I am looking to find out what is currently involved (2024) in importing a long ago built hotrod from the USA to the EU and hoping to hear what is involved from people who have actually done it recently.. My searches on the internet have not yielded any conclusive answers so far. But it seems to be a jungle out there! I have two hotrods - one from 1936 and the other from 1953 - which I have owned and have been titled in my name for a number of years. Both were built from original cars decades ago and appear to be visually close to stock but are highly modified and built to very high engineering and safety standards. From a technical standpoint I have no doubt that they would pass safety and roadworthiness inspections. One is Small Block Chevy powered and the other Small Block Ford powered. So both powerplants originate in the 1950s and 1960s respectively. I intend to have both titles apostilled (legally certified) as I understand this is a requirement in certain EU member countries. I need to know what the customs and registration procedures are. I have lived and worked in several European countries many years ago and speak, read and understand French, German and Spanish with some Italian thrown in. I can also read and understand some Portuguese. https://www.internationalapostille.com/how-to-apostille-a-car-title-dmv-record/ I understand that there is no uniform EU standard for homologation/inspection and that the rules and regulations for technical compliance vary from country to country and this is where I am having a hard time in finding out what is required in each country. The countries which are of particular interest are France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. I have heard that FIVA certification may be required for certain countries but I am not sure which countries require it and why. Hopefully you guys can provide real world experiences that can be useful to anyone seeking to get answers on what is involved. And do not worry if you reply in your own language - I am happy to translate!
You've been absent for a good while! You may not remember me but we met a few times at Dan Finks (2005 on) as I'd have been there working on my car on and off and I think you had a Willys in progress there at the time. I can't give you an answer to your question as there isn't one set of rules accross Europe. I've imported a few into the UK though, but that's not what you're asking. In the past mainland Europeans used to purchase UK cars as they were already registered and it was apparently easier to register than from outside the EU. I know many just continued to run on UK plates in Europe. I think the Europeans may well have found ways through things now but I can't say for certain. Registration in the UK has become trickier ( depending on who you speak to) and many choose to take a chance and go down the historic route in order to avoid the one off inspection required to be legit with a modified car. There's much debate and argument about the test but it is possible altough it would certainly require assorted modifications and (in practice temporary) additions for the test. The shady (and simple, form filling) route is therefore attractive to many, just don't get caught! Unfortunately FIVA (a non government, self appointed authority) has a huge influence over many countries and its definition of historic is 100% bone stock, and possibly with individual, special interest or provenance, and not merely old! Having this in mind might help with the mindset when trying to interpret the rules. A summary of the historic route into the UK is; correct completion of customs paperwork (by shipping agent), payment of 5% duty, receipt of customs paperwork (NOVA), completion of registration application and submission with NOVA and vehicle age / ID proof (US title), inspection for authenticity (doesn't always happen, and it isn't a test of the car) and then it's either registered or pushed down the previously mentioned fully blown inspection route. If you required certainty and bulletproof legality you've got to do the big test. Frosty, cold morning here in NW England. Not ever like that in SoCal! Chris
I suggest you get in touch with one of the big customs/shipping agents like SCL (see link below), they'll have all the answers about getting the car landed in the EU. As you noted correctly, this would be only half the story because unfortunately each EU Member State has its own type approval rules and what applied in my case here in Austria would not apply in Italy. Join the linked Italian FB group and ask, I guarantee some of the members had similar issues with the Italian authorities (which I believe can be a as much of a pain as the Austrian ones. In general, assume you will be dealing with something like the Cali DOT and have lots of patience...). No clue about the other countries other than that you cannot modify anything in France. Again a French hot rod forum or FB group could provide answers. https://sclrotterdam.com/en/consumer/classic-car-oldtimer-import https://www.facebook.com/groups/379657498746232
Here's one link regarding some of the things to work around for Sweden, in english. https://www.transportstyrelsen.se/e...and-verification-of-origin/import-categories/ As said, all different countries have different rules, and you may only be able to register them in a country you are moving to. Don't know about other countries, but here it seems cars registered as relocation goods can be exempt from the local technical regulations, and for modified cars that may be a loop hole you absolutely need.
Thanks guys - all useful information and may I say it is great to be a back on a site where members are both responsive and helpful. Some big life changes account for my absence. @Happydaze - Chris - yes I remember you and saw John West (former owner of DF Metalworks) on Monday and will see him again tomorrow. He was the one who suggested I post a thread on this subject on the Hamb and I’ll mention you to him. The red all steel Willys now resides in Bristol and is undergoing a conversion to 392 hemi power and a colour change to black paint. @T Turtle - you are indeed correct about each EU member state having their own rules. This surprises me as the EU mandates uniform codes for E marks - for example for vehicle lighting and other issues. I used to spend a lot of time in Austria when I lived in Munich many years ago. Having corresponded with someone who imported a stock vintage car from the USA to Italy this is one country where you have to have your title apostilled. They also require amber side marker lights on the front fenders and separate rear reflectors - with E markings on the lens of course. @ G-son - I was in Sweden in July and August and happened quite by chance on the impressive Karlskrona Bilmuseum which houses an amazing collection of vintage cars, American hot rods, a huge model car collection of 1/18 scale die cast, motorbikes with some famous hot rods and customs. That was a real treat and thoroughly worth a visit. @BrerHair - thanks for your kind words. Just a brief note - I am more concerned about the technical requirements and what it takes to do get through the registration process. I wonder also how people title and register in period built ‘specials’, replicas of classic cars and ‘kit cars’ such as Cobras and historic sports racers? Having owned both my current hotrods for many years at least one should qualify as a duty free personal property item. Although most countries allow you to use a foreign registered vehicle for up to 180 days in their country I do not want to run the risk of having a high value vehicle impounded, confiscated or worse! Please keep those tips coming….
