Buying US parts

[GW8419]

Hi everyone,

 

Just a quick question as I'm struggling to find any info via the search; have any of you bought parts from either 'Everything Nissan' or 'Concept Z performance' in the US? I'm specifically thinking suspension parts as my 06 roadster needs a refresh and a drivers side compression arm is top of my list. They're a lot cheaper from these sites but should I be expecting any compatibility issues with a UK model?

 

Any experience or knowledge will be much appreciated!

 

Gavin

[ZEUS]

Don't forget that anything that you import will have duty and vat on top of it so it may not end up being much cheaper if any.

[Tricky-Ricky]

And often a handling charge as well from the courier/post.

[ianphampton]

I bought my Berks HFCs from Concept Z, had no problems, parts shipped by US Postal Service and then delivered this end by good old Royal Mail

 

As it happens, HMRC never charged me the duty or VAT, no idea why not, but I got away with it. . . .

 

I buy stuff from the USA for work as well, and even when they do still charge you the VAT & Duty it can still be worth while, like a tooling part, price over here was £350 and price in the US was $291 so saved quite a bit, takes about 2 - 3 weeks, so not super fast unless you get it sent FedEx or something and that can be expensive.

 

Don't be frightened - work out what you'll actually pay, add on the VAT as you'll probably get hit up for it, but if the price works - there's no reason not to give it a go. I may not spend serious money with just an ordinary individual, but a proper business should be OK - if in doubt, you can always call them up as the phone isn't expensive, just allow for the 5 hours time difference (east coast) and 8 hours time difference (west coast) so you actually call in office hours. (Just don't expect to talk to a receptionist - all US companies use automated switchboards - ugh)

 

Anyway - I found Concept Z pretty good.

 

Edit - handling charge from Royal Mail was £10 on the tooling part above - so still not a dealbreaker

Edited November 28, 2014 by ianphampton

[Ekona]

Essentially just convert the entire cost including shipping from USD into GBP, and that's the bill you're looking at.

[Grundy]

If you're trying to get an OEM part cheaper in the states, surely it would be cheaper to just buy after market from the UK?

[GW8419]

Thanks for the input. Sounds like it might be worth a try as they both sell genuine compression arms for around $200 so if I don't covert that into GBP as a guide I reckon that's about £150 saved! I'm just researching at the moment but think I'll do a bulk buy of nice new parts if I do :-)

[GW8419]

Are there after market compression arms? As for springs and dampers I really don't want to make the ride any worse so I'm thinking an OE refresh. That's a seperate topic that's been discussed to death on here I'm guessing though...

[PiGFoetus]

I bought an external temperature sensor from the States when I first got the car (it was missing when I bought it).

 

Nissan wanted £140. Couldn't find an alternative UK supplier at all (That was before I found this place). Ordered a genuine Nissan one from the States for the princely sum of about £23. The postage was about £19 on top of that, but a lot better than £140.

 

I looked into banana bars from the States, original Nissan ones were about $200, but with potential import taxes and shipping of nigh on £90, it wasn't really worth it. Their after market ones were about £35 quid though, but they're the same as the cheap versions you get on ebay. Very tempting if you're happy to trust the quality of these things, but I decided to go genuine and ordered from Ewen.

[Darren-B]

I can highly recommend CZP, excellent pricing & beyond excellent service

[chrisday1990]

I purchased 2 new after market cooling fan motors that all the americans use as the OEM ones fails for $60.00 and only had to pay £16 on duty and shipment.