Last week’s story about me importing a classic car to the UAE prompted plenty of readers to enquire how they might also go about doing something like this. As I mentioned in the piece, that was simply written to set the scene. Now, though, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty of the processes and the costs incurred.
While the actual price I paid for my Triumph TR6 will remain secret, I can tell you it was about half what I should have expected to shell out for such an immaculate example, which helped enormously when it came to justifying the hassle and other expenses I knew I’d be facing by importing it to the UAE. But there’s little to be afraid of.
Before going into transportation and logistics costs, it’s worth noting there are specialist car inspection agencies that, for as little as Dh900, will thoroughly test a potential purchase for you, so you don’t need to physically see the car yourself. Find yourself a reputable one, as I did, and that’s one major headache out of the way, which gives peace of mind when parting with a large sum of money for a car you’ve never seen.
Let’s say you’ve found the right car and negotiated the right price with its owner. You could hand over the entire shipping and importation job to a specialist company that would collect the car, transport it to the chosen docks, have it shipped in a container and eventually deliver it to your chosen RTA venue for testing and insuring. When I enquired about this, two companies quoted similar prices in the region of Dh20,000. The problem for me was that paying that amount would have severely dented any potential investment I might enjoy by selling the TR6 in the future, so I arranged almost everything myself.
Fortunately for me, the seller of my car lives near a port and was happy to help by delivering the TR6 to the appropriate freight-forwarding company (in this case Tiba Group, which used Maersk to ship it). I’d already done a deal and paid for the car to be “stuffed” into its own shipping container and delivered to Jebel Ali. That cost me an entirely reasonable €1,670 (Dh6,919). I was able to track my container’s voyage online, from the port of Vigo in northern Spain all the way through the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and eventually the Arabian Gulf – something I did daily.
When a shipment such as this arrives in the UAE, however, is when the real expense can hit you. I turned to a company based in Dubai called Top Most Freight Solutions, which had been recommended by a collector here who used its services previously. I asked Top Most to collect the container from the port authorities, handle its customs clearance (this includes the entire container being X-rayed), pay all the associated fees (including 5 per cent import tax, based on the purchase price), sort all the paperwork and deliver the car to me so I could take it to be registered. That came to Dh6,549.
I will, in another story, detail the costs and processes of registering a car here and making it road legal (including the maddening classic-car insurance market), but spending Dh13,361 in total between the shipping company and the logistics guys on the ground in Dubai saved me a rather helpful Dh7,000 – a sum that could be put towards these other expenses. Crucially for me, it also meant I was involved in the process, which made it more real and more of an adventure. That moment, when the shipping container was finally opened and I saw my car for the first time, will stay with me forever – something I can’t put a price on.
motoring@thenational.ae
Follow us @LifeNationalUAE
Follow us on Facebook for discussions, entertainment, reviews, wellness and news.
