Importing from Brazil youself...

I've got a contact in Brazil who might be able to arrange a bus for me direct from VW Brazil.

Has anyone else on here done this or can anyone offer advice on the import to the UK side of things.

Might bring a few in if this venture works out.

Cheers

New or used?

Good luck with the venture. Keep us posted on how it goes.

I'll be looking at new first, according to my friend there all used for taxi's over there. Were at the basic stages just now (working out costs etc) but I'll update when I get more info.

He indicated there is obviously big saving if you buy used but we will see about that. Beetles too...

I don't think there'd be a market for Beetles now tbh.

watching this with interest!

Hope it all works out :-)

Word of warning: The last person who did that called us and said he spent more in the end than buying one in the UK with a warranty and UK spec (dont forget the public can only buy a Brazilian home market spec in Brazil). He also waited over a year before he got it and was driving ....... make sure you trust who you are handing over money to and they can be located again if you dont recieve what you ordered or its damaged / faulty. You also need them for back up and when your 1000's of miles away that may be difficult....Bear in mind UK law doesnt apply in South America. Good luck.....Its not easy! I know some people will say 'well you would say that' but the above is sound advice and hope it helps.

daymo and tim there will definately be a market for beetles still in this country especialy the old original shape go like hootcakes they will.

jj123vw - thanks for the advice and its all noted and appreciated.

The lack of warranty doesn't really concern me if the intitial purchase price is low enough. I work worldwide with guys from all over, my contact is a workmate. I will be in Brazil myself and my workmate will deal with the translation. The cash will be direct to vw Brazil via myself to minimise any risks.
Basically I'll oversee the deal and pay my mate a day rate for help with organisation, and shipping arrangements.

Like I said early stages of research at the moment, I'll weight it all up and see if it's worthwhile. I'll keep you posted if it's going to work

Daymo wrote:

jj123vw - thanks for the advice and its all noted and appreciated.

The lack of warranty doesn't really concern me if the intitial purchase price is low enough. I work worldwide with guys from all over, my contact is a workmate. I will be in Brazil myself and my workmate will deal with the translation. The cash will be direct to vw Brazil via myself to minimise any risks.
Basically I'll oversee the deal and pay my mate a day rate for help with organisation, and shipping arrangements.

Like I said early stages of research at the moment, I'll weight it all up and see if it's worthwhile. I'll keep you posted if it's going to work

I would leave it to the professionals. If you can translate Portugese, the starting retail price in Brazil on the VW site is R$43,160. On spot rates that is around £15,700. But that's before commission.

Then there would be VAT to pay on import to UK, shipping etc etc. So I reckon you may be up to £20k including VAT and import costs. Then you'd have to register it with etc as an import. Insurance wise it would be an import, not a Danbury etc. So unless you can get a huge discount in Brazil, I don't reckon it would be worth it. There would be quite a lot of bureaucracy too I reckon.

Well I say let an entrepeneur do his stuff - if it works - great - if it fails - it'll be a lesson learned.

chewie - prices of Beetles have dropped considerably in comparison to vans. Why do you think Bugs from Brazil would make a difference to that? They'd all have to be second hand taxis and lhd. I'm all for more Bugs on the road (personally I'd be after a '67 1500 but that's another matter) but I just don't see them getting the attention they once did in comparison to things like the New MINI, new Fiat 500 etc.

Quote :

said he spent more in the end than buying one in the UK with a warranty and UK spec (dont forget the public can only buy a Brazilian home market spec in Brazil).

But there is no such thing as UK spec! Surely the vehicles are bog standard Brazilian spec when you import them, and just whack on the rear fog and heated screens, and speedo overlay when they get over here.

I have seen you state before on here that your vehicles are supplied with some special spec that only you can buy... so what exactly is different?

Quote :

the starting retail price in Brazil on the VW site is R$43,160. On spot rates that is around £15,700. But that's before commission.

Then there would be VAT to pay on import to UK,

But aint Brazilian equivelant of VAT something like 42%, so as your exporting you would get that knocked off, and you just pay at our local rate when it gets here.

So you end up paying something like R$30,181 so its more like £11364 +Vat

Maybe I am wrong, but it works like that in most other countries with new goods.

Andy wrote:

Quote :

said he spent more in the end than buying one in the UK with a warranty and UK spec (dont forget the public can only buy a Brazilian home market spec in Brazil).

But there is no such thing as UK spec! Surely the vehicles are bog standard Brazilian spec when you import them, and just whack on the rear fog and heated screens, and speedo overlay when they get over here.

I have seen you state before on here that your vehicles are supplied with some special spec that only you can buy... so what exactly is different?

Andy, I dont see any difference, you dont even get a front heated screen on as standard to pass the test, you have to pay extra for that. I would have thought this should be standard spec for an imported vehicle that doesnt have a windscreen demister. If the van came over as a uk spec it would also have RHD as standard just like the original german manufactured units.... Jason correct me if I am wrong but I am with Andy on this one, please tell us what the special spec is as I have read through all of your marketing material and it doesnt state anything different.

