Welcome from Texas! Hats off to you for being willing to jump through all the necessary hoops to bring one of these into your country. Intimidating indeed. I hope someone on here is able to answer your specific questions and help you along your path.

Cheers!

JD

 

I think they are great cars but not great enough to go through that expense and those modifications. In the US we can drive right hand drive imports and don’t have to switch them at all. In the end it’s still just a car.
if you do go through with it post pictures as I don’t believe I’ve seen one of them changed over.

 

Mate the best way that I can describe it to you is that over here it's incredibly exotic, to the point where nobody has one. It's like spotting the rarest of birds in the wild, which is part of the appeal.

So far, we only just started getting Mustangs a few years ago, Camaro's don't exist unless someone similarly imports them, and corvettes will come next year, but only 1000 per year. In short, Australia is short changed when it comes to getting the good stuff.

The irony is that if the car is over 25 years old, we're allowed to keep it left hand drive. This was done to protect our automotive industry which has since died, yet the rule bizarrely remains.

In any case we're only young once so gotta enjoy life, eh?

 

Mate the best way that I can describe it to you is that over here it's incredibly exotic, to the point where nobody has one. It's like spotting the rarest of birds in the wild, which is part of the appeal.

So far, we only just started getting Mustangs a few years ago, Camaro's don't exist unless someone similarly imports them, and corvettes will come next year, but only 1000 per year. In short, Australia is short changed when it comes to getting the good stuff.

The irony is that if the car is over 25 years old, we're allowed to keep it left hand drive. This was done to protect our automotive industry which has since died, yet the rule bizarrely remains.

In any case we're only young once so gotta enjoy life, eh?

thought about restored 70 or 71 challenger (440 ) might be a lot cheaper..

 

Coming from the GM world I'm happy to also own a Pontiac G8 GT and am kind of shocked that the land that produced the Commodore, Monaro and shoot even the Falcon cannot easily have access to the Challenger. Its a damn shame! Good luck Mate!

 

That's a shame Auatralia has made importing cars so difficult. My 'mate' in Adelaide wanted my 2007 Mustang GT/CS when I sold it in August. It was just way too expensive with endless roadblocks. He had to pass. He does have a nice old Charger though, the Australian one.

 

Would have saved a ton to have the cars built in right hand drive but the only car Brampton built in RHD was the Chrysler 300 but that might have already ended, I know FCA recently quit production of the 6.4L SRT for the Australian Highway Patrol. The Challenger and Charger was never factory built in RHD.



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Would have saved a ton to have the cars built in right hand drive but the only car Brampton built in RHD was the Chrysler 300 but that might have already ended, I know FCA recently quit production of the 6.4L SRT for the Australian Highway Patrol. The Challenger and Charger was never factory built in RHD.



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No more 300C's and no more Trackhawks coming into Australia. I swear they have it in for the Aussie Muscle car enthusiast with the only factory right hand drive coming into Australia is the Ford Mustang.

 

I wish.

On the website which sells the lion's share of used vehicles in Australia, there's only 1 '71 Challenger for sale, and the guy wants $123k for it. Granted, it is restored but here's where things get interesting and backwards.

In the early 2000s, the Australian Federal government introduced a tax called the luxury car tax. It's been indexed, but effectively the result is that as of today, any car over $71k you have to pay this tax on, on top of paying ownership transfer of about $4k on this vehicle. The rate of luxury car tax is 33% above the $71k threshold. This works out to about $17k if I paid the bloke exactly what he wants.

That would mean that I'm only paying $5k less for a 50 years old car than I would be for a brand new model. So the way I rationalise it is that a old car will always be old, but a 23 model I can have from new.

To give you a contrast, the only new scat pack for sale on this site is $215k, and I'd be up for an additional $48k in tax on that thing alone. Because of the paperwork you gotta go through, it's a lot cheaper just to import it yourself. It's so backwards here.

 

I wish.

On the website which sells the lion's share of used vehicles in Australia, there's only 1 '71 Challenger for sale, and the guy wants $123k for it. Granted, it is restored but here's where things get interesting and backwards.