I suggest that you liaise with ESRA. France, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, England are members.
ESRA doesn't really exist as such as an entity in itself. It's a loose association of the national clubs. Any sembelance of of existence is illusiary, for example a Web page on a national members website. Chris
Importing a hotrod into the EU is quite easy. If you use a good/experienced shipper he will take care of all the import formalities and then you just have to pay... The custom dues have to be paid on the price/value of the car plus the transport costs (about 10%). Then comes the import tax/VAT. This has to be paid on the price/value of the car plus the trasnport costs plus the custom dues. Its ususally around 19%. However, if the car is older than 30 years, in a resonable good condition and either original or modified in a way that can be considered period correct/historic, it can be sonsidered as a kind of historic collection piece (like art) and you only have to pay a reduced import tax of 9% and no custom dues. Depending a bit on the port of entry, the reduced rate can be applied to most well built, traditional hotrods (at least from my personal experience). Getting your car registered for road use in the EU is unforunately much more complicated and varies massively from country to country. i can onyl speak for Germany (and now from good friends that is quite different in France, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland...). In Germany it gets more and more difficult in recent years to bring any kind of modified/non stock vintage car on the road, especially hot rods. There are few specialised workshops with good connections to the relevant authorities than can help with the necessary technical modfications etc. but they definitely will charge quite a bit for their service. It would be too much text here to describe all the necessary steps, but you will need: Non-sealed beam headlights to EU specification, emergency brake, indicators, emergency (4-way) indicators, Some kind of cover for the tires (at least cylce fenders) etc. And if you have a motor of a different make in your car (Chevy in a Ford...) it is now almost impossible to get it legally registered. Was much easier a couple of years ago, but that's how it is. That is enough text for now, I think. If you need more details about the registrationhurdle sin Germany, please PM me...
Though I'm often on the hamb reading the posts, it's a long time since I posted! I'll do my best to write in English. I can only speak for France. For the most part, modified cars are illegal. We just drive hot-rods and custom cars with original title and a special insurance. I never had an issue driving my sbc powered 32 Ford Roadster, more than 100000km since 2000 through Europe. My 36 5 windows coupe look like an original car except the dropped suspensions, so I'm absolutly not in stress with police. We can register an imported car easily as "collection car" if more than 30 years old and totally stock. Less than 30 years we have to pass an inspection that costs 2000€ and change red turn signals to amber, put an odometer in km and some other minor modifications. In the past we could just "don't say that it is modified" and register as a collection car a hot-rod, and at least, have a title and plate number. Unfortunetly this time is over. The certificate necessary can be wrote by the manufacturer if still exists or "FFVE" litterally "French Federation of Antique Vehicules" But there is a loophole, not easy but feasable: If proof can be made that a car was modified more than 30 years ago and no changes made since, the car can be considered as "car built more than 30 years ago" and obtain a "collection car" registration by a "FFVE certificate" Only 2 cars were registered this way but anothers are in the process. A 32 Roadster built by Brizio in the eighties was registered this way, with no fenders and a big-block. It was necessary to ask Andy Brizio for the papers, certificate, photos of the build with dates. Now this car is registered in France as a "Brizio brand" collection car. Another succes was a 1938 Ford, top-chopped in 1948 (proof by old magazine!) engine swaped for a Cadillac V8 done in 1986, the guy who did it was found and kind enough to write a certificate with engine number etc... The downside is that the succes of such a process is not garantee. Import tax is 10% and local tax 20%, 5.5% for collection car if bone stock! For exemple, an old car declared as bone stock went directly to the 20% tax because customs officer found an alternator instead of a dynamo!
Sounds about right although we being Austrians you may get an Einzelgenehmigung ("one off approval") if, how shall I put that, you know the right person However that is not free from difficulties and if the authorities decide to look at it it may get nasty. On the other hand The stupid thing is that the Eurodata book for Austria apparently lists EVERY model of cars officially imported to Austria back in the day, so that if I wanted to approve my 64 Comet with the 427 side-oiler there is no problem because theoretically you could order it like that from Lincoln-Mercury Austria when new. Theoretically. I thought about it when I imported the car from Germany but then common sense prevailed.
