How to move your car from New Zealand to Australia

If you are planning on transporting your car between New Zealand and Australia, there are certain requirements you need to meet and things you need to do to prepare your vehicle before your car can be imported from New Zealand to Australia. This guide will help you prepare for your international vehicle transport, for a stress-free moving experience.  

Want the best international car transport? Speak WridgWays today to obtain a quote!

Conduct research

First you need to find out if your vehicle is eligible to enter Australia, the you should look into the following:

• Import options
• Associated costs
• Timeframes
• Documentation required
• The risks associated with importing a vehicle

Cost considerations

To move and import a car from New Zealand to Australia it costs approximately $3,000-$4,500. You will need to consider costs of importation such as:

• freight and insurance (for the transport of the goods to Australia)
• customs duties, GST and LCT
• storage and delivery charges
  
• logistics service provider charges
  
• customs brokers' charges
• import processing charges
• steam cleaning for biosecurity
  
• wharf and transport charges
• costs to have your vehicle meet State or Territory registration and insurance requirements.

Vehicle Import Approval

The next logical step is to apply for Vehicle Import Approval (VIA). Your vehicle must be issued with a valid VIA to enter Australia. It is an offence to ship a road vehicle before obtaining a VIA. If you do not have a VIA, your vehicle will be exported or destroyed at your cost. This document is issued by the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development.  If your vehicle is shipped to Australia before you receive your VIA, you may have to pay additional storage costs and other charges before your vehicle is cleared.

How to import a car from New Zealand to Australia

How WridgWays can help

Next you need to organise vehicle transportation and WridgWays can help you import a car from New Zealand to Australia. We work closely with a specialist vehicle transportation team to ensure your vehicle meets all requirements for import into Australia, and all paperwork is complete for a stress-free process.

We don't just move cars, we can transport a diverse range of vehicles including motorbikes, boats, caravans and jet skis. Speak to a member of our team to obtain a quote.

Arrival in Australia

Once your vehicle arrives in Australia there are a few steps that you will need to go through to obtain clearance for your car.

Things to consider

• Get customs clearance - When you have started transporting your vehicle, you will then need to lodge an Import Declaration and pay any custom duty, GST and if required a luxury car tax.
• Meet Australian quarantine requirements - Responsibility of owner to ensure vehicle is clean and free of contamination of biosecurity concern, internally and externally, before it arrives in Australia and before release from customs control. Biosecurity Officers inspect the vehicle for cleanliness on arrival in Australia. You are responsible for all inspection charges.  
• Meet import approval conditions - If modification of the vehicle needs to occur you are are responsible to arrange this, compliance testing must occur and apply for identification plate approvals.
• Register your vehicle - If you will need to register your vehicle with the relevant State or Territory. Visit infrastucture.gov.au for further details on your relevant State or Territory.

Note: While we make every effort to provide correct information at time of publish, please use as a guide only. We recommend you discuss your exact needs with a member of our team. They will be able to provide you with the latest information.  

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