Anyone ever try importing a bike/car from overseas?

Life Cars & Motorcycles
41

I don’t know about the other points you were referring to matchgrade, but as for parts, I’m pretty sure that the local Chrystler dealers have them or at least access to them.
The local version is called the Chrystler Caravan or Town & Country.
They are different, but sold here under the Chrystler umbrella.

I bought the car I’m currently driving here, and have been more than pleased with it. In fact I may even just keep it for the computer business and make the mini-van strictly a family car.

I don’t know if you noticed the post where I mentioned that I have two large Golden Retrievers.
They fit quite comfortably in the Nissan Resort I have now, but I can’t really take any passengers at the same time.
We looked at all the other M-Vs, but found that the “Stow’n Go” seating in the Chrystler lines where the most efficient way to maximize space in all the mini-vans we saw. You really have to see it to understand what I mean. All the seats save the two in the front can stow away into the floor of the vehicle. This makes it ideal as, if we wanted to take Chan’s mom and sisters on a trip around the island with (we’re expecting) the baby, we could do so quite comfortably along with the dogs.
There are also built in child seats in the rear row as well as the fact that the rear row, can flip over backwards to become a bench seat out the rear hatch. Not to mention the glowing safety reviews it’s gotten over the last few years.

Unfortunately, the sticker price here is over NT$1,000,000(used) and we’d never be able to afford that on the budget we’re on for the next few years.

I could pick up a Caravan with all the trimmings in BC and have it shipped here for $15k Canadian, pay the taxes and terrifs and still come out of it with NT$400,000 less dept.
I don’t care how you slice it, it’s simple sense.

Oh, and sorry bout the Kelly/Carry thing.
Didn’t mean to offend anyone… :blush:

I’ve never heard of before the customs agent mentioned it and that’s pretty much how he said it… :unamused:

42

Hey Nam… Good on you for at least looking seriously at jumping through the flaming hoops the TW govt sets up to protect their nephew’s, uncle’s, sister’s cousin who owns the dealer for car brand X… You are getting good information from the people you’ve contacted so far, but for your own sake, I’d advise you not to take what they have to tell you too seriously… Yes, the import process is as they described it, but what is on paper in the govt records is not, shall we say, the whole of the law…

Joesax very wisely pointed out earlier that they are very likely to screw you on their local (read: loco :loco: ) homologation, noise and emissions tests… the chances of them allowing you to pass these tests the first time is next to nothing, even, and this is important, even if the vehicle meets every requirement on paper…and remember you will be responsible for the cost of the retests… In addition the appraisal guy will highball the value estimate as high as he can get away with to increase revenue, they will apply all taxes to the landed CIF value regardless of it being a 2nd hand vehicle… and don’t forget all those taxes are cumulative… chances are they will wait until the car is landed in TW to mention that you need to provide proof of deregistration and roadworthyness in the country of origin, documents that will have to be notified and stamped first by the home (Canadian?) government and then by the Taiwan trade office in your home country and then most likely translated into Chinese, something that must be done at your expense and in person more often than not… they will make every attempt both by the book and around the book to make your life hard/expensive for the simple reason that it’s good business to keep the dealers in business and the dealers give the government fat hong baos every year to emphasize this… also if the local Chrysler people have never sold your model in Taiwan, they will not only not have parts, and not have a clue how to service that model, but most likely they will not be willing to even order the parts for you… again they want people to buy and service the models they import and despite appearances car industry in Taiwan is not service based… They have the Chrysler name out front, but they are not in any substantive sense of the words Chrysler dealers, merely importers to whom bottom line is everything and substandard service and quality is nothing…

Perhaps I’m coming across a bit negative… (who me :wink: ) I don’t mean to say “give it up” “you’re a fool for trying”, quite the opposite in fact… I hope it all works out great, but from personal experience in dealing with these louts and thieves who staff the TW govt import and excise dept, it would be a mistake to evaluate all costs at face value… and it would be an even bigger mistake to assume that for a foreigner importing a vehicle into Taiwan, the process will go smoothly and according to the written regulations you’ve been provided with… Still… Good luck and keep us updated…

43

Having worked for Chrysler here I can confirm plasmatron’s comments about the dealers. They will work on cars imported by other agents or through the grey market. They will not stock parts for models they did not import themselves. It is possible that they will order parts for your import, but expect to pay premium price for them. It is possible that the odd dealer here and there may have the Mitchell On Demand system and thus have a shop manual for your vehicle, especially if it is a USDM product. The Chrysler OBD scanner will work on your vehicle so that’s okay. What I would do is check and be sure that one of the official agents in Taiwan has imported vehicles with exactly your powertrain, even if it was in a different model or type of vehicle. At least then they will have service parts for you and be familiar with the basic servicing.

