How much would it cost to ship a car from the UK over to America?
I only ask 'cos I'm curious about the prices paid for Jaguar XJ6 (X300) cars
My car, shown below, cost me just under £1,000. It had 12 months M.O.T. Certificate which means that the car had just passed a years safety and road-worthiness checks by an authorised garage. This is something that you MUST have to drive a car legally in Britain. It also came with a manila folder full of data on every penny spent on the car since it left the factory as well as stamps from the Jaguar Main Dealer for Service History.



The question being, how feasible would it be for you American chaps to buy a car in the UK (after getting it checked by the AA or RAC which costs about £70, I think) for around the same price as mine and get it shipped over?
I mean, if it costs £2,000 to ship the car over, you would still be a couple of grand ahead on the deal.
Just a thought.
Steve

 

Well, if you take 1000£ and add 2000£ for shipping, that's almost $5000 US.

I paid $4000 and it came with all service records for the last 11 years (always dealer serviced) and the service for the first few years is stamped in the service book.

Plus, the steering wheel is on the correct side

 

It's a couple thousand to ship in a container and a lot less to ship on a roro ship. Roll on, roll off, or in your case, drive on, drive off. Be advised that roro's often damage goods. Mostly, fine cars are put in containers.

Some of my family work at a port.

 

OK, thanks for the replies.
It was just a thought.
Steve

 

When shipping a car I found out the hard way that the transporter is critical. On Jan. 20, 2010 I bought my wife a Vette (for me too) and had to move the car quickly out of Florida to Illinois, and what a NIGHTMARE!

I had to move so quickly there was not enough time to check out the transporter. BIG MISTAKE! I viewed the guys profile on a USHIP page but didn't realize the guy was not even registered with the USDOT, and his 100,000 dollars in insurance coverage was pretty much non-existant as the transaction was not run through USHIP.

Originally I was told the car would be here between the 25th and 26th of Jan. of 2010. Didn't happen until 3 o'clock in the morning on Feb. 4th of 2010 and it arrived with the block cracked on both sides, the radiator split wide open as the shipper just "didn't realize cars in Illinois required antifreeze" to survive the trip, parts missing from the car that were there when the transporter delivered the car that weren't missing when he loaded the car on the carrier.

Long story short, I am going into my attorneys office this morning to pick up the first settlement check more than a year later. Oh and by the way I have had "full coverage insurance" and tags on the car for the entire period. (required in Illinois even if the car is inoperable or face the possibility of having the car towed by the village and auctioned to the highest bidder.

Anyway, that's the saga of my Valentine's Day gift to my wife. As I said earlier check out the transporter with a fine-toothed comb and don't be shy about asking for registration numbers and insurance certificate number and check that out too along with his performance and driving record. In the long run it is CRITICAL! It doesn't matter if it costs two dollars to ship the car it's useless if you get it in inoperable condition with over $6000 worth of damage.

 

Stevie,

I beg to differ here, I bought my E-Type privately and the guy put a new MOT on it the Tuesday before I collected it on the Saturday.

So you would of thought everything would of been hunky doory

On the way home I need to use the horn and it didnt work, how did it pass ??

Hence after getting it home and checking it over and doing a few jobs one was fixing the horn I re MOT'd it and it passed and I was confident it was genuine..

 

Not wishing to start an argument here but how is what you say differing from what I said?
Once the car has had the examination and passed, it is then deemed to be roadworthy for the next 12 months, in a legal sense, that is. It is quite feasible that your Jag went over a bump on the way out of the examiner's garage and a wire came loose. I ain't saying it did and I ain't saying it didn't. I'm just saying that such things can happen.