Hey there guys. Looks like my first post is in the Auto section! Typical me.
It’s good to see there’s a bit of a community for LongTan here. I’m new to Taiwan (been in Kaohsiung for about 2 months), gonna be here for at least 2 years. I’m a car guy myself, but I’m sure that’ll eventually (forcefully) change! Too bad there’s no track down here…but we should be lucky to have one at all.
I did a bit of SCCA in the states. Trying to import my 1988 Mazda RX-7 here, but it’s not looking too good. Needs to have an OBD II port for diagnostics hookup, which no RX-7s have. So I was wondering - and I hope you guys can provide me with some knowledge - how about bringing in the car as a track-only vehicle? I don’t mind shipping the car in. The amount of race time I plan will more-than be worth it. Especially like someone mentioned earlier, the cost of racing at LongTan is a fraction of what it costs in the states.
Anyhow, I’m sure there’s a thread for it already, but since I’m here now, do you guys know anybody personally that has shipped in a track car, classic car or something similar that doesn’t have an OBD II port? I’m sure your bikes don’t have to worry about that, but being an oldschool car guy, I can already tell this is gonna be a pain in my neck!
The car passes emissions in CA no problem (Stage 3 turbo), but it seems the government doesn’t do pipe sniffers as a backup. Seems bringing in old cars to Taiwan is as futile as owning a sailboat! Do you guys know any work-arounds, loopholes, or any bone you can throw me to bend my noodle?
There really isn’t a car tuner scene here. This is Asia, but not Japan! You have my word that bringing that car here is going to be a waste of time and money. If you want a race car then find one here. If you had been here for years, spoke Chinese well, and had many Taiwanese contacts, I “might” think getting a race car would be fine if you had the money to afford it, etc. But you are a newbie here, and you might only stay here for a couple of years. I hate to say it, but get importing your RX7 out of your mind. Buy a car here, or get into the motorcycle scene. I switched over to it, and there is way more of a racing culture in the scooter/small cc motorcycles. Actually some of the scooter racers get a nice chunk of change for placing 1st. Wish it was like that with my NSR racing class :bluemad: Riding a motorcycle is way more exciting on some of the curvy mountain roads here, more dangerous yes, but just spectacular. Trust me!
Anyway scrap all ideals of getting your sweet ride here. Time to forget the past for a while and move on.
Don’t get me wrong, bikes are great. Just not for me. Never will be.
Newb or not, to me the privilege is worth the effort. Sometimes rotor-lust just doesn’t make sense to many. It’s not supposed to Plus, if you didn’t read closely-enough, I stated basically that I actually might die in 2 or so years if I’m not lucky. So my perspectives on the here-and-now are more prevalent than others.
Thanks for the warning, but I’d still love any info regarding what’s on the books concerning bringing a track-only or rolling shell into the country. Boiling it down, that seems to be the hardest info for me to find right now.
I ended up buying RK’s second NSR to have some excitement.
I had not touched a motorbike for 10years and the reason was that I’m a car guy.
Finding something RWD hard.
Manual transmision hard.
Finding both in one car not posible.
Buying a Honda S2000 not worth it.
If this was europe I would get myself a old volvo240 or a opel and play with turbos since parts for this cars are dirt cheap at the scrap dealer. I was looking into cars for quite some time, but now my time go to playing around with my NSR. The wife don’t undersand me, but I like filling the ground with bearings and gearbox parts on a sunday
I dunno how sucessful my query’s gonna be - and judging the fact that everyone keeps saying “don’t do it!” - can anybody here that’s ACTUALLY shipped a car or bike recommend the shipping company/service they used? And if not that, if anybody’s done their research on a company, who did you boil it down to?
Also, if anybody here who actually has some hair on thier chest (kidding) & wants to ship their auto (I’m in CA, but as long as your car gets to LA…), we can save on average 800-1000 bucks between the 2 of us if we team up. I’m shipping the car over between Dec. 2010 and Feb 2011.
On another note, if you’re interested, here’s how much the taxes are gonna cost me:
Customs Value:
4766USD x 31 = 147746TWD
Import Duty:
147746 x 24.6% = 36345TWD
Commodity Tax: (Customs+Import)
184091 x 35% (ccEngine size) = 64431.85TWD
Business Tax: (Customs+Import+Commodity)
248522.85 x 5% = 12426TWD
Trade Promotion Service Fee: (Customs)
147746 x 0.0415% = 61.31TWD
Total Amount: (Import + Commodity + Business + Trade promo)
113264.16TWD or 3653.68USD
Whatev. Its one of those situations where I can’t get this car over here, I’ve put a lot of money into it already…and not to mention all the ladies are gonna get wet. Worth it? …But I admit, if the NADA quote on my car was something like 20-30 grand USD, then I’d say fo’geddit.
the taxable value is most likely going to be the Taiwan customs suggested value, not NADA’s. I predict that you will get screwed. Customs will value your car at 50,000 US, and that’ll be it. And you will have no forewarning, that will only happen once it gets here, and it will be impounded and you will be liable for it as the consignee.
Do you know any one in an import business or the transport authority you can pay off?
I will be happy to see you NOT get screwed, but that’s the most likely outcome here.
