The Dream is Over. Mini is not going to make it.

Back in October, when I was hopeful, ignorant and optimistic I blogged about shipping my 2002 Mini Cooper to Europe from the US. I had a shipper lined up I had the paperwork ready to go and I was all set to transfer the funds - when reality set in. Here is the collapse of my dream in order:

1. The shipper doesn't take credit cards, so I had to wire transfer the funds. With a price of $1300 you would think wiring wouldn't be a problem. Well Citibank capped the limit on wire transfers at $500 per day. Which means three transfers, which cost $50 a pop, which bumps my budget up another $150. Not a lot, but the start of what was to come.

2. As you know I live in Brno, Czech Republic, but apparently car theft is quite prevalent here, so my plan was to register the car in Vienna, Austria where I am on the weekends. I met with an insurance company and was given a list of requirements that I would need to get insurance. This list included several documents that included EU certificates that I would need to acquire before the car comes to Austria. But seeing that the car needs to be in Austria to get the certificates posed a bit of a problem. Basically, I had to risk driving the car from Germany to Austria without insurance and without a license plate. Not to mention getting the car tested for the certificates would cost about $300. I could get temp insurance in Germany, but I would need to make an appointment and get all of the certificates for Germany pay the $150, which would then have to be replicated in Austria. The logistics alternative was to put the car on a train, but that would cost $1500.

3. Point three is the kicker. I was always told that taxes would be around $300 at the port. Well after speaking to the port, taxes are actually much higher. The calculation is simple. Basically the tax is 10% of the value of the car when it was new - so roughly $1700. The formula here is silly. I mean if I ship a priceless 1966 Stingray Corvette, which sold for $8000 new 40 years ago, I would only pay $800 for taxes, when the car is worth $150,000? Huh?

So that brings the cost up to about $4000, not to mention all kinds of paperwork hassles. So plan B is to now try and get BMW/Mini in the US to trade in the car and then sell me a new one in Germany, where I can apply the trade in amount. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

In the words of Charlie Brown, "Oh, Good Grief"!