After long discussions, the Australian government officially announced some amendments to their Motor Vehicle Standards Act.
From 2018 consumers will be able to personally import a new car from another country up to once every two years.
To meet the new importation rules the car must:
- Be right hand drive passenger vehicle
- Be no more than 12 months old
- Have no more than 500 km on the odometer
While most countries in the world manufacture left hand drive cars, UK cars meet Australia’s standards and therefore, UK is the best and easiest choice to import cars into Australia.
Nowadays, more than one million of new cars are sold in Australia and 90% of them are imported. This percentage will continue to increase as Ford, General Motors and Toyota cease their Australian manufacture. Hence, within about two years almost every car in Australia will be imported.
The government expects 300,000 cars to be imported by parallel imports.
The Australian government will also simplify the import process for exotic, rare, classic, collectible and special cars. These types of cars have their own new import rule: they have to be at least 25 years old.
Changes in regulations will also facilitate the import of non-standard vehicles such as exhibition vehicles or not permitted for general road use cars.
Do you want to learn more about Australian car market regulation? Read more here!
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