Learn me, buying and shipping a 25 year old car from the UK

I have a handshake deal on my Birkin S3 Seven, so time for something new. I've wanted an S1 Elise for a long time, but import eligible examples are few and far in between, with asking prices indicative of that. I've been very very seriously looking at 90s TVRs of the Peter Wheeler Rover V8 era. Think Chimaera/Griffith. Autoshippers uk quotes around $1300 for RoRo shipping from Southhampton to NY. Seems reasonable. I'm reasonably well versed with JDM imports, because I had looked seriously into that before changing my aim on what I want. Any import/export brokers or shippers people have had good experiences with? Men on the ground in the UK to get eyeballs on a car?

Some inspo.

Cool car. Something over on the Classic Motorsports site might help: How to Minimize Risks When Buying or Selling Via an Overseas Transaction.

Little update here, for posteritys sake. I pulled the trigger on a 1994 TVR Chimaera. It's had a motor rebuild out to 4.6L and loads of other expensive maintenance and bits. I did a wire transfer using Wise for the most advantageous exchange rate. Had to go in person to the bank to wire to Wise, who then converts to GBP and wires that over. I'm using Autoshippers UK to handle export customs and roll on/roll off shipping to New York. On the US side, they partnered with Pride in Baltimore to handle the import customs paperwork. I'll pick up at port myself once customs clears. If you're curious, roll on roll off shipping leaves every 5-7 days from the UK to New York, and sail time is estimated at 11 days. The biggest variable is how long it will sit in port waiting for customs to clear on each side. Should be here just in time for a northeast winter!

Awesome!  Great looking car.

Cool looking car. I assume that Pride is providing a customs broker at the US end?

There shouldn't be much of anything at the UK end from a customs perspective other than making sure the paperwork for US customs is all present.

I didn't see this thread earlier - I have some experience purchasing vehicles in the UK and shipping them over here, but it's out of date. Would be interesting to hear what your experience is as I might be going back to buy a car or two over there once the current unpleasantness is over.

Stunning car. preach approved.

This thread is relevant to my interests.  Early E36 M3s (the car, not the filter) are getting over 25 years old and the only ones that the Finns throw at trees seem to be left hand drive.  Imported from the UK means it would have a "real" M engine.

Very prestigious looking car!

Sweet!!

some of the later TVRs are going to appreciate in value a lot I think. I've contemplated buying one newer than the 25 year exemption allows and "storing" it with a friend in Canada until I can import it here. I decided it was too much trouble but man they're good looking cars. I'm interested in how this turns out for you. 

Quick bump and tangent.  Car came in, sat for 2.5 weeks to clear customs because of Thanksgiving backups. When I got to the car, the driver side window was completely down, and presumably had been the entire time it was sitting open air in the docks. Battery completely flat. Thankfully even though we had some rain/sleet, the interior seemed mostly dry. I used a jump pack and drove it 45 minutes home with no issues. There's a couple small electronic niggles to iron out, but wouldn't be a British car if it didn't right? I did probably about 300 miles before tucking her away from salt/snow.

Addendum. Looking at likely importing a Mitsubishi Pajero from the UK now as well. The one I'm looking at now is a private seller. The TVR was from a well known dealer, so I didn't have much hesitation wiring the money. What's the safest way to seal the deal with a private seller? 

Good luck with the truck, but we need pictures of the TVR!

Very excited to hear what detail issues and problems you encountered.  There are a variety of things I want that aren't crazy expensive but are in the wrong country etc.

Also, the dollars and cents would be of great interest. I know you said the shipping itself is about $1300 for shipping, but were there any other costs? 

DrBoost said:

Also, the dollars and cents would be of great interest. I know you said the shipping itself is about $1300 for shipping, but were there any other costs? 

I just got my quote on the truck. It's a little bit more than the TVR because it takes up more space. They're charging $1600 from Southhampton UK to the port of NY. That includes all the export paperwork on that end. That's assuming the car is delivered to port. I got rocked on transporting my TVR from the dealer to the port because of short notice. To the tune of $650 for a 2.5 hour ride. On the US end, I'm looking at around $750 bucks for import on a car valued at roughly $5000. There's a 2.5% duty and a personal bond that calculated with some of arcane numbers. Example (Let's say the purchase price is $5000) . Cars value x 3 x $2.50 /1000 = what you pay for the bond.  $5000 x 3 ($15000) x $2.50 ($37500)/ 1000 = $37.50. Those are the variable numbers, the rest should be flat. I got hit with some additional storage because you usually get 10 free business day at port, and then they charge. Since customs took 2.5 weeks to clear my car, I had to pay a bit. It was only like $11-13 a day though. I personally drove my car out of port, so no charge there. Some ports may require a TWIC escort to go with you through a port because of Homeland Security. I've heard those are $50-75. And then obviously, whatever sales tax and reg fees your home state DMV charges.