Temporarily Importing to Europe

While some countries may or may not chase you for the ticket. They will do this: when the ticket goes unpaid (I am including speed camera ect) they will do the following. A magistrate will rule on the ticket in your absence and one of either will happen. He will issue a warrant for your arrest to appear before him or serve a period of imprisonment. These warrants sit there forever. You discover this when you are in the back blocks of some country where the magistrate won't be back for a week. Many countries only tolerate Americans and when you treat the place as your personal play thing it just makes things bad for every other person who wants to go there. Treat the place with respect!

 

Hi Deniz,

Yes, I had no such costs bringing my NY-registered and titled Maserati Bora into Norway and Sweden two summers ago, and returning it to the US months later. I am quite sure I could have driven all over Europe too, if I had the opportunity. There were fees, but absolutely, certainly no "temporary import tax" like 10-20%. Norwegian regulations comply with European Schengen Area agreements for free movement between the countries. Have you talked to a dedicated car shipper?

As you infer, it was an absolute bucket list experience for me too, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Shipping costs were atmospheric, this was post-Covid 2022.

I used an established reputable car shipping company with whom I coordinated documents, title, power of attorney, registration, etc.. I had them pick up the car at my house, and they took care of all the details from there to the port of entry in Drammen, Norway. I just timed it so that I flew into Oslo a few days after the Bora arrived. Went to the shipping terminal in Drammen, went to the shipper's office, got my documents and the car keys and drove it away.

Some interesting things I experienced; there are automatic tolls, and lots of them in Norway, and they only use plate scanners or transponders to pay. I registered my NY plates with the automatic payment platform they have, and it worked well - it even pays for all the ferries we took to travel across fjords and between coastal towns.

Cheers,
- Art

 

Hi. I’ll just add my (good) experiences with using a couple of my US based and liscenced cars in Europe. My wife and I did tours organized by clubs in England, we had our XK120 there for XK70 which was the 70th anniversary of the first production, and we had our 1966 Etype there for E60 which followed the route from Coventry to Geneva that the first E types did for their introduction at the Geneva Auto Show. Great fun, plus we did some personal touring separate from the organized tours. Our E type is currently still in England to do another tour next Spring. Lessons learned:
1)We used Cosdel for transport. Two cars per container since we were traveling with US based friends. Cosdel handled all the brokerage, customs, local transport etc very effectively, at a price. We learned to save fees by picking up a car in the port city.
2)British customs wanted us to post a (refundable) bond equal to the VAT value since sometimes buyers import collector cars pretending they are not being sold into Europe. Cosdel talked them out of that.
3)No problem driving with US plates and drivers liscence, but we had to prove we had liability insurance effective in Europe twice. Once in a traffic stop in France and once going thru the Channel tunnel.
4)Driving insurance was handled well by Haggerty. It took one additional (liability)rider in Europe for $200/month. We also bought in-transit insurance via Cosdel.
5)The transport companies earn their fees. When I bought my 1961 Maserati Vignale Spyder in Europe I decided that I could do the importing to the US and save the fees. I eventually persevered but it took three months of trips to the Michigan license branch with multiple serial demands for paperwork, certified translations, letters from DOT and EPA, etc.
So - good luck and have fun. Dave