Importing from UK

[Bargrip]

Looking at possibly buying a defender in England, what's my options  for importing and getting it to Calgary... ( ro-ro,shared seacan,full sea can and  Hansons to truck to Calgary etc!!)Not into paying $30G+ for a defender over here...
Plus I'm originally from Sunderland so I'm cheap! (Not quite Scottish cheap but close ;))

Cheers
Henryk.

[ugly_90]

Looks like you already explained all your options, and most of them will be decided by seller location and available transport.

It doesn't seem there's much difficulty in getting a 15 year old or older defender over. You might obviously explore getting a salt - free unit as LHD from elsewhere than the UK. Spain, Middle East, a few other options stand out.

[Bargrip]

My cousin over there had a lead on a nice clean  90TDI that he looked at....  And was close to Liverpool for shipping... Just still not sure about all the costs involved to get it here...

[Red90]

The cheapest option is probably Ro-Ro to Tacoma and picking it up yourself.  It adds to the hoops a bit transiting the USA, but it is not supposed to be too bad.

The "extra" costs with bringing vehicles in containers is quite bad these days.

[binch]

You can pick up a decent 90 with a 300tdi on a galvanized chassis for a reasonable price in the UK.   But being a RHD you will have some trouble with it on this side of the pond.    Resale on a RHD is usually lower then a LHD and the insurance companies on this side don't like RHD thanks to all the rice rockets brought in by young, stupid males.   There are several provinces here where you will have trouble registering the vehicle too.   The solution is a conversion to LHD or buy one to start with.    Any way you look at it the shipping charges are going to be high.   Get used to that idea right off the bat.

RoRo is cheapest but you can ship anything inside the vehicle and it's security is limited.   The seacan option offers the option of filling the vehicle to the nuts with extra stuff and security of contents.   Which ever way you go....make sure you get the insurance on the vehicle to cover the cost of the vehicle and the shipping. ;)

[Trevor]

I brought mine over in a seacan in 2013. Cost was around 5k, all in. That was cost to my door.

[Matt H]

I looked at this recently before I bought my 110. In the end I found what I wanted in Winnipeg (1998, 300 tdi, LHD, 110 county) and paid what I thought was fair all things considered.

TD5's are holding their value and prices are high. Early 110's and 90's eliagable for US import are rising in value. That leaves 200-300 era Defenders the best option cost wise.

As it worked out I could "saved" about $5K buying from the UK but for me buying a 15 year old Land Rover sight unseen, the shipping hassle and conversion from RHD made the extra cash outlay for my 110 worth it.

Before you commit, keep checking on various 'for sale' forums and websites.  While no 'Defender' worth owning will be cheap these days there are deals to be had.

My 2c.

[binch]

yup....you got that one right Matt ;)

[Pioneer]

if then OP wants a 110 he can give me a shout. :)

Ken

[binch]

If yours is forsale that should be a good choice :D

[Pioneer]

Yes I will sell it as I will be needing a new vehicle for the dog.  A/C , really good heater and remote start required.  I don't want to put it on kijiji or autotrader as you get so many jackasses and I would love to see it go to someone who will appreciate it.  The 4x4 club here is a lot of yahoos who only want to mud, tear up the land and break their vehicles. 

[B-Red]

Sometimes getting to that wonderful fishing spot requires a lot of Offroading and mud crawls. The reward is always worth it. ;-)