Importing and selling my car in France

hi,

Be careful

Very difficult to sell an american car in france because it will be difficult for the customer to have papers.

Then, in usa you are in miles......in kilometers in france.

look at prices.......FERRARI are more expensive in Usa.

 

Very hard to sell a white Ferrari in France. The color is far from popular in France unfortunately. Maybe in Germany ?

 

You want to sell the 348 or the 328???

Shipping rates are cheap as hell nowadays. I saw $1k in shared container without insurance.

When the car in France, the new owner would need to acquit extra-EU tax and VAT (not sure about the first one, usually paid when car in customs; so technically speaking, the car would be already on European soil when bought... i might dig more if you want), so mind it's perhaps 10% + surely 19,6% of the price. You would need to adjust your price following that. Plus as andrew said, not easy to sell a white car in france.

 

I don't think you can sell it easily in France. For starters, it may need to have conversions done to be legal in France. Secondly, there will probably be serious taxes for the buyer and a TON of paper work.

I've looked into this, as I plan on eventually moving to France to live. If you were to do that if would be easier, as you don't have to pay import taxes if you owned to car for more than 6 months prior to being inthe country. But simply trying to sell your car in France for favorable currency exchange won't work. It may be beneficial for you, but probably not the dealer. Let's also not forget that you are selling an old car. Sure, a new Ferrari MSRP may be $177K and 177K Euros, but older cars are often more currency adjusted.

 

It's not going to be worth the difficulty of selling it. Even if you buy a Euro spec car, if it's not registered in the EU, it's going to be a huge PITA and cost the buyer a lot in taxes.

There are reasons that everyone doesn't do this. Import/Export problems. If it was easy and profitable, every dealer here would just sell overseas.

 

The other element is the sheer time involved in converting testing registering & selling a car in Europe - how good do you speak French ?

Its not like you're new wife is going to want you to spend all the fortnight battling bureaucracy only for you to end up two weeks later angry and with a car you can't register or sell because you have to get back home

Its just possible buying & shipping a euro car from the US might work because you can try to find a good place to leave it in Europe whilst you try to sell it and let the buyer worry about registration as it was originally EU anyway

 

When titling a Euro car in the US might be a hassle, titling a US car in Europe is much more easier as long as it has been sold on european market. On models as old as these i don't believe there's an issue. Saw US many 80's US imported porsches ans 70's US imported alfas here, and one or two 308s. Now the only issues i'd worry about is the speed ferrari dealer would deliver you an European certification and the exact amount of taxes buyer would have to pay.
Also is your speedo in mph and kph?

 

zero... two or three documents to fill in at the customs and you can use the car as long as your tourist visa lasts.

 

There would be no duty taxes as the car was built in the EEC, but there would be the 19.6% VAT tax of course, plus changing the speedo to kph and getting the car approved through "Service des Mines".

Is your car an original US car?

 

Drew I did this in 1993 with a Porsche: shipped it from Jacksonville (no longer available as a departure port for roll on roll off as I did) drove to Spa, the old Nurbugring, the Porsche factory, Le Mans for the 24 hours, that part of it was wonderful...the part about trying to sell it in Europe was a nightmare.

Not only are you dealing with delays and European bureaucracy is a joke but you find yourself facing communist govrnment employees who just resent you and slow things down.

Another problem is that Europeans do come to the US to buy cars but a few years later when they decide to sell a US car in Europe it stays for sale for a long time: it is just not as active a market and US spec cars are pooh poohed much more than they deserve to be.

On top of that white is unpopular anywhere: when I took care of sales at Motorcar Gallery I had as very hard time selling a white tan 328GTS and it took a year before I found a buyer. Just ship the car back after the honeymoon. Just make sure you deal with the best shippers as you would not be very happy arriving to find the car is not yet there or damaged.

Finally you need a front number plate tag anywhere in Europe, without it you will be pulled over and not allowed to continue: I made one from a plastic imitation Florida tag I bought in a shop at the Sawgrass mall (I lived in Ft Lauderdale at the time) bought plastic stick on numbers and letters of the right size and font, stuck them on and them had the thing double laminated: that worked like a charm. In contrast the owner of a a Jeep from California which only had its rear number plate tag and cardboard scribbled with black marker pen in lieu of the front tag told me he was getting pulled over all the time.

Make sure you have the right insurance.

Have a great honeymoon.

Best regards,

Marc

 

I realize this is a SUPER old thread, but was just wondering if anyone did end up getting some experience importing a US spec car to France. Considering it as part of an upcoming personal move from the USA to France.
Thanks

 

https://www.french-property.com/guides/france/driving-in-france/vehicle-importation-registration