importing a 1961 classic coach from UK to Brazil not to be used on roa

Hello gymfit,

I hate to be the one to burst your bubble, but aside from the astronomical cost of shipping a bus to Brazil you will be looking at importation taxes payable to the Receita Federal upon arrival. Then on top of that even before the vehicle arrives on Brazilian soil requests for permission to import must pass through licensing/approval processes with several government agencies among them, IBAMA, Denatran, Decex, Secex and Mdic. The fees are prohibitively high and even classic car collectors who intend their cars to be competing in classic car shows avoid importing. Certainly it is not something one would do for a vehicle that would not be a collector vehicle used in shows or something that is not really roadworthy. I think you'll find that getting the old girl here to Brazil will end up costing many times more than the vehicle's value.

You might want to check out the link below and run it through Google Translator:

http://www.receita.fazenda.gov.br/publi … iculos.doc

If I were you I'd find a good home for the old gal and content yourself with visiting whenever you're back in the UK. It's not going to be worth all the money involved or the headaches either.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team

Thank you so much for replying.   

   I realise its not going to be easy or cheap but its something we are willing to spend some cash on. 

I have tried to find a good home for her here but no luck.....  not many people have a place to keep a bus like this and those that do are not usually interested in old busses - the constant damp weather is just killing her and its so sad.

Thank you for the link, My Portugues is very poor but I will ask my girlfriend to read it.  Google translate will just confuse me.....google gobldegook more like...

Im just trying to get together a approximate figure but am unsure how to go about that without knowing how they would decide on the value of the vehicle?  Im quite sure if they looked online for a current market price they wouldn't find anything as there are non for sale.

To keep the bus here I would need to find (almost impossible) a dry place to keep her, pay various people to do things like rebuild parts of the wooden frame, metal work, engine work & body work plus then I would be keeping her in storage for the sake of it....I really want her to be used & enjoyed.       I would probably need to spend 5000 pounds to get her into fairly nice, road worthy condition as mechanics here are super expensive.....   My girlfriend has some staff living at the country house for over 20 years and the guys love old trucks, cars etc and are excited to have a new exciting project.     We are happy to spend up to 25,000 reals to get it from here to SP.... I think the actual shipping will not be more than 3500/4000 reals    so do you think all the taxs & fees would be more than 20'000?

sorry for so many questions & thank you again

Well, as far as just shipping the bus you'll probably be looking at in excess of $10,000 USD. Then you'll have the licensing fees from each and every one of the government agencies I mentions and I have no idea how much they would run. That is not even considering the the IBAMA (environmental) license may well be refused if the vehicle is not in the best of running condition and thus wouldn't meet minimum emission standards. The import tax imposed by the Receita Federal would be something they would determine on arrival and again that is beyond anybody predicting. All told, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole venture didn't end up costing $20,000 or more.

If you think that your bus would rust out if left in the UK, you're going to have even greater worries along those lines here in Brazil, especially if you live in any costal areas because of the heavy rains, high temperatures and humidity and salt air. If the bus is already deteriorating then that will only accelerate here in Brazil.

Just my two cents worth!

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team

The bus would be in the SP country side....its hot and dry for 10 months of the year. nowhere near the sea :-)   My experience of being there is its always hot and dry...even in this rainy season.

I'm waiting on some more detailed shipping quotes but so far they have been at around 1000/1200 uk pounds. Hopefully I'll know more by next week.

Yes the value tax thing would be a huge gamble..... I was hoping there would be a way of finding out what they would put the value at if they had photos and all vehicle details etc.   I have no idea about emissions but we pass 100's of really old trucks pumping out thick black smoke every time we drive up to the house from central SP - she would never be driven on the road anyway.         

Hmmmm so many questions.....

Thank you again for your help.

I know what you mean about the trucks and buses here... but they don't come from abroad, unfortunately. If they did, they wouldn't be on the road and we'd all be breating easier for several reasons.

I don't know if it would be worth the time to travel to Santos just to ask, but if you were to be going there anyway at some point you could pop into Customs with photos, vehicle data, etc., and see if they could give you an estimate of the tax. That might work. As far as the other fees I have no idea where you could find those out.