In the early 2000s, the Australian Federal government introduced a tax called the luxury car tax. It's been indexed, but effectively the result is that as of today, any car over $71k you have to pay this tax on, on top of paying ownership transfer of about $4k on this vehicle. The rate of luxury car tax is 33% above the $71k threshold. This works out to about $17k if I paid the bloke exactly what he wants.

That would mean that I'm only paying $5k less for a 50 years old car than I would be for a brand new model. So the way I rationalise it is that a old car will always be old, but a 23 model I can have from new.

To give you a contrast, the only new scat pack for sale on this site is $215k, and I'd be up for an additional $48k in tax on that thing alone. Because of the paperwork you gotta go through, it's a lot cheaper just to import it yourself. It's so backwards here.

The purpose of that luxury tax was to help local manufacturing and since 2017 they closed down Holden and Ford and I think Mitsubishi. So no more local manufacturing so that luxury tax should have been abolished.

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A Guy

That particular roo has since passed away but he was very photogenic.

Wombat, keep an eye out for me, black with HELLCT plates!

I have the B5 with Redeye plates.

 

wow - thanks for educating me. I don't know that much about Australia, but I know it has lots of kangaroos. Just out of curiosity, I looked up the price of a kangaroo in Australia. While they cannot be kept as pets, they are going for over $2000. That means, someone would have to trade in like a hundred kangaroos to get a scat pack. Wow.

 

To be honest we're becoming like a mini version of the USA in some regards, so we're probably a lot more alike than you'd think.

Yeah we're not allowed to have any native animals as pets, and kangaroos being protected have actually become pests. There used to be one 6'4 in my backyard, he was ripped and one kick would probably hospitalise you. It used to be quite regular though, if you saw one injured on the side of the road, particularly a baby, to raise it back to health then release it. My parents did it.

I looked into keeping squirrels as pets here as Australia is the only continent that doesn't have them - $1500 and it must be desexed. Things are definitely expensive here, but then our minimum wage is over $20 from memory, and housing is on average over $1.1m in Sydney.

I can easily get you 1000, never mind 100, kangaroos if you wanna swap though 🤣

 

To be honest we're becoming like a mini version of the USA in some regards, so we're probably a lot more alike than you'd think.

There was a lot of interface between US citizens and Australians at the company I worked for. Vegemite (yeck!) and accent aside I never really noticed a difference. Good luck with your pursuit.

 

Off topic 1st page...not a record, but

A Guy

 

🤣🤣🤣

Damn those red kangaroos are bigger yet (normally).

Mine seen here in my backyard before I landscaped, was only an eastern grey. Sure, he doesn't look that menacing here, but when he arched up he was a big boy with even bigger bollocks.

By the way, what's the record? 🤣

 

Why is it we always want that which we cannot obtain easily??? 😁

In your case, can't you just find a wrecked RHD 300C and port over the parts needed to an imported Challenger? It will be a lot of work, but can be done... And technically, if you want an automatic, you could just get a V6 Challenger, and move the whole wiring system over +V8 from the 300c. Not sure how the laws work down under. But can be done.

 

Is that a falcon ute? 🤣 Can't completely tell because of the mods. Yeah exactly, I want the stuff that's not common!

Your suggestion sounds like a lot of work, especially when it comes to compliance, which I'm probably not going to trust myself to do, especially in a high end car which will be driven at the occasional break neck speed

 

Wow that's different, if I understand correctly it was based on a HSV Maloo, which is odd to me because that's GM owned. This I'd what it looked like originally over this way:

I do love that RAM grill on your ute though. That thing must be rare as hens teeth!

 

Maybe for a Hellcat but no F-ing way for an RT that's just dumb bro!

 

I hear you, it's a lot of money although to us it's more exotic than a Ferrari or Lamborghini. For a bit of perspective, a Hellcat here starts at around $300k after all taxes, though insurance would be well over $15k a year.

We also have average wages of $100k or so per year so it's realistically only 1.5x the average persons wage.

 

If I were an Aussie living down under I would beat the bushes for a 2002-4 GTO. My neighbor had one…great car.

 

Haha can easily get one of those here, locally it's known as a Holden Monaro. They were $60k Australian brand new, and some people bought it and stored it, so have no km on it. You can view them at carsales.com.au if you're keen. Yanks get a good foreign exchange rate at the moment!

