Australians are in for some bargains
 

"Starting this quarter, up to 12,000 vehicles, including Land Rovers, trucks, semi-trailers, tankers, Unimogs, motorcycles and trailers valued at more than $100 million, will be sold by Sydney's Australian National Disposals trading as Australian Frontline Machinery."

"The vehicle offering will eventually include 3300 Land Rovers and light vehicles, 2500 light trailers, 2430 medium trucks, 1100 medium-heavy trucks, 110 semi-trailers and 80 low loaders."

Defence prepares to sell big boys' toys | News | NT News | Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia | ntnews.com.au

Ok so the questions are this:
can foreigners by and register in aus.
Can you buy there and register in uk and drive back
Is converting expensive in Aus

thanks Mark

I Have 5 acres of storage available, literally at the door of Robertson Barracks. Anyone thinking of grabbing a few bargains or needs a bidder, PM me.

Cheers Dave :mchappy:

Foreigners can buy and register in Aus no problem. Not sure about answers to your other questions.

:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

If you register in Queensland you can renew registration over the internet adfinitum without any roadworthy inspections.

Converting what? They are all RHD. The Landrovers are part of the Perentie contract of the 1980s, so most will be the 3.9 litre Isuzu diesel engine and 6x6 configuration, the 4x4 versions I think have the 2.8 Isuzu engine. The 6x6 has a range of swap bodies - ambulance, troop carrier, weapons carrier.

An ex SAS 6x6 Landie would be cool.

A Unimog would be very cool, not to mention a few of the many trail bikes!

I'm not a great fan of the Unimogs in the Oz army, they still have tyre shredding problems at highway speeds - hence the reason you see Unimog convoys stopped every hour or so to get the tyre temps down.

Another thing is their price - I was working for Isuzu when the Unimog contract was let to Mercedes, and the army could have bought four Isuzu 4x4 trucks (with higher carrying capacity) for every Unimog they bought, but as usual the Army bought on the basis of the 1% off road usage rather than the 99% of road usage. I had to demonstrate an Isuzu 4 tonner and it went everywhere the Unimog went at Puckapunyl without step axles and diff locks. Still we sold hundreds into the rural fire brigades and councils as the cabs were easily fire proofed and the vehilces were rated for 4 tonnes payload offroad.

G'day Rog,

Thats an odd one with regard to the tyres, obviously poor tyre choice?
Cant say I've had a thing to do with either vehicles although and simply from a visual point of view the Unimog looks extremly capable, more to the point if they can be had cheap! Seen a few in Germany, all decked out and dont they look a treat! Havn't a clue what they would be worth either!

Cheers Dave

The tyres had to be made locally to meet the local content $value in the contract, maybe they still are.

I know a guy who worked for British Leyland when the army let the contract for the SIII Landrovers, that was another debacle caused by the procurement guys. The testing and assessment was based on the four cylinder engine as the 5 cylinder was known to overheat in high temps. Some plonker in the Army's purchasing department decided that the four cylinder engine was too small and ordered the five cylinder engine instead. According to BL they queried the choice and pointed out that they had only offered the 4 cyl. They were over ruled by the purchasing guys and the unreliabilty of the 5 cyl engine gave the Landrover an appalling reputation. Pretty well killed off its dominance in the market place.

[QUOTE=marky116;410124]Ok so the questions are this:
can foreigners by and register in aus. YES, just need a friendly person to 'lend' you their address to put on the forms
Can you buy there and register in uk and drive back. Drive it back with Oz paperwork and sort the DVLA when you get here no problem
Is converting expensive in Aus Can be. I got my DR650 and wife's XT250 UK registered after riding them back but the manual of b8llshit to pass the UK standards is about 1 inch thick. The manual for cars/4WD's is twice that. Bring a Landie or something they sell in UK will increase your chances of success a lot

Problem? Vehicles in Oz are v,expensive in the first place so any 'bargain' will only seem normal by UK standards.

Cheers

Will

Don't forget the old adage....it can be difficult to drive a good bargain!

If you are looking at the 6x6 Landrovers used by the SAS, they may have had a hard life in Afghanistan and Iraq and been severely overloaded for most of it...check the vehicle thoroughly. Most of the others may well be pasts their use-by date (some could be approaching 30 years old)...again, check the vehicle thoroughly.

Don't forget, Oz is the same size as Europe, so "normal" use can still add up to thousands and thousands of km (or miles, depending on how your brain works).

About the commercial option that the Army did not buy - it may have looked good during the trials, but how would it have lasted over the years? A commercial off-the-shelf vehicle may get you around Australia just as easily as a military spec vehicle, but woud it do it again, and again and again... Remember the G-Wagons Mercedes took across the Simpson Desert (in Oz) - the only one that did not break down was the mil spec vehicle.

But them by all means, but check the vehicle thoroughly and do so with your eyes wide open.

Cheers

John

procurement are a funny bunch wherever you are , agree the unimog is often a sledgehammer to crack a wallnut . Have to agree the izuzu makes a good bushfire truck , and stands up to it well from my experience , though i did import a mog from the UK for a local farmer , which is what they were designed for :thumbup1: