[azv311]

Im moving to Germany for work and shipping my car. For anyone who has shipped their car, Is there anything you wished you knew beforehand? Ex., “no one tells you this, but…” The car is financed and insured through USAA. And my company is arranging the shipping logistics with a shipping company that they seemingly use often.

[RockCrusher]

Originally Posted by azv311

Im moving to Germany for work and shipping my car. For anyone who has shipped their car, Is there anything you wished you knew beforehand? Ex., “no one tells you this, but…” The car is financed and insured through USAA. And my company is arranging the shipping logistics with a shipping company that they seemingly use often.

Never shipped a car overseas, or anywhere.

But I read a number of UK car mags and there were articles on UK residents buying cars from Japan or Germany and arranging shipping from Japan and Germany. And a vehicle or two was shipped from the US/Canada and a few other assorted countries.

The advice was to do this through a shipping company that was well aware of all the ins and outs to avoid any trouble like the vehicle being tied up for the want of the proper paperwork, documents, etc.

But your company (employer?) is arranging the shipping with the help of a shipping company that you believe is used often so that I guess takes care of that.

But you might want some details of the process. And to have proof the car is insured against all risks!

Speaking of insurance: There can be a problem if your car is on a ship and the ship suffers some damage and cargo has to be discarded to save the ship or there is a full loss of the cargo and even the ship.

You need this explained to you precisely so you know the full extent of what liability you might be facing.

Maybe none but you need to be sure.

Here's a web site that spells out the different losses and some of the ramifications. It will help you become somewhat knowledgeable but the company handling the shipping needs to fill you in.

https://jameshallam.co.uk/types-marine-losses/

[spurcap]

The rules are that you need to export the car with CBP. You won't be able to do so with a financed car. And you won't be able to presumably register in Germany and import without establishing clean ownership.

While the CBP rules dont prohibit, US lender provided secure financing. They don't want their collateral on another continent.... makes sending the repo man a logistical challenge...

https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-impo.../motor-vehicle

[techwhiz1]

My only question is why bother?

I'd sell and buy one there and when I was done ship from there to the US.

[aerobod]

Some of the points to consider when moving to Germany with a car, assuming one can find a way to buyout a financed car in the US before exporting it:

https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/d...rting-vehicles

A friendly BMW dealer will also be required to reconfigure the car to TUV standards if it is there for more than 12 months and the original US warranty may not apply, certainly the free maintenance program will not transfer to Germany.

[marseille82]

Originally Posted by spurcap

The rules are that you need to export the car with CBP. You won't be able to do so with a financed car. And you won't be able to presumably register in Germany and import without establishing clean ownership.

While the CBP rules dont prohibit, US lender provided secure financing. They don't want their collateral on another continent.... makes sending the repo man a logistical challenge...

https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-impo.../motor-vehicle

Good advice but USAA might be one the few lenders that allow a financed car to be shipped out of the country. Assuming it’s due to the fact that most (not all) of their customers are military people (those guys tend to move a lot lol).

USAA will provide a letter authorizing the transport and a copy of the original title as well.

[marseille82]

Originally Posted by techwhiz1

My only question is why bother?

I'd sell and buy one there and when I was done ship from there to the US.

If the prices were close that would make sense but these cars cost more in Germany.
The M2 starts at $65k in the US, in Germany it’s $80k.

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by marseille82

If the prices were close that would make sense but these cars cost more in Germany.
The M2 starts at $65k in the US, in Germany it’s $80k.

Most of that is the 19% VAT that is embedded in the German price, while sales taxes are not included in the US price. Importing into Germany and selling a non-German car may easily eliminate the gap. If specific residency and car ownership criteria can’t be met, 10% import duty and 19% VAT would be due, besides any required conversion and testing requirements.

[spurcap]

Originally Posted by marseille82

Good advice but USAA might be one the few lenders that allow a financed car to be shipped out of the country. Assuming it’s due to the fact that most (not all) of their customers are military people (those guys tend to move a lot lol).

USAA will provide a letter authorizing the transport and a copy of the original title as well.

Learned something new, thanks.

[marseille82]

Originally Posted by aerobod

Most of that is the 19% VAT that is embedded in the German price, while sales taxes are not included in the US price. Importing into Germany and selling a non-German car may easily eliminate the gap. If specific residency and car ownership criteria can’t be met, 10% import duty and 19% VAT would be due, besides any required conversion and testing requirements.

Right. Forgot their price includes VAT.
Thanks.

