Some questions for European forum members.
03-17-2004, 07:26 AM
#1
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Some questions for European forum members.
As some of you may know, my wife is from the Netherlands. Bussum to be exact. We are planning to retire in a few years and move to Holland. She owns a house there along with her sister who lives there. So... our plan is to ship the 69 over. I still plan on being active with the corvette group. So what do I need to do to make this all happen? I plan on finding a small storage garage and only drive the car a limited amount.. I'm really looking forward to this. Any advise tips, pitfalls, etc, appreciated. :auto:
03-17-2004, 07:42 AM
#2
Burning Brakes
Member Since: Mar 2002
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Re: Some questions for European forum members. (bluevetteman)
I don't know the exact regulations in Holland, but here is something that might come ahead...
-You might have to pay somekind of tax for the car to be able to register it in here.
-You might have to change your lights to ones that are approved in Europe
-You might have problems with red rear side markers.
Lights are cheap and easiest way to solve the problem with side markers is to replace them with orange ones or take the bulbs out and cover them with black tape. (after registration take the tapes out and put the bulbs back... :D )
I'm sure that our Dutch friends will chime up and tell more accurate info! :cheers:
-You might have to pay somekind of tax for the car to be able to register it in here.
-You might have to change your lights to ones that are approved in Europe
-You might have problems with red rear side markers.
Lights are cheap and easiest way to solve the problem with side markers is to replace them with orange ones or take the bulbs out and cover them with black tape. (after registration take the tapes out and put the bulbs back... :D )
I'm sure that our Dutch friends will chime up and tell more accurate info! :cheers:
03-17-2004, 10:07 AM
#3
Race Director
Re: Some questions for European forum members. (bluevetteman)
You should check the Dutch regulations, but most European countries make it fairly easy to bring in a car as part of relocation. Much easier than a regualr import. There are probably still a few things they will make you do. Besides the items finnshark pointed out, you will probably have to change the speedo to metric.
03-17-2004, 11:21 AM
#4
Re: Some questions for European forum members. (bluevetteman)
Step 1 : Mentally prepare yourself and your wife for paying 6$ a gallon gas
you can import 1 car or motorcycle free of any taxes as part of your furniture. you need to arrange a couple of things though since you're moving from a non EC country.
First of all you need to get a tax free registration permit. You need to contact the tax office in the city you move to, in this case Bussum.
There are a few criteria your and the car must comply to in order to be allegible for the taxfree registration.
* You must have lived in a non EU country for at least 12 months, which is no prob in your case
* The car has been in your posession for at least 6 months prior to moving and you have used it
* You may not sell the car in the first 12 moths of having it in the Netherlands, if you do so you must contact the tax dept. and you may have to pay tax afterall
Upon arrival you need to go to the customs and fill out a declaration. You need the original US certificate of title and an export document.
Since you don't have to pay any taxes this is only a formality and shouldn't be too problematic.
Now you must have your car approved by the DMV (called RDW here). They will do a technical and history (is the car stolen or not etc.) inspection on the car. To get approval for a 69 you only need the car to be in mechanically sound shape. There are not really any smog requirements, only CO needs to be below 4,5%.
There are a couple of changes you must make to your car in order to pass inspection. You must change out your low beams for H1 or H4 headlights with removeable bulbs. You can leave the high beams as they are. You must also install driving lights which may not be orange in color. The H4 headlights have these small bulbs already and you only need to hook them up to the marker light cicuitry to have them function properly. On your 69 the original driving lights are white right?? in that case you can keep them as is
You can not have side markers, just take out the bulbs and you're done. Ususally the inspectors will let you get away with red markers, orange is a big no no
You can also not have orange driving lights which is no problem on a 69. For other years just rewire the front cornering/driving lights so that only the cornering lights work.
Cornering lights can be either orange or white.
The reason most vettes don't pass the DMV inspectionis the hand brake. just tighten it real good prior to the inspection and back off after you have passed.