Plasmatron is also right on the money with the dirty tricks dept. at customs. They will make every effort to see that you end up paying the market price for that vehicle in Taiwan, or more if possible. If they have to get creative with the rules and their interpretation to acheive that goal, you can be sure they will.
The only people I know who have gotten themselves a worthwhile deal on an imported used car have all had excellent connections and knew how to use them. They were also importing far more expensive cars than you’re contemplating, so the room for saving and thus the hongbao budget was also greater.

44

Yeah, Nam what you’re planning doesn’t exactly follow the KISS principle in your sig.

Dunno if older used Caravans have the folding seat feature or otherwise fit your bill, but I think those are available here, some under NTD200k.

Help Nam out and put him in touch with the import people that you know. Maybe they’d be willing to take care of all the procedural crap for a modest fee and still have it come out worthwhile if they’re connected.

When my friends imported their cars, they reported the Blue Book value themselves, and customs didn’t quibble. Granted, the cars were quite old, actually over 10 years old.

45

Well good luck is all I can tell you. When I arrived here 18 months ago I tried to import my 2000 Harley Davidson Road King. To not waste your time I’ll make this brief:

Shipping (Crated & Freighted) Plus Insured for replacement value of the motorcyle…$1,100.00 USD
All customs and duty fee’s…$5,400.00 USD ( There was even a freaking “Harbor tax” of $125.00 USD)

And all these fee’s were not even including broker fee’s and emissions testing. All totaled this amounted to almost $7,000.00 USD which is about 50% of what the bike is worth in the US. A fella in Tainan had a '92 Custom Softail for sale @ $19,000.00 USD (not a lot of after market upgrades, or chrome,basically a stock bike)which is about 2x what it is worth in the US. It was a legal imported bike which is why the high price…to recover all the damn duty’s and fee’s. That was about 1 yr. ago and from what I understand it is still for sale and the guy that owned it is long gone back to the US. So, the moral of the story is…you are dreaming if you think you can buy cheap there and ship. Don’t forget, all vehicles imported here are appraised by the blue book value, which means even if someone gave it to you for free it is still appraised.
By the way, my H.D. is still in my garage in Indiana and I ride a 150cc Kymco Grand Dink and am happy with it as far as a commuter bike goes.
Good luck dreamer.

46

[quote=“matchgrade”]Yeah, Nam what you’re planning doesn’t exactly follow the KISS principle in your sig.

Dunno if older used Caravans have the folding seat feature or otherwise fit your bill, but I think those are available here, some under NTD200k.[/quote]

Although you’re right about the availability of an older modal, it wouldn’t fit the bill as the “Stow’n Go” seating only began shipping with the 2005 model which is really hard to find here and still comes in at around NT$900,000+.

As for most of your post saigondash, you’re completely right.

Though comments like,

make you sound …
Well, never mind.

Further more, I’m not much of a dreamer. I never made any claim or promise of achieving anything other than posting my findings. Though I do like to be informed, and am left with no choice but to find out for myself, when Forumosans don’t share or post their findings with the rest of us who would otherwise love to save ourselves the time and effort of chasing our own tails.
Yet said people can somehow find enough time and energy to make stupid comments about those who do.

On the other hand, it may just be that I’m going on only a few hours of sleep, 4oomg of Advil every four hours(pulled another muscle in my back wrestling with my dog again) and the excitement of knowing that I’m a father to be(Chan’s 4 months along and we find out if it’s a boy or girl in a few weeks)

Now back to the topic at hand…

I got a response from the the ministry and have posted it here…

[quote=“Customs”]Dear Nam：
Regarding to your e-mail of June 19 2006,in which inquire of you should be allowed to bring your own personal property over here without paying any taxes and charges. But we like to inform you that those articles refer to some used passenger effects, but the used car is not included. When a car is imported no matter what the purpose is for use or for sale according to Customs Act and relevant regulations, there is no regulations that says your car is without paying tax and fee. So if you want to import your car please follow the regulations we informed you on 19 June 2006 e-mail.
With best regards

Yours Sincerely
Keelung Customs Office[/quote]

And thanks Plasma, your thoughts are somewhat similar to my own.

47

There is no way a Canadian registered car (especially from Ontario) will have any chance of passing the emissions test…And everytime you fail, you’ll have to wait (3 months I believe) and pay to have it done again. You’d have to upgrade to at least current California emission standards to have any chance.

I don’t think you’ll find it cost-effective…

48

Actually, I was looking into picking one up in BC as it just made sense. Ontario’s too far and too much of a bother even if the emissions testing were comparable.

