Shipping Cars Purchased in KSA to the United States

It depends on what your motivation is. Grey market cars can be expensive to convert to NTSHA standards and they will be worth less on resale and, depending on the car model, may be difficult to get spare parts for. It could potentially also affect your insurance cost. If you want to buy a car and ship it back to try to reduce your overall cost of transport, it is probably not a good idea. If, on the other hand, you plan to buy a Ferari, enjoy it here and continue to enjoy it in the USA, go ahead.

The process on both ends is a little cumbersome so a good Saudi export agent and a good USA import agent can be very helpful. Even so, my import agent didn't get one of the forms properly stamped so I was unable to tag the vehicle. Eventually I found a lawyer to sort it out. This was actually his specialty so it must be somewhat of a routine problem.

Where you import the car to can also affect the conversion cost. My guess is California would be the worst state to export to but that is only a guess.

I knew a guy who bought a BMW in Europe and kept it in a friend's gae in Germany so he could avoid paying the import tax in the USA. His car was dropped by a crane operator in a spot where the transport insurance no longer applied but the forwarder insurance had not yet kicked in. Really bad luck and very expensive so he didn't save anything after it was all added up.

Check the VIN number on the vehicle you buy. Mine was Canadian standard so was not too expensive to convert. So shipping and importing a vehicle to the USA is just a question of how much.

The things added to a car sold in the USA can add several thousand dollars to the manufacturing cost. If the vehicle is intended for sale outside the USA and the country of sale does not have as stringent of requirements, the manufacturer will not add the cost to the vehicle because it is unnecessary and hurts profit. The VIN number will tell you quite a lot about the vehicle's origin and much of what goes in it. You can google understanding VIN numbers as there are many good sources on the internet. I also recommend you take a look at this link:

www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-import-e ... orting-car

If the Toyota still qualifies for warranty in Saudi when you import it into the USA, I seriously doubt that any USA dealer would honor the warranty.

You buy a vehicle in Saudi, drive it for a few years and it will have some residual value. It will not have that same value if the car were suddenly in the USA because it is grey market. So you have lost more value than if you had remained in Saudi Arabia. On top of that, you have export costs (not that bad), ocean (or air freight) transport costs which Aramco does not pay, import costs which you can calculate from the above link, agents' fees and conversion costs to meet USA safety and emissions standards. If you add all thoses costs up and still believe that you are financially ahead taking into account the age and depreciated value of the Camry, then it is a good decision. My belief is that, for a Camry, you will not save and will end up spending more but that will be affected by how long you plan to be here.

My feeling is that it is more beneficial for higher end vehicles that would include very high dealer profit if purchased in the USA. I think you can get a better deal on those kinds of vehicles here. That is why the guy bought his car in Germany and parked it for six months before shipping to the USA. Even with conversion costs, he would have come out ahead had it not been dropped.

If you buy a new Camry and drive it here 5 years and compare that to what you would have to pay for a five year old Camry that you buy in the USA five years from now after having sold your Saudi Camry before leaving, it is hard to imagine how exporting from Saudi would make good financial sense.

If I were going the other way - joining Aramco from the USA and had a reasonably reliable car at the time, I would have no hesitation shipping and importing that vehicle to Saudi. I was advised against it when I joined but I did it and found that it was not as difficult as I had been led to believe. The only part that was a little difficult was getting the SASO certificate but the agent did all the legwork.

I suggest you look at your timeline and make an estimate of the costs involved including depreciation. Since you have a car model in mind, you can probably call a federally approved conversion shop in your area and get a quick guesstimate on what they would charge. Also look at the website for the DMV of the state you plan to import to as each state has its own requirements and emission standards as well as their own taxation rules.

Eagle8,

I would take my vehicle back to North America, if, and only if, it were my dream car, something spectacular, but a Camry? Come on!
Once you see how the market of used cars is in the East province is, you will notice that the resale value is better than in the U.S., and most probably worthy to sell it before you leave and save the transport and other importing costs, and use this money to get yourself a brand new Camry, if this is what you want to have, my opinion...