Do NOT bring a car from the USA to Finland

[Kutittaa]

Well as I said, try your best and find a buyer if you can you never know. Someone may want it to just tear up their own private property with. Have a look
You might be able to at least make some of the money back.. you'll probably have to significantly cut the price because the wiring is against standards but you could at least get a pocket of cash back from it.

[GypsyFinn]

How long did you own it in the States? If you had it more than 6m then it's "Muuttoauto" / "Personal goods" and lights etc will be OK as is. You only need to eliminate side markers (remove the bulbs). You don't pay any tax neither.
Finland HAS a few Talibans; Tulli, TraFi, and Autokatsastus. They do what they please and no laws will regulate them.

[Rip]

How long did you own it in the States? If you had it more than 6m then it's "Muuttoauto" / "Personal goods" and lights etc will be OK as is. You only need to eliminate side markers (remove the bulbs). You don't pay any tax neither.
Finland HAS a few Talibans; Tulli, TraFi, and Autokatsastus. They do what they please and no laws will regulate them.

It is not a "muuttoauto". You think nobody would not have commented on the taxes if it were?
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=56411&p=433475#p433329

[CarmenfromTexas]

How long did you own it in the States? If you had it more than 6m then it's "Muuttoauto" / "Personal goods" and lights etc will be OK as is. You only need to eliminate side markers (remove the bulbs). You don't pay any tax neither.
Finland HAS a few Talibans; Tulli, TraFi, and Autokatsastus. They do what they please and no laws will regulate them.

Long story short. I shipped past the proper date. It's been a hassle but it's almost over. Happily I found someone who is willing to fix the lights but we are waiting for warmer weather. The nightmare will be over soon, thank goodness!

[GypsyFinn]

OK. I hope so BTW - your head line should be: "Do NOT bring a car from the USA to Finland.... IF you don't follow the rules"
However, I feel bad for you guys... by selecting a right car/cars you could have made 10-25 000 Euros profit! Any Z06 Corvette, most '97-2012 convertibles and Honda CR-V could bring a lot of $$ after required 3yr ownership. The price difference between the US and Finland is staggering! And there are many other special cars with bigger profit potential. To find out which ones are best check out prices at http://www.nettiauto.com and Customs estimated value in Finland at http://www.tulli.fi > "Toteutuneita tullausarvoja" ( Customs levied taxes). Then, buy a car in the States, keep it 3 years and sell w profit.
The Finnish government is so funny; They tinker and tax over 50 000E cars but you can bring a 1 000 000E luxury yacht tax free!
There are not many things left to make easy money in "Let's tax-them-to-death" Finland. Better use it before they kill that, too

[aguinness]

Sorry to hijack, but does anyone have a direct link to the section of Tulli website where you can see the amounts paid by other people who imported cars recently, thanks.

[Upphew]

Sorry to hijack, but does anyone have a direct link to the section of Tulli website where you can see the amounts paid by other people who imported cars recently, thanks.

http://www.tulli.fi/fi/yksityisille/aut ... /index.jsp

[CarmenfromTexas]

OK. I hope so BTW - your head line should be: "Do NOT bring a car from the USA to Finland.... IF you don't follow the rules"
However, I feel bad for you guys... by selecting a right car/cars you could have made 10-25 000 Euros profit! Any Z06 Corvette, most '97-2012 convertibles and Honda CR-V could bring a lot of $$ after required 3yr ownership. The price difference between the US and Finland is staggering! And there are many other special cars with bigger profit potential. To find out which ones are best check out prices at http://www.nettiauto.com and Customs estimated value in Finland at http://www.tulli.fi > "Toteutuneita tullausarvoja" ( Customs levied taxes). Then, buy a car in the States, keep it 3 years and sell w profit.
The Finnish government is so funny; They tinker and tax over 50 000E cars but you can bring a 1 000 000E luxury yacht tax free!
There are not many things left to make easy money in "Let's tax-them-to-death" Finland. Better use it before they kill that, too

Sounds like a great way to make money if you know all the twists and turns.

[Pursuivant]

Any Z06 Corvette

Or a Porsche...

Yeah, shipping and taxing a Toyota sounds like going to Cherry Patch Ranch to masturbate.... with a cheesegrater

[CarmenfromTexas]

Yeah, shipping and taxing a Toyota sounds like going to Cherry Patch Ranch to masturbate.... with a cheesegrater

Definitely got the old cheesegrater up the backside but I'm getting closer to the end of this. Once complete, I plan to bury all paperwork on the auto in a shallow grave and burn down the Toyota dealership. Maybe go for some pizza later.

[nismo]

It does amaze me that all they want to see is the E-Mark on the lights, my lights had a nice "IKI" mark, so I made some modifications... Nice how the gaffer tape is almost the same colour as the car. Straight through inspection!

[Kutittaa]

That's a pretty brilliant job. Sure to fool a camera, but on closer inspection... maaaaybe not

[Mölkky-Fan]

It does amaze me that all they want to see is the E-Mark on the lights, my lights had a nice "IKI" mark, so I made some modifications... Nice how the gaffer tape is almost the same colour as the car. Straight through inspection!

I do not understand...

Do you mean that instead of 'needing the EU-mark on the lights', you say that they just 'do not need to see any other marks'. I am assuming your beautiful gaffer tape artwork is just covering up the IKI marks.That is quite strange, and I guess you have been rather lucky. When my car was imported (and a trailer) they looked over the car very closely, made me stamp numbers on the chassis of each, replace lights twice etc - luckily the car was old and needed few modifications due to the age.

Edit: I notice that the lights are not right for the car, now I see that you have just covered the old lights and added some new lights which have EU marks... am I right now?

[nismo]

The original lights were made for the Japanese market and as such had no E mark on them at all, just the Japanese equivalent, which is the IKI mark (I guess). The guy looked over my car for ages and told me to replace the headlights, rear lights, rear indicators, add side indicators and even the light that lights the registration plate. So that's what I did! I removed all the lights, added new Lights that have 'E' marks, and all is well - straight through inspection! I was just pointing out how ridiculous the system actually is when your car can look so bad, yet because of one little mark, it's all fine.

The gaffer tape is covering the wooded supports that are screwed into the car to hold the lights in place. And look at that side indicator, it is pure wood with an astra indicator stuck in the middle. I must admit I had my reservations and thought that it would never work, and I almost fell about laughing when he said they are much better now that they have been changed. Jees...

My new car is English, so the lights aren't an issue, but the engine and noise will be!

[djcsuomi]

I didn't read the whole thread, but I disagree with the OP. It completely depends on the car. My wife and I moved to Finland 2.5 years ago and brought a 5 year old Mercedes R350 along. Because we knew we would eventually move to Finland, we bought a car in the States that didn't require any modifications to be legal here. We originally paid around $40k for the car, and traded it in on a new car last fall for around €27k (or about $33k at the time). That's over 80% of original value 7 years after the purchase. Contrast that with the approx. $15k we would have gotten on a trade-in in Texas last Fall.

Bottom line, we got about double the value in Finland vs. the US, including all shipping costs (we used Halmari in Houston), etc.

Today the math wouldn't be as good given the drop in the Euro, but it would still be worth the hassle.

If I could do it all over again, I would have bought the diesel version in the US and purchased a winter package (which for obvious reasons was pretty hard to find in Texas ).