Importing bikes

[scracha]

Tread carefully... If you are a private individual importing your own bike from overseas (eg you've just moved to NZ) you won't have to pay import duty and GST, and you'll save money. If you're importing a bike to sell you will have to pay those things.

Shipping costs are around $1500 - $2000 depending on who you use for a single bike. If you bring a container load it will be heaps cheaper per bike, as most of the costs are in the 'handling fees'. What ever that means...

To give an idea of price, a half container cost us around 10,000NZD from the UK. That included customs fees, GST, loading it up at our house (2 guys) and unloading it at our house in NZ (another 2 guys).
Could have stuck mine in the back of our existing container for an additional $300...wish I had now but I'd been warned getting compliance for a bike not sold in NZ is a @$ng nightmare (I've since been told otherwise by a mate who imports them horrible V8 yank cars)
Gawd knows how many bikes you could stick in half a container. Obviously a lot of our costs were the guys coming to our house.

You can only avoid the GST if you've owned the bike for over a year (I'd had mine 11 months...sigh)

[hec]

McJIm

>>I will get in touch with some shipping companies and get some quotes.

I looked at bringing my bike with me to NZ from the UK. I was quoted £670 - with someone building a custom made container - recommendation from Cotswold Classics bike restorers.

But for me unless I can prove I am emigrating I would have to pay GST tax - formula for me made it another £600.

My experience is new bikes look about the same price in NZ as UK as long as they are not too exotic - but with the credit culture in the UK and large insurance costs - bikes depreciate really fast so a 2-3yr old very lightly used UK bike is cheap compared with NZ.