I've no idea about imports but there was a guy from the USA posting on here a while back about getting a CC. Tried to find the posts with a search but no luck. If contacted he might have some ideas.
My m8 from Egham moved to San Fransisco and when we went to visit him, his new flat looked EXACTLY the same as his old one... cos he'd packed EVERYTHING and shipped it over! I'll email & ask him for any tips but it might be different cos the stuff was his own, and not imported new and not a car !!
Well being in that line of work, i would suggest the most feasible option would be to contact a cargo shipping firm such as Kuene and Nagal, possibly P+0, maybe Maersk or any number of American shipping firms that operate along the Eastern Seaboard. A CC will fit nicely into a standard 20' ISO container for the voyage across. Don't quote me but i believe prices wouldn't give him much change out of $1200 US or thereabouts + insurance of course. I work more in the air freight side of things and if i could i'd load it to one of our C-130 Hercules aircraft! This is regularly done in places such as Cyprus and Gibraltar with peoples cars when we have empty aeroplanes returning to UK on a fill-up basis. The charge is usually a couple of crates of beer! V. cheap! I am possibly posted to Ascension Island next year (tiny volcanic island about 200 miles south of the equator in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean between Africa and Brazil, and am toying with the idea of taking my CC on a C-130. The island is stuck in the 1970's car-wise and if you ever wondered where a lot of cars from this era ended up, Ascension is sometimes known as the 'Cortina Graveyard'!!!
So, in summary - get your American chum to look into the big shipping lines that specialise in Freight containers...
Greg S
On 2002-07-14 00:05, Robbie wrote:
Yes, he can import mine, I'm going to Orlando next month but don't know if I can squeeze it on the 747 in the excess luggage.
Robbbie
good try robbie
Derek
206CC 2.0SE Owner 2001 to 2004 - 308CC GT Owner 2010 to 2011 - Now RCZ GT 200BHP Owner
"I used Allied shipping... the CC is the car, right? There are companies in
Southampton who'll put a car in a crate and ship it for you, but you need
to be _totally_ sure it can be licensed in the US. Apparently Bill Gates
has a Porsche 959 siting in a crate on a docks somewhere..."
What does he mean, "the CC is the car". OF COURSE! WOT A DOOFUS!
Maersk will do you a standard 20' ISO Container for $955 from Southampton to any Eastern seaboard port (New Jersey, Baltimore etc)
And then i would imagine insurance on top...
Have a look (as Ni'cc'k suggested, at http://www.maersksealand.com )
I would suggest that you have a look in some American car magazines (Custom Car etc...). The UK is a growing market for imported American cars with lots of distributors working both sides of the Atlantic, they should know the best ways to ship, and what regulations the car needs to comply with, including tax's.
The issue about importing a car into the USA is not the actual shipping, but meeting the strict emissions laws and all the crap the distributors put in the way to stop imports.
I have looked at selling the Audi S3 into the States several times, the mechanics are almost the same as the TT which is sold there, but Audi USA does not sell the A3/S3 range over there.
Getting a car there is easy, registering it for everyday use on the road was near on impossible.
I doubt your friend could buck the system and get the car in I am afraid, they have a very protectionist state, quite unlike the cross border trade we are allowed in Euroland.