What is required to export and drive a US vehicle in Europe?

[Mopar Boy]

I am looking for information on what is required to export a US vehicle to Europe for a given period of time, drive it there, then return it to the US. (Or in my case, Canada).

Has anyone ever done this or know where one would start looking for info like this? I did some Googling but didn't come up with much more than specialty European driving insurance being required (issues from Europes end however apparently there are some from North America that can also work).

For those of you in Europe, how is it done for you guys coming this way? Every summer I see hundreds of motorhomes from Europe with their European plates rolling all over Ontario on their camping excursions. I know these are not local to Ontario as they are brands we dont have here. I have also seen class 8 semi trucks (Like Mann, cab over Mercedes, etc) driving here with Europe plates. Thinking that even that info would be a start.


Anyone know how this would work?

Thanks!

Robert

[Timnineside]

This is probably the obvious and not much help but if you can remember the business on these trucks they may be worth contacting.

Good luck!

[Mopar Boy]

This is probably the obvious and not much help but if you can remember the business on these trucks they may be worth contacting.

Good luck!


You are on the same track I was originally thinking but the names on the trucks were of brands I had never heard of and had like 41 letters in one word. Plug little punctuation marks we don't have. LOL Also figured that commercial coming this way likely wont be much help with personal going that way. :(

[KRATEDISEASE]

You need money.

[8.4L 154]

Your best bet would be to contact one of the shipping agents for advice, making sure they realise its a temporary import. When I imported my viper I used Kingstown shipping http://www.kingstown-shipping.co.uk/ and so have a few others in the UK.

There is also some information here on our government web site https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/temporary-imports regarding temporary imports, Seems to boil down to for the UK you can bring your car in exempt from tax and registration for 6 months in any 12 and providing it is taxed and registered in your home country and you are not becoming resident in the UK.

If you are heading to other EU country's then things may be similar but different if that makes any sense.

On the other hand if you are moving to the UK for a while, its not too much of a big deal to register a 2002 viper here, it may just be expensive from a tax perspective and I'm not sure what relief you may get when you re-export back home. The process for a 2002 though is a few modifications to the lighting which could easily be achieved with some stick on LED's, and a roadworthiness test (MOT) as cars of that age doesn't have to go through the more stringent IVA test you may get away with not having to do the changes to the lights as the MOT test is common for all vehicles over 3 years so its not hard to find a sympathetic tester for an exotic car.

[Mopar Boy]

You need money.

Not exactly the kind of info I was looking for....


Your best bet would be to contact one of the shipping agents for advice, making sure they realise its a temporary import. When I imported my viper I used Kingstown shipping http://www.kingstown-shipping.co.uk/ and so have a few others in the UK.

There is also some information here on our government web site https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/temporary-imports regarding temporary imports, Seems to boil down to for the UK you can bring your car in exempt from tax and registration for 6 months in any 12 and providing it is taxed and registered in your home country and you are not becoming resident in the UK.

If you are heading to other EU country's then things may be similar but different if that makes any sense.

On the other hand if you are moving to the UK for a while, its not too much of a big deal to register a 2002 viper here, it may just be expensive from a tax perspective and I'm not sure what relief you may get when you re-export back home. The process for a 2002 though is a few modifications to the lighting which could easily be achieved with some stick on LED's, and a roadworthiness test (MOT) as cars of that age doesn't have to go through the more stringent IVA test you may get away with not having to do the changes to the lights as the MOT test is common for all vehicles over 3 years so its not hard to find a sympathetic tester for an exotic car.


Thanks Dave! That is great info! I will do some research in those two links. Looks like a lot of good info there! :)

Your original assumption is correct. I would not be doing a That Side Of Pond registration. It would remain here in Canada. But more for the purpose of using my vehicle there for a few weeks/months. And however it is done, the Das Autobahn needs to be in the paperwork as an "OK" place for me to drive. :D

[Fatboy 18]

So do you want me to book you a campsite pitch for you and your car in June at the 24Hrs Le mans? need to know asap.

PS: As Dave said, I also used Kingstown Shipping. if your car goes in a shared container with another car it normally works out cheaper on shipping.
make sure the car is almost empty of gas before shipping, if its full the dock workers will leave the car engine running dockside until its almost empty, this happened on a UK members car and it burnt the side sills which he then had to have repainted!

