Anyone one on the 6 actually have any experience shipping a car from the US to Italy? A friend of my wants a new 997TT and figures he can save a boat load of $$ by purchasing the car in the US and then shipping it to Italy but he does not no if it can be done or for how much or if it makes any sense.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks, Rusty

 

Shipping is not the main question here as it is readily doable. He should inquire by his local custom office in Italy about the import and tax fees on these cars. different european countries have different tables and fees for importing used cars based on variables such as weight, total engine capacity, options, fuel sort, etc.

 

A German buyer purchased my 05 C2S cab for shipment to Germany. He told me they can't bring in new Porsches from USA, but can bring in used ones. I don't know if this applies to Italy. Curiously, I just sold a sport steering wheel to someone in Italy. Europeans are obviously seeing good bargains here in the US with our depressed currency.

 

I doubt you can ship new cars privately. The government will never let you get away with import duty.

 

you can ship a new car to pretty much anywhere. You will have to pay cash for the car and pay for all the taxes registration, as if you were buying the car for yourself. Porsche NA does not allow export, but if you pay cash, taxes and registraion, they cant stop you from doing what you with the car, including exporting the car. Then arrange the car for shipment, find a forwarder that is used to shipping cars (not produce). It is entirely up to your friend in Italy to get the car out of custom, the shipping company's responsibility is to get the car from port to port. Also see if you can import used cars to Italy, not all countries allow used cars to legally enter, in that case you'll have to buy a brand new unit. Goodluck

 

I know a guy who imported a new 997 to austria.... you have to pay back our 16% "car tax" and the sales tax and then you need a special permission (not like the normal ones that apply to a make but a single one that applys only to your car) to drive it.... after all is said and done the initial 50% savings are more like 20%... buth with a car thats more than €100k around here that's still alot of money

 

Can you not just buy the car in US and tick the collect from factory option?

That way car is in Euro specification and then drive it Italy, nice little drive through the Swiss Alps should make it worth while.

There are a lot of people I know currently debating importing cars. In Switzerland you have to pay 7.9 sales taxes plus another tax for the car. All in works out at about 12% of the value of the car.

Now if you take the base cost of the 911 c2s as an example 83k US dollars base cost in Switzerland is 140k. Excahnge rate is as close as damnit 1 to 1.

Yes we really are that badly ripped off in Europe.

That means that the cost of a c2s imported from US after paying the tax is 93k or in other words 1k more than the base cost of a Cayman S purchased from a dealer in Switzerland.

How the hell with the dollar as worthless relatively as it is now can Porsche afford to sell the car in the US for 57k less than Europe or adversely justify we pay that much more I will never know. Especially as the shipping cost from Germany to Switzerland as opposed to Germany to US are more or less none exsistant.

Go figure....rip off Europe.

 

No one will escape the import tax solely because the car is shipped "privately".

The shipper is required to declare the cargo on the bill of lading. The vehicle will, therefore, be identified, and will not allowed entry into the country in the absence of the duty and freight costs being paid.

So, the duty will be paid.