Since April 2021 prices have gone up 16.6% with strong demand for used vehicles.

It is no surprise that we have seen an increase in people looking to get in on the action and find vehicles to sell to our buoyant UK market.

However, some markets such as the USA have seen a slowdown in used car prices with the Manheim wholesale index suggesting a slowdown in pricing. Therefore, purchasing a car abroad and importing it to the UK can give you a double-win on low purchasing costs and high resale.

So how do you get involved in buying, importing and selling cars from countries such as USA or Dubai here in the UK?

Firstly we need to find cars for sale. Checking Autotrader.com / eBay USA can be a great start. You also have the auction houses such as CoPart with depots across the world (we see a lot from USA and Dubai) which have some incredible prices on cars.

Obviously from these markets the cars will be LHD, luckily there is a strong market for LHD cars here in the UK especially with people who frequently visit Europe, also from European buyers seeking UK cars.

Alternatively you can look into RHD markets such as Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa etc. However, in order to test & register a RHD car in the UK it is much easier if over ten years of age (it can be impossible to import a newer RHD car unless you are bringing it back as a transfer of residence). This is to protect our UK market from newer grey imports.

So how do you price everything up? Well first get the best rate for your payment abroad. This is always best by using an FX broker such as SMCFX. They will beat the banks rates at over 4% which can make a big difference to your overall margins.

Next we need a price for all the shipping, testing, insurance, taxes and registration costs – where do we even start?!

Luckily Ship My Car offer a fully turnkey solution (if you wish, or they can just collect & ship your car). All you need to do is visit their website and try the instant car shipping calculator on the homepage. It prices everything from collection through to road tax costs and works for all years, makes and models of imported cars.

So there you are. Importing a car from abroad and shipping it to the UK for sale can be as straightforward as buying a car from UK auction. Perhaps not as quick, but the margins can be extremely interesting indeed.

The post Making it easy to import a car for sale in the UK appeared first on Car Shipping and UK Import Specialists.

In this article we will price up a car from the USA to purchase, ship to the UK and then register ready to drive. We will use an example of a 1965 Mustang that is currently for sale at Beverley Hills Car Club (www.beverlyhillscarclub.com) – we have assisted many clients over the years from BHCC and have always been exactly as described and the guys there are a pleasure to do business with.

There are of course other places to source your classic car, for example www.ebay.com (click USA site when asked) and www.classiccars.com

The vehicle we are using in this example is listed at $16,750 which at today’s rather poor exchange rate of $1.22/£ is coming in at £13,730 – so first let’s discuss how you can save some money on transferring the payment to the US seller.

Car Shipping Quote
This is where we come in, we have spent many years developing our Instant Car Shipping Calculator – it will price up all US transport, customs, shipping, marine insurance, unloading, UK taxes and duty, testing and registration and works for all makes/models of vehicles from classics to brand new vehicles.

Try it out here: Car Shipping Quote

Paying for the car
Before paying for the car we always recommend doing some basic checks to minimise the likelihood of fraud, buying from a reputable and recommended dealer such as Beverley Hills Car Club is strongly recommended but make sure you keep yourself safe by taking into account the following: Avoid Car Shipping Fraud

The main aim of transferring funds is to get the best possible exchange rate as a small fluctuation in rates can make a big difference in how much you have to pay, the banks will give you one rate but using a broker can save a lot of money and even make the transfer to the USA quicker. Our sister company SMCFX can manage the transfer of funds to the seller at the best possible rates, far better than a bank (save on average £200 on transferring $10,000 for example) – sign up quickly and easily and use our online portal here: www.smcfx.co.uk

Instructing us to proceed
We have developed a fully online Client Portal area that can be accessed here once you have received a quotation from us: ShipMyCar Client Portal

This is a secure area where you can accept the quotation from us and complete our short application form online. We take payment upfront and the remainder of any additional costs / upgrades on completion.

What next?

Once you have made your booking with us, our experienced team get straight to work on securing the collection from the seller and making the booking at the port ready to receive your vehicle.

Your Client Portal will be immediately updated with a checklist where you can see all the documents that we require and a handy upload facility to provide the required documents directly to us.

Your Client Portal is the main point of all updates. Anything that happens along the way we add to your Client Portal. You can see photos of the car, online container tracking and more as well as authorising any works later along the process which we will discuss shortly.

The upload facility allows you to review all required documents and upload them directly from a computer or even directly from a smartphone.

Tracking your Car
Many container providers allow us to track the container in real-time. If this is activated for your container then you will be able to watch it travelling to the UK in real-time through the Client Portal. If not we will provide tracking to follow the vessel itself on a third-party website.

UK Arrival
On arrival to the UK we will provide you with the exact amounts that customs will require (if applicable) for customs clearance. As you would have already had an estimate of these on your original quote they should not come as much of a shock and for our example 1965 Mustang they will be 5% of vehicle value.

You will have the amounts required emailed to you, and also made available to review in your Client Portal. We provide you with HMRC bank details and a reference number for you to simply transfer the funds to them through online banking.