For a security point of view, take plenty of pictures of the car (interior and exterior) and speedo mileage, also wheels.

If your using Mobile 1, 10-30 oil in the car its hard to get hold of in the UK, so pack your favourite oil in the boot for future oil changes + filters.

If you were worried about your car arriving in Europe before you, I'm sure we could help you with safe keeping / storage for a short time :) I also have a friend of mine that has a car storage business near Gatwick airport South of London ;)

If I can help you in anyway just drop me a PM :)

[Sam Goldfarb]

I am looking for information on what is required to export a US vehicle to Europe for a given period of time, drive it there, then return it to the US. (Or in my case, Canada).

Has anyone ever done this or know where one would start looking for info like this? I did some Googling but didn't come up with much more than specialty European driving insurance being required (issues from Europes end however apparently there are some from North America that can also work).

For those of you in Europe, how is it done for you guys coming this way? Every summer I see hundreds of motorhomes from Europe with their European plates rolling all over Ontario on their camping excursions. I know these are not local to Ontario as they are brands we dont have here. I have also seen class 8 semi trucks (Like Mann, cab over Mercedes, etc) driving here with Europe plates. Thinking that even that info would be a start.


Anyone know how this would work?

Thanks!

Robert

Check with Terry B. He exports vehicles all over the world, may know where to point you!

[Mopar Boy]

So do you want me to book you a campsite pitch for you and your car in June at the 24Hrs Le mans? need to know asap.

PS: As Dave said, I also used Kingstown Shipping. if your car goes in a shared container with another car it normally works out cheaper on shipping.
make sure the car is almost empty of gas before shipping, if its full the dock workers will leave the car engine running dockside until its almost empty, this happened on a UK members car and it burnt the side sills which he then had to have repainted!

For a security point of view, take plenty of pictures of the car (interior and exterior) and speedo mileage, also wheels.

If your using Mobile 1, 10-30 oil in the car its hard to get hold of in the UK, so pack your favourite oil in the boot for future oil changes + filters.

If you were worried about your car arriving in Europe before you, I'm sure we could help you with safe keeping / storage for a short time :) I also have a friend of mine that has a car storage business near Gatwick airport South of London ;)

If I can help you in anyway just drop me a PM :)

Hey Mark,

Thanks for the offer! Sadly though, it wont be this year for the car. However I am still working on evil plans to see if I can get at minimum my butt over there for the race this year! My work schedule is dictating that though. :(

All valid thoughts. I will add them to my notepad!

Interesting question. When you guys shipped the cars, why didn't you just get the container to some place, load the car yourself, then ship it back to the container yard as full like a company exporting things would? Wouldn't that be better and safer for the car/your peace of mind?

if this ever progresses somewhere, I will keep you in the loop. May need some of your contacts. Right now this is really still more exploratory in way of cost and feasibility.


Check with Terry B. He exports vehicles all over the world, may know where to point you!


Good point Sam. Never even thought of him.

[Fatboy 18]

Interesting question. When you guys shipped the cars, why didn't you just get the container to some place, load the car yourself, then ship it back to the container yard as full like a company exporting things would? Wouldn't that be better and safer for the car/your peace of mind?

Well simply, its down to costing's!
No1 we are in the UK and was not in the USA at the time of purchase or shipping.

In my case the previous owner offered to drive the car to Oakland, San Franscio from his home. I had informed the Shipping company the car would be arriving, the owner then took all the photos and sent them to me.
It was also cheaper to share a longer container with another car. My car sat in a warehouse for a couple of days, then was loaded into a container, the shippers Choc the wheels with wooden blocks to stop it moving around inside the container, the blocks are nailed to a wooden frame. Sadly when I picked my car up in the UK it was sitting in a warehouse with a flat front tire due to a nail in one of the wooden blocks punching the tire! :( (never did get any monies back from that)

Now here's the good bit, once your Shipping container has been loaded onto the ship they inform you of the Ships Name. (in my case 'Tokyo Express') You can then track the ship across the seas with Ship Tracker website. The site gets updated every 24hrs and you see a little dot on a big map of the world :) I cant tell you how excited I was watching that little dot everyday until the car arrived in the UK. :D