Shipping Query: Where's My New Car?

[phaleesy]

Sadly, not, I'm UK........

I would have driven the car back from Germany myself.

[Ikarus2006]

Being Emden right close to the northern Dutch border, I would have indeed taken the car myself, driven through Utrecht, stop in Belgium for a nice meal in Antwerpen and get to Calais to cross the channel.

Question: is there any significant advantage in buying a new VW in Germany compared with UK prices?

For residents in the Netherlands it is not always so smart as they get to pay not only the GST/BTW/tax on top of it when bringing the car through Dutch customs, but also the terrible BPM. In many cases, the differences are so small you don't wanna go through the whole painful process. On top, if caught driving a car with foreign number plate for a time stretching beyond a set period, the poor Dutch driver + resident gets a spicy fine.

I should therefore assume Uk is more elastic in such respect.

[Pinkfloyd]

Being Emden right close to the northern Dutch border, I would have indeed taken the car myself, driven through Utrecht, stop in Belgium for a nice meal in Antwerpen and get to Calais to cross the channel.

Question: is there any significant advantage in buying a new VW in Germany compared with UK prices?

For residents in the Netherlands it is not always so smart as they get to pay not only the GST/BTW/tax on top of it when bringing the car through Dutch customs, but also the terrible BPM. In many cases, the differences are so small you don't wanna go through the whole painful process. On top, if caught driving a car with foreign number plate for a time stretching beyond a set period, the poor Dutch driver + resident gets a spicy fine.

I should therefore assume Uk is more elastic in such respect.

Not sure about the UK but many people in Norway and Sweden do that... Buy it in Germany and drive it back home... Buying beer along the way to bring back (well at least the Norwegians do so)...

[phaleesy]

Question: is there any significant advantage in buying a new VW in Germany compared with UK prices?

For residents in the Netherlands it is not always so smart as they get to pay not only the GST/BTW/tax on top of it when bringing the car through Dutch customs, but also the terrible BPM. In many cases, the differences are so small you don't wanna go through the whole painful process. On top, if caught driving a car with foreign number plate for a time stretching beyond a set period, the poor Dutch driver + resident gets a spicy fine.

I should therefore assume Uk is more elastic in such respect.

When the £££ was strong and mighty years ago, it was worth the hassle. I don't know about now.

I looked into this about 8 years ago. The savings for the more expensive cars were quite significant at that time. Don't think there was much difference for the lower end cars, which was why I took a train up north (London to Macclesfield) to pick up my car instead.

I do not think the paperwork involved amounted to much. There should really be no problems with licence plates since it's all a common EU plate?

I love road trips in Europe. Used to do quite a bit of driving around but that was before I discovered FT.

[Javaman]

Question: is there any significant advantage in buying a new VW in Germany compared with UK prices?

I don't think now with the relative parity of the Euro:GBP and the 15% VAT rate (presently at least) there's probably nothing in it.
Add to that the cost of fuel, time spent and the just shy of £4k knocked off at this end......i doubt it would have made any financial sense at all to even attempt it.
Only way I'd consider it was if I was buying a supercar.