Danbury's vehicles are a different spec to the normal home market vehicles but obviously we cannot detail our trade agreement with our suppliers......You'll have no backup, warranty or RHD conversion from the supplier either. You also need to add import duty AND VAT, transport, insurance etc...As I said before :

Word of warning: The last person who did that called us and said he spent more in the end than buying one in the UK with a warranty and UK spec (dont forget the public can only buy a Brazilian home market spec in Brazil). He also waited over a year before he got it and was driving ....... make sure you trust who you are handing over money to and they can be located again if you dont recieve what you ordered or its damaged / faulty. You also need them for back up and when your 1000's of miles away that may be difficult....Bear in mind UK law doesnt apply in South America. Good luck.....Its not easy!

Quote :

Danbury's vehicles are a different spec to the normal home market vehicles but obviously we cannot detail our trade agreement with our suppliers

Why keep bringing it up, if you are not prepared to tell us what it is?

You cant just keep saying 'Yeah but ours are different' unless your prepared to back it up with even the most minimal amount of info.

I think all this banter about whether the Danbury imported T2s are actually different to those sold in the Brazilian home market is pretty academic really. Whether they are different or not still doesn't get round the difficulty an individual would face purchasing and exporting a new Kombi from Brazil.

From what I've learnt to buy a vehicle in Brazil you have to have a registered address there. Then there's all the export/import details to sort, the type approval procedure to bring it into the UK, registration etc. This is what - I assume - makes sense ordering in bulk for Danbury. At the end of the day, they're a business and the purpose of a business is to make money. Period.

If people are in the fortunate position to be able to buy a new Danbury at the price they retail at, then that's their choice. The fact is that if you buy a product from a UK based company and it turns out to be faulty you can then seek compensation through the established channels. Buy something abroad - and have a problem - you're pretty much on your own.

Hi Tim,

I tend to disagree with you on this one, I dont think it is academic. I dont really care and do understand that Danbury are a business and are allowed to make profit and hope they carrry on this way as we will benefit from their success however, Danbury are marketing a product in the uk and have stated openly that their product is of a different spec as to that of the Brazilian market. As consumers we have the right to ask what the difference is between the brazilian and the uk product. Danbury do not suggest this in their marketing or POS material. Jason should offer some sort of admission as to the difference, and if there is then we will benefit in the knowledge of that. If he doesnt then doesnt that suggest that there is no difference?

olive wrote:

Hi Tim,

I tend to disagree with you on this one, I dont think it is academic. I dont really care and do understand that Danbury are a business and are allowed to make profit and hope they carrry on this way as we will benefit from their success however, Danbury are marketing a product in the uk and have stated openly that their product is of a different spec as to that of the Brazilian market. As consumers we have the right to ask what the difference is between the brazilian and the uk product. Danbury do not suggest this in their marketing or POS material. Jason should offer some sort of admission as to the difference, and if there is then we will benefit in the knowledge of that. If he doesnt then doesnt that suggest that there is no difference?

The only information that would be sensitive between Danbury UK and VW Brazil would be price - but no one is asking that, so I think its a reasonable question - how does a VW Kombi a la export to Danbury differ from the VW Kombi in the Brazilian VW showroom?

If there is any difference then it probably is to do with the paint. If you have a look at the first post by "Danbury Man" on the VWCampervanblog (on July 2nd 2009) you'll see that the subject of paint thickness on later models versus earlier is discussed.

You can read the full dialogue here.

To be honest, other than asking Volkswagen do Brasil to paint their Kombis with an extra few coats and supply differing arrangements of seats, I can't see the Danbury T2s being any different to the home market ones. It's quite a basic vehicle in modern day terms. There's not a lot you can tinker with. It's only when it arrives over here that the transformation takes place.

I would have thought the ECU settings might be different for our climate and type of useage.

If you need parts from Brazil.. just contact me...

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1021659

Guys ... Importing and exporting ANYTHING from here is nightmare 101. No system put in place to register anything here recognises a legitimate second. That means that anything you do with everything must first be registered on both sides of the same piece of paper ... it does not automatically mean that you have purchased something if you have a reciept for it ... you must register "separately" in a gov't department somewhere that you have completed a transaction of somesort ... Then you have to prove it.

"No-one said that it was going to be easy" ... Firstly it is VERY difficult for a foreigner to purchase anything in Brasil without a CIF number. That Done, you will have to be a permanent resident in Brasil for 2yrs to get a bank account. To become a permanent resident you need to either get married to a Brasilian national or find a job that will give you a permanent visa. Once you're in and have a bank account you must register your purchase with the bank ... this requires a regular and extremely complicated system of about 4 passwords and passwords for passwords to get to the initial screen that you need to remember that all your doing is registering.

Put it like this ... I've registered at the University of Brasilia to complete the full 3 month intensive Portugese course (for Brasilian Nationals) before I even start this journey.

On a positive note: It is very worthwhile and therefore do-able, it'll just take a bit of time. With regards to Brazilian tax laws, please see attached link.

http://www.worldwide-tax.com/brazil/brazil_taxes.asp

Guys I have just applied for a shipping quote from these guys with a US$26000 value.

http://www.dynamic-freight-shipping.co.uk/new.html

It seems that a large majority of shipping agents Work FROM the UK but not TO the UK ... neither do they help in finding an agent for the return trip ... Bizarre really.

Mate keep trying , dont give up. I had a crazy idea of doing the same but decided that in the current climate it was not going to work for me. But dont be put off by others least of all companies that already do this. There is always room for more especially if you offer a reasonable price.