[quote=“urodacus”]the taxable value is most likely going to be the Taiwan customs suggested value, not NADA’s. I predict that you will get screwed. Customs will value your car at 50,000 US, and that’ll be it. And you will have no forewarning, that will only happen once it gets here, and it will be impounded and you will be liable for it as the consignee.
Do you know any one in an import business or the transport authority you can pay off?
[/quote]
I’m not even 100% he will be able to get it through customs when the factory paper’s date of production is more than 10 years back. You are correct that the ‘book value’ will be Taiwan’s book, not NADA’s, but I think his estimate is ‘reasonable’, in that it shouldn’t be much more or less. It’s hard to predict what will happen since these cars are so rare here and it’s going to be hard to assess the value based on what is in the local market already. The import duty calculation is already complicated enough as it relies on many factors like (but not limited to) mileage, condition, the state of the office tea fund, whether or not it’s auspicious to import vehicles on this particular day of the lunar calendar and whether or not the responsible officer has a friend who’s looking for parts for this kind of car.
The transport authority don’t even come into this until license plates are required, but the OP stated in one of his myriad other threads the vehicle will be a dedicated track car.
“(1) The Customs value for used cars from North America shall be computed in reference to the data of two authoritative car-magazines published in the US: the FOB value of new cars listed in the latest issue of KELLY Blue Book (hereinafter referred to as B/B) (i.e. the Dealer Price column of the said magazine, column 3 for body and column 1 for option) with value depreciation by the years used, and the Average Trade-in prices of used cars listed in the used-car magazine, N.A.D.A. Customs will take the lower one as the assessed FOB value and include the freight and insurance together to make up the CIF value as the Customs value.”
[quote=“ShreddyM”]Here’s a quote from Yahoo Answers:
“(1) The Customs value for used cars from North America shall be computed in reference to the data of two authoritative car-magazines published in the US: the FOB value of new cars listed in the latest issue of KELLY Blue Book (hereinafter referred to as B/B) (i.e. the Dealer Price column of the said magazine, column 3 for body and column 1 for option) with value depreciation by the years used, and the Average Trade-in prices of used cars listed in the used-car magazine, N.A.D.A. Customs will take the lower one as the assessed FOB value and include the freight and insurance together to make up the CIF value as the Customs value.”
Crossing my fingers that info is correct…[/quote]
The master thread in the stickies has anecdotal evidence that that calculation has been applied in the past. Keep your fingers crossed that on the day it is still that way. Things can change here on an hourly basis, between one office and another, and depending on who you ask. This is not Kansas, Toto.
I’m still trying to find info on shipping a parts car, rolling shell, etc. Can’t seem to get that info online (in English). I’ll have to have my girl call Customs up or something. Cuz if it saves me money to pull the motor and crate it, I’ll do that. Too bad I didn’t put the car in my lady’s name 2 years ago for the exemption! D’OH!!
I never imported a vehicle into Taiwan, so I don’t have a recommended shipping company BUT;
I met an American engineer while I was down a Subaru the other day, and he was driving an '07 Audi A3 that he had imported to Taiwan after finishing a work contract in the USA. I asked him about the overall experience of importing a vehicle and his response was that he wouldn’t do this ever again. Everything looked peachy until the car got here. Aside from the plethora of random ‘tea’ charges that would vary day to day, the car had to be put through several tests in order to be registered, but despite his A3 being exactly the same spec as one of the A3 models Audi imports to Taiwan, the testers had to find a fault somewhere. His was regarding exhaust noise (which was stock and exactly the same as the one on the TW model), and it took a grand total of 6 and a half month and countless fees to get the car through.
So, knowing this, I would be weary of the whole process not having a straight SOP on this side for when your car would arrive. You’ll definitely be at the mercy of all this gong show and if you are prepared to accept the unexpected and the unknown costs that will be imposed on this, then you’re good to go…but I can assure you that they’ll see you coming a mile away and line you up for all that they can make from you. It’s a crap situation indeed.
Note: I don’t know if there is any difference in scrutiny regarding cars that won’t get plated and ones that will.
If you go ahead with this anyway…best of luck to you my man.
Yeah, well I think it should be reiterated - as you touched on, Stag - that this car will not be on the roads. Just at the track. As I’m pretty much staying here indefinitely - and if this is the only way me & my car can be tOgEtHeR, then so be it. People have all sorts of retarded hobbies that cost them gobs of money. This one’s mine.
[quote=“ShreddyM”]Don’t get me wrong, bikes are great. Just not for me. Never will be.
Newb or not, to me the privilege is worth the effort. Sometimes rotor-lust just doesn’t make sense to many. It’s not supposed to Plus, if you didn’t read closely-enough, I stated basically that I actually might die in 2 or so years if I’m not lucky. So my perspectives on the here-and-now are more prevalent than others.
Thanks for the warning, but I’d still love any info regarding what’s on the books concerning bringing a track-only or rolling shell into the country. Boiling it down, that seems to be the hardest info for me to find right now.[/quote]
Sorry to hear that bro, I hope you live a lot longer then you thought you would. And try to get your ride in if you can. But if not, TW is just great for cars. Just get a car on the rock. I love the many many many great driving roads on the island !!
They would be spectacular on a nice moto no doubt. But im too chicken on two wheels.
Plus, if you didn’t read closely-enough, I stated basically that I actually might die in 2 or so years if I’m not lucky. So my perspectives on the here-and-now are more prevalent than others.