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European Pick-up?

HybridSquirrel

HybridSquirrel

Diamond Member
Has anyone done European pickup with any of the German manufacturers or Volvo? I know most if not all of them offer some sort of program like that. We are taking our honey moon to Europe next summer for 30 days and I'm looking at renting a car. However car rental prices are quite ridiculous.

My plan was to purchase a lower end model (like a 2 series, or an A3) and drive it around Europe for a month and ship it back here when i'm done. Then when I get the car stateside I was going to sell it. Admittedly, I will take a hit on selling the car. But I don't think it will be as bad as renting a car for 30 days, and I get to drive around in a bad ass new car and have more flexibility in where we can go as opposed to simply taking the train. (although that is part of the experience)

Anyone have any experience doing Euro pickup with a manufacturer before?
 
You're probably better off going to the make specific enthusiast sites like bimmerpost as they have literally hundreds of experience stories on the subject.

For BMW, it's something like 7% cost savings overall for the car. But whether it's worth it to do what you're thinking, I wouldn't think so.
 
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Looking at Sixt (I used them when I went to Germany, but there are plenty of others), for two weeks it can run from $600-$2500 depending on what you want of course. In the grand BUYING a car just for two weeks and getting hit on the depreciation trying to flip it privately doesn't compute.

Just rent the thing.
 
I got my 435i through the BMW euro delivery program. Great experience any got to drive around Germany in it for 2 weeks. What do you want to know
 
Railgun said:
Looking at Sixt (I used them when I went to Germany, but there are plenty of others), for two weeks it can run from $600-$2500 depending on what you want of course. In the grand BUYING a car just for two weeks and getting hit on the depreciation trying to flip it privately doesn't compute.

Just rent the thing.
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For sure, especially if they plan to spend any significant time in bigger cities you probably don't need the car a full 30 days and parking gets expensive! Also depending on your state you may have to pay the full sales tax and not get refunded. Seems like a horrible idea financially of you don't plan on keeping the car.
 
We will be visiting and staying with family in Stockholm, Belgium, and Dijon but we fly into Frankfurt so there will be quite a bit of driving we have to do. Train tickets are expensive, flying will take a whole day anyway, and we also want to drive through the alps, and I don't want to do that in a Fiat.

The only reason I don't want to keep the car when we get back is because i'd have to sell my STi, unless I can talk my wife into selling her car.

I did talk to someone who did this program through Volvo and had a great experience. He sold the car back stateside for near what he paid for it and was only on the hook for the sales tax (4.5% where we live). They also waive the dealer handling and mark-up fees which in Hawaii are several thousand dollars. So you don't actually end up that much in the hole, if at all.

I guess Volvo buys your tickets for you as well, which we should've done instead of buying them ourselves.
 
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HybridSquirrel said:
We will be visiting and staying with family in Stockholm, Belgium, and Dijon but we fly into Frankfurt so there will be quite a bit of driving we have to do. Train tickets are expensive, flying will take a whole day anyway, and we also want to drive through the alps, and I don't want to do that in a Fiat.

The only reason I don't want to keep the car when we get back is because i'd have to sell my STi, unless I can talk my wife into selling her car.

I did talk to someone who did this program through Volvo and had a great experience. He sold the car back stateside for near what he paid for it and was only on the hook for the sales tax (4.5% where we live). They also waive the dealer handling and mark-up fees which in Hawaii are several thousand dollars. So you don't actually end up that much in the hole, if at all.

I guess Volvo buys your tickets for you as well, which we should've done instead of buying them ourselves.
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find someone that wants to do a euro deliverey to save money, but doesn't want to spend money on the trip.

:-D

for example, I'm interested in leasing a 228/235, and could save good cash by doing a euro delivery. but the trip there eats away a lot of that.
 
Railgun said:
Unless it's been done before...somehow...I doubt he'd be able to pick up someone else's car.
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he would still have to buy it.

but if it was a lease, it could be fairly easly transferred.

My overall point was/is, that for this to work, he is better off pre-arranging the sale. Rather then hopping to sell the car 2 months after his trip.
 
michal1980 said:
he would still have to buy it.

but if it was a lease, it could be fairly easly transferred.

My overall point was/is, that for this to work, he is better off pre-arranging the sale. Rather then hopping to sell the car 2 months after his trip.
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Even if we don't sell it, worst case is we have a brand new car! I don't imagine it would be hard to sell.
 
tracerbullet said:
I think this is worth making sure people know about when replying.
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I'm not sure what you mean.