[techwhiz1]

Originally Posted by marseille82

If the prices were close that would make sense but these cars cost more in Germany.
The M2 starts at $65k in the US, in Germany it’s $80k.

Yeah, I can't see shipping it to Germany and then back.

[torentmonkey]

The price is quite a bit lower. I ordered mine for 69k euros including VAT, 4y warranty, carbon roof, auto, HK, carbon trim and all that. For some reason, the non LCI's in stock are more expensive ?

[ajchoi]

Originally Posted by azv311

Im moving to Germany for work and shipping my car. For anyone who has shipped their car, Is there anything you wished you knew beforehand? Ex., “no one tells you this, but…” The car is financed and insured through USAA. And my company is arranging the shipping logistics with a shipping company that they seemingly use often.

If your employer is actually the military (guessing maybe based on using USAA) my friends shipped their cars there when deployed via that process and never had big issues. Private employer though sounds a lot more complicated potentially. My close friend who was a Lt Col stationed in Germany a few years ago actually ended up coming back with more cars than him and his wife shipped. They found a classic LR Defender to restore and got that shipped back to the USA at the end of their deployment with little issues (via military logistics)

Edit: whoops sorry missed the latest few posts and somebody covered similarly that USAA is definitely a bit different with international stuff because of their military ties.

[azv311]

Originally Posted by marseille82

Good advice but USAA might be one the few lenders that allow a financed car to be shipped out of the country. Assuming it’s due to the fact that most (not all) of their customers are military people (those guys tend to move a lot lol).

USAA will provide a letter authorizing the transport and a copy of the original title as well.

100% correct. I have a notarized letter from USAA giving me permission to ship the car.

[aerobod]

Here are some tips that were applied to an M3 being transferred to Germany. The main things will be to replace the rear light clusters to the EU compatible ones that flash orange for the indicators and remove any window tint that is not BMW OEM: https://www.m3post.com/forums/showpo...5&postcount=23

[azv311]

Originally Posted by aerobod

Here are some tips that were applied to an M3 being transferred to Germany. The main things will be to replace the rear light clusters to the EU compatible ones that flash orange for the indicators and remove any window tint that is not BMW OEM: https://www.m3post.com/forums/showpo...5&postcount=23

Good to know, thanks.

[azv311]

Originally Posted by aerobod

If specific residency and car ownership criteria can’t be met, 10% import duty and 19% VAT would be due, besides any required conversion and testing requirements.

Also good to know. I definitely won't meet those residency criteria, so would most likely have to pay the 10% import tax.

[sikotic]

Won't the maps be different? I could be wrong but I've heard horror stories of people not able to get their GPS or maps working in another country.

[G80Jeff]

I can help you out with this brother, having shipped multiple cars from the states to Germany specifically.

First off, the easy button is selling your car stateside and buying one here through Bavarian Motor Cars. Here is their link https://bavarianmotorcars.com/

M2's can be had for as low as $61k. You're insured through USAA so I assume you are military which means you're qualified to buy through Bavarian. They offer 10% off MSRP, oh, and we don't pay sales tax here in Germany.

If you decide to ship your car, I would book an appointment through this website https://www.pcsmypov.com/ as soon as you have orders in hand. Your car will take almost two months to get here so the earlier the better.

As for things I found out along the way, definitely ship it early, take very detailed pictures of your car on your own. They cracked my windshield and blamed it on me. Plan to not have a car here right off the bat for a period of time. You can buy a beater or rent a car easily though.

Uhhhh, last thing I can think of..you can absolutely ship a car that is financed through USAA. I did this twice. You will just need a letter from them granting you permission to ship the car. They do it all the time and it's easy.

One more thing, once you get here to Germany don't plan on doing anything vehicle related quickly. It's a slow painful process to get your car registered. If I were you I would dump the M2 in the states and buy a brand new one here. Hit me up with questions you think of.

- SPOON

[G80Jeff]

Originally Posted by sikotic

Won't the maps be different? I could be wrong but I've heard horror stories of people not able to get their GPS or maps working in another country.

US maps won't work here. You can go to a Germany dealer and they will install the Euro maps for around 300 euros.

[G80Jeff]

Originally Posted by azv311

Also good to know. I definitely won't meet those residency criteria, so would most likely have to pay the 10% import tax.

You won't pay anything bringing your car here (military members of course). I believe the same is true for GS employees.

[G80Jeff]

Originally Posted by azv311

Good to know, thanks.

You can have window tint that is aftermarket just NOT on the front windows. They will make you remove the front window tint before you can register your car.