Buying a German Transit - a few pointers & rough costs

[BUDGIE]

After buying my German Ex Firetruck, I thought it would be useful to give you all an idea of how to do it & some rough costs.



Find the vehicle - look on:

mobile.de

http://www.mobile.de/cgi-bin/searchPubl ... &sprache=2

autoscout24.com

http://eng.autoscout24.com/

ebay Germany

http://pages.ebay.de/auto_finden Mm/



Remember to go for the lowest km's/best condition/best price as every village had one of these so there are thousands out there & some are still in the Fireservice.



Remember to convert the cost from Euro to £ .



Phone/e-mail the seller. If possible, find a German speaking friend to help you as the Germans think we are mad wanting their old Transits. Impress upon the seller that you ARE serious & not a timewaster.



Dont haggle the price as if you pay what he is asking, it will help with later stages.(First of these is next...)



Ask if he will hold the vehicle for about 3 weeks. Reason for this: Flights booked well in advance can be had for as little as £20. If you fly this weekend for example, it will cost about 10x as much. Book for 3 weeks ahead & massive savings can be had.Try Air Berlin, Easyjet, FlyBe etc



Ask if the seller will arrange [b]Kurzzeitkennzeichen[/b]. These are licence plates/insurance cover used by the Germans to take vehicles out of the country. Should cost about EUR 85 (@£50). If the seller wont do this, you will have to go through the whole export red tape which will take a few days & cost about £350.

Make sure the seller gets a form from ADAC (German version of the RAC) so he can transfer ownership to you. You will need this for the DVLC back in the UK.



Arrange European Insurance & Recovery cover via your insurance company on the chassis number. This cover note is valid for 30 days & enables you to drive in Europe, & in the UK from the ferryport to your home, from your home to get work done for an MOT, & to drive to/from the MOT station. You must get an MOT done asap so you can register the vehicle in the UK.



Book ahead for cheaper ferry (1.5 hrs Calais-Dover) or Eurotunnel (35 mins Calias-Folkestone).



Cant think of anything else at the moment, but please ask if you need any specifics!



BTW: My van cost me £339.69 + purchase cost to get it from Nuremburg to Chichester (inc flights, insurance, paperwork, Eurotunnel, Fuel etc). On top I will have to add £55 for MOT, £38 for DVLA registration formalities, £25 for UK number plates - so it can be done for a reasonable amount!

[madmark]

budgie a massive thanks for puting this up this is a great help as i cant remember how to do it all ! hopefully more people will take the trip and maybe next year we will have loads of them overhere!

[FredTransit]

Also, I bet if you joint the ADAC (which is actually the German AA) you might get those forms done for nothing. We are joint members, and it costs us £70 a year for the whole of europe. Bargain! We can only join in person in an ADAC shop, as they don't accept UK credit, debit cards or cheques.

[madmark]

you should bring some back then fred!

[ovlov]

What reg does the dvla give you for these if they are pre 73 are they tax exempt

[MrMPuk]

Age related plate and yes tax exempt as with any other vehicle.

[FredTransit]

What reg does the dvla give you for these if they are pre 73 are they tax exempt

As long as you have proof of the year it was first registered (the German documents will do this) , the DVLA will issue a plate for that year. If it's pre 1973, it will of course be tax exempt.