Importing a 500k+ car to another country

[SalvadorP]

Portugal is a sad excuse for a country and it would cost me almost 5k to import my 940. Something the EU courts already deemed illegal, btw, but they keep doing it. Fortunately, there is a mechanism through which I can avoid paying the main tax because it was my main car in Spain and I am moving here permanently. So instead of 5k it's about 500€.

Probably in the next few days I am going to do the inspection that is supposedly very thorough, so I'm a bit worried.

Tomorrow I'm, hopefully, if it is not raining, readjusting the throttle valve, clean the car and the underside. There are no leaks, really, besides a little bit of a tired steering rack that always has a drop hanging out, even though it does not lose fluid.

Also there is a bit of a leak on the exhaust that i tried (and failed) fixing with putty. Which might catch the inspector's eyes. Hopefully they don't complain. I did just pass portuguese regular inspection a few months back without any remarks, but you never know.

If I can do these details tomorrow, I'll probably pass by the inspection place by the end of the afternoon. Which us luck.

[Forrest]

Have you looked up what the test actually looks at and what the criteria for pass/fail are?

I've heard others say the annual testing regime in Spain is very formal but not as exacting as in some other European countries, e.g. Germany.

If it fails do you have a period of time in which to put it right?

Do you have all the right documentation for the test?

[SalvadorP]

Originally Posted by Forrest

Have you looked up what the test actually looks at and what the criteria for pass/fail are?

I've heard others say the annual testing regime in Spain is very formal but not as exacting as in some other European countries, e.g. Germany.

If it fails do you have a period of time in which to put it right?

Do you have all the right documentation for the test?

I'm importing from Spain to Portugal. They are a bit more picky than in Spain. But this inspection is especially stringent because they look for possible mods, if the cats are type approved, if the engine number matches, that sort of thing.

In a normal inspection you will have 31 days to come back and re-inspect for a small fee. But this one I don't know. Because you aren't really just inspecting if the car is good to be on the raod, but if everything matches and whatnot. It's not just a matter of fail/pass. They will have to make a document that I will then bring to portuguese customs to prove the car matches the paperwork i am presenting.

For the test itself I only need the CoC, which I do have already, and the registration papers from spain.
I ended up not doing it today because I didn't have time and tomorrow I have to transport new windows for the house I am restoring. I'll do it Friday or next Monday.

[360beast]

Originally Posted by Forrest

Have you looked up what the test actually looks at and what the criteria for pass/fail are?

I've heard others say the annual testing regime in Spain is very formal but not as exacting as in some other European countries, e.g. Germany.

If it fails do you have a period of time in which to put it right?

Do you have all the right documentation for the test?

I read it as Salvador was leaving Portugal and importing it to Spain too.

[SalvadorP]

Originally Posted by 360beast

I read it as Salvador was leaving Portugal and importing it to Spain too.

Nah, I was in Barcelona for a few years and bought the car there.

I don't even think this "940 Classic" was sold in Portugal. Which is something that might cause me trouble importing the car, because the model might not have a national homologation number (the national equivalent of the EC coc number). This is complicated crap, and spain and portugal make it even more complicated. Plus the car being from 97, a transition period, doesn't help. The car is homologated but the law still didn't require that the number came in the paperwork, so my car only has it on the Vin plate. I nearly avoided having to pay for complete homologation which was about 400€

[SalvadorP]

After many hurdles, today the Mean Sweed Machine finaly went to the special MOT. First it was like the regular MOT but they went through my papers confirming the vin, block number etc.

Then it was the emissions test, which I was a bit afraid of, because the car's official papers will have to have the rela values, since the coc doesn't have the factory emission values.

The guy was very impressed with the emission test. It came out at 366g/km (official value is 244). He said he was expecting at least 500 or more, especially for a car with such high milleage. My answer was: "regular maintenance".

Hopefully now it's just a matter of days to a couple weeks max until I have Portuguese plates, granted nothing goes wrong with the paperwork I present., since I'm asking for a tax exemption on importation. There shouldn't be any issues, but you never know. I will celebrate when the process is finished.

[tofufi]

Fingers crossed for you!

For info, 366g/co2 per km equates to approximately 18MPG, or 15.7l/100km.

The official figure works out at 27MPG (UK), or 10.5l/100km.