See, now my topic has been highjacked! Where are the mods when you need them
Update on the Elky (as I've learned is the 'Pagoda' nickname equivalent for El Caminos. Warning: some of this will be non-interesting to many if not most of you.
It turned out to be too difficult to incorporate into the logistics / shipping plan a stop in Ohio. So now I have a transporter working to pick up the car in Minnesota and having it containered via Texas to Lelystad, The Netherlands, where it will be cleared through customs on the current US tags but not imported to Holland. I will pick it up from there and drive it to Geneva where I will present it to the 'DMV' to get a Swiss registration for it.
I obtained two quotes for the whole logistics and shipping bit. One from a French company that advertises itself in classic car magazines as the numero uno in France. They were very nice and responsive and if I would just sign on the dotted line, for a bit over $10,000 they would get the car to France and through customs for me. Import duties would then be additional. Another quote from a Dutch company for the same service, except not to Paris but to Lelystad, was $3,000. As I've said before on these forums, it pays to shop around.
The purchase price is now on its way to my agent's US bank account who forwards it to the seller before picking up the car. Still a lot of faith involved in a transaction like this, since I never saw the car, never met the seller nor the agent, and don't actually know whether either is legitimate e.g. whether the seller actually owns the car or any car remotely similar to it. Still, I am 99.9% confident all will be well. Watch this space for updates though.
Then for the importing / titling part. In France, the import duty for such an old (30+ years) is 5.5%. In The Netherlands it used to be about the same, however since January 1st it is now 19%. Quite a difference. In Switzerland, because I have diplomatic status here, I can not only import the car at 0% duty, it will also not be liable for any road tax and any gasoline will be untaxed (remember this is a V8 454 cubic inch / 7 liter car with an even larger carbon footprint than our Pagodas). It will be registered on CD-plates -imagine this shabby red El Camino with a blue-door-and-dent tooling around on CD-plates- and I can use one set of plates and insurance for 2 cars: basically you put the plates on the car you're going to drive that day and the other car, in my case one of the modern Volvos, stays in the garage plateless- one insurance policy for both as you cannot drive both at the same time. Now in France presumably with an old car like this there would be no adjustments to conform to French reglations whatsoever (e.g. keep the MPH speedometer) while in The Netherlands and Switzerland there would be some.
Finally, the insurance part. For transportation, the car has some basic insurance, not for small damages but for major things, or so I understand. However, to get the car from Lelystad to Geneva, there are two options: (1) someone/I drive the car on the road, 600 miles, or (2) a transporter moves it for me on a trailer. Needless to say this second option would be more expensive and less fun for me. Plus then it would be delivered to some place in Geneva but from there unmovable until and unless insured. Luckily, there is one insurance company in Switzerland that does insure foreign-titled cars for a limited time for a limited group of clients, and this just happens to be my regular insurance company, so we're good to go.
All these details will be forgotten once the car is here safely, imported, registered and insured on its CD plates, and then it will be just like any other Swiss car. Well, almost.
