Buying car from USA

[Rick1]

But I thought that if you buy a car inside the EU then it already has VAT on it. You can't buy a tax free car inside the EU any more. No? I guess the VAT rate might be different, I don't remember what % VAT is applied to cars in France.

I wish it was true that the tax would be the same in whole EU (car prices here would go down). You can still buy a car in preferably Danmark tax free and bring it here and pay the taxes here. I mention Danmark because I thought that because they are taxed so heavily there they keep the netto price low. Volkswagen tried to stop it but was put back in court.

[Pursuivant]

A large number of Finns import cars from the continent to save money we all know that, I followed their example and imported a German car simply because the choice of cars, and value for money (€s vs. hammer the car had taken) meant I could get a better car for my €s by importing from Germany, than buying over here.

And you can get a nice variety of options too... but then again you need to calculate the "going" "staying" "looking" and papier sortieren... German bureaucracy is the same in that you have to have the right papers in the right order in the right office and you'r uncle bob is meanwhile loading the boot with riesling... Though if you look at keltainen pörssi theres a new huge section of "tax free" (i.e. taxes not paid yet) imports and theres companies that for a fee do your looking and paperwork for you. It can be well worth it if you're getting a new-ish car.

USA os besides too much trouble the cars have those strangulating din-dong seatbelts and some idiotic scribble in the mirrors and all kinds of california emissions crap... and the headlights usually "american standard" so you pay 17 euros for a bulb...

[Upphew]

But I thought that if you buy a car inside the EU then it already has VAT on it. You can't buy a tax free car inside the EU any more. No? I guess the VAT rate might be different, I don't remember what % VAT is applied to cars in France.

Ah, but you haven't paid VAT on the car tax then. Or NVAT (not value added tax) as it should be called when taxing cars: "Autoverosta maksetaan autoverolain viidennen pykälän mukaan arvonlisäveroa. Tätä veroa kutsutaan myös ei-arvonlisäveroksi eli elv:ksi tai ei-alv:ksi. Suomen kannan mukaan vero on arvonlisävero ja siten arvonlisäverotuksessa vähennyskelpoinen."

Difference between VAT and NVAT is only in name 'cause it is against EU laws to add VAT to tax so finnish bureaucrats started to call it non VAT so it would be legal...

[Rob A.]

...cars have those strangulating din-dong seatbelts and some idiotic scribble in the mirrors and all kinds of california emissions crap... and the headlights usually "american standard" so you pay 17 euros for a bulb...

...Well, I'm glad to hear that those stupid mirrors aren't allowed in Europe....I could not believe it the first time ...some years ago, I saw them..."Objects in mirror are closer than they appear"...

Now how is that for "intelligent design"??...

[silk]

Well, I'm glad to hear that those stupid mirrors aren't allowed in Europe....I could not believe it the first time ...some years ago, I saw them..."Objects in mirror are closer than they appear"...

At least the scribble is only in English. No bilingual or multilingual text filling the whole mirror...

[Pursuivant]

."Objects in mirror are closer than they appear"...

"People too stupid to drive a car should take the bus."

[Pursuivant]

At least the scribble is only in English. No bilingual or multilingual text filling the whole mirror...

I suppose the Finnish katsastus being real anal would require for you to remove any distracting texts from the mirrors - as you may not have any visor stickers and such on the windshield nor dangly objects from the rearview mirror nor a DVD screen distracting the driver...

[Mook]

On the positive side, many people do import US cars as moving goods. So do manage to get the car registered here. The trick is to find models that are the same in the US and Europe. For instance, I have one colleague that imported a Subaru Impreza w4#73r-mobile and an Audi A6.

Looking at the figures, I'd say that it's a fair proposition. Perhaps the reason that people aren't doing it is that they haven't realised just how low the dollar is just now...

[Pursuivant]

Yes, as *moving* goods... *import* is a different animal... the thing is US cars however tend to have different engines... and it depends on the regions like my car is a 1.49 which is otherwise identical to the 1.6 because of a magic tax hike over 1.5 in the originating country... so then trying to find parts may be slightly challenging...

... and with newer cars exchanging half the parts usually voids any warranties... and if the warranty is valid at all... within EU it is, but without =???

[paulrenn]

Just as an aside...from an XC90 owner...is that 40,000 Euro price mentioned for a *new* car, or used?
If it is new price, then go for it, but if used, then there are cars in Finland already for around 40K.
I might even be persuaded to sell mine for the right price plus cold six-pack of beers

[Toddtheisen]

Thanks for all the info. What I figured is that because of the weak dollar and the fact that SUV's are so much cheaper in the US to begin with that this might add up to a significant savings. I also know that this would be a huge hassle and that is why most people in Finland wouldn't go through with it, but I have family in the US that could check out the car and organize everything from that end, which would make it easier, and cheaper, for me. I certainly wasn't suggesing that Finns are stupid as Karhunkoski implied in such a pleasant and friendly way (maybe you shouldn't always expect the worst of people ). In fact, it was actually a Finn who made this suggestion to me in the first place.
I had heard that the XC90 has very few differences between the US model and the EU model. Lights would need to be changed and maybe a few other things which I expect would cost around 1000€, but I guess I underestimated this one. If seatbelts, airbags and other things need to be changed I imagine it would be near 3000€.
The tax and import is the big issue of course, and that's where I was a bit lost. How i understand it, I would have to pay 22% VAT on the Finnish value and then import tax on the total including VAT and then the car tax.
It still seems that given how weak the dollar is and how cheap this car is in the US, that it might make sense.

[Pursuivant]

how appropriately today's Iltalehti had a few stories on the car taxation. some bloke had bought a car from Germany with 6500 euros, the Customs with its "stetson method" appreciated the car worth 18400, so the bloke paid 6800 taxes... which car tax has to be paid within 10 days before you can whine... so he later sold the car for 9000... and as they're now going through complaints of 2003 so you figure it out if and when he's going to see any money... another guy had a car that was in such a bad shape it didn't pass the inspection to be registered - but the tax value was 26K so he's paid a lot for the "cheap" car. with more modern cars the emissions-based taxation is beneficial, but if you end up being screwed by the customs - just remember they use tabasco for lube...

[Mook]

another guy had a car that was in such a bad shape it didn't pass the inspection to be registered - but the tax value was 26K so he's paid a lot for the "cheap" car.

As I understood, the cost of making the car pass the inspection and general repairs can be taken off the taxes?

Another colleague imported a car from Germany that had a slipping clutch - he said that the price of the repair bill would come off the taxes (because the car was clearly worth less than whatever customs is comparing it to)

[Pursuivant]

Yes but you must pay up first... and then make the complaint.... and then wait for another rotation of the universe...

[Rick1]

I am happy I missed all that, had to pay 1000 markka though because I didn't have headlight adjustment. The 1000 markka was for the sentence in my registration 50 percent of the people do not know that they have it.