What’s the “penalty” for driving a less than 25 year old car with LHD? In other words, what are the fines? A 23 R/T might cost $40k + import costs of what?…. Another $5-7k? So maybe $50k into the project to have a bone stock AMERICAN left hand drive Challenger R/T in Australia. If doing it legally is $170k - $200k that leaves $120k - $150k in fines available. How often might you get caught?

I like the cut of your jib, son. It won't really be feasible to do that here because in order to get insurance on a car it needs to be registered. Without it you're up for some pretty big penalties if you drive it. The cost to drive a car unregistered is $607. Sticking on licence plates not belonging to the car they're on will only draw attention. The police in Australia, at least in my state, have cameras mounted on the side of their vehicles which can check something like 10 licence plates per second while driving, and it'll highlight that my plates don't match the model of vehicle I've attached them to. That's before the heightened attention a unique car will bring to them as well. Doing it more than once would likely lead them to seizing my car. You also have to have licence plates on the front of your car or else there's a fine for that too. Might be a bit stricter than most of the world but I guess that's a good thing that they do to keep us all safe.

So to answer your question I probably have two bites of the cherry before the car is taken off me 🤣😥

I’m really happy for you!! Even here in the U.S. where I live, driving along in my RT, I always get a little thrill when I see another Challenger approaching from the other direction! So many different colors & trims😁👌🏻. The first thing I look for is whether it is a Widebody, because I bought a 2021 Scatpack WB Shaker package , ordered her from the factory. Loved that car...after awhile I was in some financial need so regrettably sold her but I purchased a 2019 RT Shaker which does the job for me!!

You say that you get excited seeing another one in the US, imagine how we feel over here when we see one! I've yet to see one in the wild, and have only seen one Camaro not in a showroom here.

I'd love to get the scat pack, or a Hellcat for that matter, but then I'd have to buy a significantly worse house and at this age, I can't justify it. So I'm absolutely envious of you blokes who have one.

Do you find it being enough fun, even at the entry level for a hemi, after giving up your scat pack? I imagine that it's fast enough for the majority of driving that you don't notice the difference too much? Unless your motto is to drive it like you stole it.

Why not get it converted here in the states and then shipped over?

Another Aussie night be able to correct me, but j think that while this would be achievable, it would add to the purchase cost of the vehicle entering Australia, thereby increasing the tax I have to pay. I reckon that the Aussie government thought this through and have snookered us.

The guy I'm using to convert says that while I own the car I get a lifetime warranty on the conversion process so that is maybe worth a little bit of money too.

There was a lot of interface between US citizens and Australians at the company I worked for. Vegemite (yeck!) and accent aside I never really noticed a difference. Good luck with your pursuit.

Mate, Vegemite is disgusting. It's the dregs of the creation of beer that they realised some people will eat. Be weary of anyone who says they like it.

I have imported my 2018 SXT+ Dodge Challenger to Cyprus from UAE, where I used to live. Freight costs were very high (1,200 USD). The car was placed in a 20 ft container and arrived in Cyprus within 35 days. It was loaded and unloaded onto three cargo vessels. I managed to pay 0 import taxes due to laws in Cyprus permitting importation of one vehicle per family of repatriated Cypriots. Processing time was 4 months. In Cyprus one is permitted to use a LHD car, because we also drive on the left, as in Australia. I would be skeptical to convert the drive, as it really is not necessary. I understand that in Australia LHD driving is prohibited. You must be really fond of the Challenger, to be willing to undergo these procedures. Have you considered another brand of muscle car? In Cyprus it is well possible to buy a factory made RHD Ford Mustang, but still, that's an inferior vehicle to a Dodge.
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Another Kypreos! I'm of Cypriot heritage, my parents were both born there and grew up there, one on the (now) occupied side. I have a national ID card and when I come over I'm getting my passport. Never thought that I'd see one there of all places.

That seems like a long time to transport your car home, 35 days. It'll only take 60 days from California to Melbourne and that's a significantly longer distance. Looks beautiful in that Cypriot background though! συγχαρητήρια!

Yes, we do have mustangs sold locally in Australia from dealerships but it lacks the raw appeal of a challenger and it's retro styling. Camaro I've driven and it was nice, but nowhere near as nice to look at and it's not cheaper.

