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

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brennan67
Posts: 328
Joined: Fri 18 Jul 2014, 23:43

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

Post by brennan67 » Wed 11 Nov 2015, 15:15

Hey Guys,

I thought i would post this comment from Willem van der Merwe he made on the AMC Facebook page as its quite interesting and relevant as the topic of cost of cars in SA seems to be one we all like to talk about and all have varied opinions on.

This is what Willem has to say :

Quote"
We've imported a couple of cars, here's the cost at the moment
The cost of the car x 14.5.
+65%-70% of that value for customs, vat, import taxes and import duties.
if you have a agent add $2000 for his handling fee x 14.5 again.
Budget a $1000 for inland US transport most of the time the car you buy is 1000mi+ from the shipping yard.
a 40' container is now $6000, so half of that x 14.5.
Your NRCS permits costs R3000.
And last you can add R12000 for your shipping, dray, docking, offloading and transfer to city deep and your yard if you in joburg so half that again.
So a $10000 car would then land like this
$10000 x 14.5 = R145000
+ 65% = R94000
+ container = R43000
+ inland = R14500
+ permit = R3000
Totaling = R299500
Then there's still a $2000 agent fee if you don't find the car yourself.
Then you still have to find someone to share the container with and you still have a LHD, not really a problem either but a bit of a pain.
Hope this helps

" end Quote


I find this very interesting as just the other day on a post about values of Mustangs I roughly calculated a factor of R20 = $1 on the back for my cigarette box so to speak. How wrong I was and whats interesting is that I did not get much opposition to that x 20 factor except from Maverick who asked how I came about that, but reading between the lines I think Maverick was probably thinking x20 may be a bit high !

Based on that $10k = R299500 or a factor of R30 = $1.

This shows you how expensive it REALLY is.

Lets face it a $10k car in the USA and basically needs work. Typically would come with a straight 6 and need a motor upgrade to V8.

http://classiccars.com/listings/view/63 ... exas-77581

$20k gets you a reasonably restored or middle restomodded/ugraded car but not highly desirable/rare car = R600k.

http://www.cars-on-line.com/67164.html

$30 k gets you are well restored or fairly collectable car, (but not the rare optioned models) or you would get a well built restomod = R900k. So I would argue that local numbers may not be far off !!!

http://classiccars.com/listings/view/62 ... rgia-30097

or a restomod :

https://myclassicgarage.com/marketplace ... ia/2342751

So thats what a R900k Mustang coupe looks like guys. I never in my life would have thought that !
I have based the above examples on 67 Mustang coupes, which are the cheapest of the lineup and FB would be a whole other level and I am sure we can run similar comps for Camaro's and others too.

So are the cars on the market really overpriced ?

Thoughts?

Maverick
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Re: Car Import costs - are our local cars for sale overprice

Post by Maverick » Wed 11 Nov 2015, 15:49

My personal thoughts after having see hundreds of local rebuilds = shit USA resto = top end SA resto.
Medium to top end USA resto = you cant find an equivalent here.

So even at R900k, i'd rather have a US import thats had a resto than an SA "rebuild" where Frikkie Foose was let loose.

I'm talking the majority of cars out there for sale or at shows. i'm sure there are forum members that have done much better jobs than what the average is out there. but SA average resto is really a nasty thing by any stretch of the imagination. We dont have skill, theres no passion, it's just a whole lot of mismatched parts thrown in under 5cm of badly applied paint, with overspray everywhere.

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Waterhond
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Location: Pretoria

Re: Car Import costs - are our local cars for sale overprice

Post by Waterhond » Wed 11 Nov 2015, 15:58

The rate used, at R14.50, is not necessarily relevant, as R14.51 was a historic high. Only a year ago, at this time, the exchange rate was R11.20/$.

I am in an industry where buyers of a product would call me to say that the prices I put in my reports are much to high. While in the same week, I get called out for "too low a price" on the same product. But then it is from a seller.

