Shipping to UK..

[Adrian.Tyldesley]

I am looking for a bit of advice please.
Can anyone recommend a shipping company that could deal with the import of a car from California and also a likely cost?
Is there someone at the this end that can deal with it or do I deal with someone in the US..I am an absolute novice to importing.

[KS]

Do a search on here - you'll see Kingstown Shipping mentioned over and over again. A good place to start...

[anglophone1]

My "new" 911 arrived at Southampton Monday from Omaha Nebraska.
Kingstown have done a great job, handled all paperwork including customs declaration at 5% [car over 30 years old] all for far less money than I had originally envisaged- can't recommend highly enough!
Ask for Alan or James- tell them Clive sent you..............

[shoestring7]

Do a search on here - you'll see Kingstown Shipping mentioned over and over again. A good place to start...

Another vote for Kingstown here; getting mine to the UK from Florida took two phone calls.

>C

[dean1057]

I found it cheaper organising the shipment from California although the agent in the uk was kingstown.
The company I used was Rinkens and never had a problem. My contact in California says he's been using another company called direct express inc. there number is 001 310 324 2100.
I relied on kingstown to get the car through the vintage BTI which meant I just paid 5% duty and no tax. The car was loaded in long beach and arrived at Felixstowe around 8 weeks later but did come over the new year.

[Adrian.Tyldesley]

Thanks for the replies.I will contact Kingstown.

[jackstowers]

I booked with Rinkens in the States who appoint Kingstown as their forwarder this end. I did the BTI application myself and overall saved about £150 over going to Kingstown. I then got $100 refund from Rinkens as the car ended up in Felixstowe instead of Chatham as I could've towed it the mile from Chatham home rather than hiring a truck for the Felixstowe pick up which I thought was pretty fair.
The best bit is tracking its progress across the pond on 'ship finder' every morning to see where it is

[kvinyl]

The best bit is tracking its progress across the pond on 'ship finder' every morning to see where it is

...and trying to ignore news reports of sinking ships and pirate strikes...

[Nick Moss]

I found it cheaper organising the shipment from California although the agent in the uk was kingstown.
The company I used was Rinkens and never had a problem. My contact in California says he's been using another company called direct express inc. there number is 001 310 324 2100.
I relied on kingstown to get the car through the vintage BTI which meant I just paid 5% duty and no tax. The car was loaded in long beach and arrived at Felixstowe around 8 weeks later but did come over the new year.

Check your documentation, you will have paid 5% VAT and should have paid £50 duty

[Adrian.Tyldesley]

Thanks for the heads up guys.
Kingstown have given me a quote for shipping.I have done the maths and along with the asking price I don't think that particular car will make sense, particularly as I am buying essentially blind.So for now I will continue my search in this country.

[23e Heure]

Reviving this thread so as not to add to the total number of "Importing from US' threads...

If you want to import a car that is no longer original spec: Can it still qualify for 5% import tax?

Let's take a 1970 car that got wider arches and a cage added in the early 80s, and then in the 90s had an engine swap to 3.2.
Would HMRC consider this too many mods, and charge a higher import %age?

[Lightweight_911]

James - just to clarify, it's VAT that has 2 rates.

At a guess I'd say the car wouldn't be eligible for the reduced (5%) VAT ...

[23e Heure]

Thanks Andy.
So if it does not qualify for 5%, is it 20%?

[Lightweight_911]

Unless anything's recently changed, yes.

[inaglasshouse]

Thanks Andy.
So if it does not qualify for 5%, is it 20%?

The form I filled in to get the 5% VAT rate on my import had the following notes:

If the Tariff Classification Service decides that a vehicle does not meet the criteria laid down in the CNEN under heading 9705, the vehicle will be classified to either tariff heading 8703 or 8704. Both of these headings carry a higher duty rate and VAT rate than heading 9705

A quick Google suggests that 8703 is indeed 20% VAT