My experience - importing a used bike from the USA

[rebyl]

I went to the States in 07, bought a second hand bike, rode it for 10000 miles, shipped it home, had the Bill of Sale and the Value of the bike on the crate it was in, picked it up in Wellington and rode it home on the US plates, took it up North and got it Vinned for and registered for NZ then sold it. Got a small bill from the officials for GST and that was it...no hassles. The guy at the place i took it to was a bit amused when it turned up on US plates and said that I should not have done the six hundred miles in NZ on the US plates...grin...sorry.
There is a great company called Kiwi shipping that will help you if needed...good people

[Markw336]

importing is such a mission must of been a pretty good bike or it had a lot of sentimental value to you Good job

[longwayfromhome]

is it possible to keep the CA rego? ie have NZ plates when in NZ but keep the CA plates for elsewhere?

I assume you mean, can you keep the CA plates and simply put them on another bike in CA...without tell DMV? The answer is that the CA rego is to a specific bike. You could risk doing this, but when pulled over, you would be material for "COPS" on TV. The thing working in your favour is that in CA, after rego'ing for the first time, there is NO subsequent WOF-like check..ever, not even a SMOG check like the car's have. Amazing!

I know you are able to keep the same plates and formally/officially transfer to another bike...this is very common, and certainly possible in most states. I know this because many people have fancy names on plates and they transfer from bike-to-bike as they change over time.

I have my CA plates here in NZ with me, along with my NJ and PA plates I had for the same bike and one other. You are supposed to return them, but no one ever does, especially if you move and don't have anything rego'd in the state.

[longwayfromhome]

I guess I was just lucky with my experieces. I found them a nice bunch of guys to deal with.

Especially Mully

I feel for you Beeza, but the experience is not always that painful...your experience -v- mine shows that. Different circumstances certainly contributed and I suspect that importing 4 bikes while living here was seen in a speculative light by Customs who then then turned on the blow torches. I suspect that my own relatively placid experience was due to using only two companies to organize the whole thing, for which I believe I paid a premium of say 1/3rd of $240 (the time taken for the BMW dealer to change light, take bike to rego/compliance/etc). Seems like money well spent. The respective organizations.... Customers/MAF with Robbie and DMV with Experience BMW...were very familiar with and well-known to Big Brother.

Having moved country several times, I have grown to understand why, since Roman times, toll's & fees have motivated entire civilizations to attack and occupy territory.

Again, everyone's circumstances may well be different.

[kiwigazza]

I assume you mean, can you keep the CA plates and simply put them on another bike in CA...without tell DMV? The answer is that the CA rego is to a specific bike. You could risk doing this, but when pulled over, you would be material for "COPS" on TV. The thing working in your favour is that in CA, after rego'ing for the first time, there is NO subsequent WOF-like check..ever, not even a SMOG check like the car's have. Amazing!

I know you are able to keep the same plates and formally/officially transfer to another bike...this is very common, and certainly possible in most states. I know this because many people have fancy names on plates and they transfer from bike-to-bike as they change over time.

I have my CA plates here in NZ with me, along with my NJ and PA plates I had for the same bike and one other. You are supposed to return them, but no one ever does, especially if you move and don't have anything rego'd in the state.

no, what i am thinking of doing is keeping the bike registered in CA. registering the bike in NZ while it is there and when i take the bike out of NZ again putting the rego on hold and putting the CA plates back on. the reason for soing this is at that i can get a carnet for the CA plates much cheaper in the states than in NZ

[longwayfromhome]

no, what i am thinking of doing is keeping the bike registered in CA. registering the bike in NZ while it is there and when i take the bike out of NZ again putting the rego on hold and putting the CA plates back on. the reason for soing this is at that i can get a carnet for the CA plates much cheaper in the states than in NZ

So, the problem is is that the bike needs to be currently CA-regoed to get the cheap carnet.

Mmmm....by deduction....it costs not much for annual rego in CA, so thats OK/sustainable/kept_going....there is no inspection, so they don't know if the bike is physically in CA or not, so thats good.....you still have the plates, so fine there....seems like you should be OK so far.

Concerns:
1. Insurance in USA....don't they follow you up if not insured? How would you respond.
2. You can put the bike into storage/off-road and pay 1/2 rego, so that might be a way, though this may have a limited time applicability.
3. When exported from CA, did some message go from exporter/shipper to CA DMV. But, even if it did, would that matter?

Suggest you call/email/visit CA DMV with a question along the lines of "I want to put my bike in storage while I go travelling, but keep my rego valid...how do I do it?". I suspect they will give the unsatisfactory response of "re-rego when you want to start using it again" and since the bike must be at a DMV to get regoed, thats useless.

I will also ask on my US-centric LT website...there is a lot of experience there. Maybe try a site like ADVRIDER as lots of those guys travel a lot and disappear for years at a time...there may be some direct experience there.

[rebyl]

Bought second hand in the States, rode it for 10000 miles then shipped her back home...no hassles. Just had to leave the original Bill of Sale on the crate, plus my copy of passport etc.
When bike was cleared by customs in Wellington I went picked it up and rode to TeAwamutu and got it NZ Registered...some eyebrows were raised by the miles on the clock since it left the States.....sorry I says...didn't know you could not ride it in NZ on US plates after all we can ride our NZ bikes in the States on our NZ Plates and with our NZ licences.
I did pay a small amount of GST...no worries and Officials and shipping agent made it all stress free