Anyone imported their own older jeep parts?
 

Hi there, i have just been looking online for jeep parts to fix my quadratrac and the priced over in the states are HEAPS cheaper, and im sure with the shipping included they wouldnt come to nearly as much as they go for here in australia... i got quoted from $370 - $500 just for the chain, and they are US$120 in the states..

Has anyone imported their own parts before? if so, any bad experiences? would u recommend it or not?

any insight'd be good :)

thanks guys.

my rule of thumb is what ever the US price is multiple it by 4 gives you the cost in Australian dollars landed Exchange rate, freight duty and GST with the better aussie dollar it may be closer to 3 times now and low $ value items will by pass duties but still give a good ball park figure

I then add a bit more for items that are much larger than the weight or much heavier than than their size ( these attract more shipping cost)

Then if it is still 20% cheaper I will consider importing but most of the time it is better to buy local plus it supports the local guys who you may need one day

I will however buy up as much as i can on any of my trips to the US as you no longer need to worry too much about freight unless you go over board and excess bagage is a hassel just import duty and gst for bigger $$ items

Given this 370 to 500 for the chain is about the right price

i would get a quote from the guys in the states for the freight before u buy here in aus, say the chain costs u 25usd in freight, thats only 145usd...thats only 200 aussie dollars..i would doubt that u would have to pay duty and gst on that.....some things go through without it ;)

you see, normally i wouldnt probably bother, if i had a full time job! but being a full time student, doesnt allow much time to work or earn money, so every dollar counts..

for instance, the other day i needed to get a power steering hose fitted, and the bastards at pirtec charged me $300 odd dollars for it, only to look on ebay yesterday to find that a power steering hose for a CJ7 with a 5.7L in it was US$26!!!

so im doing some shopping around before i get anything else fixed on my car... i could have gone without power steering for a week or two to save a couple of hundred dollars on just a friggin hose! hehe

and yes i agree with i should support the local guys, and stuff, but as i said before, im a full time student, i dont have any money to even be fixing my car with, so the less i get into debt the better! hehe.

There is no problem with importing stuff and sure sometime you save some money the thing is just be aware of ALL the costs as sometimes there price difference is not worth the hassel over times it is so weigh up the costs

a call to customs to check the minium threshold for duties is worthwhile too I *think* it is AUD150 landed cost so the chain above you would have to pay duties of apporx 20% plus 10% GST

dont forget duties is worked out on the price landed so that includes freight and GST is worked out on the price including freight AND duties ie it is a compound cost thanks to the greeding pollies

sometime you get lucky and customs let it through cause it is too much hassle to work out the charges etc you win some you lose some

If the parts are marked as 4x4 parts then the duty is meant to be less than if it is marked as car parts but the last time I went through customs the person working it out did not know about this and as such charged me 20% so it can be luck of the draw who you get some of them dont know their own rules as they are too complex

You need to make sure the supplier marks the commercial invoice on the shipping documents as 4WD parts... if you use DHL or FedEx they will pick that up.

If you use surface mail I've found it to be luck of the draw like Aussie said.

I don't even buy my spark plugs in Ozz...the only parts i buy here are oil, oil filters and fuel.
try www.walcks4wd.com
I have saved 000's of dollars by importing.... and I spend allot of money on parts,,,
sorry , stuff the Jeep part suppliers in Ozz,,, they are outragously high priced,,,
I normally save about 45% after duty freight and gst! sometimes more...
Billy Infidel