the 'exporter' from germany

[testdriver]

hi fellow BMW enthusiasts!

i'd like to (officially) introduce my buddy peter and myself. he is a canadian
living in toronto. i am german, living in toronto since the end of last year.
he kinda made me the BMW nut i am today. before i got friends with all the
other guys (a hand full are members here as well) i used to get parts and
cars for peter only. i've sent him three ALPINAs in the last 6 years:
B10 BT #197 (http://www.alpina.ca/showpost.php?p=108&postcount=1), B10 3.5 #523 (http://www.alpina.ca/album.php?albumid=10) and B11 3.5 #322 (http://www.alpina.ca/album.php?albumid=18). all of them 1991 cars.
he still has the B11 plus two more classics you can see in my gallery.

if you need a part or even a car from germany - let me know. i do that as
a hobby on the side and still have enough people back home which help me
source things, as well as help with research and logistics. getting to an end
of this intro... as i wrote in another thread: looking forward to see this forum
grow and take part in a couple of meetings.

cheers,
kevin.

[Stirling]

Thanks for introducing yourself Kevin. In addition to importing cars from Germany, do you ever export cars from Canada back to Europe? That seems like something that would be lucrative, particularly to Switzerland.

[testdriver]

i did my share on research regarding that but i did not export a car back to
europe yet. looking at the recent market the prices here and even more in the
us were much better the over there. even better though is to import a car to
canada from japan - that's where most "affordable" low mileage cars hang out.

[RoyW]

Kevin,

Thank you for the generous offer. I have a couple euro cars and its always a challenge find parts for them here in the US. It's great to know a possible source for them in the future. I'm sure I'll be contacting you come Spring... and the cars come out of Winter hibernation. :)

-RoyW

[testdriver]

yeah, no worries. send me a PM when you need something!

[AlpinaMan]

Kevin, glad to see you are promoting your services here. I am sure that this community can use your knowledge in their advantage. Also say hi to Pete for me.

[mab1957]

What do you estimate is the expense to purchase and export an Alpina from Germany or Japan to Canada or the United States of America?

[testdriver]

that is hard to say because it depends on a lot of things, starting with the
car's and the buyer's location and the price of the vehicle. if i would have to
write down a rough figure, i'd say 40-50% on top of the car's price. the more
the car costs the smaller that percentage might get. the usual process:

- research
- inspection of the car and purchase
- logistics before departure (paperwork, transport to the harbour, etc.)
- insured roro or container shipping to the destination country
- logistics after arrival (harbour handling fees, transport to customs)
- modification of the car (if necessary)
- paying government taxes, fees and registration

all that has to be done knowing local import/export regulations/laws to avoid
costly mistakes/delays. if done quick the whole process can take just 1 month.