Help! im still confused on importing a car to finland

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chris h
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Help! im still confused on importing a car to finland

Post by chris h » Thu Jan 06, 2005 4:13 pm

Help!!

I am moving to finland in June. i want to bring a car due to the expense of cars in finland!!

im thinking of importing a lhd car to the uk, maybe 3 years old hopefully.
i have read the many threads still not sure how much it will cost me when i arrive in finland.

how much would it cost to register it with finnish authorites?
with it being a used car would there be an import tax?
how long could i drive it on uk plates?

what cost do heater element fittings cost once its there?

if i chose to bring a rhd car what difficulties would i encounter?

i have tried the aka webpage but it shows error for the info that im chasing!
i just dont know what to do for the best!

with time passing by!!

any help would be great cheers

chris



Help! im still confused on importing a car to finland

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Hank W.
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Post by Hank W. » Thu Jan 06, 2005 5:27 pm

Try the http://www.tulli.fi pages, its all there more or less.The tax is assessed by the famous trilby-method (a.k.a. pulling from the hat.) but they have lists there you can get the ballpark from.

There is two options: You can either import the car as in importing an used car, but as you can bring one as a movable item, you need to own the car 6 months before and once its in Finnish plates theres a 2 years moratorium on selling & stuff. You can drive around 6 months with UK plates, but then you cannot import it as a moving item so that'd be silly. A LHD is a sensible option, a RHD is something people won't touch with a long stick. Getting the car into Finnish plates isn't too expensive if you bring it as a moveable item. You need to fix the lights & such though, getting a block heater isn't really that expensive.

BTW, remember to get a COC for the car (certificate of conformity for the EU)
Cheers, Hank W.
sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.

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Mook
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Post by Mook » Thu Jan 06, 2005 6:39 pm

To reduce the hassle, there are some places in the UK that sell LHD cars. The one that springs to mind is in Sunny Basingstoke

An engine block heater isn't essential (the car will start without it, especially in the South of Finland). Also, you need somewhere to plug it in... so there's no point getting it unless you have your own parking space with electricity.
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theHook
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Post by theHook » Wed Jan 19, 2005 9:48 am

We imported a rhd car a while back (as a movable item) (from the UK). No tax to pay but some fees for inspections and such like. The biggest expense was getting the headlights changed. We had to import the lights from Belgium (could have been worse) and they cost €400 each. The cost of getting the lights fitted, engine block heater + fitting and some other prep work was about another €200 (so €1000) total.

On top of that, we had to get a certificate giving some details of the car from the manufacturer. It wasn't expensive, but it did take time. The certificate didn't have all the necessary details, but as our car is apparently the only one of its model ever seen in Finland they used it to fill in the blanks (i.e. took measurements from it and recorded them as the official values.) (To satisfy the curious - it's a Mazda MX6)

We haven't bought a second set of wheels as for the same price I can pay to have the tyres changed twice a year for the next ten years.

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paulrenn
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Post by paulrenn » Fri Jan 21, 2005 10:12 pm

This one would be hilarious to import from LhdPlace as your tax-free car to use 365 days a year ;)


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