Hi all,

I am moving out of the States in June and I want to bring my beloved car with me to Europe. I know that MINI-BMW is a European manufacturer; nonetheless, in order for me to import my car, I will need to prove that my car is conform to the European guidelines. Do you know if the US and the European MINIs are very different?

Does anyone know how I can prove that the MINI answers all European requirements?

Thanks in advance :)

 

this article may be of interest http://www.radlhammer.com/car.htm

Good luck.

 

So you would be exporting it.

 

Import taxes are ridiculous. Unless you're a diplomatic or in the army then it doesn't make financial sense. It would be cheaper to sell your car and buy another MINI there.

 

Thank you for your responses. Since I have the car for more than 6 months, I will not pay a single tax. I bought the car for $36k (incl.tax) here, whereas in Europe the same car would be around $48k...so if I sell my car here for max $26k, I will never be able to get the same car in Europe...even used (I checked)

I checked prices and to get it from Boston to Switzerland, it's going to cost me around $3-4k and take about 3 weeks. The biggest change I need to make to the car is the speedometer, which costs $1k . The other change are the wheel arches but these don't cost a fortune. If I add up all the changes and the shipment costs, it will never be as expensive as buying a new one in Europe and I will probably be able to get $30k when I sell it in a year or so...

I will call the customs and all tomorrow and keep you posted since this might help other mini lovers!

 

Give me a little bit -- maybe I can find you the POC for the firm I used last summer to move my car around. I moved it from Germany to Baltimore, and then on to Hawaii (where she's garaged right now, while I am back in Iraq). But try this.

Somewhere here on NAM (OK, it's here), I wrote a piece about the differences between US and German spec'd cars, as I was trying to make the subtle cosmetic changes to make mine look more like the true autobahn runner it is. Mine's an R53 -- 2006 MCS. Brake light, for example, are different. Another thread on parts is here.



Oh, and be sure to get your badge before you go.

 

So how did this work out? In the same boat currently but would like to bring my Mini to Spain.
Can anyone offer any links to how best to handle?

 

This sounds so strange! We bought our MINI while stationed in Germany; it was built in England, shipped to Germany, and then we drove it for 6 months in Germany before we shipped it back to the states. We didn't have to purchase any special items to take delivery in Germany or make any changes to the car when we shipped it back.

 

I cannot tell about Europe, but I was importing MINI R56 that I bought in California to Canada back in 2015.
Transport Canada created riv.ca (Registrar of Imported Vehicles) in order to provide access to information regarding the permanent importation of vehicles originally manufactured for distribution in the U.S. market into Canada.
I would imagine every country has its own official agency that provides all the information regarding car importation process.
There are various requirements and procedures on both sides (US Export and Canada Import) that you have to follow.
In my case, besides various documents, I had 3 major things to deal with:

1. Import taxes: they are pretty high in Canada, but fortunately since I owned the car in US for more than a year and was considered a returning Canadian resident, I got a tax relief. Basically $10K was deducted from the value of the car (this is determined by customs officer) and I only had to pay taxes on the remaining amount.
2. Day running lights: they are mandatory in Ontario and the requirement is they can't be turned off. The factory DRL feature on my MINI was switchable from the menu in tachometer. Luckily, I did a replacement of factory fog lights with LED fog/DRLs (official kit from MINI) and that worked as required in Canada - I can't turn them off using that menu.
3. Speedometer: Canada requires KPH scale, but my MINI from US had of course only MPH scale on main speedo. This took a long time to try to figure out, because nowhere in requirements it said all speedometers have to show KPH. The digital speedometer on tachometer can be switched between MPH and KPH. I didn't manage to get a definite answer, but passed the inspection without modifying main speedo - they were satisfied with the digital one. Worst case scenario, you don't need to replace the speedo - there are custom made faces available online that you can buy and swap the factory one. Also, if you manage to find speedo on parts yard (from the similar donor vehicle), it's still cheaper than what dealer quotes, and it works as expected (I recently ended up replacing my factory MPH speedo with KPH nav speedo for an aftermarket stereo install and it's just a plug&play replacement - no coding needed).

Long story short - find and read the information pertaining to your destination country. Also keep in mind it's not a fast process - there are many different things that need to be done and some of them take time, so don't leave it to the last minute.