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Anon
By AA | Moderator | 844 Posts | 28 January 2011 at 1:20pm

Can you advise on whether I can import my 2005 1.3 litre Ford Ikon from South Africa to NZ as a new migrant.

Femi

From the "Ask Jack" archives - 14 December 2009

jbiddle
By jbiddle | Community Member | 1657 Posts | 28 January 2011 at 1:50pm

Assuming you car was manufactured in South Africa, it is highly likely the vehicle will NOT be allowed into NZ.

All used vehicles coming into NZ must be able to prove compliance with certain specification levels and from our experience most vehicles assembled in South Africa are not tested to, or meet, the required standards.

Even if you qualified as an immigrant (visit the Land Transport NZ website for more information) and your vehicle was excluded from having to meet both the frontal impact and emission rule, you still have to prove compliance with all the other standards such as brake, seatbelts, external projections, glazing, lights to name but a few.

If you wish to confirm this officially you would need to produce a statement of compliance (SOC) from the manufacturer. This will confirm the standards the vehicle has been built to which we strongly suspect is a local standard only.

If you wish to proceed down this track then you would need to send us a copy of the SOC to confirm the vehicles eligibility or not.

Do not ship the vehicle in the hope you can work this through once it arrives. It could become an expensive exercise to either ship it back to South Africa or sell it for scrap.