When I submitted this thread I understood the importation was the easier part. Both my hotrods are highly engineered and should have no problem passing technical inspection. Any compliance modifications such as lighting, E marks should not be a big deal. My question is: if individual countries have rules and regulations which apply to importing and registering classic cars where are they published so that people may understand what is involved in bringing vehicles into compliance? Another question is how do people register kit cars/replicas in European countries? There are more Cobra replicas registered worldwide than all the Cobras originally built by Shelby and AC - and what about ‘continuation cars’ built by Shelby American and Autokraft in the 1990s through the 2010s? Many new kit cars continue to be built - how do they get registered? There must be answers out there….
Another link, this time to the ACP club (you mentioned Portugal as a country you consider moving into): Importar um veículo clássico | ACP Clássicos Again I'm willing to bet they have members who have/had the same problem as yours, they should have the answers.
Give Jeff at jfauto.com a shout. He's French, and is in southern France. His English isn't great. He has a growing rodshop and classic business, see website. Great chap. We cross paths most years. I'm sure he'll know answers from French perspective but I can't say how cooperative/ too busy he might be. Chris
The quality of the engineering ist unfortunately not the only point of concern during technical inspection (at least in Germany)...it has to be good, of yourse, but it also has to be made in a way that can be considered original or available when the car was new. If newer style components are used, the maker of the parts (or the builder of the car) often has to present proof of the quality/compliance with rules, which might include destructive desting of a prototype or at least quite expensive individual scrutineering of the modifcations by an authorized engineer... The easiest way is to get in contact with a specilaized hot rod workshop which has good connectiosn tot eh relevant authorities and plan the registration process with them. Will save a lot of money and frustration in teh end, most probably... Unfortunatley all the published rules I can find are in German language only... Getting a new home built kit car/replica legally registered is almost impossible now in Germany. It either has to be built by a professional shop who has all the relevant approval documents for the built or has to be from a kit maker that provides all the relevant documents with the kit... As mentioned above, all this was much easier here in the not too distant past but has become quite a nightmare for people who wrench on their own cars and like to modify them.
Does your country require that the car be titled/registered in your country? Could you possibly be able to keep it titled and registered in the US but drive it there?
The German rules seem to largely hinge on whether or not the guy who's inspecting your car has any interest in such things. It seems to come down to it just being easier for them to say no, than to actually bother to try and help you. I do have a friend building a flatty powered Model A, using the "period correct" rules, where you can use parts or do things that were done within 10 years of the car being new, but even registering that is far from a foregone conclusion. Really, the most important thing would be to find the right people to help you with it.
I believe that you can legally drive a foreign registered and insured car for up to 180 days in EU countries and certain other non EU countries (although there may be exceptions) but you need to be mindful of Schengen days and not stay longer than 90 days in a row and then you have to stay outside the Schengen area for another 90 days. Add to that, shipping a car from the US to Europe and back is not a cheap process and not without risk of damage from careless handling (and it has happened to me) or having parts go missing. If the foreign registered car is seen to be driven over 180 days - and hotrods are generally not low profile in appearance - it is likely to be impounded or worse and subject to healthy fines and penalties including full import duties. Not an option for me. One big problem I see is having a non standard engine such as a V8 installed where a four banger originally resided. That is sure to raise red flags and even though brakes, suspension and steering have been upgraded accordingly the V8 still sticks out like a sore thumb. Many years ago I went through the process of importing and being forced by the TÜV in Germany to modify the factory bodywork on a brand new Jeep to be able to register it. They did not like the shape of the factory fenders and wanted the corners cut off. On another occasion registering a brand new Italian built vehicle on Italian (EE) export plates in Italy, purchased from a local Italian factory authorized dealer took six work days of personal involvement, pleading and begging with the bureaucrats to get it done.
The german engineers at the TÜV are not willing to help because they need to document the whole differencies/modifications in word and picture between the original vehicle and the modified hot rod. By signing the documents the engineer guarantees that the car is safe - he will not sign as you cannot produce all the documents that prove that all the used parts on this build follow all the rules and are fit for use. Even if they sympathize with the car and/or its owner the problem lies elsewhere: the documents and pictures after the car has been scrutinized are stored in the files of the TÜV head office where they get randomly selected by bean counters that check them against the law and regulations. If your documented hot rod scrutineering is found to be violating any of those laws and regulations the following can and will happen: the engineer at the TÜV will at least get a serious warning, next time with dire consequences. Your car will lose its registration, you will be forced to remove the plates. A law suit will follow as well. So even if your car was shoved through the TÜV by a reputable hot rod shop your registration can be at risk when the car is scrutinized two years later at the next TÜV appointment. This is the reason that many "more rodded" cars are run on red plates where you are not forced to renew the TÜV every two years. Even then, police can have the suspicious car at hand checked any time at the nearest TÜV which usually ends with removing plates and facing a law suit. Of course there are a lot of modified cars still on the road here and their owners will tell you they never hade a problem but you better be prepared ....
Renember Germany has no speed limits on their equivalent of the interstate and minimum speed limits on some roads. The offset is significantly more focus on individual vehicle safety.
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