Is importing a car from Oz to here a nightmare?

[Kodachrome 151]

My brother is going to trade in his 2001 E46 M3 - Factory Manual, Black on Black for a ludicrous trade in price (IMO). I'd be tempted to just give him over the trade in and get it here and tidy up and resell if the process was straight forward. What I have read however, kinda looks like a huge ballache. Thoughts?

[Olaf 3317]

The freight side from 'Straya should be relatively straightforward.  If the car is rust-free, has no accident damage, and is well-maintained... they'll probably find something else!  People seem to get flood damaged or hail write-offs from 'Straya complied here regularly, so why not try it with an honest car.  If you can get it on the road here and make $10k in the process to cover your risk/make it worthwhile, why wouldn't you?  You might want to keep it though.

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2957]

No more difficult than importing a car from anywhere else, same process and as above freight should be easier as it’s so close / frequent.

Going the other way, NZ into Aussie is almost impossible though, stupid rules to try to protect their now defunct car factories.

[Driftit 2078]

If you can take ownership and leave it there with your brother for year you could avoid GST. Probably go up in value too.