How about an Australian import?

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Currently enjoying a spot of time on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, there are a good number of MX-5’s on the go, looking at a car sales site (link) in GBP the prices are not bad (divide by about 1.8) and you would hope that chassis rail and sill corrosion wouldn’t be much of a feature. 

I don’t have a clue what the mechanics of import/export would be to land a car in the UK and be able to use it though. 

https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/results?q=(And.Service.Carsales..(C.Make.Mazda..(C.Model.MX-5..(Or.Series.NB+Series+1..Series.NB+Series+2..Series.NB+Series+3..Series.NB+Series+4.))))#Badge,Series,ModelVersion,OptionPack

 

 

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G’day Ian, greetings from the Sunshine Coast!

Where are you staying? The weather is glorious at the moment so I’m sure you’re having a great time.

 

The other way, UK to Ozz cost me $10K about 9 years ago so I would guess something similar…One of the nice things about cars out here is that we get little rainfall and of course no salt, a few years back I bought a 1990 Holden ute underneath was as it came out of the showroom

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Sulston Hills had gotten hold of an Australian Mk1 somehow, but as usual, went and ruined it with one of their “restorations”.

So pick that cheapest Mk1; AU$7800:

Purchase price: £4300

Free on Board Costs? Costs to get this car to the docks and loaded up. Are you going to pay someone to buy the car for you, fly out and spend a few weeks trying to buy a car? May allow £500-750
Shipping; so you went to Australia rather than the easy route of getting a car from Japan. Container Australia to UK: £1500
Duty is 10%
Shipping Insurance: 7% of the value of the car
VAT: 20% of cost of car + duty +shipping costs
Cost to get the car cleared in the UK, using an agent. I’ve seen a quote of £475 for this

The £4300 turns into £8700 for a car that still needs to pass a MOT.

There are two advantages to buying an Australian car over a Japanese import:

  1. In principle you can go to Australia and buy the car yourself. In Japan, you need to be a resident to buy a used car, hence need for an agent.
  2. You can read the service record yourself. Doesn’t mean on that 2 week holiday down under you will be able to validate the history.

Disadvantages

  1. You have to go to Australia. Exporting modern cars from Australia is not big business. There are not heaps of professional buyers. There might be classic car specialists, who specialise repatriating lovely old Jags, Aston Martins etc (which incidentally have a lower duty rate).
  2. Not much in the way of supply over a large geographic area. There are not huge numbers of cars to choose from.

If shipping a car from Australia, why not consider also South Africa (another source of classics), New Zealand. I think a few ex-Hong Kong MX5s have made their way over. Then you have sunny Cyprus as a RHD market, and no VAT,duty to pay. Plus holidays are cheaper. You might even be able to drive it back yourself.

South Africa; not a huge number of MX5, 60,000 rand for a Mk1, 70-90,000 for a Mk2, so £3200-4800, so cars are cheaper there.
New Zealand: cars are NZ$7-10,000 for Mk1, Mk2, so £3600-5,000
Cyprus: Euro 4000-5000

Japan; usual source is the auctions, which are cheaper than retail, but maybe they are auction for a reason. There are agents in Japan who will buy retail cars.
Bottom end of the (manual) market:
https://www.carsensor.net/usedcar/detail/CU6534570073/index.html?TRCD=200002

180,000 yen: £1200

Top end of Mk1/Mk2
https://www.carsensor.net/usedcar/detail/CU5659017427/index.html?TRCD=200002
Uber rare C-Spec for 3.2 million yen; £21k. This is beyond rare; 4 or 5 genuine ones were made, with that stroker 2.0 BP engine.

https://www.carsensor.net/usedcar/detail/CU8539104979/index.html?TRCD=200002
M2-1028, but its been messed about, for 2.3 million yen

https://www.carsensor.net/usedcar/detail/CU6201808277/index.html?TRCD=200002
Mazdaspeed Mk2 for 2.2 million yen

https://www.carsensor.net/usedcar/detail/CU8894879124/index.html?TRCD=200002
Low miles (38k kms) VR Limited for 2 million yen

https://www.carsensor.net/usedcar/detail/CU8742939996/index.html?TRCD=200002
Mazdaspeed factory turbo Mk2.5, under 2 million yen

https://www.carsensor.net/usedcar/detail/CU7372256473/index.html?TRCD=200002
Bit more normal; this is a Webcar MX5, meaning a Mk2.5 someone ordered online from the factory, and so go a one-off interior as part of the deal (its not a retrim). 690,000 yen

https://www.carsensor.net/usedcar/detail/CU7454585153/index.html?TRCD=200002
A pretty standard car, for 1 million

There are a lot of Mk2s priced £1000-2000. Shoots Australia out of the water.

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Hi Geoff, we‘re in Coolum Beach, definitely enjoying the weather