buying, driving, and then shipping to France

carmz · 12-09-2009, 03:01 PM

Hello !

I've been watching the US market these last moths, especially classic 911 and 356, and I'm thinking of importing one to Europe.

The plan would be to come 2 or 3 weeks with my wife, check the ads on craiglist, pelican, ebay,.. find a good driving car, and make a road trip for a few days driving up to a port. Then ship it to France, and fly back.

I've got an international driving license, and I already rent a car in Florida some years ago. 1 car insured in France.
My choice is a 2.2 L, preferably a T.

So I've got a few questions :

Can I get the car insured ? My wife is canadian, maybe she could better ?

I was thinking of landing to L.A. Do you have other areas to advice me to investigate ? What is the best period to buy ?

How can I make a safe deposit to hold a car for sale ?

Is there a list of garages for Porsches PPI ?

Any tips would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Camille

hcariss · hcariss's Garage

This board is your friend.
Start looking in the classifieds here and the early911sregistry.com, also look on rennlist and autotraderclassics.com, and thesamba.com
I think So Cal would be a good place to start, have you considered looking at somewhere like European Collectibles for what you want. As soon as you find a car ask here and early 911s registry for shops to have a very thorough PPI.
Not sure about insurance for you, Im sure your home policy can be adapted maybe, why not ask in off topic.
Sounds like a very fun trip. Enjoy.

RS#007 · 12-10-2009, 03:42 AM

You can get insurance no problem.

911K · 911K's Garage

Here's a great search engine where you just plug in the car and area you're looking for and it pulls up all the cars in that state or region. I've done the '70-'71 911 in the link for you.

carmz · 12-10-2009, 11:10 AM

Thank you for answering..

So you don't mind seeing your classics exported... In a way, it could improve the value of the cars remaining in the USA... In fact, I've seen plenty of these cars sold on ebay to german buyers. Makes me think of the late eighties when my father sold his 1950 Delahaye to a guy who was planning to sell it to an american customer in SoCal...

911K, your link is amazing... I'll keep it !

About the ads, I've seen plenty on ebay from philneweycars, californiaporsche, ********losgatos, and bmw2002 (thought this seller has often some projects instead of driving cars) among all the others.. Did anybody buy from them ?

I had asked my insurance company, and they don't make insurance out of Europe, so, RS#007, how could I get a 2 weeks insurance plz ?

RS#007 · 12-10-2009, 02:21 PM

PM sent.

RS#007 · 12-11-2009, 10:06 AM

So maybe there will be an issue. How would you register the car in the states? You would have to have the car registered in order to insure it. So that could be a snag.

jsoderbe · 12-16-2009, 12:42 PM

Hi, one more thing; I would imagine you have to pay the sales tax in the US. When I buy a car for export there is no tax, but then the car can't be used on the road before it is exported.

Maybe not a deal breaker, but I imagine the CA sales tax is around 10 %?

I've registred a car a couple of years ago, and that was possible. The insurance was crazy expensive and I could only get the basic coverage, no theft, fire or insurance for damages to your own car if you are causing the accident.

Please let us know if you made it, so maybe I can do the same next spring!

Thanks,

Johan

spuggy · 12-16-2009, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RS#007

So maybe there will be an issue. How would you register the car in the states? You would have to have the car registered in order to insure it. So that could be a snag.

Exactly. When I lived in CA I bought an "end-of-lease" car from a friend - he already bought his new car and said "just take over the payments until they end, it's yours".

I couldn't find any insurance company that would touch me until I had the car registered in my name and title in-hand (or at least the paperwork forthcoming in a grace period of about a week or so).

So I just paid off the outstanding lien and smogged/registered/insured the car.

But an insurance policy to drive possibly multiple cars registered to other people? I dunno how you'd do that in Cali...