Congrats on wanting a Challenger. I have the 6.4 Scat Pack and couldnt be happier. Might I suggest getting the car converted here in US before shipping to you, as parts might br chraper as well as availabity of shops experienced in doing it right. You might even be able to get one of those TV shops, like Gas Monkey Garage or Iron Resurrection or similar to do it for a reduced rate, to televize how its done. Just a thought. But I have sold several mustangs to people in Australia and know the hoops to get the american car there.

I'll actually have to look into that, you make a good point. Would American shops have the expertise to convert though, it's probably not a common occurrence for people to ask them to switch the side of the steering.

Are the mustangs you've sold classic models or new ones? Once I have the dodge paid off I plan to get a '67 Mustang to add to the collection. Love the old school muscle!

Hi Wombat, I'm in Newcastle and have a 2018 SRT Challenger Hellcat. Whilst I didn't import mine, one the guys in the Hunter Valley Chrysler Club (HVCC) did. He used Matt Dean at Crossover (in SA I believe).

Mine was very professionally done by Eric Roelse in Brisbane, and I can't fault it, they did a great job. I got it with <6k on the clock and have put 15k on it since, as it's my daily drive.

Good Luck and enjoy, it's worth it!

I'm from the other steel city, Wollongong!

I'm actually using Matt Dean, so far he seems like a really good operator. Did the person in your car club have anything to say about the quality of his work? On google maps he has dozens of muscle cars out front so he must be half decent at his job.

How do you find it as your daily driver? I shudder to think what a Hellcat fuel bill looks like 🤣 and I take it that Shannon's were the only ones who could/would insure it?

If you ever plan to sell let me know 😉

I had a great neighbor from Melbourne, Australia that moved here in Melbourne, Florida. Yes, there is a Melbourne in Central Florida about an hour away from Disney World. He sold his house here for more than double what he paid for it and then moved to Texas and bought an even larger home for less. He could have bought a couple Challengers if he wanted. Was sorry to see him move away.

Learn something new everyday, didn't know that Florida had a Melbourne! Lucky fella.

 

What’s the “penalty” for driving a less than 25 year old car with LHD? In other words, what are the fines? A 23 R/T might cost $40k + import costs of what?…. Another $5-7k? So maybe $50k into the project to have a bone stock AMERICAN left hand drive Challenger R/T in Australia. If doing it legally is $170k - $200k that leaves $120k - $150k in fines available. How often might you get caught?

 

Why not get it converted here in the states and then shipped over?

 

I have imported my 2018 SXT+ Dodge Challenger to Cyprus from UAE, where I used to live. Freight costs were very high (1,200 USD). The car was placed in a 20 ft container and arrived in Cyprus within 35 days. It was loaded and unloaded onto three cargo vessels. I managed to pay 0 import taxes due to laws in Cyprus permitting importation of one vehicle per family of repatriated Cypriots. Processing time was 4 months. In Cyprus one is permitted to use a LHD car, because we also drive on the left, as in Australia. I would be skeptical to convert the drive, as it really is not necessary. I understand that in Australia LHD driving is prohibited. You must be really fond of the Challenger, to be willing to undergo these procedures. Have you considered another brand of muscle car? In Cyprus it is well possible to buy a factory made RHD Ford Mustang, but still, that's an inferior vehicle to a Dodge.

 

Years ago, I saw on eBay.com a Dodge Challenger Hellcat that was being sold down in Jakarta (I believe). Besides the rather exorbitant price, it had been converted to a right-hand drive by someone. Whoever did the conversion did a fantastic job; it looked like a mirror reflection of a regular left-hand drive Challenger; it was that good. It looked factory original except for being right-hand drive, of course. I'm sure the price in the conversion was reflected in the high price of the car, LOL!

 

Hi Wombat, I'm in Newcastle and have a 2018 SRT Challenger Hellcat. Whilst I didn't import mine, one the guys in the Hunter Valley Chrysler Club (HVCC) did. He used Matt Dean at Crossover (in SA I believe).

Mine was very professionally done by Eric Roelse in Brisbane, and I can't fault it, they did a great job. I got it with <6k on the clock and have put 15k on it since, as it's my daily drive.

