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.

Export Delays

Ports around the world are struggling with congestion meaning it is taking a lot longer to get containers onto vessels.

The congestion is due to a number of issues but mainly the imbalance of containers across the world. Usually container shipping & logistics is an extremely well oiled machine, when things stop however, it quickly goes south.

In the last year obviously Covid has created port slowdowns, but also the number of vessels has decreased for Covid precautions and staff shortages.

Trade issues with China between the EU / US and Northern Africa have left containers inn places where they wouldn’t usually build up.

We even had the Ever Given getting stuck in the Suez canal to add to the shipping industry woes

Timescales for clearing customs and loading onto a vessel out of the USA for example have increased from around 2 weeks to around 4-8 weeks in some cases.

Port Congestion

Congestion in the UK has been a problem since Brexit but even now in July 2021 it is still a huge issue with many vessels simply skipping the UK, unloading in Europe and then bringing containers back to our shores on smaller feeder vessels (a process called transshipment)

The USA has seen huge port congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in particular with around 40 cargo vessels at any one time anchored off the cost waiting to unload.

Why?

Well a lot of it has to do with demand. People have been buying a lot of stuff and having it imported. Plus, they have not been exporting much. The UK is importing a lot of goods, yet has reduced many exports.

The USA has an imbalance of 4:1 on imports to exports, the highest levels ever recorded. Meaning ports are under the strain to get containners unloaded.

Getting containers unloaded has been difficult with many workers off due to Covid, or who have changed jobs due to the pandemic.

Even haulage has suffered with many container lorry drivers switching to other driving industries with better hours and pay e.g. Amazon

Car Shipping

So how does this affect the car shipping process?

Well it does have an impact, and we try to keep anyone looking at shipping a car as informed estimate on leadtimes as is possible at the time of making a booking.

In general we are looking at a few extra weeks overall for the shipping. Not ideal, but your car will arrive as close to the ETA as we can give.

Our live container tracking system in our client portal works even if a shipment is transhipped so you can keep track of where it has been and where it is next to visit.

DVLA Delays

The DVSA had their moments with IVA testing suspended but we can appreciate they didn’t have much choice when Covid showed up.

The DVLA almost got back to normal, then they decided they were not happy with the working conditions at Swansea and started industrial action that has been going on for weeks now.

They are now up to around six weeks to register a car, we can ship a car from Australia in less time. All the while the people waiting for their registrations are left without a vehicle.

We chase as much as we can on timings of each application.

The post Car Shipping Delays appeared first on Car Shipping and UK Import Specialists.

Using the instant quote system is simple, all you have to do is visit www.shipmycar.co.uk, enter the details of the car you are looking to ship and then answer a few questions that help the system accurately determine all the costs involved with your requirements

The system will then instantly display all shipping costs, taxes, duties, testing, registration and more

The ShipMyCar Shipping Network now extends to:

Australia – Melbourne, Sydney
USA – LA, New York, Houston, Savannah
Canada – Toronto, Vancouver
Dubai – Jebel Ali
Hong Kong
Japan – Hiroshima, Yokohama, Osaka
New Zealand – Auckland, Christchurch
Qatar – Doha
Saudi Arabia – Jeddah
South Africa – Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth

The post ShipMyCar Shipping Network Expansion 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.

The hand crafted 6.2L supercharged aluminium V8 ranks among the foremost engines available anywhere in the world. Its tremendous power never fails and its accurate efficiency meets the toughest emissions requirements. EQUUS BASS770’s sound signature is characteristic of 1960’s and 1970’s muscle cars, easing from soft, elegant breathiness when cruising to a raging growl when the beast is unleashed.

EQUUS BASS770’s aluminium chassis is designed to perfectly balance lightness and agility with sharp handling. The central front positioning of the engine offers the ideal weight distribution for sporty handling. The long wheelbase and wide tracks provide for accurate stability at any speed.

EQUUS BASS770 is fully dressed with an innovative superformed aluminum body, entirely lined with carbon fiber inners. This leading edge solution guarantees uniquely solid structure as well as liveliness and pep. Treasured american style is back on the road charging forward with a roar that’ll be heard East or West of anywhere.

