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Thread: Car Shipping and WOF woes

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
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    UK
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    Unhappy Car Shipping and WOF woes

    Hi All,

    Just wanted to give some pointers regarding car shipping and the certification to allow the car onto NZ roads.

    This is particularly relevant if your car has been used on roads in countries spreading salt during winter like UK and most of Europe.

    Our Saab (04) low mileage arrived this week and was delivered to AA testing Centre. It failed the WOF as it has some rust on the underside, these are the exposed hard metal parts like bolts and swing arms etc. The rust is superficial. This will now be taken to a panel beater and hopefully it can be wire brushed and then treated with Waxoyl. The car has never had any advisories in the UK on any of its MOTs, so we did not suspect it would fail the WOF. According to the chap at the AA 95% of the cars from the UK fail the WOF because of this.

    A little unhappy about this as I am still in the UK and my wife has to deal with this, and I am hoping it is not a case of "lets see how much we can push this".

    Hopefully this is the last hurdle now, will keep you updated.

  2. #2
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    Feb 2008
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    The car has never had any advisories in the UK on any of its MOTs, so we did not suspect it would fail the WOF.
    The regulations for the two tests are different. For anyone about to import their vehicle, it's worth looking at the manual mentioned here http://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicle/warr...wof/about.html, to have some idea of any issues that might turn up.

    Seriously, tell your wife to get a Kiwi neighbour or colleague to go along with her to arrange this. Unfortunately, from what we've heard on threads and from what my son has heard from NZ newcomers, there are some businesses that will take advantage of a person with a non-Kiwi voice, particularly a woman.

  3. #3
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    Thanks JandM...

  4. #4
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    May 2007
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    4,455

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    Quote Originally Posted by groonies View Post
    Hi All,

    Just wanted to give some pointers regarding car shipping and the certification to allow the car onto NZ roads.

    This is particularly relevant if your car has been used on roads in countries spreading salt during winter like UK and most of Europe.

    Our Saab (04) low mileage arrived this week and was delivered to AA testing Centre. It failed the WOF as it has some rust on the underside, these are the exposed hard metal parts like bolts and swing arms etc. The rust is superficial. This will now be taken to a panel beater and hopefully it can be wire brushed and then treated with Waxoyl. The car has never had any advisories in the UK on any of its MOTs, so we did not suspect it would fail the WOF. According to the chap at the AA 95% of the cars from the UK fail the WOF because of this.

    A little unhappy about this as I am still in the UK and my wife has to deal with this, and I am hoping it is not a case of "lets see how much we can push this".

    Hopefully this is the last hurdle now, will keep you updated.
    Thanks for again highlighting the issue that rust is an issue when importing a car from the UK, would you advise that this issue is fixed in the UK prior to shipping?

    Ian

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
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    Scotland to Wellington
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    The Subaru garage in Wellington get very stressed about the amount of rust on the underside of our car. Having said that, we would never use them again, as the last WOF we did with them they wanted to charge over $2000 for something we didn't believe needed doing and were clearly trying to push it as far as they could and see if we would fall for it. We didn't believe them so took it down to VTNZ and saved $2000. I am sure once it has been treated like this it will be fine. You just need to find a garage who you trust not to rip you off, same as in the UK.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by IanW99 View Post
    Thanks for again highlighting the issue that rust is an issue when importing a car from the UK, would you advise that this issue is fixed in the UK prior to shipping?

    Ian
    Ian we were told not to steamclean the car in the UK before shipping as MAF would want it done here in any case. I gave it a good wash and never suspected any issues with rust. Perhaps a little naive in light of the salt spread on the roads in the UK. In hindsight I would have definitely had the underside checked and waxoyled. It would have saved me a whole lot of stress.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by girlwithanewf View Post
    The Subaru garage in Wellington get very stressed about the amount of rust on the underside of our car. Having said that, we would never use them again, as the last WOF we did with them they wanted to charge over $2000 for something we didn't believe needed doing and were clearly trying to push it as far as they could and see if we would fall for it. We didn't believe them so took it down to VTNZ and saved $2000. I am sure once it has been treated like this it will be fine. You just need to find a garage who you trust not to rip you off, same as in the UK.

    This is a little different from a standard WOF as this is the certification to bring the car into the country, so perhaps a little more stringent. I am not on the ground yet so unable to assist with talking to these guys. Saabs are renowned for their quality and there are thousands running around the UK from the 70s without any rust issues. I am just hoping that the "specialists" the AA are taking it to are not sharks, hope they will see that it is weathering which can be treated.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by groonies View Post
    This is a little different from a standard WOF as this is the certification to bring the car into the country, so perhaps a little more stringent. I am not on the ground yet so unable to assist with talking to these guys. Saabs are renowned for their quality and there are thousands running around the UK from the 70s without any rust issues. I am just hoping that the "specialists" the AA are taking it to are not sharks, hope they will see that it is weathering which can be treated.
    We brought our car with us from Scotland and when they did the conformity test or whatever it is called, they said it was the dirtiest underbody they had ever seen. Not surprising really as we used it off-road every day. We just had our car fully valeted before we left and once in NZ they gave the underbody a good clean and cleaned the vents which obviously a valet wouldn't do. So I would recommend having the interior cleaned professionally and this did save the expense of having it cleaned here. In general, once the importers have your car, they will rip you off, they have something that belongs to you and will not release it until you have paid the bill. But it all works out in the end and it saves the hassle of having to buy a car. It was the most stressful element of moving here, so hope all sorts itself out.

  9. #9
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    Chch, NZ
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    The car has never had any advisories in the UK on any of its MOTs, so we did not suspect it would fail the WOF.
    The requirements for 1st registering an imported vehicle into NZ is entirely different to a WOF (and thus to a MOT). Most of the details in the registration process deal with inspection of the vehicle with nearly a magnifying glass. For eg. the plastic covers for your headlights and signal indicators have markings on them to conform with international standards. Likewise with the rubber tires and seat belts.

    Rust is a major issue. Since virtually all cars made in the past 20 years have gone to a monocoque / unibody construction vs a body on chassis design. This means that the rust on the car is 'structural'.

  10. #10
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    (and thus to a MOT).
    There's no connection - they don't derive from one another, and have different criteria.

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