# US cars in SA



## SeekingSA (Sep 17, 2010)

Have any of you shipped your cars from the US to South Africa. I heard you have to get your vehicle certified? Is that the case? And what is the certification process for your vehicle? Someone else told me they didn't think you could ship a car for the US to SA because SA cars driver side is on the right side of the vehicle? If you have shipped your car what shipping company did you use? Someone else told me its around $3000 to ship you car. Please let me know your experience.

Thank you in advance for your comments.


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## goldguy (Jun 16, 2011)

SeekingSA said:


> Have any of you shipped your cars from the US to South Africa. I heard you have to get your vehicle certified? Is that the case? And what is the certification process for your vehicle? Someone else told me they didn't think you could ship a car for the US to SA because SA cars driver side is on the right side of the vehicle? If you have shipped your car what shipping company did you use? Someone else told me its around $3000 to ship you car. Please let me know your experience.
> 
> Thank you in advance for your comments.


It has been illegal in the past to import a left hand drive vehicle, so anything that was brought in to SA has only been classic British cars that have been found in the US. If your length of stay is temporary I have met a few people who where doing safaris across Africa and used Durban/PE/ or even CT as shipping points and used a temporary import license to be able to use their LHD vehicles such as SUVs and sports cars for advertising photo shoots.
If you have a US vehicle parts are also an issue as SA cars are generally European based and anything you would bring would have to be imported. Have you thought about the taxes to import as well and if it is worth the added expense? Since South Africa manufactures and exports cars they have a system with regards to any imported vehicle and it might not be beneficial at all.


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## SeekingSA (Sep 17, 2010)

*Thanks for your response.*



goldguy said:


> It has been illegal in the past to import a left hand drive vehicle, so anything that was brought in to SA has only been classic British cars that have been found in the US. If your length of stay is temporary I have met a few people who where doing safaris across Africa and used Durban/PE/ or even CT as shipping points and used a temporary import license to be able to use their LHD vehicles such as SUVs and sports cars for advertising photo shoots.
> If you have a US vehicle parts are also an issue as SA cars are generally European based and anything you would bring would have to be imported. Have you thought about the taxes to import as well and if it is worth the added expense? Since South Africa manufactures and exports cars they have a system with regards to any imported vehicle and it might not be beneficial at all.


Thanks for your response. It is was very helpful.


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

You might like to check on the import tax situation because unless it's changed, you could easily find yourself paying a damn fortune.

Depending on your visa/residency status, you might also be cautious about that as they've recently changed the rules and some (including myself) are having to leave.... in my case, after running a business here for 30 years and living here for over 10 years.


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