Our daughter & son-in-law are heading back stateside from Germany later this year & have decided it makes more sense to sell their vehicle before they leave & buy something newer back here. So of course my first thought is what cool/cheap car could I find for them to ship back here for me? Figure less than Challenged-priced US dollars.
My first 2 thoughts were either a Trabant or Lada of some type, but what else am I overlooking?
Also, they're not car-people, so if there's anyone/a service in Germany to help enable shenanigans like these that would likely be worthwhile. Obviously they'd have to purchase & register the car beforehand, which I believe means it needs to pass a pretty thorough inspection?
I'm guessing that it would still need to go through the normal customs process once it made it to the US?
Are e30 wagons still readily available in Germany? Being 25 yr old should make the importing easier. If you dont keep it, it should be sellable quickly.
Just to be clear, 25 years means 1995 or older.
E36 wagon - even harder to find stateside as compared to the E30 version.
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Yes!!! Though I'm not sure how easy it would be to find any of these & get them registered in Germany?
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
I have no idea, I just saw an excuse to post that video and ran with it.
In reply to John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) :
I have a couple friends who are BMW fanatics & that alone will keep me from buying one. Don't get me wrong, they're awesome cars & great to drive, but they don't strike enough passion in me to deal with their needs.
Bitter:
Edit: The original picture vanished.
I'd love to have the European VW 914.
The answer is Lada and Trabant.
In reply to John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) :
Having spent my middle school years living in Germany in the mid 80's I have a fondness for some odd cars.
I see Trabant(might be spelled right) pop up on Craigslist for near challenge money every so often. I can't say I've seen but a few lada's for sale and they general seem to be 5k or more.
As far as e30 touring's(wagons) I don't think you'll find a non rusty one for challenge money even in Germany at this point.
I too have a weird affection for non US cars but would stick to something that parts are still some what available even if it means shipping from Europe.
no matter what you choose I'm excited to see the build thread in a few months.
Find a Lada Niva, bring it back, enjoy it for a while, sell it to me, profit!
The new Niva! Same as the old Niva!
mazdeuce - Seth said:
Find a Lada Niva, bring it back, enjoy it for a while, sell it to me, profit!
The new Niva! Same as the old Niva!
He could probably sell a lotta Nivas. Well two anyway.
Does anyone here have experience importing a car through a military relative? If I do this I need to have all my ducks in a row so it doesn't cause them any undue stress during their move.
When they shipped their car over it basically had to be spotless - no leaves, seeds, or noticeable dirt. I have no idea if US Customs is that strict with active-duty military bringing cars back, especially older non-US models?
Is it wrong that reading the thread title, my intial thought was "NO."
I thought that was our thing here, encouraging each other to make bad decisions around vehicles. 
Not Challenge $$$ but never sold in the US. The cls 550 4matic Wagon
Wait. Embrace your inner James May. You need this!!
I'd play it safe and stick to vehicles older than 25 years to simplify the import process. IIRC the rules change if they haven't owned the vehicles for at least 6 months, but my memory on that is a bit hazy these days.
I'm thinking along the same lines as @dean1484.
But muuuuuuuch cheaper!
If you're into unicorn VWs, you can pick up a Golf 3 (or more recent for a few more Euros) Variant Syncro TDI for 2000 Euros. And that would get you a nice one. Kinda ugly, but it's got all the stuff we couldn't have when new. Or, if TDI isn't your thing, buy a VR6 version. They're just starting to be eligible in the USA by date.
