Originally Posted by
Asturias56
I think you can get approvals to temporary import into some EU Countries
Googling "import car into EU" brings up lots of options and info but it's clear it's a painful , and possibly very expensive, process
I understand from some people who brought cars back from the USA that the hassle and time cost was enormous ................
Not true, at least not in my case. I imported my BMW from the US to Spain five years ago. A fair bit of paper work, yes, insurmountable, no. Worth it? Definitely as I knew my car had been well kept and it could have ended up being much more costly buying an unknown car with all kinds of hidden issues. Just make sure to use a reputable freight forwarder and verify that it conforms with the local laws, which will be determined by an inspector (at least in Spain) who checks the car. In my case I had to install headlight washers as by law any car in Europe with Xenon bulbs must have it.
As I had owned the car for more than six months before the import the taxes were not bad at all, and had work not interfered with getting it registered within two months of it reaching Spanish shore they would have been basically zero. I used RORO for shipping as in my case a separate container wasn’t worth the cost, it only cost me $1400 including insurance from Houston to Barcelona. Shipping was supposed to take four weeks, but it actually showed up in two weeks.