Hi all,

I've been quietly following the discussions here and am very impressed with the level of knowledge, helpfulness, and professionalism most members on the forum exhibit. It's a testament to the kind of folk who love these cars and are lucky enough to own one!

Anyway, here's my question. I am a former Testarossa owner, had a black '87 for about 6 years and I LOVED it. It had always been my dream to own an Italian exotic and I finally achieved it 6 months shy of my 30th b-day. I was fortunate. I'm the kind of guy who stands in awe at the artistry and the mechanical magic these cars are, the sound they make, etc., a true car lover. I never drove my TR in town or somewhere to show it off; to me heaven was taking out in the country to blast down an empty, curvy road in the middle of nowhere.

So, that was close to 10 years ago. It's taken me a while after divorce (that's when I sold the TR) to get back to being able to think about owning an Italian exotic again. I was set on another Ferrari until I caught some episodes of "Top Gear" (GREAT show, wish they showed it in the US) where Clarkson raved about the Gallardo. Before that I had never paid it much mind. After reading reports of owners here, and seeing how it combines the exotic experience (well, maybe not quite as on-the-edge and I-don't-know-if-it's-gonna-hold-together of an old TR!), performance, and sound of an Italian car with the reliability and sensibility brought about by Audi's ownership of Lambo, I really started thinking about getting an '04 or '05 Gallardo (preferably, an orange 6-speed).

Oh yes, I said I have a question!!! Here it is - until 5 years ago I had never been to Europe. Now I live there half the year (Eastern Europe - Ukraine to be exact, due to my lovely fiancee living here). But I have fallen in love with the roads, scenery, and beauty of the french/italian riviera and have visited there several times. I drove the beautiful roads of the alps, but in a crappy rental - all the time there, wishing I had been in the TR or another Italian exotic. So I was thinking, if I buy the Gallardo back in the states, I would love to achieve my dream by shipping the car (by boat, of course, did this with a Benz CLK to Ukraine and did not have any problems) to Europe - probably to the UK or France - to have there to drive for 4-5 months during the season this year. I would rent a place to live while there and of course need to find a safe place for the car. Then after, ship it back to the states.

To me this is more sensible financially than a) buying the car in europe, both due to price difference and that its final home will be in the USA, or b) renting an exotic, which to me is simply throwing money away.

So what I wanted to know is, have any members here had any experience doing something similar to what I am thinking about, and if so, what problem/pitfalls did you run into? Insurance, transporting, bringing the car in, etc. Ukraine has crazy laws about importing a car, and everything there works on the bribe system (customs workers are some of the best-paid in the country!), but I assume bringing it into UK or France will be a bit more sane.

Any input is much appreciated!

Patrick

Man! Buy the car in Europe, no way it is going to be more expensive, let alone the shipping it back and forth

well i live in the middle east, and have shiped cars over to europ for the summer. it turned out to be cheaper for me to ship my 92 diablo to europ , than rent a mercedes with driver. but keep in mind in those days when the before the E.U. all we had to do to avoid taxes on the car was to drive it over the border before the months end, and drive back.
with to days rules i shiped a diablo for the summer, but avoided road tax and emport tax, becouse i was studying in europe at the time.. and laws sayed i was alowed one car into the country as long as i was a studying in the country.

then there is the subject off insurance... if you wanted to insure the car for a small time, it came as a huge bill.... but i foun out how to get around this also.. lool
if you hav a resedence there, or a freind or relative has one. insure your car for the full year, but go for monthly installments. this way you get to keep the car insured for a month or more ( depending how long you want the car there) then when your going to ship it back you just stop payments and cancel the insurance.

keep in mind im talking about 1998, and this was in london. so thing might have changed.

im sure some of the E.U. guys on the board can update us on if its still the same. i was thinking of shiping a car this year

That's what I wanted concrete info on.. will there be any import tax if I am only keeping it there a short time (less than 6 months) and it's for personal use, not resale. In Ukraine you can import one car without any customs tax for personal use, but I don't know the regs in UK or France.

And regarding price, with the low dollar it is STILL far cheaper to buy the car in the US and ship it back and forth, than to buy it in Europe (not to mention its final home will be in the USA, so it needs to be an American version anyway).

You can bring the car into the UK for 6 months with no taxes at all, after six months then duty and value added tax would be payable ( 17.5% )

Insurance can be arranged through many specialist UK brokers

Sorry, but I don't get the 'low dollar' thing. You are planning to buy a new car manufactured in Europe, which means the extra bucks due to exchange rates are paid by the importer, and, ultimately, by you.
If you were to ship the car to Northern Europe: no way the customs are going to go along with your story, 'sorry sir, you are importing this car', and you will be charged with taxes between 16 and 21 % (depending on the specific country) of MSRP (they will laugh at any invoice you bring along).
This will occur EVERY TIME you ship the car to Europe, unless you keep a very punctual household paperwise.
Take good care.

He was talking of buying an 04 or 05 6 Speed Gallardo.

You're right: careless of me. Nevertheless I wouldn't proceed in the way he suggested.

Hi Patrick,
I am based in the UK. If you import your vehicule into the UK or any other EU country, after 6 month's (180 days) You have to register the car as a permanent import. however each EU country has different local laws as well, from personal expierence Id leave the frogs well alone, as that lot luv paperwork. Here is the law in the UK as I understand it. After six months you must inform the DVLC that a) you have taken the car of the road, b) re-exported the car back to the US, or God forbid scrapped it. If you are going to permanately import the car to the UK, you will pay approx $2500 for container transport one way (Do not put a Gallardo on a boat roll on roll off (RORO) +2% transit insurance +10% import duty based on UK used car value. If you do not have the original bill of sale you will probably have to add VAT (Our sales tax) @17.5% as well. These taxs are cumullative i.e purchase price + shipping +insurance+import duty+vat. charge d on top of eachother.
Once you add in your costs + milage depreciation of your own vehicule + insurance etc you will find you can hire a Gallardo (with a 200 ml per day milage allowance)either in the UK or on the mainland for about a third of the price of bringing in your own car.
The good news is that I myself work for a supercar hire company. (Yes very slippery, I know)If you would like to drop me a line I can arrange hire from 1 day to 3 Months. Hope this is of help
hope this helps GPS ian_427@hotmail.com

have you visited any dealers in the Ukraine?

If you have the cash then have one in the US and then one over in Europe - you can pick a Gallardo fairly cheap off of ebay or something (yes let the crowd scream in disgust!) but it's just an idea