Just got back from a holiday in New Zealand and was pleasantly surprised to see 4 Fabia VRS's there, two SE's (or similar - they were race blue), one silver and one black.

Anyone know if these will be imports or were they sold there by the dealers?

Just got back from a holiday in New Zealand and was pleasantly surprised to see 4 Fabia VRS's there, two SE's (or similar - they were race blue), one silver and one black.

Anyone know if these will be imports or were they sold there by the dealers?

Rob a member on here crated his RED Skoda up and emigrated to NZ with it

He posts a blog, and his car two years on is looking great

http://clubley.blogspot.com/

Regards National

Just noticed this. Skodas from the Mk1 Fabia and Octavia onwards were officially imported to NZ by European Motor Distributors. They're UK spec. There are about 8 dealers now. At the time I imported mine they'd brought in about 800 Skodas. Now since the New models have come out they're much more popular and starting to gain the same reputation as in the UK.

Dunno if Rob will read this, but I can hope.

I'm looking at shipping my Fabia vRS to NZ (should I get a job there in the New Year), and wondered which way's best - put it in a container with all my other belongings, or on a roll on-roll off ship?

Also, is it a fairly simple process to get it registered etc over there? I assume they've got some Skoda (or VAG) dealers/indies over there that can work on the car as needs be.

Also, is it a fairly simple process to get it registered etc over there?

Check out A GUIDE TO IMPORTING PRIVATE MOTOR VEHICLES INTO NEW ZEALAND and NEW ZEALAND CUSTOMS SERVICE - looks complicated...

Dunno if Rob will read this, but I can hope.

I'm looking at shipping my Fabia vRS to NZ (should I get a job there in the New Year), and wondered which way's best - put it in a container with all my other belongings, or on a roll on-roll off ship?

Also, is it a fairly simple process to get it registered etc over there? I assume they've got some Skoda (or VAG) dealers/indies over there that can work on the car as needs be.

Flick Rob a PM and you'll be guaranteed a response. My guess is he's the only person on this forum with personal experience of what you are attempting.

You need to have owned your Fabia for at least 12 months or you'll get whacked for 15% GST (equivalent to VAT). You'll also have to pay a couple of fees to cover the importation and cleaning/inspection of the vehicle (we don't want any nasty UK bugs hitching a ride, thank you very much :no: ). You'll have no problems with obtaining spare parts or VAG servicing unless you're planning to base yourself away from the main centres of population. You'll also have a much rarer car over here than in the UK. While Rob is right to say they are growing in popularity, they are still a very small player on the NZ stage. I've yet to see another Scout in the 6 months I've been actively following the brand ...

It's not that hard to do. We used John Mason in Liverpool for the shipping. The car went into a shared 40ft container with other people's stuff and we had our own 20ft for our house contents which we packed to the doors!

I've never heard of anyone doing it with the ro-ro ships before. The only issue I see with that is that the car would require a serious clean when it arrived to be clean enough for the MAF inspection.

I've also heard horror stories about cars (from Japan usually) being driven by the dockers, spare wheels and stereos going missing etc.

Once the car gets here it needs a MAF inspection for biosecurity - make sure there are no seeds or insects on the car. I can't remember the cost of ths one - but you should be able to get it included in the shipping cost.

This has to be done within 24 hours of the car coming out of the container for obvious reasons. They left mine sitting for a week in an open warehouse with the windows down and keys on the front seat!

It passed, but they used a forklift blade to jack the car and bent both sills a bit. They also made various minor scratches on the paint.

Then it needs an import check - they do a visual inspection of the seatbelt bolts and various other checks to make sure the car hasn't been made less safe!! (Mine suffered paint damage, broken clips and lost screws during this check)

Then it goes to VTNZ for registration and a warrant of fitness (MOT).

Registration is about $400 - they check the car over, make sure it passes frontal impact standards (The Fabia was sold here so they just look it up on the computer - should be all good). I was told I would need a $600 frontal impact cert - I didn't bother with it and everything was fine.

Assuming all is good they hand you a set of plates and send you on your way. They don't give you or sell you fixing screws so be aware of this!

One common thing they fail you on is worn brake discs (they call em rotors here, never heard that until I was here!)

If you have owned the car for less than 12 months you have to pay GST on it when importing. You sign a customs declaration to say you won't sell in for 2 years or you will have to pay the GST.

Shipping cost for us 5 years ago was 1200 quid plus 700 insurance.

I claimed $1250 against the insurance for the cosmetic damage made after the car landed in NZ.

There are 7 dealers in NZ now I think, plus lots of independent European specialists. Parts come from overseas, especially modding parts so tend to be more expensive than UK. So local suppliers like to import at the price you would pay from UK or US then double it.

There's a good local VAG forum too - www.vask.org.nz

Whereabouts in NZ are you headed?