While the primary focus at Bishop+Rook is building and preserving vintage Land Rover Defenders, we also love a good challenge and the chance to play with unique and exotic cars from around the world.  We’re particularly fond of boxy cars with limited electronic components – the beauty of simplicity. As such, we offer a concierge automotive searching service for those looking for something unusually specific or equally as unique.

We started this service for several reasons:

1. We get a lot of requests for very specific vehicles (Defenders and others) that weren’t typically part of our custom build process.  But we like cars, so we love the challenge of finding these unicorns.
2. We started eliminating our Adventure Ready and Entry Level Defender categories from our product offering.  We continue to offer Preservation Series and fully Custom Defender Restorations but struggled with keeping reasonably priced entry-level Defenders for sale.  They simply sold too fast, or people expected to get a fully restored Defender at an entry-level price.

As our mission has always been to help people find their dream vehicle, we decided the best way for us to continue to provide an importing and sourcing service to the Defender community.

The Land Rover Defender Importing Service

If you’re just looking to import a Land Rover Defender, our “Import Services” is what you are looking for.  This assumes you want to research to locate a good candidate to import.  If you’ve already done this, great.  If not, we can give you some guidance to make sure you’re following the rules.  We offer this service contingent upon a few things:

1. This is for personal-use vehicles only.  We are not offering this service to dealers or resellers
2. The buyer assumes responsibility for locating and negotiating the price of the Defender

We do offer sourcing (listed below) as an additional service.

We designed this system to make it easy for you to enjoy the fun side of hunting for your dream Defender while assuming responsibility for the difficult portion – importing.

Once you have found your candidate, we will help move your vehicle to one of our workshops in the UK or EU for preparation for shipping.  We do a post-purchase inspection and provide you with a complete assessment of the vehicle – including any work that might be required both short-term and long-term.  Some of this work can be done at one of our facilities if desired.

Once we have prepared the Defender for shipment, we will arrange all export paperwork, deliver it to the port, and manage the entire transport process from pick-up to final delivery in your driveway.  You will save money by having us do this for you.  Far too many people try to import a Defender themselves and overpay at nearly every step of the process.  We’ve negotiated exceptional contracts with shipping lines and transport agents.  We also know where mistakes can be made, which can turn out costly.

If you’re interested in this service, please fill out the form below for more details.

A Sourcing Service for Defenders (and other cool cars)

If you want us to handle everything, the process is pretty straightforward for us to perform a custom search for the car of your dreams.  We’ve found everything from single-year models to a particular Land Rover Series IIa in a marine blue original patina paint. If it exists on the planet, our team can find it.

For those looking to simply import a Defender they’ve already located online or through a friend, it’s even easier.  We handle all the paperwork and logistics for you, so you don’t have to.

For sourcing, our concierge specialists work for you as the buyer, acting as your advocate when searching for and acquiring special a vehicle. We serve as a fact finder, negotiator, and personal assistant like you would experience with a great concierge at a five-star hotel. We are not a broker service in general, nor an internet search/shopping service. We’re more like detectives, archeologists, and car hunters – using our connections in the vintage car marketplace to find you what you’re looking for – sourcing from clubs to personal friendships – in countries worldwide.

Step One – The Searching Brief + Criteria

We sit down, either in-person or virtually, and discuss the specifics of your search request.  What model and years are you looking for?  What condition and level of restoration?  What unique features or enhancements are must-haves vs. nice-to-haves? We also discuss budget and timing to ensure both teams are working from the same information. We document the list, and gather inspirational photos, listings, or other information you may have acquired over the year.

Sometimes, this brief turns into a build sheet for a custom build, but most times, this simply gives our team the information they need to conduct their search.

Step Two – The Deposit + Budget

We offer several different pricing approaches for finding your special vehicle – a flat fee service, an hourly basis (plus expenses), or a pre-negotiated budget. The method and structure depend on the complexity of the request.  For either service, we request a $1,000 deposit (non-refundable) to begin the process. We also ask for exclusivity at this point in the engagement to ensure we are not negotiating against each other – or other searchers.

Step Three – Searching + Inspection

We conduct an extensive search and present you with options, at which time we also do an extensive visual and mechanical inspection – highlighting any known issues.  We document all options with photos and videos, including our pre-purchase inspection checklist.

Once we narrow down the search to a few candidates, we ask for a percentage of the agreed upon budget to be released so we’re able to make immediate purchase decisions when we find the right vehicle.

Step Four: Negotiating + Buying

Once we’ve established the exact vehicle you’re interested in, we negotiate with the buyer and arrange all paperwork necessary for purchase and/or export (location dependent).  All paperwork is written up in your name, unless otherwise specified.

Step Five: Paperwork + Importing + Title and Taxes

Once the purchase has been made, we will either ship the vehicle directly to you, or have it sent to one of our workshops for a check-up, maintenance work, or possible restoration. We fill out all paperwork and arrange transport of the vehicle from the original destination, through customs, and either to our workshop in Minnesota or directly to you.

If we are acting exclusively as your importing agent, we will handle all the paperwork the same way, except we wave liability for the quality of your vehicle. We do offer the ability for EU and UK exports to provide service prior to export at our Salisbury, UK workshop.

Step Six: Mechanical Restoration + Service (optional)

We have the ability to deliver the vehicle as-is, or to have additional work done to the vehicle, per the step above.  We offer a 40% discount on our standard shop rate for customers who use our sourcing service.  We’re able to do this because at this point we know the vehicle well and we’re able to offer up any restoration services necessary.

Sample Fees
Sourcing Agent Fees – $2,500 – $3,500 (plus expenses)
Importing Service Fees – $3,000 – $4,000 (plus expenses)
Restoration Services – TBD Based on Project

Let’s Connect and Begin The Hunt