ppl and the clearing agents. you fetch the vehicle from their yard.. Job done!

 

[Dark Dude]

OK folks, thanks for ALL the great advice as my poor head is still spinning from the information overload. My feeling is to NOT go for a LC 100 oil burner (either in the UK or SA) but rather plum for a 80 instead (four speed auto and turbo diesel powerplant). Nice examples are still readily available in the UK for not too much money (unlike SA where they still hold their prices). I'd bring the car into South Africa as standard as possible and do most if not all of the upgrades to the vehicle here. One look at the local 4x4 magazine convinced me of that decision. South Africans really do know how to put a decent truck together without the need of breaking the bank. At the end of the day the object of the exercise is to do it right, do it once and do it at a reasonable cost. I really want to avoid driving my truck over the border one day each year because it's registered in a neighbouring country. No, I want it all nice and legal and above board and leave Zuma to do all the funny stuff. So thanks Mr Wright for the advice......

 

[scalci]

So Dark Dude what is the plan?

 

[Andrew Prince]

Just to add to Matt's post and clarify a few things - the ITAC people give you an Import Permit, which is free. The Letter of Authority comes from the NRCS and you have to pay R1800 per vehicle, plus the couriering costs of R80.

What Matt has neglected to add to his post is that while the physical importation is relatively straight-forward, the registration of the imported vehicle is anything but straight-forward Multiple visits to different depts are required to register and licence the vehicle...

Yes importing is a cheap way of getting your desired vehicle in SA but it's not cheap in terms of time and hassle - in my experience anyway. I had the vehicles already, so it made sense to ship them. But knowing what I do now, I wouldn't buy a vehicle in the UK to ship to SA unless there was a massive cost-saving. Saving a few grand on an 80 probably doesn't make sense IMO, especially if you're buying an unknown vehicle to ship.
Maybe buying a 200 where you can save 10-20k versus the SA price is worth the hassle.

 

[Dark Dude]

I hate when people throw grenades into otherwise calm waters but thanks Andrew for the heads up. What you've said is food for thought and that's for sure. The red tape that they put you through in this country is something else and I have to say, I really don't want to go there even though I know I will. Andrew how far are you from Kew?

John

 

[ignat]

JWhat Matt has neglected to add to his post is that while the physical importation is relatively straight-forward, the registration of the imported vehicle is anything but straight-forward Multiple visits to different depts are required to register and licence the vehicle...

My main problem was the wait! They didnt have the right copy of the SAD500 form and so things weren't done for ages. I wasn't overly concerned and just drove the vehicle on foreign plates and no license disc for a few months.

Got stopped at a few roadblocks and just gave them the usual spiel and I was left to carry on each time...
I couldn't be bothered with a temporary license disc.

Strange I thought the savings would be quite significant on an 80?

 

[warrenpfo]

There are pople who you can pay (£200ish) that will stand in ques for you and do all the red tape side of things I have been told.

It may be worth exploring further.

 

[james-c]

From all the hassle I went through to get my 80 registered - next time I'll pay someone to do it for me. As ignat says, the import and customs clearance is easy - its the getting it registered which is super time consuming...

I heard that you can't import second hand cars into SA anymore, is that true? Is there some loophole?

Cheers
James

 

[stumog]

when you look at the price of this it seems not worth the bother they do seem to come up cheap but alot of the 80 i have seen have the drum back axle in it
i would like to have disc as i hate drums on a 4x4. http://www.4x4community.co.za/class...le/toyota-land-cruiser-fj-80-4-2-diesel/cat/4

 

[Dark Dude]

So Dark Dude what is the plan?

Well I'm going to have a good look around in the local market to see what's available for what money. Given that this is going to be a one time investment, if I don't like what I see locally, then I'll spread my search to British shores and continue the search there.

John

 

[Andrew Prince]

I hate when people throw grenades into otherwise calm waters but thanks Andrew for the heads up. What you've said is food for thought and that's for sure. The red tape that they put you through in this country is something else and I have to say, I really don't want to go there even though I know I will. Andrew how far are you from Kew?

There's a Kew in Joburg? I dunno, John - I am in Bryanston if that helps answer the question. Still getting my bearings here!

Strange I thought the savings would be quite significant on an 80?

Depends what you mean by significant, Kev. I think if you're buying a "new" 80 just to bring over to SA, then you're potentially taking on some cost as they are ever-fewer decent 80s around at a sensible price. Obviously if it's a truck you've owned for a while and has been properly sorted then the equation is different.
To do a quick sum - let's say an ok 80 in SA costs R120k (you can certainly get decent ones for less but as an example) so R120k = GBP8.5k. Duty payable in my case was approx GBP1k. Shipping + fees etc was GBP2k. Cost of a mediocre diesel 80 in the UK with no provenance etc is probably GBP4k. Add the numbers up, you get 4+2+1=GBP7k. For that you have an 80 in SA that may have all sorts of PM required, dodgy mileage. Who wants to gamble all that for GBP1.5k? As we all know, a decent 80 with moderate miles is a lot more than 4k in the UK these days.
In my case I was happy to import my 80 cos I've done a lot of maintenance on it, I've owned it for a 5 years etc so I know the vehicle and so on.

 

[Land7]

I transported 2 4 x 4's and a van to Alexandria, it was about 5 years ago now, I didnt stick mine in a container as it worked out a lot more expensive. I did the route Venice - Alexandria, if you were up for a drive its on the other side of mainland. Not sure if the ferry company is still operating but I booked mine through the freight department of www.ferrysavers.co.uk and they gave me discount as book 3 at the same time. You might even be able to book through passenger side which is generally cheaper, but I was transferring bussiness goods which is why I got into that dep. They might be able to give you some sort of deal, if you dont ask you dont get.

 

[Dark Dude]

I transported 2 4 x 4's and a van to Alexandria.

You are talking about Alex, JHB and not Alex, Egypt?

John