s2kbee

I live in England and drive a yellow 2002 S2K but I am moving to Brisbane for 12 months in September of this year. I am trying to save enough cash to keep my S2K at home for when I return. However, when I get to Australia I would like to lease a sports car - it doesn't have to be an S2K but it would be nice. I have 2 problems/questions:
1 - I can't find many companies on the web that lease sports cars in Brisbane.
2 - I am 23 years old, and I would like to know if my age will be a problem for me.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I suppose an alternative would be to import my own S2K, but I guess this would be very expensive.

Many thanks

John

cashout

Since you would be doing a temporary importation your costs will not be as high as you may think.

I just moved back from the US after 7 years and did some research on the matter before deciding it was too expensive to import a LHD car permanently into Australia.

If I remember correctly you will only be up for the freight (It was $3500 US for me) and the quarantine fees ($500 by the time you are through).

Check these links for more info
http://www.dfat.gov.au/protocol/Protocol_G...delines/07.html
http://www.mapsupport.com/thedatabase/impe...mprtgvehaul.htm
http://www.customs.gov.au/


Just remember to look specifically at the documents that relate to 'temporary importaion" Otherwise you will be looking at paying import duty and a whole bunch of other fees.

Austblue

You'll need to look into insurance too, best to see if your current insurer will cover you first but I dont know the chances of that. Otherwise being a 23 year old is bad enough, a 23 year old from o/s with no credit rating in Aus might mean that you have buckleys. How did you go with insurance specifially the fact that you just came back to Aus cashout?

szooo_r

rent a sports car for 12 months?? u crazy??.. lets see.. say for example u get one for about $50 a day for a long term rental... thats like over $18k's... u better have a pretty good job here..

fisting dwarves

you can rent my yellow '02 for $15k for the year

RedRover

It might be a good idea to get a couple of comprehensive quotes that cover all your shipping costs. You'd then be in a better position to make a decision as to whether or not it was worth the trouble to do it.

cashout

It was not a problem. They did not even ask me. I called NRMA, gave them my membership number (I kept renewing it while I was away) and told them I bought a new car. They asked me they usual questions (age, driving record, etc) and then gave me a policy # over the phone.

And it wasn't too expensive either: $700/y for the Jazz and $900~ for the Smart. I got the 65% (or is it 60%??) no claim bonus.

I was told AAMI is cheaper nowadays but I got lazy and could not be bothered looking for an alternative. Maybe in a few months (when I have had a chance to gauge the monthly expenses) I may look around for cheaper options. I had that in mind when I got the insurance so I went for the monthly billing option. It was only $100 or so more per year for both cars.

blacks2k

cashout, seriously look elsewhere for ur insurance, nrma has gone downhill since u left, i used to be with them, until i wised up and shopped around. it is in ur best interests to look around for better insurance, and besides, im sure u could save a lot more

cashout

I will, I will. I just need to let the dust settle a little first. Once we move into our new place and have it all setup (end of April) I will be more inclined to look at new insurance carriers (probably around the time we have to get home contents insurance).

Right now I am more interested in finding a way to get to work early enough so that I don't have to pay $15 to park the whole day. Saving $9/day (Early bird is $6) adds up to quite a bit over a whole year!
BTW I have only been working for three days... can bearly remember the name of the street the office is at

s2kbee

Thanks for your advice.
I will look in to the costs for taking the S2K with me, I need to weigh it up against car leasing costs. I probably wouldn't go for a roadster for the full 12 months, I'd have to lease a general/normal car for the majority of the time, and just hire a roadster for a couple of weeks or something. I really hope I can afford to take mine with me as it would only be sat in a garage in England anyway.