Your daily driving experience is heightened to a thrill backed up by the assurance that comes with dependable high-caliber components. Carbon ceramic brakes provide utmost performance, stopping distance and durability as you embark upon trips of your wildest fancy. The magnetic suspension system ensures your wheels will hug the ground. As your heart races, EQUUS BASS770’s shock absorbers are calculating in the thousandths to offer you ideal comfort and maximize tire grip according to track criteria and dynamic pressures on the car.

Supercharged 6.2L (8 x 770 cm3)
90 degree V8, aluminum block and heads, titanium valves, hydraulic lifter with dry-sump oil system
640 HP at 6500 rpm
605 lb.-ft. at 3800 rpm
200 mph
0-60 in 3.4 s
6 speeds manual rear-mounted dual clutch
Magnetic Selective Ride Control, Performance Traction Management, Active Handling System, Traction Control and variable-ratio power steering
Brembo® 4-wheel ventilated, cross-drilled carbon ceramic matrix rotors with 6-piston 15.5” front and 4-pist on 14” rear calipers with ABS
Frontal and side-impact, driver and front passenger with Passenger Sensing System.

For more information on buying an Equus please visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/EquusAutomotive

Shipping an Equus Bass 770 Mustang to the UK

If you have been lucky enough to order one of these fantastic cars, we can assist with shipping and making the vehicle road legal here in the UK.

Please enter the details on our quote system below for an instant price

The post Equus Bass 770 Mustang UK appeared first on Car Shipping and UK Import Specialists.

Market confidence will be crucial for Sterling as a lack of economic data leaves the currency vulnerable to wider market movements. EU Industrial production is scheduled to be released at 10:00 (BST) with a fall in activity begin expected for July. US weekly jobless claims data will be released this afternoon, weaker data may see the Dollar struggle to maintain strength. Weaker Australian employment data weighed heavily on the Australian Dollar as fears of further interest cuts have emerged.

The Pound rallied nearly half a percent on Wednesday after UK unemployment data showed improvement to the British jobs market. The rate of unemployment fell to 7.7% (forecast 7.8%) in July and heightened expectations that the Bank of England would have to consider monetary tightening sooner than forecast in the bank’s forward guidance.

How this helps Car Shipping

A strong pound can greatly lower the cost of buying and shipping cars from abroad, take for example the case of purchasing a new Ford Mustang and shipping it back to the UK, the savings of a $1.5/£ compared to say a $1.7$/£ can be seen as such:

The saving of over £5,000 is considerable and does not even take into account that we pay for shipping in USD($) and so our service charge will likely be lower plus the fact that economies of scale with more containers moving to the UK will further lower shipping rates

How you can lower foreign exchange exposure

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

The post Strong pound helping car importers 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.

Car Shipping Quotes

First you will need sensible quotes for shipping your car, luckily for you we have been developing an instant quote system which can price up the import costs including US transport, shipping, UK modifications, testing, registration and tax/duty. When comparing car shipping quotes, ensure that you compare like-for-like as our service is fully comprehensive and your car is shipped in a container

Container or RORO

At ShipMyCar, we only carry out USA->UK car shipping by container, roll-on-roll off is not worth the risk of the likely chance of car damage or missing parts

UK Import Duty and VAT

As a rough guide, any car less than thirty years old will pay 10% duty and 20% VAT. Commercial vehicles are charged 22% duty. European cars are £50 duty and 20% VAT. Standard vehicles over thirty years old escape paying any duty under the BTI Ruling and just 5% VAT

UK modifications and testing

Cars under ten years old being shipped into the UK and registered here will require an IVA test, the wiring on this can be significant, our quote system will price up any make/model for you

Cars over three years old will also require an MOT which checks safety aspects such as worn tyres/suspension

Car Import Registration

The car then needs to be registered with the DVLA, we can do this for you

In summary

Visit www.shipmycar.co.uk – we take all the hassle out of car shipping and even have a unique instant quote system to give you a free, instant and no obligation full breakdown of all costs involved

The post Car Shipping 2013 appeared first on Car Shipping and UK Import Specialists.