TheSamba.com :: View topic

Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:02 pm

hello all... there are a few of us brits. that a considering shipping our busses (inc. a couple of bd's) across the pond to california for the classic in 2014.

i know its a couple of years away but these things take some planning (and saving)

am i right in thinking that aslong as we have filled out the correct forms and that our vehicles are older than 21 years , there will be no bond to pay!!

i found this link, presuming i read it right (not my forte!)
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/imports/420b10027.pdf

could any one please clarify?

the aim of the trip is to enjoy the classic (for a week of so) then have a road trip from west coast to the east coast, where we will get them shipped home.

i also know there are a couple whom are trying to do this for your bd campout next year..

any advise or help would be appreciated

cheers buzz

BDA 2014

Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:13 pm

Buzz:
I cant offer any help on the Bond issue, but If you do work it out and it goes through AND you happen your way through Phoenix, AZ (almost a must from southern CA to east coast) then drop me a line if you need a place to pit stop, clean up, rest or otherwise chat about your trip. I am sure the local VW crowd in Phoenix would get together and welcome your carvan.. Good Luck!!!

Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:18 pm

thats very nice of you... we may have to take you up on the offer.....

we was aiming for bout 4 busses.... but we have 13 names down at the mo....

it would be great to meet up with all the locals where ever the road trip takes us. we will keep you all informed of our route :wink:

Mon Nov 28, 2011 2:27 pm

I would think the shipping company on your end would have all the information and documents you need. They probably do this all the time.

Mon Nov 28, 2011 2:55 pm

If you are going from west coast to east coast you should come up to Canada and ship you busses back from Halifax Nova Scotia.It would be great to have you guys come up here and same offer goes out to you here as well,need a place to stay just let us know.

Thu Dec 01, 2011 11:55 am

thanks very much on the offer... a good friend of mine is looking at which direction we will take, and where we will call in for a cuppa!! so we may be knocking on your door.....

we will keep you informed....

cheers buzz and the BDA

Thu Dec 01, 2011 12:26 pm

That may allow you to register and drive the car, but ca is not always fun for these things. There are vacation passes for some instances and if you have owned the car for more than one year there shouldn't be any taxes. I looked into exporting a few borderline toyotas from japan years ago and there were some loop holes. Make sure I you enter through California your cars are older than 1975 or they will need emission tests.

Thu Dec 01, 2011 2:15 pm

buzz i cant wait bud and yes they will all be splits so all our vans will be older than 75.wooo haaaa roll on 2014 im there,

Thu Dec 01, 2011 6:44 pm

Sniperx wrote: Make sure I you enter through California your cars are older than 1975 or they will need emission tests.

Private autos registered to the drivers should not experience ANY registration issues. You don't have to be CA emissions compliant to just drive through the state. If that was the case they would have to turn back every car from Mexico! I see FRONT.BC plates all the time as well as CN. If you decide to take up residency then you will have to jump through hoops. Even your DL should be good, from whatever country you are from. You may have to get Stateside insurance,however. So this is kind of like a "Back FROM the Fatherland Tour"?

Sat Dec 03, 2011 8:55 am

You don't need to register it in the USA. You won't need to modify your vehicle to drive it here. You will need insurance and your home registration papers.
Enjoy the States and California. Plenty of beautiful places to see.

Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:31 am

I've never been to those shows but I'd go just to shake all your hands and say welcome- Quite a cool trip in my mind!!

Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:34 am

Hi Buzz,

I was one of the owner/drivers on the famous "Return To The Fatherland Tour" back in 1999 that basically did the opposite of what you're contemplating. I would very HIGHLY reccommend you doing this adventure, as we all had the time of our lives on that Tour! I did much of the research for the group on the logistics of going to Europe with US registered vintage VWs. As mentioned already, your shipper should be able to handle all of the round-trip paperwork for you, I doubt you'll have to pay any bond if you describe the driving trip as "roundtrip" and as a vacation. If any government anywhere in the world thinks that you'll ship the car in and then leave or sell it there, you'll have to pay taxes on the sale and any fees. If you enter a country and leave with the vehicles at the end of the trip, you shouldn't have any fees or taxes.

