Should I take a bike when I move to Australia
Hi all,
Currently I live in London and I just signed a two year contract to work in Australia starting September 15. I sold my Dakar here and I am returning to the states for a month at the end of July before I head out to Sydney.
I can't believe the prices of motorcycles in Australia. The bikes I am looking at are the Husqvarna TE610 and the new KTM 690E. In the states I can get the KTM for about $8.5K US, the Husky for about $1K less.
In Australia the KTM is going for $15K Australian or so and the Huskys are going for $12K or so. Even with the exchange rate that seems crazy expensive.
I figure it would cost me roughly about $1K to have it shipped and then I'm sure there would be other expenses involved, I just don't know what exactly. I also know that I would have to get a carnet and there are a couple options involved there but it’s not exactly cheap.
It may not make sense to buy a new bike and then ship because I'm sure that the warranty would not transfer to different countries. I think BMW does so maybe the XChallenge should be considered around with the other two. XChallenges are going for $8K or so. But I know I can buy a used Husky for $4.5 to $6K and that would be hard to find in Australia.
So it seems like I could save more then a few thousand by shipping a bike there, but there will be a lot of headaches involved. Or I could just suck up the initial cost of the bike and sell it when I leave and hopefully only lose the normal amount for depreciation. It just seems that the initial cost seem inordinately high compared to elsewhere.
Any thoughts? Is there something that I am not considering? Also there is the option that I may stay in Australia longer then 2010.
_Kris
|