you should be right, but you may have to prove your residency for the 12 months. dont know why you would want to prove usage for the 12 months. the guy who posted above has a 97 rover, and he imported that either last year or the year before didnt you bob?


so, see you in a year!!! have a happy holiday! (did someone say working visa???:wink:)

HEY what if you spoke to the owner and got him to import it in his name, then when its here register it in his name then change to your name? or do you think there would be a cooling-off period??? or perhaps he has to be an oz resident to register it here? perhaps import in his name and rego in your name??????

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78 Leyland Mini - Prince

All new rules out concerning private imports...
read them carefully.

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Miniworx Centre 0883741299
Sooperdooperminicooperexpertengineering
Online BMW Mini Shop

There are several 2000 model Rover Coopers which were imported from UK here in Vic alone and they cost more than a BMW Cooper S

I know which one I'd take hands down![/quote]

Didn't BMW own Rover in 1996 ( which technicaly means a 1996-2000 Mini is a BMW MINI built in the BMW owned factory) SO which BMW MINI would you take
NEW MINI or Classic mini???

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Thats right - technically they're both BMW Minis... would you call a 1999 JCW a BINI??

Lets break down the walls people! They're all just Minis!

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Dark Silver Mini Cooper S with lots of mods .

In 97 they changed everything on the car... panels, wiring, subframes, steering column, engine etc...
three years later... no more mini.

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Miniworx Centre 0883741299
Sooperdooperminicooperexpertengineering
Online BMW Mini Shop

correct.....
then MINI arrived

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After seeing the underside of what an early-mid 90's mini imported from the UK looks like...... I seriously wouldnt bother getting one. The Japanese import ones are structurally so much better.

And YES, the UK ones were all dreadful..... subframes rusted beyond belief..... with adjoining panelwork being not much better ....and not to mention the rust in the roof and around the headlights

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[NATHAN] -- Sold everything mini related and am back in big beautiful BMWs

Don't start this crap again.

I think we are all entitled to our own opinions on this one!

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

Have you ever driven a pre BMW MINI?

I have driven both and couldn't possibly say I enjoy driving the BWM MINI as much as an older Mini.

I'm not saying I don't like them (MINI's) or that I wouldn't own one. I would if money was not a problem.

But, in saying that I would never own a MINI instead of a Mini.

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mutant mini 1380cc '73 UK imp-Chroma Lusion-leather interior-8 x 300W Diamond Audio Dual Voice Coil 8" subs, Phoenix Gold 4 chnl amp, Pioneer 7550 DVD, 2x Phoenix Gold A1.800d MonoBlock Amp, Focal Utopia splits, 14" chrome rims 195/40/14 tyres

hit the nail on the head there jan!!!

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78 Leyland Mini - Prince

I drive and own both (2004 Cooper S and 1968 Morris Cooper S) so I love both of them, I just get sick of the old Mini community calling my other mini a BINI.

Well thats my rant and Rave and rave for a while......;.

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The term "BINI" isn't meant as derrogatory; it's much like the term "abo", in that it is merely an abbreviation of the word "aborigine", and doesn't carry with it any negative connotations. BINI is BMW MINI, mini is morris/austin/rover/leyland mini.

LIke Brett and Jan said (Welcome back Jan ), don't start this crap again. We all have our opinions.

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"I'm sorry, but a lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part!"

Gotta stick me oar in hear......................
BMW bought the rights to the name Mini. At the same time Ford bought Landrover.
Rover still made Mini's until end of production. BMW never made Mini's.
The last Mini's were registered in about 2001 in the UK because they had remained unsold (deliberately in my opinion) to make sure they were the last.
Not all UK Minis are/were rustbuckets, most are looked after lovingly, same as here.
Some owners of MINI's were abused by owners of Minis (even spat on I recall reading) Whether or not you accept the new car is another debate, but hey they are wonderful cars. I'm with Baker.

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'98 Mpi Sportspack + 7 port alloy head

Hi.

I'm in the process of getting my mini rego'd here after bringing it from the UK.

From what I can tell, you might be better getting a Jap one that's already here unless your shipping is free, you can wait 12 months and you have people in the UK to help.

To qualify as a personal import you have to have owned the car for over 12 months in the UK, they do ask for all passport pages and the V5 registration document which shows the date of purchase (and of course you'll need to have a UK address for this to go to). I can't recall fully but i'm pretty sure that they asked for a bank statement and utility bill or something to prove residence in the UK as well as the Registration document.

And then you might still have the problem of whether your passport looks like you never left australia!

The shipping for mine cost around 950 GBP (roughly $2200)
Then you pay a whole pile of fees to Dotars for your import permit (but only after a year has passed)
Then you pay customs duties. quarantine fees and then you pay Sales Tax of 10% on the total of the value of the car plus the cost of the shipping.

The tricky thing is how they value it. If you ship it you will be asked if you'd like to insure it and if you say yes, then you must give a value, which of course means you can give a low value to try to influence the customs at this end but then you're screwing yourslef out of insurance if the container goes missing off the side of the ship halfway across the Indian Ocean!!

If you go too low, they might get suspicious and get it independently valued. (I did mine for 2000 GBP ($5000) and they had no problem with that.

As previously mentioned, the chances of a UK car being rust-free is slim to none unless it has been INCREDIBLY well cared for. Not everyone has a garage to protect the car from the UK weather and even then you'd need to be washing and drying it every time you go out in the winter to get rid of the salt, and who realistically has time for that for a daily driver?

as an example, my car had a lot of work done on it to get rid of all the serious and structural rust before I brought it over (which cost a fortune), but the rules in NSW for a Blue Slip (which is required to register a foreign car here) mean that rust on areas not considered a problem in the UK MOT test (like a cross between a blue & pink slip, which my car passed a few weeks before leaving the UK) are considered a problem here.

So I'm now facing further bodywork and painting just to get the blue slip, once that's done it needs a weighbridge certificate and then can finally be rego'd with the import papers, UK rego papers and blue slip, CTP etc.

If i'd known all this a year ago I would not have bothered.

From what I've heard, importing via any other means (ie not personal import) is even harder and even if you can get the import permit the car has to undergo further and stricter compliance and ADR checks to allow registration.

Sorry to go on a bit but i'm just at the end of my tether (and wallet) with regard to my car and am feeling a bit negative about the whole experience at the moment!!

on the plus side, I might get my car on the road sometime before winter but I am not holding my breath.

Good luck whatever you decide to do, if the car is in perfect condition and the shipping's free/cheap, it might just be worth the time/effort.

My God. Maybe I shouldn't be selling my car. But then I know I shouldn't be selling my car.

Sounds like you have just about given up with yours. It's just unbelievable how hard everything is.

Hope it all turns out in the end.

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mutant mini 1380cc '73 UK imp-Chroma Lusion-leather interior-8 x 300W Diamond Audio Dual Voice Coil 8" subs, Phoenix Gold 4 chnl amp, Pioneer 7550 DVD, 2x Phoenix Gold A1.800d MonoBlock Amp, Focal Utopia splits, 14" chrome rims 195/40/14 tyres