Shipping the Stang overseas?

check with LuS1fer. http://forums.stangnet.com/member.php?u=49973. he had his car imported to the UK, and probably will be able to give you some advice.

Just remember, gas costs about 5 bucks a gallon in the EU.

Thats one of the reasons diesels are so popular over there. They don't tax it nearly as much.

Well I had my stang shipped over to the UK via the US government but some of my coworkers have had a second car shipped over that they had to pay for and it costs an average of about 1000 dollars to get over here... and then you have to pay the 27.5% import tax on top of that.... but that is to England... not too sure about Ireland but you could always have it shipped to England and drive it to Ireland via the Ferry... also you will probably have to get a light conversion done to meet european spec...

I assume you're talking about a permanent export.

I don't know about Ireland as it's a different country to the UK (Northern Ireland is part of the UK though) but as a member of the EU, the principles will be the same. You ship your car out of the US. i did mine ro-ro and it was $820 plus $400 marine insurance. Most countries have import duty which for the UK is 10% of the US purchase price. but if you've owned the car in the US for 6 months (I think) before you export and intend keeping it for at least 12 months after for your own personal use, you don't pay import duty at all.

But you do pay VAT. In the UK, it's 17.5% on the price AND the shipping cost.

Once it arrives in the country, you usually have to pass a test to make the car conform to the country's regulations. In the UK (and probably Ireland too), this involves fitting white sidelights, a rear fog light and switch, side flashers and orange flashers at the rear (usually done by converting the stock reversing lights using orange bulbs and fitting an add-on white reversing light under the bumper. You can usually adjust the headlamps to pass the test (The Single Vehicle Approval test) but this test (at least in the UK) is strict and modified cars would have a harder time getting through it compared to a stock car.

The electrical modifications should be entrusted to one of the companies specialising in SVA work as the (expensive) multi junction box fails if it's not done correctly and you end up with no brake lights or flashers.

Once a car is 10 years old, the SVA doesn't apply and basically you can iumport the car and just submit it for an annual MOT test which is less rigorous but still has to have the mods described.

Once you have the SVA test pass, you can register and tax the car.

Like I say, I don't know how much of the above applies to Ireland and you'd have to research that. It sounds complicated but plenty of people do it.

if the moderators can move this to the EUROPEAN forum i bet they would be able to give you more information...

or copy it to the european like i just did, good idea steedastang.

seanthenerd said:

Thanks for all that information. An yeah, it does sound like a TON of hoops to jump through. I guess when the time comes I will have to make the decision whether to go through those hassles or just sell the car state side. hmmmm....

Well thanks for the heads up on all the possible "modifications to stock" that I might be faced with. All in all my biggest concern would be passing a "smog test" since I have after market exhaust and stuff on. So we'll see. But thanks again for all the helpful information.

-Sean

Click to expand...

Much depends on whether they've ever seen a Mustang before. If the exhaust looks stock and isn't ear-bleedingly loud, they would probably not even test emissions if it has stock cats. Most won't even know what is stock and what isn't. Basically they take the FMVSS as being equivalent to European spec. Besides, US emissions are tougher than ours. I'm thinking more superchargers, upgraded brakes etc which alter the structure of the car would affect their decision to test rather than pass it through as read.

Hmm, just googled the Irish rate of VAT and it's a rather heavy 21% I'm afraid.

From what I hear, Southern Ireland is fairly car-unfriendly and you'd want to check the narrowness and quality of their roads before driving a big car like a Mustang down it.

You won't like their road tax either: http://www.eforecourt.com/php/cartax.php - 1343 Euros a year over 3 litres.

It may be there is no SVA test in Southern ireland - see this thread:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=246678&f=151&h=0