There are a few Repo dealers that sell pretty cheap out there.

49

I was born and raised here, so when I moved back a year ago, I definitely wanted a “heavy” bike (I can’t stand scooters).

When living in Denver, I had the privilege to know of one of the world’s foremost experts on carbureutor set-up, and through a friend a sales manager at Fay Myers Motorsports; long story short, I came up with a plan to import a brand new DRZ 400SM that was “worked on” by the gentleman in Denver (see my sig for all salient mods performed; I’m pushing 50hp now from 35 or so stock hehe, but he swore that it would pass California emmissions, which I thought was the most stringent in the world). I knew I’d be paying approximately two times what the bike would be worth buying it here in Taiwan, but that particular model wasn’t for sale in Taiwan when I pulled the trigger on the purchase.

Knowing the sales manager helped immensely, and the fact that the SM is only 400cc meant they were moving exactly none in Colorado (everyone does highway riding, and the SM can just about get up to 80mph stock), so I paid, taxes included, 4800USD (basically cost as regular MSRP was approx 6K) for mine. Shipping over here was just over 1000USD, so I thought with emissions and such, I’d still be ahead.

I should’ve done my research better; I’ve since learned that Taiwan’s emmissions is supposedly the 2nd hardest to pass in the world (behind Switzerland), so after much shopping around, I was introduced to a shop that was able to borrow a stock carb, exhaust, reflectors, airbox panel (etc etc) to make the bike EXACTLY like what was actually beginning to be imported into Taiwan (of course they would after I made the choice to import). After 3 months (!!!) my bike is plated, “legal (the Ti exhaust, carb and other parts were put back on hehe)” and the ultimate Taipei city commuter bike.

All told, I’m out just about a cool 1000USD, not to mention a “lost” 4 months, over just buying the bike here . . . but at least I’m up 15 horses hehe.

50

:help: Please excuse me for asking the import question again :slight_smile:

I did read this thread as well as the Plasmatron post; however, I’m still a bit confused from all the information. Basically the overall consensus is that it’s a tough and costly process to bring a bike from the States to Taipei. However, based on the very last post from TienMouBen, it seems he did it all for $1000 and got the plate.

Basically I am contemplating to bring my 2002 Suzuki SV650 (approximately 3000 miles) to Taipei. I checked out the Kelly Blue Book value to get an idea on what the bike is worth. The trade in is $2565 and the suggested retail is $3750. The bike is in good condition and I’m the original owner. All stock parts other than a Corbin seat, Vortex clutch/brake and under-tail kit.

I’m guessing the shipping would be some where around $1000. I’m not sure on how all the taxes are calculated, for example, is it 24% of the value of the bike (somewhere between the trade-in and retail) or is it 24% per CC over 249CC. In addition, is the 5% VAT calculated on the value of the bike or is it on the value of the bike + 24% than from that value + 5%. What happened to the emissions testing? Mainly this is a question for TienMouBen, how did you get away for just $1000 buckaroos?!?!

Let say I did manage to get it plated, are there any insurance company in Taipei offer the type of insurance we have in the states, i.e. collusion, theft etc. And what is this road tax?

Oh, one more monkey wrench, can I ride on an international license provided I get a stamp from the local Taipei DMV should I stay longer than 2 weeks (granted the cops might not know about the stamps existence…

If some one can shed some light on this for me would be greatly appreciated. If I’m successful, love to join up for a ride!

51

[quote=“svgirl”]:help: Please excuse me for asking the import question again :slight_smile:

I did read this thread as well as the Plasmatron post; however, I’m still a bit confused from all the information. Basically the overall consensus is that it’s a tough and costly process to bring a bike from the States to Taipei. However, based on the very last post from TienMouBen, it seems he did it all for $1000 and got the plate.[/quote]I think he might have got it here cheaply under a special scheme that exists for ROC citizens returning here. Not sure though.

Also, I’m wondering if he somehow got the bike in under an existing type approval. Normally individuals have to go through the whole emissions testing thing themselves, I think regardless of whether the bike is available here. However, bulk importers only have to get the type of bike tested once, and then can import in bulk without having to test each vehicle, provided that they’re all identical. I wonder whether TienMouBen might have got his bike in with the help of a local dealer.

Anyway, for practical purposes, I don’t think it would be worth your while to bring the SV650 in. A few people on this board have the Ninja 650, which is similar and according to some people better in some ways. It’s fairly cheap here now. Maybe you could get one of those?

