Shipping car internationally.
 

Serious inquiry..

Have any of you shipped a car across the sea?

Specifically to Russia....

Just looking for the ballpark price range of the shipping itself and any fees such as import tax.

Correct me on this, 25% of vehicihle value is the tax?

My great idea that i like was:" get a 4.6is here, found one On CL in estroil blue here in charlotte, instead of selling the 4.4 i want to ship it to russia so i have a car there and when im not there my uncle can use it.

SUV (non BMW) Canada to Chile. And return some months later.

Several thousand (I think it was 3k) for shipping in a 20' container. In my case, US MSRP used as a basis for 19% value added tax, plus shipping fees, to get landed cost. Then compound 85% luxury tax on that landed cost. Pricey exercise, but this part was all known up front. And then they changed the import rules before it cleared, so it was no longer admissible (after several months in bonded storage) so it went back to Canada without ever being driven. Lesson learned. Not always as easy as it looks. YMMV.

i shipped a car to Ukraine years ago (1993), was about $2000 using Ro-Ro service, not a container...

then my X5 was shlepped around, from Baltimore to Costa Rica, then from Costa Rica to Miami, then from Miami to Antwerp by a boat, then to Moscow by truck (i think via finland).

I do not know the cost of this adventure, as my employer did everything, i just handed the keys at a hotel's parking lot in DC, before flying out to San Jose, and then they just delivered the car to me in both places, CR and Russia...

battery is a bitch!!! battery dies on those trips, the car comes filthy (i bet, it was not in a container), make sure you use Clements Insurance, if the car falls off the deck into the ocean, the clements will pay full replacement value of the car, not the market value... they usually insure diplomats, but also work with expats...

for the battery... there is a battery disconnect thread lurking somewhere - very useful in such trips but!!!!

but, very important thing - if you mount the battery switch where i mounted mine, hidden, out of sight location, be prepared to be locked out of the car... since the top portion CAN be unlocked with a manual override, the bottom portion CAN NOT be unlocked without electrical power, and you NEED the bottom gate to gain access to the battery disconnect switch...

this is a problem even without the battery switch, as the porters WILL disconnect the battery (maritime rules???) and WILL shut the bottom gate!!! this is when you need that little 9V battery cigarette lighter thingy, to unlock the bottom gate!!! lol...

i do not know cost of custom clearing, but it might be cost prohibitive to bring a used car to the RF - check the law before hand, even on the legal side of the law it might be too expensive, and you might not be able to clear it with "liquid" currency, if you get my drift... lol....

So i asked these russian guys at lux avto who import cars from us to Rus and they said that my car Which id say is worth around 10k at the moment in total will be 34500$ after everything is done....

They said the Vigoda? or the time frame of making money on a car is usually 3-5 year old car

vigoda/vygoda - profit...

not sure if you can find a buyer of a used E53 in russia who will pay $35K for a 10 year old car... my car was already onsite, all i needed to do, is pay the local taxes and sell it on a local market - there was NO interest in Moscow for a 2002 X5 4.6iS with 120K miles = 200K kms for the price of a custom clearing... not even mentioning the sale price... i do not remember the numbers, but if the customs was $20K (super expensive on older cars), nobody cared to pay even $20K in TOTAL... so, the car came back to the States...

the niche is very tight now, considering that the BMW is making many models sold in the RF in Kaliningrad from Knocked-Down-Kits, thus saving on the customs... the only models that are guaranteed to be made in the US or Germany/Austria are the US military sales or diplomatic sales, which i think, also includes the BMW Individual and BMW Armored...

that business stopped being lucrative at the end of the 90s... Sorry Artem... but, doing the same somewhere outside of moscow might be a different story... a lot of bimmers in Dagestan, Chechnya and the 'Stans... if you got honest connections there... also, be aware of the US DoJ watching over those sales rather closely... be wary of your partners... :)

I dont want to sell it there, just for myself to have there when i go back during the winter and summer. but for that money itd be easier to just buy an x5 there, and it would be in euro spec already maybe even TV and of course the clear waffles on the headlights

OP. Serious inquiry?

Well, shipping is the easy part- container or open on a vessel that is set up to carry cars. Call them and find out.

The trickier issue is import. As you have discovered, 'importing' can be all over the place...some factors (in general, know noting about Russia):

-are you a citizen? Are you bringing your own car home? Were you away long enough?
- Will you be using the car in the country only for a limited time? You can get a carnet, or other type of temporary bond to avoid import duties PROVIDED you leave the country by the required time.
- Are you bringing it in to sell? This is the worst plan as it is likely the highest tax.
- Can you bring it into a neighboring country with different rules???

Asking people over the internet or asking salesmen that do this as a business should not be all you do to determine if this can work...

I've shipped quite a few cars as I've moved over the years, mostly Roro (roll on, roll off) must once containerized. My experience is trans-Atlantic (both directions) and Africa to Europe.

You don't mention where you are for the starting point nor where in Russia (or other parts of the CIS) where you would want the car. Door to door service, like most things, is great but would naturally be more costly. Tell us more so that we can help.

If going to the CIS, do you have a duty & VAT exemption of some sort? The CIS requires recent cars to have headlamp washers and heated front seats (a good idea given the winter climate) - does yours have this? Winter tire set?

IM in mid North Carolina So the closest port may be 3-4 hours away, or possibly washington DC, which i would drive to.

End point would preferably be Moscow, where i can pick it up and drive it 500km to where i live. St. Petersburg may work as well, it is on water but im not sure if theres a port.

I Am a citizen. It would be personal use, not to sell.
Headlamp washers and heated seats check. Extra wheels check, but no snow tires on them.

EXPAT.RU- IMPORTING


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