Advice on importing a car from Europe...

[Slickhillsy]

I had submitted this update to another thread earlier but as I was writing it thought it deserved it's own thread as it could benefit others and save some serious pain...

Not going to speak about values but what I can help with is what to do once your new toy hits UK shores. I've just completed the import of a 430 Scuderia from France so have lived the highs and low's first hand.

You can either :

A) Pull of the paper work together yourself (including paying £600 for the COC from Ferrari - I managed to swerve that one getting the dealer to request it for me), MOT the car and then complete the check list of items for the DVLA and send it with your fee's for first registration and road tax. Then, send off (registered of course / with prep paid register for the return) and wait... ... wait for the faceless paper pushers to not even bother to look further than the first page of you documents, think you haven't included what they've asked for (when clearly you have) and receive everything back in the post. Then once having gone through the reams of paper work highlighting the 10+ entries showing the first registration date that was there all along they will you can send to DVLA once again (same costs) and wait... ...wait for different faceless paper pusher to reject your 'first' application (errr no it wasn't) for completely different reasons!!!!

Or, go for option

B) http://mycarimport.co.uk/

Speak to Jack (lovely bloke). He'll take your car, flatten the beam on your headlights (don't listen to numerous posts on her of people saying can’t be done you have to buy new at a cost of £5K - it can be done) add MPH to your speedo, take the car through his onsite IVA test, MOT the car, create the number plates. All for the princely sum of Circa £1400 inc VAT. The cherry on the top is that because he has IVA'd (in this case my Scuderia) and the IVA isn't bound by Co2 regulations I now only have to pay £230 per year road tax - that's right a 430 Scuderia with £230 PA tax

Dealing with the DVLA was UNBELIEVABLY TEDIOUS - my advice, save yourself time and aggravation. Give Jack a call!

[f1ten]

Good intel thanks as I'm strongly considering doing exactly this

[roygarth]

Thanks for that. Nice result re. the road tax!

[rubystone]

I'm wondering whether I was right not to jump on an lhd with 15000km Scuderia at £100k. what did you pay for yours?

[Slickhillsy]

Main dealer with 2 years Ferrari cover, one owner and fully loaded Black Scud with 19k paid £87k. I've been watching the Euro market since I bought in. Even though the FX rate had continued in our favour there has been a price rise. I would assume because of the UK / Asian interest (confirmed by the dealer in Paris).
My advice is do your homework, took me months to find my car. There is still a real spread on prices and condition.

Good luck with your search and enjoy the journey...

[roygarth]

Slickhillsy said:

Main dealer with 2 years Ferrari cover, one owner and fully loaded Black Scud with 19k paid £87k

fk, thats value...

[stain]

Very good advice Mark. I was initially looking at LHD Scuds because of the relative value but went RHD in the end. It was the best car for sale at the time and saved a load of hassle too. I remember having problems registering a LHD 458 Spider here. Ferrari played hardball and made it very difficult.

[Slickhillsy]

roygarth said:

Slickhillsy said:

Main dealer with 2 years Ferrari cover, one owner and fully loaded Black Scud with 19k paid £87k

fk, thats value...

Very much so Roy - absolutely smitten with the car (better than I had expected) so will be keeping this one...

[Slickhillsy]

stain said:

Very good advice Mark. I was initially looking at LHD Scuds because of the relative value but went RHD in the end. It was the best car for sale at the time and saved a load of hassle too. I remember having problems registering a LHD 458 Spider here. Ferrari played hardball and made it very difficult.

Very welcome sir - Don't think you can go wrong either way really, it wasn't so much Ferrari but DVLA I found to be almost obtuse to deal with. Next time (if there is a next time) I would 100% by pass and use a service such as Jacks.

[stain]

The DVLA can be awful at the best of times, let alone with something like this.

[rubystone]

Slickhillsy said:

Main dealer with 2 years Ferrari cover, one owner and fully loaded Black Scud with 19k paid £87k. I've been watching the Euro market since I bought in. Even though the FX rate had continued in our favour there has been a price rise. I would assume because of the UK / Asian interest (confirmed by the dealer in Paris).
My advice is do your homework, took me months to find my car. There is still a real spread on prices and condition.

Good luck with your search and enjoy the journey...

That is a smart deal. Well done!

[Slickhillsy]

Definitely a few deals to be had out there if you're prepared to put the effort in, here's one that looks like a good example and we'll priced (circa 90K)..

http://www.autoscout24.de/Details.aspx?id=25469978...

[Schnellmann]

Interesting thread as have a good friend looking for a LHD Scud at the moment and we spent some time talking about it yesterday. I was suggesting that European main dealers would be best bet (maybe not best prices but should have good cars and hopefully less chance of it going wrong).

We were wondering whether you get a Europe wide Ferrari warranty. Is that what you got?

[Slickhillsy]

Schnellmann said:

Interesting thread as have a good friend looking for a LHD Scud at the moment and we spent some time talking about it yesterday. I was suggesting that European main dealers would be best bet (maybe not best prices but should have good cars and hopefully less chance of it going wrong).

We were wondering whether you get a Europe wide Ferrari warranty. Is that what you got?

Warranty is Euro wide, first thing I did was to take the car to HR Owen (London Ferrari dealer) for a peace of mind check up (passed with flying colours). They confirmed the Warranty is all in place and in the interest of future business gave me the check up gratis.

My advice is definitely try and buy from a main dealer, if you can't find one in stock have them source one for you. Give Remmy a shout at Charles Pozzi in Paris, nice guy to deal with and main guy at the main French importer.

Good luck!

[Hewbie]

i can vouch for jack at my car import,

i recently purchased an F1 355 from france, although i drove it back home , jack helps with the NOVA and dvla side of things, very quick service!

[blackmamba]

Very interesting feedback, thanks for writing it up.

[Doppelkupplung]

Which brokers insure imported cars like 430 scud?

[Slickhillsy]

Adrian Flux

[ThreesixtyM]

Doppelkupplung said:

Which brokers insure imported cars like 430 scud?

They all will, if its UK registered.

[f1ten]

out of interest, I assume you were able to prove via Charles Pozzi that the VAT had already been paid on the car. This is the only danger that makes me nervous on importing a car even though it will be older than 5 yrs old, I dont want HMRC looking for extra money out of me. A few of the cars i looked at last summer in Germany had VAT ont he price which was significant and when i told the dealer the price with VAT made their cars totally over priced, it met deaf ears.