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I have dríven imported vehicles many years due to personal preferences. Those vehicles still had to have all the safety standards as the Australian vehicles to comply. Parts for each imported vehicle I have had where also easily available through the dealers here and never had to search over seas for any particular part. All vehicles I owned at some time had also been sold on the Australian market.

Why is it when you purchase an 'imported' vehicle (even though all cars are imported!) that most insurance company's will not insure you?

I have always had to argue this point to the insurance operator and can never get a straight answer from anyone.

Didn't have that problem, The Insurance companies up here seem to treat them the same. As long as It has the proper Mod plate.

GP wrote:Didn't have that problem, The Insurance companies up here seem to treat them the same. As long as It has the proper Mod plate.

GP,
No they don't! they are different.

Mr Rotary,
It was once explained to me that If you bought an import it has not gone through crash testing, or any of that stuff

For example

You could buy a N14 pulsar in 1992 Fully imported car from japan
it has been crash tested and adr approved on the basis of passing all the adr approvals

you can buy a 1992 pulsar GTiR in 1998 personally imported from japan
it has not been crash tested it has not passed on the basis of pasing the adr checks

so a its much cheaper and a better car but....

you get no dealer support
and insurance is a pita

Why?

Along time ago rules were put into place between car manufactures and insurance companies etc
too not support imported cars as they are detrimental to our ecconomy

you only have to look at New Zeland to see what happens when there are no restrictions on what you can import.

For this reason it will always be cheaper to insure the aus built/delivered equivelant
as these restrictions still stand

These days though they (insurance companies) have to remain competitive so they will insure imports on a case by case basis.

After my first two cars I really wanted imports 180's silvia etc but never got one due to the insurance costs

12 months ago I bought an imported 4x4 and all this came flooding back to me!
I have since sold that and own an australian built car( )

Because the eunos roadster etc is exactly the same there are not to many dramas with parts etc the main reason this statement comes into play is with more exotic cars like say a toyota sera(gull wing car)

insurance companies are not only insuring your risk but the risk that they might have to pay a premium price for a part because they have to go to a specific wreecker who will demand what ever he wants for that part because he is the only one that stocks it

rather than the insurance company ringing up toyota and saying we need this, toyota says yep no worries.

All imports are tarred with the same brush

Along time ago rules were put into place between car manufactures and insurance companies etc
too not support imported cars as they are detrimental to our ecconomy

Conspiracy theory

I would have thought the insurance companies reluctance to insure grey import vehicles would be:

1. Lack of a ready supply of new parts for repair work
2. Unsure resale/market values
3. The type of people who buy them.. usually high performance vehicles.

I have no doubt that the above stated also make a difference

The above mentioned statement
This was explained to me along time ago from a insurance assesor it may or may not be true

but the above mentioned are nothing different than any car that they normally would insure when they take these things into account

lowmiata wrote:Mr Rotary,
It was once explained to me that If you bought an import it has not gone through crash testing, or any of that stuff

For example

You could buy a N14 pulsar in 1992 Fully imported car from japan
it has been crash tested and adr approved on the basis of passing all the adr approvals

you can buy a 1992 pulsar GTiR in 1998 personally imported from japan
it has not been crash tested it has not passed on the basis of pasing the adr checks

As stated, the import vehicles I bought where all sold locally and where from a range of era's. The cars in qustion are 1979 Mazda RX-1 S1, 1989 Nissan Skyline GT-R and 1990 Mazda MX-5. All available locally and would of gone through crash testing to be sold here. I also bought these vehicles on the basis that all parts are available locally, rather than going for something like a Nissan GTi-R which is not available locally.

I can understand not insuring something that was not sold here as parts would be hard to find. I am quering as to why insurance companies will not insure imports that are sold locally.

lowmiata wrote:Along time ago rules were put into place between car manufactures and insurance companies etc
too not support imported cars as they are detrimental to our ecconomy

I would not be suprised in the least about that comment. First question the Mazda dealers here when you go to buy parts is 'is it an import'? If you answer yes, they will not help you. Having a car in the build with all parts being replaced new and servicing the others, I know for a fact all Aussie parts fit the imported models.

another point to the explination was about how grey imports were exempt of some tax? I don't know what tax though

as for crash testing

Mazda or who ever else will not support data from crash testing for grey imports because they never sold the car/or stand to make any money from it

yet we all know a roadster is a mx5
and a surf is a 4 runner!
for peace of mind you would only ever want to own an import that has a same floor pan as an australian delivered counter part.

I might google it tonight to find out what the tax was but I was pretty sure it was a tax imposed by the government on new cars maybe and grey imports didn't have this tax making them cheaper

they have closed the gap considerably though on importing cars

FWIW every normal car yard here there is probably 3 shady import car yards! they pop up for 12 months and then they are gone!

I love imports don't get me wrong but they ruin the local ecconomy.
and they have changed the face of insurance forever!
just as much as the ET and exa turbo did in the 80's the imports have affected insurance in the late 90's

Now most of the imports are not avalible to P platers it might plateu for a while
only time will tell

lowmiata wrote:another point to the explination was about how grey imports were exempt of some tax? I don't know what tax though

You pay the same tax as locally sold cars incl. luxury car tax. The higher cost we pay for new cars is the same excuse for all things sold here - 'Shipping fees'

lowmiata wrote:Now most of the imports are not avalible to P platers it might plateu for a while
only time will tell

Not the same in all states.

Anyway, my question original question still requires an answer