Hello, New member here. Just wondering if anyone had recently gone through the process of importing a Landy from Spain. I found a nice looking unit online and am looking around for how to get it into a container and shipped over here to B.C. Anyone know of a broker who might help at the other end or any other relevent info?
Thanks
Mick
Importing from Spain
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BlkP38
- Bumper Sticker
- Posts: 141
- Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 8:12 am
- Location: Maple Bay
Re: Importing from Spain
A couple of years back I corresponded with a member that had brought a Defender in from Spain. But I cannot remember who it was. He had recently moved from the mainland to Vancouver Island, if that jogs anyones memory.
Eric.
Eric.
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ANDYD
- Defender of the World
- Posts: 3075
- Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2004 10:45 pm
- Location: Sunny Steveston BC
Re: Importing from Spain
Do a search for "importing" on this forum and you will find quite a few past discussions on this topic
like this one- http://roverlanders.bc.ca/roverforum/vi ... f=6&t=8980
The big decisions are Container shipping or Roll on- Roll off, then whether to land it on the East coast or West coast.
Good luck
like this one- http://roverlanders.bc.ca/roverforum/vi ... f=6&t=8980
The big decisions are Container shipping or Roll on- Roll off, then whether to land it on the East coast or West coast.
Good luck
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sharivari
Re: Importing from Spain
Hi, perhaps its too late for you but I just imported a '95 Range Rover Classic manual 300tdi from Spain last christmas time, so thought I might as well share my experience for future reference.
I was in Spain when I bought mine, I found it on milanuncios (classifieds), but auto-scout is also good. I speak enough Spanish so I was able to figure everything out myself. As long as your seller is game to deal with you, the Spanish motor vehicle authority process is quite simple, they even have their key export info translated into English on the final documents and online. If you want to buy sight unseen, there are exporters in Spain (Autology for example) who do the whole thing, but the ones I found would only sell their own custom vehicles.
There aren't really any RoRo options from Spain to North America, so it would have to be transported on land up to Northern Europe / UK, after being exported out of Spain and then through whatever countries it departs from. The most frequent ones leave I think bi-weekly from the UK and drop in Halifax or sometimes go up the river to Montreal / Toronto if I recall, then you have to get it trained across Canada. So buy the time it gets out to the westcoast, RoRo isn't any cheaper, and your vehicle is out in the air and changing hands and documents a minimum of 4 times, compared to being in its own sealed container from beginning to end.
I shipped by container out of Valencia using Jose Antonio Blanquer S.L, their English level over the phone is not great, but they did an excellent job. I can say on the Spanish side of things, the prices are reasonable and the process is logical and relatively quick. Valencia is a huge port and the last one before they leave Europe, so it's a good place to ship out of strategically. I was able to view the vehicle being strapped in the container and locked; make sure your battery is disconnected for insurance and practical reasons. Shipping time port to port was exactly 30 days, I had full tracking by email the whole time.
On the BC side, conversely, it is a completely overpriced, inefficient, illogical PITA, but hey if you live here you shouldn't expect anything less ;) In fact when I showed the Spanish guys the Port of Vancouver's time and cost estimate simply for unloading the container, they couldn't believe it. They said they have never seen such a high cost and long amount of time needed, even in African ports, not to mention PoV charges YOU for container storage while they are mucking about! Anyways, they had just rolled out an electronic filing system, which seemed to speed things up. I used Davidson & Sons on this side and they were also excellent, they did everything in their power to make it smooth, and they were actually surprised at how quickly mine got out of port compared to other clients they had done recently, some of whom were waiting (paying) for weeks.
Transport Canada was fine, but as for BC, again prepare to be screwed as much as possible - one thing to know is that there is a grey area of what is passable, but the generic idea in BC is that everything on the vehicle has to work according to the NAS version! Perhaps this doesn't apply to defenders, but for RRs there was a lot of extra luxury crap in the NAS ones compared to the Spanish, so definitely go to an experienced Land Rover mechanic who is able to understand what your vehicle had or didn't have originally (ie don't take it to Canadian Tire or BCAA).
One more pleasant surprise I had: FOBS. If you are buying a LR with keyless entry, the frequencies are different for each region! You won't be able to use UK or N.A ones on your Spanish vehicle's alarm system, not even re-programmed. You would have to source fobs from Spain or else replace the whole system.
Despite all of this I'm happily driving around my Range daily and would do it all over again.
That's all I can think of for now, hope this helps the next guy.
I was in Spain when I bought mine, I found it on milanuncios (classifieds), but auto-scout is also good. I speak enough Spanish so I was able to figure everything out myself. As long as your seller is game to deal with you, the Spanish motor vehicle authority process is quite simple, they even have their key export info translated into English on the final documents and online. If you want to buy sight unseen, there are exporters in Spain (Autology for example) who do the whole thing, but the ones I found would only sell their own custom vehicles.
There aren't really any RoRo options from Spain to North America, so it would have to be transported on land up to Northern Europe / UK, after being exported out of Spain and then through whatever countries it departs from. The most frequent ones leave I think bi-weekly from the UK and drop in Halifax or sometimes go up the river to Montreal / Toronto if I recall, then you have to get it trained across Canada. So buy the time it gets out to the westcoast, RoRo isn't any cheaper, and your vehicle is out in the air and changing hands and documents a minimum of 4 times, compared to being in its own sealed container from beginning to end.
I shipped by container out of Valencia using Jose Antonio Blanquer S.L, their English level over the phone is not great, but they did an excellent job. I can say on the Spanish side of things, the prices are reasonable and the process is logical and relatively quick. Valencia is a huge port and the last one before they leave Europe, so it's a good place to ship out of strategically. I was able to view the vehicle being strapped in the container and locked; make sure your battery is disconnected for insurance and practical reasons. Shipping time port to port was exactly 30 days, I had full tracking by email the whole time.
On the BC side, conversely, it is a completely overpriced, inefficient, illogical PITA, but hey if you live here you shouldn't expect anything less ;) In fact when I showed the Spanish guys the Port of Vancouver's time and cost estimate simply for unloading the container, they couldn't believe it. They said they have never seen such a high cost and long amount of time needed, even in African ports, not to mention PoV charges YOU for container storage while they are mucking about! Anyways, they had just rolled out an electronic filing system, which seemed to speed things up. I used Davidson & Sons on this side and they were also excellent, they did everything in their power to make it smooth, and they were actually surprised at how quickly mine got out of port compared to other clients they had done recently, some of whom were waiting (paying) for weeks.
Transport Canada was fine, but as for BC, again prepare to be screwed as much as possible - one thing to know is that there is a grey area of what is passable, but the generic idea in BC is that everything on the vehicle has to work according to the NAS version! Perhaps this doesn't apply to defenders, but for RRs there was a lot of extra luxury crap in the NAS ones compared to the Spanish, so definitely go to an experienced Land Rover mechanic who is able to understand what your vehicle had or didn't have originally (ie don't take it to Canadian Tire or BCAA).
One more pleasant surprise I had: FOBS. If you are buying a LR with keyless entry, the frequencies are different for each region! You won't be able to use UK or N.A ones on your Spanish vehicle's alarm system, not even re-programmed. You would have to source fobs from Spain or else replace the whole system.
Despite all of this I'm happily driving around my Range daily and would do it all over again.
That's all I can think of for now, hope this helps the next guy.
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