Car Import costs - are our local cars for sale overpriced?

[TIMOTHY MUDALI]

hi there..its not getting the itac permit and loa thats the issue from my understanding and i stand corrected

its the licensing of it thats the issue and the right hand drive conversion, thats the issue, that needs to be done to certain standards etc etc

[brennan67]

hi there..its not getting the itac permit and loa thats the issue from my understanding and i stand corrected

its the licensing of it thats the issue and the right hand drive conversion, thats the issue, that needs to be done to certain standards etc etc

Tim, I have no idea about all this ITAC, LOA stuff and what the next steps once this has been achieved. Just working through with you guys who know what the issues that are involved and its obviously been raised above as a major issue hence me discussing further.

Having said that on the RHD conversion:

1. Its my understanding a car 50 years or older can remain LHD.
2. If this is not the case I have no issue doing a RHD conversion to a car I buy, to the highest of standards if thats what I need to do thats the least of my worries !

cheers

[Buckaroo]

To clarify the issues with RHD and the NRCS.
To REGISTER a recently imported classic car here in SA you need an ITAC permit , a Letter of Authority (LOA) from the NRCS and the vehicle has to be in right hand drive (unless it's pre 1965 where exceptions can be made).
Cars that were on the NATIS system before April 2004 can remain in lhd, be sold , get Roadworthies etc - no problem. Obviously a recently imported car does not qualify therefore it must be in rhd - end of story- and the authorities know this so if you back door get your lhd car on the system and get stopped by a cop who knows - well its like driving a stolen car - great until you get stopped and caught -the cop doesn't need to be a genius to work out - car on the system after 2004 - in lhd which is verboten - there must have been bribery and corruption involved so lets impound the car and start a criminal case as to how it happened - names dates places - it's already in the system.
So cars that are here and have been on the system before 2004 are not affected by the lhd issue at all.
Now the real problem is the NRCS - they refuse to issue you with an LOA unless you can prove that your car complies with the latest EEC safety standards - crash tests and all!
Of course that is impossible with a 60/70 car as such standards did not exist back then and of course no such car has ever been so tested or for that matter would pass such tests.
That logic, in typical government fashion is completely lost on the NRCS who reply by saying no proof of compliance with the safety specs = no LOA. No LOA means no way of registering your car on NATIS as an LOA IS ESSENTIAL.
So as matters now stand nobody can legally register an imported classic at all and if you could persuade them to think about giving you an LOA (good luck!!! it wont happen)it will be in any event inspected by the NRCS and has to be in RHD.
Hope that clears things up!

[First V8]

Thanks for the explanation . I can imagine some lowly paid License Dept clerk trying to get his head around those rules or even trying to explain it to someone .

[IndianaJones]

Its my understanding a car 50 years or older can remain LHD.

To REGISTER a recently imported classic car here in SA you need an ITAC permit , a Letter of Authority (LOA) from the NRCS and the vehicle has to be in right hand drive (unless it's pre 1965 where exceptions can be made)

Which organization exactly, implements this "1965" or "50 year old" rule?
ITAC? NCRS? or the Traffic Department?

[brennan67]

To clarify the issues with RHD and the NRCS.
To REGISTER a recently imported classic car here in SA you need an ITAC permit , a Letter of Authority (LOA) from the NRCS and the vehicle has to be in right hand drive (unless it's pre 1965 where exceptions can be made).
Cars that were on the NATIS system before April 2004 can remain in lhd, be sold , get Roadworthies etc - no problem. Obviously a recently imported car does not qualify therefore it must be in rhd - end of story- and the authorities know this so if you back door get your lhd car on the system and get stopped by a cop who knows - well its like driving a stolen car - great until you get stopped and caught -the cop doesn't need to be a genius to work out - car on the system after 2004 - in lhd which is verboten - there must have been bribery and corruption involved so lets impound the car and start a criminal case as to how it happened - names dates places - it's already in the system.
So cars that are here and have been on the system before 2004 are not affected by the lhd issue at all.
Now the real problem is the NRCS - they refuse to issue you with an LOA unless you can prove that your car complies with the latest EEC safety standards - crash tests and all!
Of course that is impossible with a 60/70 car as such standards did not exist back then and of course no such car has ever been so tested or for that matter would pass such tests.
That logic, in typical government fashion is completely lost on the NRCS who reply by saying no proof of compliance with the safety specs = no LOA. No LOA means no way of registering your car on NATIS as an LOA IS ESSENTIAL.
So as matters now stand nobody can legally register an imported classic at all and if you could persuade them to think about giving you an LOA (good luck!!! it wont happen)it will be in any event inspected by the NRCS and has to be in RHD.
Hope that clears things up!

Thanks Buckaroo once again for explaining this to us.

So as you say the NRCS req proof of compliance with safety specs and these old cars dont have any. Makes sense.. So are you guys at Diamondback racing not offering Dynacorn builds anymore or importing cars as obviously these would not comply with these safety standards as well?

[Buckaroo]

As to who implements the rules you can take your pick - every agency in the loop wants to check the entire chain of what happened before - so customs want to see the permit and LOA - then NRCS want to see the Customs DOCS as well as the previous stuff, then traffic want the customs stuff as well as the permit and the NRCS stuff so they can check them as well - it is not as if once you have the Customs stamp the others accept that all the Customs stuff is ok - they want to start again so it is easy for them to make their own rules as they go along and they do - remember my example of the issue with Traffic re the name of the title - Customs and NRCS have checked and approved that very document before they passed it on as it is a requirement for their purposes but Traffic ignore that all the previous Depts before them are happy with it - they weren't and that's where it sticks.

Importing cars on hold right now until we resolve all these issues - fortunately we have almost a years worth of work here.