My European business associate has asked me to help him purchase a '05 Mustang GT Convertible (as soon as they become available) and ship it to him from the USA. Sounds expensive to me, but he thinks to save money this way. I am in California.
Anybody done this before? How much does it cost to ship an automobile to Europe? Is there anything I need to be careful of in the way of paperwork, customs, taxes, etc?
Where in Europe is he? There are companies pretty much all over Europe that deal with just this type of situation, and will try and get a good price for the car for him. They then deal with the transportation, and mods necessary for the car to enter the country (usually headlights and tail lights - amber, not red). This way, he will have a (hopefully) reliable company do all the work, you get to relax and not destroy your working relationship should anything go wrong, and in a short time he can be on the company phone telling you how great his new Stang is!
H> > My European business associate has asked me to help him purchase a '05
at 04 Feb 2004, Mandy [ snipped-for-privacy@prodigy.net] wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@prodigy.net:
Shipping is not the problem. It's actually not that bad, check
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for 'shipping automobiles' to get an idea.
The problem is making the 05 streetlegal in Europe. This depends on whicj country in Europe the vehicle is going to. I investigated this a lil while back for my 95 Mustang. I can forget trying to make it street legal in the Netherlands as it is a 5 speed and they only have 'tested and certified' automatics. Believe me, you can't afford that process unless you are a car manufacturer. :-(
My suggestion would be to wait a lil while an dhave Ford do all the hard work re testing and certification. Then you can import and make use of that. Note, most European countries use KM instead of miles so the gauge cluster would have to be converted. Should not be a big problem as Canada does KM as well so Ford should have those. Also, lighting may have to be changed to comply with ECE rather than DOT specs (ECE specs are more stringent) and require yellow/orange blinkers.
Have your associate check with his local DOT about the rules and regs and costs so he'll have an idea of what he is getting himself into.
Your friend should try to by from a local ford dealership, They can get the vehicles, If not they could probably put him intouch with a local service memnber who can order it through AAFES Arm y Air Air Force Exchange service car sales.
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