Some of you may recall that I recently bought a 2015 GTS from a salvage auction. What I didn't say was that I actually only bought it for the engine and some of the running gear (brakes, wheels, suspension) - the plan was to use them in an upcoming RestoMod project. The problem was that when it arrived here on the back of a trailer, I saw straight away that it was nigh-on immaculate. Having dealt with most of the ECU code issues and got it MOT'd, I then drove it around for a bit. I very quickly came to the conclusion that it was simply far too nice to take a disc cutter to - awesome to drive, both from the comfort as well as the performance points of view.
So - since I still needed the aforementioned parts, I went searching for another one. In my defence, I was left unsupervised at my computer...
After much searching, I found that there weren't any smashed ones anywhere except in the States, where there were two actually on offer. There were also several others due to come to auction, but as they weren't currently available I passed them by. One of these was at auction, while the other was being sold off from a dealership. I know nothing about the former car other than it was not worth repairing. The other one was in a similar state - it'd been sold for a substantial sum to someone who turned out to have been operating on a fake ID. He then completely wrecked it and did a runner.
Anyway - I enquired about the second one, but before things went any further, my bid on the first one was high enough to win it. Then, a few days later, the dealership with the second car came back to me saying that they'd not been able to sell it, so would I like to make them an offer? So now I have two wrecked QP GTS's on their way to me.
Shipping across the Atlantic was actually was cheaper than I was expecting, making the whole thing practicable; for anyone who's interested in USA/UK transactions, these are the basic costs that need to be met:
Bid price on car
Broker fees (you are not allowed to bid for cars at auction in many states unless you go via a broker)
Auction buyer fees
Cost to ship the car from wherever it is to a suitable port
Cost to ship the car from there to the UK (across the Atlantic from the east coast to Southampton currently costs $575)
Import duty at 10% of the value of the car
VAT at 20%
Cost to ship the car from port to your location
This means that I'm going to have to strip the cars and sell off as much as I can to offset what I've spent. Also, I need to get them out of sight so that my wife doesn't start wailing that they're in the way...
So, if you need any GTS parts, keep an eye on the ads section on here, because I'll post the details as and when!
So - since I still needed the aforementioned parts, I went searching for another one. In my defence, I was left unsupervised at my computer...
After much searching, I found that there weren't any smashed ones anywhere except in the States, where there were two actually on offer. There were also several others due to come to auction, but as they weren't currently available I passed them by. One of these was at auction, while the other was being sold off from a dealership. I know nothing about the former car other than it was not worth repairing. The other one was in a similar state - it'd been sold for a substantial sum to someone who turned out to have been operating on a fake ID. He then completely wrecked it and did a runner.
Anyway - I enquired about the second one, but before things went any further, my bid on the first one was high enough to win it. Then, a few days later, the dealership with the second car came back to me saying that they'd not been able to sell it, so would I like to make them an offer? So now I have two wrecked QP GTS's on their way to me.
Shipping across the Atlantic was actually was cheaper than I was expecting, making the whole thing practicable; for anyone who's interested in USA/UK transactions, these are the basic costs that need to be met:
Bid price on car
Broker fees (you are not allowed to bid for cars at auction in many states unless you go via a broker)
Auction buyer fees
Cost to ship the car from wherever it is to a suitable port
Cost to ship the car from there to the UK (across the Atlantic from the east coast to Southampton currently costs $575)
Import duty at 10% of the value of the car
VAT at 20%
Cost to ship the car from port to your location
This means that I'm going to have to strip the cars and sell off as much as I can to offset what I've spent. Also, I need to get them out of sight so that my wife doesn't start wailing that they're in the way...
So, if you need any GTS parts, keep an eye on the ads section on here, because I'll post the details as and when!
