Who has imported cars from Europe?

You mean “Netto” which is net price. Brutto = Gross

Where are you going to? I lived in the Frankfurt/Wiesbaden area for nearly 2yrs (Was conversational in German, and still am)

OP, if your looking at used cars in Germany, make sure they have Tüv.

Can’t remember the website, but there is a really good website for used cars in Germany . Sort of like a Craigslist for cars.

FYI, I’ve exported a car from the US to Eastern Europe, but know a handful of folks who have imported (years ago). It’s a lengthy process

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What’s the best way to find this out? Would I just ask the dealer?

If you think of it, let me know!

I recommend using www.transferwise.com

I use it to pay my rent. Literally saves me 350 dollars a year on additional conversion fees versus using my bank.

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No, I mean brutto. I know it means gross. Most posted prices on autoscout24 and mobile.de are inclusive of VAT which makes the price brutto.

I’ve bought a few German spec cars in Germany already and so have some experience. Private party sales are netto. VAT is paid when doing the TÜV, I believe.

I cannot recommend an well established importer, enough.

For more clarification on the TÜV (pronounced Tuef), it’s basically just Germany’s system for inspection. It tends to be a little different than how state inspections work in the states, but consider it a n in-depth inspection of the vehicle for several points and categories. One of the biggest reasons Used cars in Germany are so much good.

There’s two primary documents cars in Germany have and it’s a little different than in the US.

Farhzeugbrief teil I zulassungungsbescheinigung teil II are the vehicles registration and title. These are almost parchment stock green papers and the teil II is pretty long. Teil I is short and stubby.

This was for my Mercedes I sold back in June:

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Don’t make any decision based on such superficial pictures. You really need to have someone get under the car and look at rockers, chassis, floors, etc for rust.

W123 Mercedes, for example, need to have all those places looked at for rust and those cars are better-built vs any Audi of that era by magnitudes.

You also need to think about how much it will cost in depreciation (purchase price - resale value). MB and BMW of that era have a robust marketplace and although the current ‘bubble’ makes it harder it is still possible to know when one is overpaying. Do you have benchmarks on how much you could sell that for in the US?

My significant other has used transferwise when traveling abroad. She swears by it.

This whole thread is full of incredibly useful information. Thank you for taking the time to talk about all this!!

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Right, my plan was to fly over there with a couple of listings in mind and looking at them in person. But as StingerTT pointed out, apparently the COVID situation over there is…not the best. So I’ll be waiting a bit before buying probably.

This would be for myself, I don’t really plan on reselling it over here. I have only ever seen one for sale in the US for about a third of the price of the one that I linked above. However, I tried reaching out to that person numerous times with no success.

I’m an Audi enthusiast, so this would just be a fun weekend car that I’d be proud to own as they’re so rare in the US.

You don’t have to have any plans to resell it but you still need comps to know whether you’re overpaying, paying FMV or getting a great deal.

There is no point in doing comps between US and Germany market cars. He will have to compare the cars he finds to the German market to determine if it’sa decent price.

US market has no real bearing on what Germans are willing to pay for their cars.

It’s even more annoying if buying a US spec car in Germany… they have their own, third market that is unreflective of either Germany or the US primary markets.

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It’s the only way to make an informed decision.

It’s one thing to say I’m ok taking on the TCO based on a car that costs 35k euro plus importing costs and could only be sold for, say, 10k USD in the states.

It’s quite another to say I’m going to buy a car without having any clue what my TCO will be.

Unless the OP is old enough to realistically plan to bequeath this car.

I don’t agree with this.

OP already stated he wasn’t buying for American resale value and the Europeans certainly don’t care what Americans value their cars at.

Regardless of the cost, OP has a desire to own a specific Audi only found in Europe and I believe they’ve also acknowledged they’re going to have to spend what it costs to get it regardless of the return value on the American market.

Sometimes you just can’t put a price on what you really want.

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The link I posted is pretty close to FMV from what I’ve found.

Most of the listings I’ve found for this specific car are for cars that have been abused to no end, full body rust and completely gutted, and are still going for roughly €10k in Germany. I’ve found most of the restored listings are between €30-45k depending on mileage, and I’ve found a few that were garage kept for well over €60k.

However, comparing this car to the US market is hard since I’ve only been able to find one listing from years ago for this car. That specific car was 6/10 in condition and he was asking $15k.

This will be garage kept and passed down eventually.

This is precisely the case. It’s very possible that this specific vehicle is in the US somewhere, but I haven’t been able to find it. One of the versions of the car was sold in the US back in the 70s, but not the one I’m looking for.

Fair enough