Shipping or Buying a Car in HK (South Side)

S

SarahHK

Registered User
I'm so confused about cars in HK. We currently have one in the U.S. - would it even make sense to ship it over with the costs of car transport and import tax? It's an inexpensive 2008 VW golf... May be better to sell current car then buy a small used one in HK? We would not need luxury, just safety and utility.

If you buy direct in HK, are there also import taxes on the car? My husband said something like taxes can be 100% of the car value if foreign car maker?

I have a sense for car maintenance costs once in HK (parking, license, road fuel, tax, etc), but cannot figure out the car purchase or car shipping scenarios.

I understand taxis are inexpensive and public transportation can be good depending on where you live, but seems the advice if on the south side with children is to have car?

Any advice or suggestions? Thanks in advance!
 
Second hand cars here are not that expensive. Check the classifieds on geoexpat.com for an idea on costs. I wouldn't ship yr car fm us
 
Cars from us got the wheel on wrong side, don't think you can use them here. Yes there is import duty on all cars(no cars are made in hk!) but you can buy second hand or don't go for fancy brand.
We live in south side and having a car is surely convenient. You can drop off kids, go to country sides on weekend, etc. In fact when we moved to hk we bot a car before finding an apt =p
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Hi SarahHK, I find having a car invaluable if you live South Side or New Territories (we have lived in both). There isn't any point importing an old car into HK, I don't think, unless it is very special. My husband imported an old classic in but it cost a lot of money and there were loads of hassles with it. I'd buy a second hand. AsiaXpat classifieds have a really good selection of second hand cars. Also, there is a local site, 28car that often has much better deals than you get on the expat sites. It is in Chinese but we have bought off there before - you can see the car model, details etc. and then just send an sms to the owner if you're interested to talk further.

Regarding understanding the import taxes, if you go and visit a showroom or two you will get a feel for it because they list the breakdown of the car costs, including taxes.
 
Easy answer - can't import a car from the US without having steering switched to the other side, which would be a huge hastle and quite costly. Don't worry though, plenty of second hand VW Golfs and similar cars here at reasonable prices.

Re: having a car on the South side with children, some people have cars and consider them invaulable, some people (myself included) have a car and drive some places, but take public transport to others and plenty of people rely exclusively on public transportation, which is quite good, runs frequently (and inexpensive) from the South side of HK island to Central, Causeway Bay, Aberdeen, Chai Wan and other places. Taxis on the South side are also plentiful and cheap. Its really a matter of personal preference and I would definitely not say essential if on the South side (there are some places in the New Territories where I would consider having a car to be a much greater priority as public transport is limited and infrequent).
 
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Unless the car has incredible sentimental value and a right-hand steering wheel you will do far better to just peruse the classifieds on the different expat sites. There are frequently "help, I have to leave in 1 week--best offer or whatever" for some decent vehicles with very low miles (km).

We have thought of a car, primarily for weekends to take the kids to places and sort of just drive around in general. Haven't quite convinced ourselves of the need just yet, but others might find it more necessary given where they live.
 
evgreen, does it make a difference though in reality whether you buy new or second hand in terms of tax? Regardless of how the price is broken down, it is the price of the car so surely the second hand market is also more expensive because the tax is just passed on throughout the buying chain? - i.e. I buy a car for $300k in HK that would only cost $200k in the UK because of the additional tax, but when I sell it after 3 years I sell it for $200k instead of say the $100k or $150k I would sell it for in the UK...
 
It depends really on the seller and the class of car. The more expensive the car, the higher the tax rate for the first registration which does get passed on to some effect in a resale. Car dealers in HK are usually hard pressed for negotiations (unlike the US), but private re-sellers are often much more flexible in that aspect.
 
we just bought a second hand toyota previa a couple of months ago. it was in great shape, and about 1998 or 1999 if memory serves... it seats 7 comfortably.

it cost us $14,500 HKD... so that is roughly $1900 USD... can you beat that? i don't think so. and when you consider it still had 2.5 months of registration on it (about $1500hkd) , that made it even cheaper.
 
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