In our example case it would be 5% of $16,750 converted to UK pounds sterling at HMRC’s current exchange rate so around £650 in this case.

Collection / Workshop
Once customs have given the OK for collection of the container it will be moved to our warehouse in Milton Keynes for unloading and if applicable (and most popular) into our huge workshop for full UK testing and registration service.

In this example we have opted for our full import package. On arrival our team will check the vehicle in and notify you if any damage has occurred and how we plan to rectify this in the very rare case that it has happened.

Our technicians then carry out the appropriate modifications to your vehicle in order to pass the relevant UK IVA / MOT test requirements. In this case, the car is a 1965 model and so it will just need new headlights with clear sidelights and then for an MOT to be carried out. All of which would have been outlined and priced in your instant quote you had originally received.

What if it fails testing?
Let’s say the Mustang failed on a few items, not to worry, our team our very experienced in working on all imported vehicles from classics to modern day supercars. We will price up any repairs required, list them in your Client Portal and you can simply authorise them with a click of the mouse. This then gets our office into action to order the required parts ready to be fitted.

Our technicians will take photos of the issues which will be view-able in your Client Portal.

We can carry out all kinds of remedial work from simple MOT failures such as worn brake pads through to welding / engine rebuilds. No work is carried out without first explaining the issue to you and quoting clearly for the work required.

Further information no our workshop can be found here: Milton Keynes Workshop

DVLA Registration and Final Costings

We then register the vehicle for you, print the number plates (in this case on classic black / silver plates) and fit them to your vehicle. Any optional upgrades you requested will be carried out prior to collection such as servicing, tracker / alarm installation or valeting.

We have partnered with car insurance specialists Elevate Insurance, we can have them contact you for a quick imported car insurance quote

So how much did the whole process cost? Let’s take a look:

So all in the car cost you less than £17,000 – and that is an all inclusive turn-key shipment where you did not have to lift a finger (apart from to click the mouse). That included the cost of the car, all the US transport, shipping, marine insurance, unloading, UK taxes, testing, registration – the whole lot.

Even though the UK’s decision to leave the EU has hurt the value of Sterling, you can see that there are still some great cars out there and bringing them over to the UK is still a very cost effective way of owning the car of your dreams. Please try our instant quote system today at Car Shipping Quote.

The post Importing a classic car from the USA to UK appeared first on Car Shipping and UK Import Specialists.

There is a good market here in the UK for left hand drive vehicles from both domestic buyers looking for a certain vehicle specification or from European buyers who are happy to buy a LHD vehicle.

The vehicles we notice performing very well at the moment include:

1) 1955-1963 Mercedes 190SL

2) 1963-1971 Mercedes Pagoda

3) 2008 Mustang Bullitt

4) 2012-2013 Boss 302 Mustang

Anybody can ship a car into the UK and sell or keep as an investment and we are here to help. Our unique car shipping calculator allows you to instantly cost up the entire purchase including all overseas transport, shipping, insurance, testing, registration and taxes. This enables you to quickly decide on which vehicle you can import within your budget.

If you are importing a car you have already owned abroad (for at least six months, and you have lived outside of the EU for at least 185 consecutive days out of the last 12 months plus you are moving back to the UK permanently) then you will not have to pay any tax / duty on import. This can make great financial sense as you can own the car for a year here and then sell without having to pay any duties, this can mean not only cost effective motoring but also makes shipping your car back to the UK a profitable experience.

For more information please visit www.shipmycar.co.uk

The post Shipping a Car to UK to Sell appeared first on Car Shipping and UK Import Specialists.

Some of our Top Tips are very simple and completely free:

• Google is the best detective around – try entering the vehicle VIN and foreign registration number into the search engine, this can often throw up some interesting information on the car history, past scams, or past accident damage can sometimes be spotted on forums, blogs, owner’s clubs or personal sites all by this simple technique.
• Is the deal just too good to be true? Quite often that means that it is. Simple.
• Ask for copies of vehicle registration or title documents, do they show the seller’s name? Ask for a copy of seller’s passport also to verify their name
• Speak with Owner’s Clubs local to the person selling the car, if it is something unique, people will know the history of the vehicle
• Facebook can be a great tool for verifying the seller – try putting their email address, name and even telephone numbers into Facebook’s search bar at the top of the page – this can often show the person to be genuine and sometimes even photos of them with the vehicle – be careful though, Facebook accounts can be fake, but it is often easy to spot a genuine profile.
• Common sense – take a long look at the advert selling the car you are looking to ship – is it well written? Does it sound like a genuine past owner of the vehicle? Are there any other clues as to where you can search for car history?
• Forums can be a great place to post a question asking if anybody knows of the vehicle and/or seller – for example if you are buying a Mustang, try the Mustang Owner’s forums or Ford enthusiast sites
• How are they asking to pay? If you are buying a car in the USA for example and they are asking you to ship money to Nigeria by Western Union transfer it probably is not true
• Seller offers to ship the car to you for you to check over and if not good, they will pay the car shipping charges to get it back

There are also some methods that are not free but can help verify the car prior to arranging the sale and then car shipping, for example:

• Escrow – this is where a third party hold the car and your money until everything is verified – you then get the car and the seller gets the money – these can be expensive though and some sellers do not like using them
• Inspections – we can organise a vehicle inspection for £175 + VAT in the USA – this can help verify the vehicle actually exists

The post Avoiding car shipping scams appeared first on Car Shipping and UK Import Specialists.

