I'm thinking about migrating to New Zealand in about 9/12 months time and am investigating the pro's and con's of exporting a car there.
The New Zealand car market seems to be flooded with imported 2nd hand Japanese cars with dubious model names such as "Chaser", "Windom", "Regulus" and "Chariot" - (Do you know anyone that would buy a car called a "Chariot" ?! ).
Anyway, I digress, the prestige (German) brands such as BMW, MB, Audi etc. seem to hold their value extremely well - i.e. A 96 BMW 528 with 70K (miles) will fetch around GBP 19K - where in the UK this car would probably only make around 11/10K and even less at auction. Overall there doesn't seem to be such steep depreciation for medium/larger cars as in UK. Is it worthwhile shipping such a car over there and how much would that cost ? I know I won't be able to sell it for around 2 years or so but I should still enjoy relatively depreciation free luxury motoring during that time.
The other option is to buy a car in NZ - My budget is up to GBP 12K and I'm interested in buying something like a Toyota Landcruiser Colorado/Prada - The Toyota dealers in NZ want around GBP 15K for a 1996 5 door 3.0 diesel Auto with around 100K (km). The Japanese imports seem to be priced keener (2-3 K less) and also have more "goodies" such as CD player Climate etc as standard. Are they worth a look ? Also they seem to have loads of the older Landcruiser circa 1990-1996 (bigger, rounder version) before it was badged "Amazon" for anywhere between 7K to 12K. I've always thought that they looked the dog's.
Any thoughts or ideas would be welcome.
PS. Do you have any experiences of life/visits in NZ - I'd be glad to hear.
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Chad,
I've chatted on Land Rover forums to a couple of friendly guys over there but have lost contact now. Looked on Dogpile Search just now for some motoring forums over there.
Just came up with the New Zealand Sheep and Swingers forums!
David
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Chad,
I've found the link now. Try www.lrenthusiastforum.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?u...4 .
This is mostly a Land Rover forum but the New Zealand guys on there are really helpful. Just post up a brief version of your post here and I'm sure you'll get some conversation going.
I only advise this because I don't remember anyone from New Zealand posting here.
David
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Chad
I've spent most of my life in NZ but have been resident in the uk for the past 3 years (5more yrs to go). The 2nd hand import market is certainly flooded at home and you're right about them being higher spec'd than the locally sold models.
You can pick up good ones but you have to be sooo careful. Igot burnt on a toyota spacecruiser luxury van thingee, diesel and it had been to the moon and back, but had 50000km on the clock, head gasket blew and once the head was off there was at least a 3mm lip in the bore, doh. Having said that I've also had a few good ones,Nissan crew cab ute and a Nissan laurel, 2.8L 6 cyl. diesel, both gave no trouble and were very well appointed and the price was right.
Also, be aware that kiwis don't tend to put the same emphasis on servicing/ looking after their vehicles as a prize possesion as appears to be the case in the uk, not that they get neglected re: oil changes etc., but treated as just a car.
There are heaps of 4x4 type vehicles on the road of all description, spoilt for choice really, but at the end of the day well worth spending the dosh to have compression and in depth mech checks done, especially on the jap imports.
When I go back I intend taking an audi TT or MB soft top or MB 4x4 or maybe all 3...nice thought...
Good luck and I hope you make it there...
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