Date:         Fri, 28 Jun 96 14:51:39 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         jag@cs.rochester.edu
Subject:      Importing US vanagon to Europe.


All, 

Thanks To Everybody Who Enlighted Us On How Hard It is to import
a vehicle to USA. I would like to do the reverse and bring my 
Westy from the U.S. to Europe. Why bring a US westy to Europe, when 
there are so many available in at least Germany you may ask. One
main motivation is that I've invested a lot of time on small details
making this Westy the perfect one for me. Selling it and buying another
used one in Europe I'll lose both the invested time and money.

I'll be out of grad school in about a year, and most likely I will
move somewhere one the (European) continent (France, Germany, Denmark
Italy or Holland) rather than back to Sweden, my home country.

So if anybody knows what the rules for bringing in vehicles to
any of the above countries please tell us. I wouldn't be surprised
if all these countries have pretty unified rules, since they are
all long time EU members.

Sweden just entered the EU and has some technical trade barriers still 
in place. For exhaust emissions clearance you need:

Car less than 5 years, gas engine: 
	Either you need a certificate from the Swedish importer/
	manufacturer that the car meets Swedish norms, or you can
	take it to a test center and they will check the particular
	car you bring in for the required equipment (cost approx $200)

Older car with gas engine, all diesels:
	These will require an extensive driving and exhaust test at one 
	centralized facility in Sweden. Cost approx $1800, Ouch!

Taxes for Swedish residents:

Car brought in from EU countries, but registered at least 6 months in another EU
country: No sales tax, but most likely wrecking premium and perhaps
"accis" (another vehicle fee, used to be about $200)

Otherwise: 25% sales tax on the value of the car.

Residents of other countries moving to Sweden: It used to be that you
could bring in personal belongings, including such things as cars without
duties/taxes if you moved to Sweden. I'm not 100% sure if this is still true 
though.

Again, I would be very interested in knowing what the rules are especially
for France, but also Denmark, Germany, Holland and Italy.

Thanks,
Martin