First you will need to obtain a Certificate of Conformity from the Manufacturer of your vehicle, this is usually fairly straightforward and involves making a call to the appropriate head office e.g. VW, Mercedes etc and asking them to send one to you.

This document will (usually not in English, so use Google Translate!) explain what needs to be changed to allow the car to be driven on the left hand side of the road and usually lists the speedo needing to show mph rather than kilometres and often the foglight needing to be switched onto the other side, if the car was not originally for left hand driving, headlights may need to be changed to ensure the beam pattern suits left hand side of the road driving

Once you know what needs changing, the best thing to do is to get your car to us at ShipMyCar where our engineers can carry out all the changes for you. Rather than changing the entire speedo we simply fit fascia plates which look completely factory fit but work out significantly cheaper. We can carry out all headlight changes or rewiring needed, often while you wait. We can even MOT the vehicle which will be required if the car is over three years old.

As soon as the changes have been made we can provide you with a statement to prove so, this will then need to be sent to the VCA in order for them to issue a Mutual Recognition Certificate – you then simply apply with the DVLA to register the car by filling in the appropriate form, providing them with the MOT, insurance and mutual recognition certificate

For further information, please contact us on 01908 887917 or email info@shipmycar.co.uk

The post Shipping Irish Car to UK and Registration appeared first on Car Shipping and UK Import Specialists.

The modifications are carried out using our in-house developed light control module to ensure the existing brake and indicator feeds are split safely and do not put any additional strain on the vehicle’s sensitive electrical systems

Here is a short video showing the light modifications in action:

Car Shipping

If you are thinking of shipping a Corvette or any other car to the UK and require further information, please visit us at www.shipmycar.co.uk

The post Corvette C6 IVA UK Lights appeared first on Car Shipping and UK Import Specialists.

It also means, when applying for future tax discs, you will not need to show a valid MOT certificate

The car must still be in a roadworthy condition when used on a public road and we assume usual insurance criteria will apply for example if you had a crash in a pre-1960 vehicle with worn tyres, it should be your responsibility to ensure the car was in good condition and so if deemed un-roadworthy we would assume you would not be insured.

Shipping a pre-1960 car and MOT

If shipping a car to the UK through ShipMyCar, you will notice our instant car shipping calculator still adds an MOT test – this is going to be our company policy to put every car we ship into the UK to be put through a voluntary MOT test on import to the UK, this is to ensure the vehicle is safe for you to drive away.

The voluntary MOT will be carried out on the car’s VIN number as the car will not be registered yet as per usual with new imports and so will not be stored in the MOT system, and we will be able to provide a quote for any MOT work to get the car in roadworthy condition.

Cars being shipping for example from the USA may not have had a safety check carried out for many years and so we feel it right for your safety to ensure we have at least checked it has been deemed safe by a qualified MOT test station, or any defects are made clear to
you prior to collection.

Classic Car Shipping

We are specialists at classic car shipping – for further information or to try our unique classic car shipping quote calculator, please visit our classic car shipping website

The post MOT for pre-1960 classic cars appeared first on Car Shipping and UK Import Specialists.

1938 Lincoln K Semi-Collapsible Cabriolet ($152,500) and a 1956 Lincoln Premiere convertible, which achieved the same price.

The following three days maintained a sale rate of 70%, with the top price of $285,000 going to a 1967 427cu in Chevrolet Corvette HP convertible (pictured)

How to ship a classic car back to the UK

So if you are one of the lucky bidders you will be more than likely wanting to get the car back to the UK as quickly and safely as possible. At ShipMyCar we ship rare classic and prestige marques back every day and have the following advise regarding classic car shipping

• Ensure your classic car is collected by enclosed transport which has the facility for low loading so the front bumper does not catch
• At port use specialist loading teams to load your car into your own 20ft container
• Container? Yes, never ship a rare classic by Roll-on-Roll-off, if you do, it would be driven from the port to the ship and then is open to the elements and ship workers. We can organise a sealed, weatherproof container to house just your car for the journey, this is sealed in our US warehouses and unloaded in one of our customs bonded warehouses here in the UK. All of our staff are specialised in vehicle shipping. Consolidated/shared containers mean your car would be shared with one or two other cars, if you choose this make sure there are no other goods in the container which could fall on your car
• UK Customs Clearance – any vehicle over thirty years old should not pay any duty and just 5% VAT
• MOT modifications – we ensure any modifications carried out do not alter the look of the original car in any visible way

You can obtain an instant quote for any classic car shipping for any USA collection address at our website Classic Car Shipping