From the looks of it we're going to be getting a new Volvo. Since we booked mileage tickets we can move them around and with Volvo you get two free tickets.

That being said, anyone have experience with new Volvos? lol
 
Seems like a lot of headache instead of renting. Then you are done once you turn the keys in. No need to try to find a buyer for weeks after your trips. Wash your hands of the car and be done with it. That is the convenience of renting.
 
Make sure you check insurance and such. BMW only includes like 14 days of insurance or something and anything else is extra and $$$.

Be warned my friends that have done this say you are a ticket magnet since your plates look different.
 
PhoKingGuy said:
Make sure you check insurance and such. BMW only includes like 14 days of insurance or something and anything else is extra and $$$.

Be warned my friends that have done this say you are a ticket magnet since your plates look different.
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I spoke with Volvo, they said you can purchase additional insurance through them and its relatively cheap. It will have a temporary EU registration for 60 days, so plates will look the same.

I don't think my USAA covers rentals in foreign countries so I would have to purchase insurance from the rental company either way.
 
Be aware of potential issues that could arise, such as your EDP car getting damaged on the way back to the states:

http://psethcohen.blogspot.com/2012/05/audi-european-delivery-experience-crash.html

The entire left rear door and quarter panel were smashed. We still are not sure entirely sure what happened but it appears that a dock worker hit the car into a concrete post while loading it onto the ship. According to Sterling, this is a common auto accident (clipping the car while making a left turn) and there was no evidence of wreckless driving from what they could tell.

Sterling was great to work with. We toured their shop and saw other cars with similar damage in various states of repair. After trucking our car to their center and reviewing it, they estimated the damage at $14,000 (almost 1/3 of the sticker of the car) and at least two months to repair.

Again at this point we reiterated our desire for a new car to Chris at Audi. Again, Audi refused. We contacted several lawyers and an insurance claims adjuster and they all felt that while Audi might help us because of the damage to their brand and their EDP, Audi was under no legal obligation since we had taken possession of the car.
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HybridSquirrel said:
I'm not sure what you mean.
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IIRC a car purchase in Hawaii vs. the "lower 48" is a different thing when it comes to pricing, taxes, etc. and that if people are thinking about the costs involved, what you would pay and what they would pay will be different. I could be wrong, maybe it's the ownership costs later on that are considered to be more expensive? I could be incorrect about both! Just wanted to call out you living in Hawaii as a possible factor.

HybridSquirrel said:
I don't think my USAA covers rentals in foreign countries so I would have to purchase insurance from the rental company either way.
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As of about 2 years ago, in Europe, this was true. I'm covered as a driver in the US and never need to consider extra insurance. I was however not covered by them when I was driving in Europe.

I did the insurance through the rental place but there's a chance USAA may indeed cover you there at an extra cost that would be less than that from the rental?
 
tracerbullet said:
IIRC a car purchase in Hawaii vs. the "lower 48" is a different thing when it comes to pricing, taxes, etc. and that if people are thinking about the costs involved, what you would pay and what they would pay will be different. I could be wrong, maybe it's the ownership costs later on that are considered to be more expensive? I could be incorrect about both! Just wanted to call out you living in Hawaii as a possible factor.



As of about 2 years ago, in Europe, this was true. I'm covered as a driver in the US and never need to consider extra insurance. I was however not covered by them when I was driving in Europe.

I did the insurance through the rental place but there's a chance USAA may indeed cover you there at an extra cost that would be less than that from the rental?
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Yeah purchasing a new car here, you really get shafted. All dealers have a non-negotiable additional dealer handling fee that gets added onto the MSRP for having to ship the vehicles here. The destination fee you see on the sticker at dealers in the states is also included, but those numbers are averages based on the cost to get to MOST dealers. SO every car off the lot is going to cost you an additional 2-3k. I can save on this by buying direct and doing Euro pickup because they only charge the destination fee (confirmed with the dealer and manufacturer). On top of the dealer handling fee, there are additional charges like "market based pricing addons", basically a mystical number they add because the market is demanding here for any new car.


To top all of that off. If you ship a vehicle without having registered it previously in another state (so if I bought one in CO and shipped here immediately), you have to pay a VAT to the state because you didn't go through a HI dealer. I think you can skirt this by going through a HI broker though, but none exist that I know of.


On the bright side, our labor rate here is still cheaper than LA/SFO/CHI/NYC. Most of those dealers are pushing $200-225 an hour. We're still at $150.
 
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