Finance Fumbles and Exporting Your Car to Another Country.

Chat about your 6R/6C model Polos here!
Post Reply
User avatar
BonsaiTiger
Getting There!
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2011 6:30 pm
Location: Southport, Merseyside

Finance Fumbles and Exporting Your Car to Another Country.

Post by BonsaiTiger »

Hello!

Some of you will be aware that earlier this year I bought a Red 6R Polo GTI on finance from my local dealer, I bought the car as my new job gave me a car allowance which (eventually) covered all but £10 of the monthly repayments on the car (£367pcm), initial payment was £1000 and the car was stock so £18,500. The fella also gave me Gap Insruance gratis which was just a nicety because I was local I think. All in all, a deal I was happy with.

Last week I was offered another job, for over triple what I was earning at my current job, and in a line of work that I had wanted to enter since I graduated from uni last year (note: I currently work in ground improvement, making the move into Exploration Geology). The catch was that it required me to move to Brisbane, Australia. Actually that wasn't a catch, it was a massive bonus; but from the viewpoint of having just bought a £21,000 finance agreement, it made things somewhat difficult.

I check my contract and it appears that in order to get rid of the car now I have to settle the terms of my agreement which at this stage would cost me around £10,000. Money which I won't have for a few months yet and that I dont really want to spend on effectively nothing - as VWFS would take the car also.

So the other option is to try to find someone to take over the agreement, or to sell the car and pay the difference in the agreement, or finally; to take the car with me.

So that looks like the option I'm going to take. I've done a fair amount of research and roughly priced it up and its looking like it should cost less than £4k which is a vast expense but even if I manged to sell the car I'd still only get £17,000 for it at a push, leaving me with £4k left to pay back and STILL NO CAR! At least if I import the car the expense leaves me with something that I can sell at a later date and drive for a bit! Not to mention the fact that I'd then need to go out and buy a car in Brisbane to get around.

SO, this post is a mixture of two things - initially, for those of you thinking to buy a car on finance (particularly young idiots like myself), seriously weigh up your options before doing this - I learnt the hard way; it looks like the best deal in the world at first, but all that glitters isn't gold and there may be issues at a later date.

Secondly, I am going to keep updating this thread with my progress in exporting my car to Australia (a slightly more boring thread than a stage 2 map - but that may come later :wink: :mrgreen: ). All of the threads I've seen on the net are at least a couple of years out of date, so I'm sure someone will find it useful at some point . And if not at least it will keep my head straight and I can use it as a checklist for s**t I've done or missed out.

Incidentally, if anybody has any ideas on how to get around this in an easier or cheaper way then let me know (short of getting the car nicked or crashing it to claim the gap insurance!! haha!)

Cheers,

Ad.
daydotz
Silver Member
Posts: 476
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2011 5:52 pm
Location: Hampshire

Finance Fumbles and Exporting Your Car to Another Country.

Post by daydotz »

Might be worth checking if your warranty will be valid in aus
What have vw finance said about exporting they may not be happy with money owing on it

Still I hope it works out for you an your polo
User avatar
BonsaiTiger
Getting There!
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2011 6:30 pm
Location: Southport, Merseyside

Re: Finance Fumbles and Exporting Your Car to Another Countr

Post by BonsaiTiger »

Yeah thats the next port of call. Only decided to do this on saturday afternoon so I haven't been able to ring them. Going to speak to them tonight and see what they say. Might still be a non-starter. Thanks for the support though pal!
User avatar
chris meardon
Silver Member
Posts: 432
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2008 9:09 pm
Location: Wokingham, Berkshire

Re: Finance Fumbles and Exporting Your Car to Another Countr

Post by chris meardon »

You have a few easy options that will not cost you vast ammounts.

1. Get a loan for the total finance ammount from a bank with the same (possibly even lesss APR than your finance agreement) This way you pay off VW and then just repay the bank not VW, easy. If banks dont let you to take out loans when you live abroad then get a loan from an australian bank.

2. Transfer the car and finance agreement into parents/ close friends name, then you pay the ammount into there account and they pay VW. sounds complex but its a case of 2 direct debits changing, an afternoons work.

This will save you lots of cash and gets you away from VW.....
gavs
Silver Member
Posts: 329
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:39 am

Re: Finance Fumbles and Exporting Your Car to Another Countr

Post by gavs »

For only 4000 quid, I'd look into the importation, just ensure hat your warranty will be available into Australia. I am assuming here you have your research in regards to having the vehicle complianced to ADR's? There is only one other issue that you may or may not face, which I have recently found out about:

When you import a car into Australia, the government rubs it's hands together because it knows of all the tax that you have to pay to them. Stmap duty, registration, import duties, GST, the list goes on. If I was to import a car from overseas that I owned, I will have needed to own that car for a period of 24 months (from memory, that figure) at a stable residential address. I would then need to pay to have the vehicle complied with the ADRs before being released from customs (unless the vehicle was manufactured pre-1983) at which point i will need to pay import duty, customs fees and GST. You may be exempt from this because you are a British national importing your own personal vehicle.

My advice would be to contact teh australian customs authorities and a local VW dealership in Brisbane (a few guys on VW Watercooled are in brisvegas), get onto the VW Watercoolded froum too, I think there might be one of the members who did exactly the same thing but with a Mk4 Golf, 2.8 VRS (we only got the R32).

Hope I helped and not hindered you! :)

Gav
User avatar
BonsaiTiger
Getting There!
Posts: 75
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2011 6:30 pm
Location: Southport, Merseyside

Re: Finance Fumbles and Exporting Your Car to Another Countr

Post by BonsaiTiger »

Thanks for the replies and for the information! I'm going to have a re-think this afternoon and talk it out with my rents and a couple of mates. Then take which ever route seems safest.

My main issue is trying to keep the car, I don't want to be stuck making payments for something that I don't even own anymore. I'll take a look at the other forum and see what the script is.

Nothing is a hindrance, the more advice the better set I am to make an informed decision. Thanks again.
ubiquitous-j
Bronze Member
Posts: 101
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2009 12:25 pm

Re: Finance Fumbles and Exporting Your Car to Another Countr

Post by ubiquitous-j »

Have you tried taking it to a dealer and seeing what they would give you for it as a trade in? Might just about cover the outstanding finance.
Post Reply