TrappistMonk

It is also an exchange rate gamble. If the USD hits parity, I'm not sure that you will get that much benefit out of importing your car. The way I looked at it was the following:

If the USD stayed strong, I would sell my car in the US and buy another one in Europe.
If the EUR gained strength, I would take my car with me.

So it was a great way to follow my heart and buy a 911 and convince my logical side that I was actually hedging the exchange rate risk by buying a 911 ;-)

R_Rated

In similar spirit of previous posts combined with this... One in each location is kind of like dollar cost averaging, yes? If you have one in each location you are really hedged either way. Win/Win.

How else can we help you spend your money?

Seriously though, aside from lights(which you should swap to clear LED in the US anyway) US spec cars are the easiest to import worldwide because the US has the toughest requirements in the first place.

911seeker

I bought mine with the aim to take it to Spain in a year or so. When the time comes, I will see for how many dollars I can sell it here, to how many euros that translates at that point, and how much it costs to buy a car that I like in Spain, and I will make my decision then considering all those factors.

I have a friend that did this back in the day with two cars, one of them a Cayenne, and sold it in Spain when it was 3 yrs old for the price he had bought it new in the USA originally.

LionelB

Yep, I am sort of in this logic. Did you look at what it takes to get this registered in Spain ? Which I assume is not too far from the French process.

911seeker

If I remember correctly, once you have been living abroad for 1 year and have owned the car for 6 months, you can take it back without paying taxes. The transport takes long but should not be complicated and the cost I expect to be no more than 3k.The administrative procedure to get it up to the Spanish technical standards involves several changes (basically on the lights), which will not be cheap, and you have to take it to the inspection probably more than once, it will probably require weeks or even months to do everything. There will be an effect on the resale value for sure being a former US car, how much I don't know.


I have read experiences that recommend doing it and others that don't. I assume for more expensive cars, like 911's, it should be cost effective, but if there is not much upside I might forget about it, moving back is going to be complicated enough, and I might re-consider if a 911 is what I need/want at that point.

Needsdecaf

To answer one of your earlier questions, I believe that you can set the digital speedo in the bottom of the tach to display in kph. I know there are a whole bunch of unit settings (to display oil pressure and tire pressure in bar, etc.) and I'm 95% sure this is one of the things you can change. So that wouldn't be too much burden, because honestly, I don't EVER use my analog speedo in either of my Porsches.

NoGaBiker

911Seeker's post sounds more like the reality of the process. A lot of time and effort for questionable payoff.

Sure, if you see the 911 as a profit center and don't mind putting in the work and taking the risk that you won't get the return you're seeking, go for it. Arbitraging the US and French 911 market is probably a doable thing if your fairly unique situation allows it.

But another way to look at it is, "I'm in the business of X, not the 911 import business. I'll focus on that business and just buy my expensive used French 911, knowing that barring some downtick in the French 911 market, when I go to sell it it will still be an expensive used French 911, and my downside will probably be about the same as if I'd bought and sold in the US market."

That's how I'd play it.

LionelB

Thanks. I actually moved back to France once before and as one of the container was half empty we put our new beetle in it..... The changes were very minimal (nothing had to be done by WW), the process was very long but not that hard and very cheap. In the 6+ months it was driven with CA plate in the back and no plate up front there was an added benefit: police could not send me any speed ticket

911seeker

Just to give some color, I just checked prices on Spanish C4S of similar configurations as mine. Asking price 100k EUR for a 2014 and 93k EUR for a 2013, both with CPO for 1 year. Assuming they have a 10% discount to give, the prices would be 90k EUR for the 2014, wich is more similar to mine.


If I was to move back now, I would hope to sell mine here for 10k less than what I paid for it 9 months ago. With the current USD/EUR at 1,04 that would mean getting 72k EUR net for it.


The alternative would be to invest 5k EUR and some time, so I would end up having it in Spain for 77kEUR. So 13k EUR delta with the Spanish one, but no guarantee, minor inconveniences (odometer in miles, etc.) and potential hit at resale. Worth it? Not so much.


With the FX at 1,15 the numbers would work much better... the car would be in Spain for 7kEUR less, or 70k EUR. In that case, I would take it back.


