Does anyone know an easy, cheap way to get say a differential assembly from Australia? I think the shipping charges were like 350 AUS, couple hundred US dollars, wouldnt bother me so much but the diff. is already like 330 USD.

that $30 sounds good, thanks for the lead, i'll need to check that out

What you need to do is to figure out the true weight. Are they going to charge you by volume or weight. To ship by boat, even in a consolidated container, you usually pay between US$75-US$125 just for the Bill of Lading (depending on your relationship with your freight forwarder.) But, with airlines you usually pay between US$25 - US$50 for Bill of Lading. So, depending on the weight/volume sometimes that difference absorbs the extra cost for airfreight.

Example, at this moment I am paying US$0.65 per kilo (including extra fuel and other charges) to airfreight between Miami and Guatemala (vice-versa). When I compare this against the urgency and total cost, given the weight for me to ship, it is sometimes better cost wise to airfregiht.

Another example, when I lived in Miami, my FIL asked that I send him a Jeep V8 engine. In a consolidated container it was going to cost me something like US$200. But I aired it and it cost me US$225. Very small difference but worth it since he got it the next day.

Iggy

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We actually have a diff here that you can't get there? Usually it's a case of you guys have all the good stuff or stuff at good prices overseas. I'd happily pay the asking price for some of the cars you got that we never did. A 500E is one that comes to mind! I'd pay the asking price but then there is the problem of getting it over here, oh and the fact that you can't register a left-hand-drive car for use on the road here until it is 30 years old.

As to your differential shipping problem, I once heard of someone that carried a diff in their hand luggage! Guess that's no good unless you plan to travel with it.

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They are charging, at least the company the site I'm getting the diff. from links to, for weight but not exceeding a certain size, which shouldnt be a problem. I checked it out and its probably not all that much, just more than I'd like to pay. The air shipper from the site, only does up to 20 Kg but the diff, weighs 27. But I will check some other shippers and see if they can get it done, i dont like the idea of waiting for a boat.

Yeah, the Australian/European diff is like 3.69 on the stock 300CE's apparently, I have a 3.06! I want my Mercedes sports car to act like one
I dunno, a trip to australia would be nice. Like a bonus and I get my diff.