Pieter

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jlebenon
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Re: Car Import costs - are our local cars for sale overprice

Post by jlebenon » Wed 11 Nov 2015, 17:04

most of our cars are way overpriced for what they are ...
2006 lumina ute
1973 El camino 353ci

wollie
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Joined: Sat 04 May 2013, 19:38

Re: Car Import costs - are our local cars for sale overprice

Post by wollie » Wed 11 Nov 2015, 17:08

There is one thing to bear in mind to this calculation.
Inland US freight, container costs, agent fees, permit fees and local undocking and inland freight are all non changeables. So when you go to a $30k car the R/$ currency will drop.
14.50 was worked at a current average of R14.00 + around 50c per dollar you pay the bank for the wire transfer or credit card payment, but even taking a R1 per dollar off that on a good day your still at R280000 for a $10k car.

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Johann72
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Location: Rothdene Gauteng

Re: Car Import costs - are our local cars for sale overprice

Post by Johann72 » Wed 11 Nov 2015, 17:41

That is why I play with my 1965 Locally assembled Opel Rekord :D
Total cost up to now R25,000 = $1786.00 :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Absolutely in my league!! :D
I can afford that! Local parts are available even the scarce Supersonic 1965 car radio as a gift! :mrgreen:
Dankie Rassie!! :D
Used to be known as Johann65.
1966 Opel Rekord Current running project
1972 Chev Kommando (V8 Conversion) Sold to Mantaray
1965 Chev Malibu Sold
1966 Volkswagen Sold
1953 Renault Break (Sold as scrap!)
1954 Hillman Californian Sold
1954 Triumph TR2 Sold

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Stealth GT
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Location: RSA Cape Town

Re: Car Import costs - are our local cars for sale overprice

Post by Stealth GT » Wed 11 Nov 2015, 19:17

Ive imported a few car's , heres a few problems I ran into.

ITAC wants you to get a permit before you purchase the car , some of the cars I needed to purchase tended to move very quickly so you end up buying without the permit and then you apply for the permit the problem with that is you might buy the car @ R11 to the dollar now you get your permit and need to ship BOOM the rand falls to R14 and then you find out that import duties are paid on the day the container leaves.

NEVER ship without the permit if you don't get the permit and the car lands the Demurrage fees will kill you.
A customer of mine did a deal with a guy in Germany with two Mustangs for his GT40 he wouldn't pay me to get the permit and paperwork sorted , the cars landed and he ran around for days sorting the mess out I think he paid something like a R125K in demurrage fees.

Another big expenditure is the inland transport its not cheap you might end up paying more for transport than the car , if you're buying a cheapie.

If you want to import a car buy a car that needs little to no work and be Very careful of Craigslist.

Some of the best car I bought came from Texas Always ask the shipper which shipping liner they use rather pay more for MSC .
I used African bulk carriers once unfortunately for me the ship broke down just after sailing and had to pay extra to have the car put onto another shipping liner not nice when you have customers waiting for their cars.


Regards
Warren

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Burnthosetyres
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Re: Car Import costs - are our local cars for sale overprice

Post by Burnthosetyres » Wed 11 Nov 2015, 19:31

Where is Mr Timmothy Murali? This is your wheel house, you and Richy Rich have done this plenty times....:
'A Camaro is a little animal that eats Mustangs!'

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Moering Tool
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Location: Djoubeg

Re: Car Import costs - are our local cars for sale overprice

Post by Moering Tool » Thu 12 Nov 2015, 12:54

I work in the customs clearing software industry. This document lists the Schedule 1 tariffs for practically every kind of item imported into the country.

http://www.sars.gov.za/AllDocs/LegalDoc ... o%2099.pdf

Search for heading 87.03, it covers import duties for vehicles. If you import from a SADC country, there is no import duty, only customs VAT and clearing agent fees, so there is a loophole that might exist if you know someone in a SADC country you can trust (and provided of course that THAT country itself lists automobiles as duty free. It would also only make sense if the double clearance and shipping fees is less than the basic duty if you imported it directly. It's probably not worth the hassle).

The entire document itself makes for fascinating reading.

Keep in mind that the duty itself is designed to protect the local manufacturing industry, but it does not benefit the consumer because that 20 or 25% import duty gets tacked onto the local build cost as pure profit. I'm of the opinion that it is the lesser of the two evils.

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Moering Tool
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Location: Djoubeg

Re: Car Import costs - are our local cars for sale overprice

Post by Moering Tool » Thu 12 Nov 2015, 13:22

P.S You'll be glad to know that Tetrahydrocannabinols are duty free. Absolutely, look it up.

Except the SARS idiots make a moerse bruhaha on their website when they discover two grams of it shoved up someone's arse at Beitbridge border post :roll:

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