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From: faiman@uiuccsb.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: buying in europe? - (nf)
Message-ID: <4448@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 11-Dec-83 22:29:31 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.4448
Posted: Sun Dec 11 22:29:31 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Dec-83 06:00:16 EST
Lines: 26

#R:hp-cvd:2700005:uiuccsb:5800005:000:1613
uiuccsb!faiman    Dec 11 21:44:00 1983

I have bought cars in Europe twice and the experience has been relatively
painless.  First of all, your local dealer should be able to give you the
information you need, including base price, cost of options, delivery and
make-ready charges and any of the other nice little things that Europeans
feel Americans ought to pay for.  Some dealers are not too enthusiastic
about this because their profit margin is much smaller than on a regular
sale.  In that case you might get in touch with any of the organizations
that specialize in European delivery.  They usually advertise in the travelsection of the New York Sunday Times.  One such is "Europe by Car", but there are
others, and a little comparison shopping probably won't hurt.  They will
also give you information about the cost of shipping the car back here --
reasonably priced from Channel ports such as Bremerhaven and Antwerp, but
quite expensive from out-of-the way places.  What they can only estimate,
however, is how much import duty you will have to pay when the car arrives.
That's between you and the customs official and depends, in part, on how
long the car was used in Europe.  I have found that if you only use the car
there for about a month or less, you probably won't have saved much by the
time you are through.  But if you are able and prepared to brave those
fantastic European drivers for a whole summer (assuming you and vehicle
survive), better yet a year or more, you will bring back such a bargain
that you can bore your friends with the telling for many a long year.
Good luck!

>From the formerly European fingers of Mike Faiman