Importing a car, is it worth it?

[makaveli]

My girlfriend is looking to buy a car, budget of 5-6000e, and the supply of cars here in Kainuu region is a joke, comparative to the UK where i am from. Either they have higher mileage than a space shuttle or the prices are way out of line. I understand i cant compare the local second hand car market to back home, and also that Finland is an expensive place, but the diffrrence in price is gobsmacking. For example i recomended something like a 01-02 ford focus, economical, easy to fix blah blah, and these cars go for say £3000 in the UK with mileage circa 100k , are about 8000e here with very high mileage! So my question, is importing a car in this price scale worth it? I understand some modifying of the headlights are in order, but the import tax side of things, how do they work it out?

[Pursuivant]

Import something that has the steering wheel in the proper place on the left... I heard those in the UK are dirt cheap too as there is a thing about having the steering wheel in the passenger seat - or then go buy one from... germany/sweden/estonia... Taxes are done with the "trilby method" i.e. pulled from the hat - its what the taxes of a car oroginally imported to Finland were minus age depreciation etc... - but theres statistics from Tulli that give what "someone paid for something" so if you find a few similar ones then you can guesstimate the damage.

[Andythefinn]

If you know the make, model year and cost of what you wanna buy from wherever you want to buy it, just phone up the customs here and they'll tell you how much tax you'll be expected to pay beforehand. Well worth a phone call prior to buying some motor, rather than buying one and then getting stung afterwards.
All the best !

[Rosamunda]

It's all in here:

http://www.tulli.fi/en/finnish_customs/ ... 009_en.pdf

[Pursuivant]

Its like "discussed well before" but the laws change - principle remains.

[sinikala]

My girlfriend is looking to buy a car, budget of 5-6000e, and the supply of cars here in Kainuu region is a joke, comparative to the UK where i am from. Either they have higher mileage than a space shuttle or the prices are way out of line. I understand i cant compare the local second hand car market to back home, and also that Finland is an expensive place, but the diffrrence in price is gobsmacking. For example i recomended something like a 01-02 ford focus, economical, easy to fix blah blah, and these cars go for say £3000 in the UK with mileage circa 100k , are about 8000e here with very high mileage! So my question, is importing a car in this price scale worth it? I understand some modifying of the headlights are in order, but the import tax side of things, how do they work it out?

In my experience, yes it´s worth it, 4 years ago it got us a car with half the mileage of what was on offer in Finland.

Used car prices have actually fallen in the last decade, due to easing of import taxes, and finally removal of the VAT charged on import taxes. The real pain here is that there are very few older low mileage cars. Old cars here always have high mileages.When we needed a second car 4 yrs ago we budgeted on €10k, looked around Finland and at that time in Finland it bought a 7-8 year old Mondeo with 150-180,000km on the clock. I had a look at a few Ford dealer websites in the Fatherland, there were a few round Hamburg... (the Hamburg Harburg area has a population about the same as Finland, and a lot larger choice of cars)

http://www.tobaben.eu/Gebrauchtwagen-Hamburg-Harburg

Went over and didn´t look beyond the first dealer on my list. They had 4 cars I would´ve been happy to buy, eventually settled on a 7.5 year old Mondeo with 74,000km on the clock for €5900 got it with a full tank of petrol for €5600.

After paying for flights, a couple of nights hotel in the Crowne Plaza in Hamburg, driving to Rostock and paying for the ferry company to ship the car to Hanko, 1st class train ticket back to Hamburg, flight back to Finland, import tax, VAT on the tax, registration inspection, plates, fitting of engine heater and cabin heater and new winter tyres, it came to something like €10090.

It was a pain in the arse, a lot of running around, took around 4 full days of my time, but in return got us a car with a milege car which was simply not available on our budget in Finland. And 4 years on the car has now driven 180000km, what our budget at that time would have afforded.

If you have time on your hands, do it.. but do your homework first.

And the headlights only need changing if you buy a UK RHD, not if you buy from Germany.

[Pursuivant]

And if you get one from the UK, the LHD imports be cheap... "passenger seat" - I'd not bring a "post office van" here

[nismo]

And if you get one from the UK, the LHD imports be cheap... "passenger seat" - I'd not bring a "post office van" here

I've got 450hp worth of 'express post van', you can keep your LHD Ordering at drive-ins can be quite a hassle though...

[makaveli]

And if you get one from the UK, the LHD imports be cheap... "passenger seat" - I'd not bring a "post office van" here

I've got 450hp worth of 'express post van', you can keep your LHD Ordering at drive-ins can be quite a hassle though...

Some good advice people, doesnt bother her whether R/LHD as she has driven both. Just take her a bit of accustomising, value for money is the priority.

Im guessing you have a skyline from your username? You bring it over from England?

[sinikala]

Some good advice people, doesn't bother her whether R/LHD as she has driven both. Just take her a bit of accustomising, value for money is the priority.

Lucky man, my other half doesn't like driving my RHD, she drove it for a couple of months before I bought hers from Germany.
TBH I can sympathise, I don't mind driving a LHD, but even after a decade here, RHD feels so much more natural.

Would've been a lot easier to buy her car from England, but my guess is that the price is pretty much of a muchness between UK and ze Fazerlend... although cars in the UK are slightly cheaper than those in Hermany due to the crash of the £ vs. € in 2008, there's more to convert (headlights, rear fog light), UK cars tend to come with only one set of rims, and it's slightly more expensive to ship them from the UK, it probably balances out.

[nismo]

Yep, R32. Bought it 5 years ago. I've had the "postiauto" comments many times so I thought I'd comment.

RHD is not that uncommon, especially amongst sports cars. I know a few Finns with RHD cars and it doesn't bother them at all. My wife won't drive my car at all though, probably doesn't want to ruin her image Sini's comments apply to me too, RHD just feels more natural.

[sinikala]

Yep, R32. Bought it 5 years ago. I've had the "postiauto" comments many times so I thought I'd comment.

RHD is not that uncommon, especially amongst sports cars. I know a few Finns with RHD cars and it doesn't bother them at all. My wife won't drive my car at all though, probably doesn't want to ruin her image Sini's comments apply to me too, RHD just feels more natural.

Yeah, I still occasionally try to change gear with the door handle in our LHD.

[Mook]

Since the pound is so low, there's always wrong-hand-drive cars from the UK:

http://www.lhdplace.co.uk

-Mook

[Cod]

Twingos cost the same here as overseas

http://autot.oikotie.fi/hae/346511/

(it's a 'humbling' drive...)

[Mölkky-Fan]

I guess now (after the tax rule changes last year) that low emissions cars are not as expensive compared to other places, and the big differences are in the more powerful cars. So while 4 years ago it might have made a lot of sense, now the field is changed a bit.