This is a brief account of our experience of importing our Charger into the UK. It may be slightly different for you, but hopefully it will give you some pointers to consider and help you avoid some of the pitfalls.

We had, after a particularly scary moment when we almost bought a car on Ebay on impulse that we should perhaps look seriously into the possibility. It is common knowledge that Sarah loves her Chargers, even more so than the Corvette. 

We were fortunate in locating a car that fitted our requirements. Good body work, little or no work required and sensible pricing. This car had been restored a few years back and needs a little tidying to bring it up to scratch. 

However we took the time to check out the seller before releasing any money to them. With a few hours spent on the internet I was able to confirm there address using a couple of the reverse phone number sites. The seller was a serving police officer, who featured on internet pages from multiple sources. I now knew that the seller were genuine but what about the cars? Again we were fortunate with the seller, he couldn't have been more helpful and emailed me photo's of any part of the car that I requested, and was also happy for me to have independent checks made on the car.

Once the car had been purchased there was the little problem of actually getting it here. We had been recommended a few shipping companies and had quotes from them all. The prices varied considerably and so did the service offered. 

Shipping was handled by Mike at AbleCargo.Com who was very helpful and ensured that everything went without a hitch. They arranged the collection and shipping of the car and also all the US Customs paperwork. Thoroughly recommend them, they undercut any shippers that we could find over here by a significant margin and that was based on their standard prices!   Once cars were delivered the disembarking was handled by Kingstown shipping telephone Mark on 01482 374116 for full details.

Cars over 25 years old may be subject to classic car import duties which is a reduction in the amount that you pay. Customs will normally charge you 10% import duty on ALL your costs, purchase, shipping and insurance. then add to this 17.5% VAT. However a properly completed BTI application will reduce your import duty to 5% and your VAT to 0%. 

Hidden costs of importing:- Transport to the US Docks, Marine Insurance, unloading fees at the dock, variable exchange rate (a few points can make a BIG difference), availability of the same car locally!