Exporting out of Miami, lessons learned

BertVermaas

In respons to o0javi0o questions:

1. I shipped with econocaribe, the total charges, seafreigth, including handling of the papers, insurance, etc amounted to $4,600 invoiced from their Miami offices plus another $200 in Aruba for local paperwork charges.

2. The boat left on friday april 10 and arrived in Aruba tuesday 14, so 4 days at sea.

3. Not sure I understand the question, but yes, I paid everything cash.

4. Taxes? As you could read in my first post, 50% import duties on the total value, so including that freight&insurance. In total I paid $17,400 USD in import duties on the car.

5. Shipping insurance premium is 1.25% of car value and was part of my total freightcharges.

So in case you want to calculate the total cost for me (that is just one of the last questions missing)
28960 the Z itself
725 inland transport
599 dealer fee
4600 shipping
200 local charges
17500 import duties
=======
52584 USD total

jginnane

Hi, Just a quick question: Did you try to deal with Nissan at the corporate level?

Seems to me you could have had your car put in a container in Japan, then sent thru the Panama Canal. I'm sure it has been done before, because I've seen a lot of Nissans in Columbia.

You might have to special-order the US emissions if you want them, because they leave that junk off deliveries to most South American countries. But even if Nissan would only deliver as far as Columbia for you, freight on one single container a single day's sail away has got to be a whole lot cheaper than dealing the way you did.

BertVermaas

hi jginnane

No, I did not ask Nissan corporate. It never occurred to me that the factory would sell directly to a private person instead of to a dealer. I very much doubt that.

Therefore I think the cars you saw in columbia where purchased from the local dealership. Sure there is one.
And still, if they would. "My" container being shipped from Japan thru the panama canal would have to travel several times the distance of what I did now, Miami-Aruba. Therefore, the shipping charges would for sure also be several times higher. You cannot compare the charge per container for the dealer when cars are shipped by the hundreds on the same vessel to the states to the shipping charges for one individual "special order" container.
So frankly, even if the factory would have sold me direct (and at what price??), the much higher shipping charges would have spoiled everything (I think).
But yeah, I did not check.
Anybody knows if Nissan would sell "directly", bypassing the dealer?

jginnane

I didn't want to spend too long on this, because you've already got your car. But if you google for Nissan sites that aren't "nissanusa.com", you can easily find: Nissan Global Fleet | PRODUCTS

That's in English. Once you click on Latin America, the language of the website changes to Spanish, but you can see the models they sell and/or assemble in Columbia. (No Zs at present, I'm afraid.) But at least you have a link to an English-speaking party at Nissan corporate in Japan who deals with foreign exports to companies and countries outside of the USA. I think that person is located closer to the correct answer you want than somebody at corporate in Smyrna, TN.

I personally can't offer a clue on how freight charges would run, but every Z here in the USA has already come across 8-11 time zones from Japan, and that freight was not free. (We only pay $700 for delivery from the nearest embarkation point in the US -- probably Long Beach CA, I'd guess Port Elizabeth NJ, maybe another down near Smyrna TN.

BUT if you're importing direct from Japan, there's a chance you'd be able to go full JDM, which means (at least) different stereo, tires (rims?), the 4th low taillight, your choice of left- or right-hand driving, etc etc.

OT: One thrilling sight to me was seeing the car we know in the US as an Acura TSX labelled properly as it's known worldwide, a Honda Accord, when we were in Cartagena. (Acura is a marketing fiction for the US market only -- cars designed in CA for big-*** Americans, and built in Ohio. The Honda car line worldwide is better than our local Accords and Acura TLs.)

Good luck!