Good Luck and enjoy, it's worth it!

 

I had a great neighbor from Melbourne, Australia that moved here in Melbourne, Florida. Yes, there is a Melbourne in Central Florida about an hour away from Disney World. He sold his house here for more than double what he paid for it and then moved to Texas and bought an even larger home for less. He could have bought a couple Challengers if he wanted. Was sorry to see him move away.

 

Hello from Sydney, Australia

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Here’s a good looking RHD conversion


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If the link doesn’t work, here are the pictures from it.

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I decided to import my Redeye February of last year year and all up it cost $180K AUD. Now if you want one it will cost close to $250K. You have to do your research and contact at least three or four of the main importers and see which one suits your need. My advice is if you do decide to buy one is go for the one that does the mirror conversion and not that stupid bar behind the dash I forget what its called but if you need more feedback you can connect with me via FB. Name I use is Dodge Redeye.

 

Damn that's a huge difference, also why I will indulge myself a little but not too much. I wish I could afford one but then I guess I'm not trying to go sub 10s at the Nurburgring. So this is the perfect compromise to me.

I have tried to contact a few different places but some have stopped conversions, some are out of business etc. I had one fella in Brisbane tell me that I have to get one of the last call special editions, and was adamant he'd get me a super bee because it'll 'go up in value most.' this despite the fact I am not basing any vehicle purchase on a theoretical future value as I have no intent to sell. I have other assets to make me money. But he would not relent so I gave up with him.

Hopefully I'm not stirring up a hornet's nest here but those special editions are really just stickers that people are paying for - if they got the money well done, otherwise to most I suspect it's a bit meh.

I don't have social media which I feel is unheard of for someone in their 30s - any chance of messaging me on here for a chat?

Can I please correct you if I may. Only 200 C8's came into Australia amongst 80 dealers. I put a deposit for one 3 years ago and GM Holden the dealers and HSV could not get their act together so they gave us our refunds back and then they created GMSV and then you put your deposit down for one, That is why I decided to get my Redeye and that is the best decision for me.

I feel like I read 1000 initially but I'll defer to you on the fact it's only 200. Seems like a stupidly low number to bother with, unless they'll be ramping up the numbers when they determine what the appetite for these cars is. No doubt it'll be a rip off, though. I think GM have treated Australians as mugs for a while now.

The purpose of that luxury tax was to help local manufacturing and since 2017 they closed down Holden and Ford and I think Mitsubishi. So no more local manufacturing so that luxury tax should have been abolished.

Really it should have been called what it is, 'foreign car tax' - and yeah maybe should have gone when we lost our local manufacturing capability.

 

They sold new RHD Chrysler 300s in the UK until Chrysler pulled out of the UK in 2017 due to low sales - the models were old and had high emissions compared to other makes - and we pay an annual fee to use our cars on the road, and for most cars its based on emissions - so poor emissions you pay a high fee, so were unpopular.

Luckily in the UK we are allowed to register imported left hand drive cars - hence Challengers here don't need to be modified. Lancia back in the 80's/90's only made the Delta integrale as a LHD model, so their dealers sold it new as LHD here - there were some factory authorised RHD conversions, but they were felt to ruin the steering feel of the car.

I ran into a guy in Texas with a similar problem - he had imported a couple of RHS Holden utes into the US, but was unable to title them as they were not compliant with any crash regs etc, and weren't old enough for historic status (which Lancia Deltas are now) - I think he was running around claiming they were Pontiacs or similar. My American colleagues were rather surprised by the RHD and kept coming to find me to tell me about it

 

Yeah In the USA I understand that Holdens are re-baged as Pontiacs given its an Australia marquee.

After doing my research I decided that Platinum Auto Group or Iconic American Imports were going to find me my car and they did and his name is Vas Comblas. He got me my car eventually but it did come with some heartache and stress but he did come through and I am very happy now. I guess the price is about right cause $180K AUD got me my Redeye two years ago and these days it gets you a Scat Pack. Freight charges alone have gone up a lot and we can thank the Chinese for that because they control a big part of the containers and the costs associated with them.

There's a fair markup on some of these vehicles from Iconic American Imports: Dodge Challenger Range | Iconic American