As for the international license thing, yes you should be able to get it stamped, but make absolutely sure that it states your big bike entitlement including CC details – i.e. bikes of unlimited CC. If it doesn’t have this information it’s unlikely that you’ll get big bike endorsement here. And you’ll need to make sure that the DMV here notice that and give you the appropriate stamp (actually a piece of paper they staple into the IDP).

52

I have not done any research on purchasing a new bike there yet. But generally how much does a 650 go for? Ninja or others? I really like the Suzuki 600 lately…

53

second thought the Ninja ZZR600 isn’t bad looking either.

54

[quote=“svgirl”]second thought the Ninja ZZR600 isn’t bad looking either.[/quote]My brother has a ZZR600. It’s nice. From what I hear the twin cylinder Ninja 650s have more practical power delivery for here though (you need a good broad powerband because of the tight twisty mountain roads and the crazy city traffic). You can get one for around $260,000NT here, which is a very good price compared to just about anything else. (CB400 Super 4s are a bit less money but a lot less bike).

55

about $8000 US not that bad. since i’m a girl, i’m more about the looks than the practicality :wink:

i would hate to part with my SV, it’s my first bike… I may still consider bringing it… will try to find some connections.

56

I think if you read TianmuBen’s post about importing his own used bike you’ll find that what he meant was the bike and import costs ended up costing him about US$1000 (NT$33,000) more than if he had just bought the same, box fresh bike here in Taiwan, not US$1k total cost to import his bike… According to my knowledge of the import process that would pretty much hold true for almost any bike, since that is what they design these under the table, bastard taxes to do, screw over the average guy who wants to import his own bike, used or not… So unless there is significant sentimental value or the bike’s a one of a kind that you must bring with you, you’d be better off selling your bike back home, coming here, buying a brand new one, then when you come to leave and sell it, chances are you’ll be able to buy a brand new one back home with what you get for it used in Taiwan… I’ve got a 2 year old BMW R1200GS that I’ll be selling soon and with what I’ll get for it I’ll be able to buy a brand new '07 model GS with suspension upgrades and new riding kit in England, so It’s a worthwhile “investment” if you can afford the innitial outlay…

In Taiwan the cheapest bikes on the road are the Kawasaki Ninja650 and the Suzuki DRZ400SM, both go for around NT$260k before discounts…

57

hey plasmatron, thanx for the advice. i think you’re right. in the end, i may just buy another one there. i do get attached to things pretty easily and chances are i’m going to keep my SV here for boston summers.

any one rent heavy bikes in taiwan? my plan is to move there in 5 years. between now and then, i travel there quite often so i can’t make the commitment of buying just yet, i.e. garage, theft insurance, i mean just having friends looking after it…

thanx!

58

1000USD OVER what I would’ve paid if I bought the bike new over here hehe. I didn’t do that well, but I didn’t get “raped” either (I figure its a push, as I got 15hp over stock).

Sea Freight: mine cost 1000USD from Denver to Taiwan FYI. My company here does a ton of export, so we kind of knew how to do the import ourselves, although it was quite the head-ache!

Testing/ Emissions: There’s always the specter of “guan xi” involved, especially in the emissions; the fellas who worked on mine “borrowed” the stock carb, exhaust, air filter cover and other trim pieces from a box-stock 400SM, installed them on my bike, and sent it to Chang Hua for emissions, where it passed (the biggest stumbling block was consumption, as my engine was over-bored and had the 3x3 airbox treatment . . .hey, horsepower ain’t free!), and promptly got held up in paper-work red tape for 2 months. Apparently US DRZ400SMs are designated DRZ400SMk5, while Asian (Japan) market ones are simply DRZ400SM.

In 5 years I’ll have to do this all again!!

I’m not exactly sure on the numbers, but the car guys I’ve talked to say that importing, when its all said and done, will run you 75-100% of the value of your vehicle, and I have no clue how used vehicles get calculated.

Sorry I wasn’t more help.

59

I guess the whole entry into the WTO thing didn’t really change things much.

anyone know if they sell the zx-6R here and for how much? I seem to remember a kawasaki shop somewhere on keelung road.

60

I knew a guy years ago who imported a 1200cc BMW, in pieces. The frame, and various bits went through customs as motorcycle parts, and the engine and tranny in a seperate shipment as a pump, which is essentially what an engine is. Then he assembled it and rode it for years. This was a while back and a good attitude and fast talking did wonders with the police when registration documents, number plates, etc. didn’t quite match up. I don’t know if that has changed significantly or not. But if you are in manufacturing or some field where shipments of equipment are part of the operation, it’s probably still possible to do something like that, and the whole registration trip might be worked out in good old fashioned ‘guanxi’ style. It’s the Taiwanese way, after all, or am I hopelessly out of touch on that and things have really changed?