importing an M3 to Switzerland -- please share your experience

[acf69]

Ok, one year later and I have an answer.

This was REALLY easy.

Once the car arrived in Switzerland last November I drove it with Florida license plates and insurance until two weeks ago. I then found a company with two really stand up guys near Lausanne that provided turnkey solution. In the end they got it through inspection with only head washers for my Xenon lights required. If I wouldn't have had Xenon's no modifications would have been required!

So no I have my Swiss license plates and Carte Gris. Even more beautiful, they will help me sell it and it should be no problem getting more for the car now than I paid 4 years ago

[benn.]

Hey guys I'm a student at Pepperdine University and I'm going to spend the next school year (2011-2012) studying in Lausanne Switzerland through an international program and I was also wondering on what to do because I was planning on purchasing an m3 this summer but someone told me I might as well buy it while i'm in europe and drive it over. But according to OP it costs like $130 grand + for a new m3 there so is there any way I can buy my m3 this summer and take it with me to switzerland for a year while i'm there then ship it back home without encountering all these legal issues and modifications and such?

[karussell]

Originally Posted by acf69

Ok, one year later and I have an answer.

This was REALLY easy.

Once the car arrived in Switzerland last November I drove it with Florida license plates and insurance until two weeks ago. I then found a company with two really stand up guys near Lausanne that provided turnkey solution. In the end they got it through inspection with only head washers for my Xenon lights required. If I wouldn't have had Xenon's no modifications would have been required!

So no I have my Swiss license plates and Carte Gris. Even more beautiful, they will help me sell it and it should be no problem getting more for the car now than I paid 4 years ago

hey that is great news! glad you got it to work out. i guess its all in who you know.

[karussell]

Originally Posted by benn.

Hey guys I'm a student at Pepperdine University and I'm going to spend the next school year (2011-2012) studying in Lausanne Switzerland through an international program and I was also wondering on what to do because I was planning on purchasing an m3 this summer but someone told me I might as well buy it while i'm in europe and drive it over. But according to OP it costs like $130 grand + for a new m3 there so is there any way I can buy my m3 this summer and take it with me to switzerland for a year while i'm there then ship it back home without encountering all these legal issues and modifications and such?

consider for half of that time in Lausanne you will driving and parking the car in a very congested city full of snow and salt on the roads. parking is incredibly tight and expect the front and rear bumpers to be bumped with other vehicles parallel parking in impossibly tight spaces. are you comfortable with driving on snow and ice in a rwd 400hp car? i think for only one year, just use their excellent rail system. you probably won't need or want to use a car every day anyways. if you want to have fun with a car, just rent one for the weekend. SixT rents M3's at decent rates. Hell Avis will rent a C2S for 250Euro/day in germany. I can't speak for CH, but in the EU you can drive a US vehicle with US plates for up to 6 months and valid insurance. I believe Geico offers a policy that will cover europe.

[donovan]

pm sent.

[benn.]

ohh well I mean I was planning on buying an m3 this summer but I don't want it to be sitting at home for a year, it feels like a waste of money.. but then again it's not like I can buy it next year cause they're going to stop production on it which sucks!

[joseph328]

Ask yourself , if you can afford to pay gas . You know that here in Europe it is much more expensive . In germany it's about 1.5-1.6 Euros (2.2$) for a liter of gas.

What about Used Euro M3? They start at around 42,000 Euros . Decent ones start at around 55,000 Euros ( 80,000$ ) .

New fully loaded M3 is about 130,000 $ .

[benn.]

gas is whatever but a fully loaded m3 here in the states is like around 70-80 grand at most whereas the baseprice for an m3 in switzerland is way over 100 grand.... i mean common sense tells me i should not buy one in europe especially when i'm only going to be there a year

I just want to find a way for me to get this to work out!!!

If i ever buy an m3 the time i would do it is this coming summer but I dont want to buy a car and have it be garaged for an entire year while i'm gone. I would buy it once I come back form switzerland but by then bmw would have stopped production on all e92 m3 models. so i mean if cant find a way for this to work out, I probably wont end up ordering an m3 at all ):

p.s. my school gives me a debit card to use while I'm in switzerland so I can probably swipe gas on that card if not I have my own account i can draw money from