Car advice for overland to Australia from UK

[albertramsbottom]

OK folks and yes I am being serious here. Myself and my wife are looking for advice with regards to car suggestions to drive from UK to OZ

Requirements:
4 x4 possibly
Economical
Possible estate?
Easy to service, so old would be good
1500 quid max

Before anyone gets on their high horses, yes we done this before twice having drove to the Gambia (9000 miles, all around north africa ) from Wales and Syria from Wales last year so we do have some experience. Both times we spent less than 500 quid on the cars.

Gambia - Peugeot 205
Syria - Citroen ZX TD - wow the engine in this puppy was fantastic and I believe they were used in quite a lot of cars from the period. hitch was 1994? I wouldnt mind another with this engine.

Sorry but it isn't a money thing we just feel its more of challenge to take an old shed of a car rather than spending 36k on a TLC

Cheers

Cheers

[mark manley]

Having done that trip on a motorcycle I can say it should be no problem in a 2wd car. Something to think about is what will happen to it once you get to Oz, shipping it back will be expensive and I am not sure about importing it, that is something you might want to look into.
What about a Toyota of some sort? very reliable and everywhere in the world and yes an estate car which you can sleep in would be a good idea.

[tacr2man]

BMW 530d manual estate , will do 50+mpg very reliable, big enough to sleep in , very comfortable travel . Probably worth a couple of mods re tyres and fitting a bash plate underneath . £1500 might be stretching it abit tho
what route you thinking , also time of year critical . You can import into OZ , but will need quarantine clean and clearance , and a carnet or deposit money , to guarantee export at end of 9mnths IIRC

[gren_t]

Merc 230 estate, easy to fix, reliable and you can sleep in or on it..

regards

Gren

[moggy 1968]

I would go with an old merc. they are known the world over, tough as old boots and can be had quite cheaply. The build quality of the older ones is legendary, the newer ones not!

[Warin]

As said above - the 'problem' will be getting rid of it at the end ... it may be cheapest to sell it to a wrecking yard and have any carnet cancelled (check that you can get it signed off before the car is wrecked!). It may well be best to do that before Australia as the shipping cost may be more that the car is worth. In fact buying and selling for each border might get around carnet costs... worth thinking about?

[RogerM]

Be cautious about having the car scrapped in Oz - you can only bring the vehicle in on a carnet - the destruction of the vehicle has to be supervised ($$$$) by Customs. There are not a lot of vehicle wreckers who will crush a complete vehicle as usually its just the body that get gets crushed and sent to China/Japan after all the good bits get taken out for on selling.

[ilesmark]

Originally Posted by tacr2man

BMW 530d manual estate , will do 50+mpg

I currently have a saloon one of these. Where did you get it from that it can do that many MPG?

[tacr2man]

Where it came from is irrelevant , it was on long motorway journeys at sat nav 65mph on cruise control it was chipped it was 2000 saloon with 1 owner 98,000 miles, BMW FSH . I am using past tense as the engine has now been removed for transplant into my 110 CSW HTSH

[ilesmark]

This isn't what the thread is about, but it happened to be in my mind when I saw your comment about the 530D. I drove my 1999 530D back to London on the M5 and M4 lust last weekend. After filling up in mid-Cornwall, I cruised for 230 miles at 90 all the way apart from a couple of brief roadworks interludes and the trip computer registered an average of 49.5 mpg. I thought that was pretty damn good for that size and age of car at that speed with 189K on the clock!

So getting more than that if cruising at 65 is probably about right.

A Landrover CSW with that engine will probably be quite a nice vehicle. I always thought it was a pity that Landrover didn't put bigger diesel engines in their Defenders.

PS - what does HTSH mean?

[tacr2man]

Have to agree re engine size , thats why i went for the V8, and reason for the BMW to replace rather than a 300tdi or TD% engine . Hope Thats Some Help

[ilesmark]

Tac - thanks

OP - back to the point of the thread - your mention of a Citroen ZX set me thinking - knew I hadn't imagined this! [http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...-300-car.html]

If you have any trouble finding the article, google 'Dwight Wood the sun Round the world in a £300 motor'

[Griffdowg]

If you go through Central Asia I would go with a Merc or BMW over anything else as you can get spares everywhere.

VW seem to be all the rage in Mongolia and Kaz with Audi 80s and old passats everywhere.

Cant help you with choice, just my observations on spares/repairs availability. Don't take anything French, I haven't seen any!

With regards to ditching the car I would look into this carefully. Most countries we passed through had a temporary import document issued. With exception to Kyrgyzstan.

That is if your coming this way, your opening post didn't reveal much

G

[bnicho]

If you intend to bring the car into Aus on a permanent basis (rather than temporary on a Carnet) you will have no hassles if:

- You have owned it for more than 12 months and can prove it, it can come in as a Personal Import. OR
- It's a pre-1989 model.

Anything post Dec 1988 is almost impossible to import permanently if not under the "Personal Import" scheme.

BTW: If the car is over 30 years, then you don't pay any import duty on it either. Only 10% GST on the car value and shipping costs.

Cheers,
Brett.

[liammons]

Toyota Carina diesel estate would seem like a good choice, they will easily cross the 250000k mark, I've done it 3 times.
They have great ground clearance, don't get stuck easily for a 2wd and with a little luck you'll get one with aircon.
They are also very easy to fix, just make sure you change the timing belt before you leave!

For a cheap 4wd, Diahatsu Fourtrak is a great bet,cheap to buy, reliable and capable off road too.