Of course, if USD/EUR reaches parity or goes beyond that, I would sell here and buy another car in Spain.


But, again, we will see when the time to move comes...

GregD

I moved from FL to CA and I wish I'd sold all my cars instead of shipping them over, reregistering, etc ;-) Can't imagine doing to France, unless it was a 356 or something...

I know it's fairly straightforward for classics (356s, early 911s) but for a modern car, it seems like a lot of trouble with the administration and jumping though hoops - did you ask on club911.fr? Also when you sell it eventually it might carry the stigma of being a "grey import".

PS: Leaving California, never easy ;-)

daberlin

I think keeping American plates on your car overseas makes you a target. It's foolish to draw that kind of attention as you clearly stand out. And on a 911? Doubly so. Interest to both criminals as well as those wishing to make political gestures.

I shipped my Golf GTI overseas when I was stationed in England for four years from '97' - '01. Before I could get my car MOT'd and my Virginia plates off the car, vandals (souvenir hunters?) tried to rip the plates off the car in a car park in Antwerp. They failed, but bent the crap out of the plates, and broke off my rear wiper arm for good measure. And no, I was not parked in any way that justified this.

Besides the side indicators and minor adjustments, you are entitled to the 'worldwide' factory warranty on your car. Which I believe for Porsche is 2 years. Just because you are going to France, does not mean you are entitled to the same warranty as a French sold Porsche. Therefore, as you must own the car for six months before you ship (otherwise you would also pay new car European import duty), you will at best have another 18 months of warranty.

A grey market swimmer from the US is no bargain in Europe, and as others have said, best to just buy one over there.

Now if I had been smart years ago, and sent over a few Harley Davidson's to flog in England...well, that would have a been a totally different issue. :-)

SkandoSchwabe

I exported two cars, including a 991.1 C4S, to Germany a little more than a year ago. I put both cars in a container and did a sea shipment. No tax or duty since I had owned the cars more than a year. Had to exchange the headlights, tail lights and update the SW. I also bought the euro version of the GPS SW. Did not habe to exchange the instruments since the tach can be set to km/h. Total cost for the 991 was around 5k EUR. You can drive with a US plate for a limited amount of time, max 4 weeks in Germany and you have to get a German insurance, which is expensive. Was stopped by the cops twice due to the plate, once they hung out outside a restaurant for over an hour to "catch" me when driving away, but everything went well since I had all the required paperwork in the car.
I had to go through a thorough technical inspection after exchanging the lights to get safety and emissions clearance. After that I was able to register the car. I needed proof of insurance, title, export paperwork and probably a lot of other paperwork I can't remember right now. Then my plates were issued and I got the German title for the car.
It is well worth to export a car to Europe, in particular a luxury car, provided that you don't have to pay tax and duty on import. Sales tax in Europe combined with a usually higher starting price makes the cost much higher there compared with the US.
I was told by Porsche NA and Germany that they honor warranty world wide, but that is something I'd double check in France.
I can imagine that the import situation in France is similar to Germany, but it is fairly easy to do a google search to get the specific requirements for import.

TrappistMonk

that is great info. Did you exchange just the lights (bulbs) or the whole housing?

gregv8

I have some experience with this but I can only speak for Switzerland. France is probably similar. What follows is the by-and-large Swiss regulations.
You can bring a car with foreign plates into the country, keep your US tags and valid registration and live like that for up to 6 months (maybe it's 12 now). The only thing to make sure is that your US insurance has international coverage (some do some don't).
During this time, you have time to formally import the car as a resident. If you have owned it for at least 6 months in another country then you don't have to pay local sales tax (VAT), since it's part of your personal moving goods. In order to register it in Switzerland, it needs to pass inspection. There are two main requirements: emissions (not gonna be a problem) and the speedometer must have km/h lettering. You may have to switch that out. I know there are companies that specialize in converting any import to match local laws. This often includes loading the EU version of all embedded software. I'm sure they exist in France too.
Interestingly, Switzerland is one of the few European countries where red turn signals are completely legal, which is cool.
There also may be a 4% environmental tax of some kind, the base for this is the book value of the car at that point in time.

LionelB

Thanks for all the great info guys. It looks like something worth looking into when the time comes