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Janetthegannet
Member Since: 02 Mar 2014
Location: West Sussex
Posts: 64
  
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| Shipping a Disco from the UK to the USA |
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We are finally here and will be picking Camel up from the depot in Saco, Maine tomorrow!
It has not been the most straight-forward thing to get our Disco 3 here, but we will finally manage to get Camel released from her container. In case you are interested, this is what we had to do:
Apply for visas (as we wanted to stay for more than the three months that the visa waiver programme allows.) This involved filling in a long application form on line (do not fall into the trap of paying a portal to give you advice etc, go to the visa section on the American Embassy website- I got suckered for $80). You then have to apply for an interview, which is up in London and involves lots of queueing and hanging about and in the end very few questions at the interview. it costs $160 a head and then they take your passport and you can either go and collect it from a depot or they will get it delivered for about £60 a head. It’s worth applying early for your visa as it lasts 10 years. Make sure your photos meet the standard, although there are photo booths in the embassy if you get stuck.
We checked what we were allowed to do; It is perfectly legal to import a foreign car into the USA for a maximum of 1 year as long as you really do take it away again. Shipping agents do not always know this. It is also perfectly legal to drive a right hand drive car in the USA; people think it is not allowed, but that is for commercially imported cars, which would probably not meet USA standards. You may bring in a right hand drive car for your own use (interestingly, the mail service drive right hand drive cars).
We found insurance. It would have cost us half the price to import the Disco into Canada, but I could find nobody willing to insure a foreign car, let alone one without a Canadian address. In the end I found the Sunrise Group (http://www.aadvantage-ins.com/) who were willing to insure us for the year for about $1000 as long as we shipped into an American East Coast port.
We found a shipping agent. By chance we chose Kepair and Sea Limited (http://www.kepairandsea.co.uk/) where the lovely Julie Winter took me through the complexities of shipping the car. We ended up with two choices; A) putting Camel with all her gear into a container, but very clean and drained of all fuel and oil or B) putting her on a RO RO boat, steam cleaned, drained of all fuel and oil and battery disconnected with all our gear shipped separately. The second option could have been considerably cheaper, but we chose the first option, as it would, hopefully ensure our gear all turned up intact. The final cost of delivery the depot at Saco, near portland (via New York, not direct to Portland as I first thought) was nearly £2900. Our agent got us to send a list of our kit before we packed to make sure it was all likely to be passed by american customs. Make sure you list EVERYTHING and make sure all kit is as clean as possible, as they do not like soil. A useful website to check if what you want to take is legal is http://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-vi...cted-items
We washed the car thoroughly especially underneath with a pressure washer, packed her up (checking the height was not too much for the container) and got our garage to drain her and deliver her to be packed up in her container in Southampton
(We thought we had two weeks to kill before we had to meet Camel in Maine so we spent the time cycling to Bristol and then motorcycling to Bruges) The American agent will want you to fill in a range of forms, including a power of attorney form for the car and a list of what you intend to import. The main thing is that everything you want to bring should have been used by you and your family for at least a year. Make sure you have access to a computer, printer and a scanner in the weeks leading up to your car arriving in the USA port.Have all your documents like car V5, driving licence,passports and visas scanned and saved in readiness.
We were first advised that it would only take a day or so for the car to clear customs, as the agent would file the papers while the ship was still at sea. This works in theory, but with individuals, they often/nearly always want to Xray the container. They then may well want to open the container and either send in the sniffer dogs or take everything out. There is a very high chance of this happening. They will only then ask for all the paperwork and hopefully release your container. It took us 11days to get our car into our depot (although it would have taken a couple of days less had we been in New York.) The total cost of the customs exam was about $1600. Ouch!
The total cost of shipping the car to the USA (including all fees, shipping insurance, customs etc) was £4145. Obviously our visas, car insurance, health insurance and air fairs are extra on top of that.
For more information on our adventures, check out janetdowle.wordpress.com Mods: raised air intake, dual battery system, roof rack with Bush Pack, ladder and awning, side steps, light protectors, rubbing strips, fridge, winch, replaced air suspension with coil system, extra fuel tank, waterless coolant, spare wheel carrier, external LEDLight, pure sine wave inverter.
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 23rd Jul 2015 9:08 pm |
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Brian_DL13
Member Since: 25 Aug 2013
Location: Teesdale
Posts: 1418
  
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Very informative! I'm going to bookmark this, thanks! 
Just out of curiosity, what's the background to this? Taking a sabbatical ?
Including the return shipment the cost will be £8k+ - so why take this route rather than just buy a 4x4 over there and sell it after ? Are you that much in love with Discos ? 
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| 23rd Jul 2015 10:11 pm |
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Janetthegannet
Member Since: 02 Mar 2014
Location: West Sussex
Posts: 64
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Nope, a long planned senior gap two years. I retired last year and me old man the year before. We wanted to drive around the world but Africa got too scary. We spent lat year going round Europe and now we are aiming to explore North America. We were thinking about going right down South America but right hand drive cars are not allowed through a couple of countries there and we didn't want the expense of shipping across the Darian Gap only to get stuck. In case you are interested check out my blog on janetdowle.wordpress.com (the anti-intellectual approach to seeing the world) Mods: raised air intake, dual battery system, roof rack with Bush Pack, ladder and awning, side steps, light protectors, rubbing strips, fridge, winch, replaced air suspension with coil system, extra fuel tank, waterless coolant, spare wheel carrier, external LEDLight, pure sine wave inverter.
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| 23rd Jul 2015 10:19 pm |
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pagoda
Member Since: 13 Aug 2009
Location: Not London Anymore (or the US for that matter)
Posts: 1928
  
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Is the car a diesel? I'd be interested to see how the D3 gets on with US diesel, which is a far less well refined product than European diesel. Please do report back if it's a problem or whether the car runs perfectly well.
Good luck over there. PAGODA
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| 23rd Jul 2015 10:25 pm |
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Janetthegannet
Member Since: 02 Mar 2014
Location: West Sussex
Posts: 64
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Shall do, and I am quite hopeful as there are lots of places saying 'clean diesel'. The double fuel tank may well come in handy when we find the good stuff! Mods: raised air intake, dual battery system, roof rack with Bush Pack, ladder and awning, side steps, light protectors, rubbing strips, fridge, winch, replaced air suspension with coil system, extra fuel tank, waterless coolant, spare wheel carrier, external LEDLight, pure sine wave inverter.
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| 23rd Jul 2015 10:42 pm |
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John P
Member Since: 12 Aug 2011
Location: West Sussex
Posts: 1278
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We plan to do the same when we retire, although it will be a few good years. You mention draining the car of oil. I hope no one started it to move it out of the container? When we brought our cars from the US to the UK, we didn't have to drain the oil. The fuel yes. So did you have to buy some oil and refill the engine?
Thanks
John
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| 23rd Jul 2015 10:45 pm |
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Janetthegannet
Member Since: 02 Mar 2014
Location: West Sussex
Posts: 64
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They better not start it! We were surprised that we needed to do the draining, but we would have had to pay for importing hazardous substances had we not. We will be turning up at the depot with a large can of oil and a stern expression tomorrow. Wish us luck! Mods: raised air intake, dual battery system, roof rack with Bush Pack, ladder and awning, side steps, light protectors, rubbing strips, fridge, winch, replaced air suspension with coil system, extra fuel tank, waterless coolant, spare wheel carrier, external LEDLight, pure sine wave inverter.
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| 23rd Jul 2015 10:50 pm |
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