Then there's the need for the VIN to be stamped on a non removeable or reasonable tamper proof location where it is easily visible. Usually on the frame somewhere behind the front wheels .
It would be wise to make reservations for the VIN stamping for the same date as the inspection. If you do not you have to return on a later date which can take up to 2 months (don't ask how I know)
When you have passed inspection (and paid the rediculous fees they charge for their administrative mumbo jumbo) you will get your title sent to you. all that is left to do is order plates and fill er up with the expensive gas and go.
You can get a temporary title immediately after passing inspection if you don't want to wait the week for the DMV to send you your permanent title.
The benefit of owning a vehicle older than 25 year is you don't pay any road taxe. This will save you about 700 bucks a year
Marck
PS there is no need to change speedos or anything. I think they do want you to do that in germany and a bunch of other things like yellow cornering lights and such. They're pretty \easy about that here. The only real mod is the headlights and disabling the sidemarkers and orange driving lights
[Modified by Twin_Turbo, 10:31 AM 3/17/2004]
[Modified by Twin_Turbo, 10:34 AM 3/17/2004]
you can import 1 car or motorcycle free of any taxes as part of your furniture. you need to arrange a couple of things though since you're moving from a non EC country.
First of all you need to get a tax free registration permit. You need to contact the tax office in the city you move to, in this case Bussum.
There are a few criteria your and the car must comply to in order to be allegible for the taxfree registration.
* You must have lived in a non EU country for at least 12 months, which is no prob in your case
* The car has been in your posession for at least 6 months prior to moving and you have used it
* You may not sell the car in the first 12 moths of having it in the Netherlands, if you do so you must contact the tax dept. and you may have to pay tax afterall
Upon arrival you need to go to the customs and fill out a declaration. You need the original US certificate of title and an export document.
Since you don't have to pay any taxes this is only a formality and shouldn't be too problematic.
Now you must have your car approved by the DMV (called RDW here). They will do a technical and history (is the car stolen or not etc.) inspection on the car. To get approval for a 69 you only need the car to be in mechanically sound shape. There are not really any smog requirements, only CO needs to be below 4,5%.
There are a couple of changes you must make to your car in order to pass inspection. You must change out your low beams for H1 or H4 headlights with removeable bulbs. You can leave the high beams as they are. You must also install driving lights which may not be orange in color. The H4 headlights have these small bulbs already and you only need to hook them up to the marker light cicuitry to have them function properly. On your 69 the original driving lights are white right?? in that case you can keep them as is
You can not have side markers, just take out the bulbs and you're done. Ususally the inspectors will let you get away with red markers, orange is a big no no
You can also not have orange driving lights which is no problem on a 69. For other years just rewire the front cornering/driving lights so that only the cornering lights work.
Cornering lights can be either orange or white.
The reason most vettes don't pass the DMV inspectionis the hand brake. just tighten it real good prior to the inspection and back off after you have passed.
Then there's the need for the VIN to be stamped on a non removeable or reasonable tamper proof location where it is easily visible. Usually on the frame somewhere behind the front wheels .
It would be wise to make reservations for the VIN stamping for the same date as the inspection. If you do not you have to return on a later date which can take up to 2 months (don't ask how I know)
When you have passed inspection (and paid the rediculous fees they charge for their administrative mumbo jumbo) you will get your title sent to you. all that is left to do is order plates and fill er up with the expensive gas and go.
You can get a temporary title immediately after passing inspection if you don't want to wait the week for the DMV to send you your permanent title.
The benefit of owning a vehicle older than 25 year is you don't pay any road taxe. This will save you about 700 bucks a year
Marck
PS there is no need to change speedos or anything. I think they do want you to do that in germany and a bunch of other things like yellow cornering lights and such. They're pretty \easy about that here. The only real mod is the headlights and disabling the sidemarkers and orange driving lights
[Modified by Twin_Turbo, 10:31 AM 3/17/2004]
[Modified by Twin_Turbo, 10:34 AM 3/17/2004]