In Europe many countries stated that as long as the vehicle didn't stay in the country longer than six months then there were no fees and no need to re-register, we could run most anywhere in Europe with our U.S. State license plates and registration paperwork. We all ran our State license plates, carried our normal State-issued registration paperwork and we all carried "copies" of our owernership paperwork with us, but we never needed to produce it. None of us ever got stopped or asked for anything. We only ocassionally produced our passports for car ferries across the English Channel.

Just do it! You will have SO MUCH FUN! The expense is worth it! Carry plenty of basic tools and breakdown parts, although you will find that there is a huge network of us who will be following your adventure and we will be ready to spring into action to help if needed. We found that once we published our adventure and itinerary back in 1999, we were contacted by lots of American and European VW owners and Clubs that offered any assistance and wanted to host parties and help arrange accomodations for us. Just start planning and saving up now and it will become managable.

If I was organizing your tour, I would require that the preparations for each participating bus be completed at least six months before the start date and that each bus be drivin in "ready" condition at least 500 miles to "shake-out" any minor/major problems that could arise. We had several owners who "thought" their vehicles would do fine without much prep and we ended up havin to repair them, sometimes repeatedly, for the first several days of the Tour. Don't get me wrong, sometimes roadside repairs can be sort of fun, but you'll be better off with as few incidents as possible! You are in for the adventure of a lifetime!

If you plan to pass through St. Louis, Missouri, all of us from the "Missouri Micros" will have your back and will take care of a very nice visit to the Center of the USA...

Bill Bowman

Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:51 am

cheers all.. its getting even quite exiting this side of the pond..... already!!

bill cheers for the comments, i recall your road trip... and if ours is half as exciting as yours, it will be great!!

also a good mate of mine john kinton, keeps telling us bout the time he and a few others picked you up, when you arrived... so with abit of sweet talking, we should get him on this trip also.

be intouch :wink:

cheers buzz

Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:55 am

Hi bill
I'm a mate of buzz's and contemplating the trip.
( hey, if you ask buzz, he would even agree it was
all my idea!! :wink: :lol: )
I was actually one of the drivers that collected you
all from the uk airports and took you to your
cars in the containers. We then partied with you all
in Lutterworth at the greyhound. Driving in mike
malamuts rometsch was something else!!!
Is there a thread on here or anywhere about the
return to the fatherland trip that may give buzz and
crew any pointers???
Cheers
john.

(btw..I have a stack of pics of you all on that trip
if you want copies)

spooky buzz... Posting at the same time!!!

Sat Dec 03, 2011 10:15 am

spooky!!!! and yes... its always your idea :lol: :wink:

Sat Dec 03, 2011 10:26 am

I have an insurance agent who has helped with getting a couple of British customers of mine insurance here for their extended vacation trip. I can ask him if you like, maybe have insurance sorted before they land.

Here is the information you need:

http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/import/TempInfo03022010.pdf

I exported 2 split buses to the UK, a friend of mine and I drove them around to shows etc. it was a LOT of fun!

Sat Dec 03, 2011 10:48 am

Hi John and Buzz!

Yeah, I'll bet that all of us would say that the best thing we all ever did in our VW hobby was participating in that awesome "Return To The Fatherland Tour '99" trip! What a blast! In the planning stages it was sometimes intimidating, but with long-term saving and research it was definitely do-able! And what memories! We met so many enthusiastic VW nuts all along the way! Besides England and getting to have an intimate dinner (well 45 of us anyway) with Major Ivan Hirst and hearing his presentation about his early days at VW just before he passed away, I remember four of the SSVC Splitty Busses joining us for the mainland Tour. At almost midnight we drove off the car ferry from England at Rotterdam and were stunned to see at least fifty Dutch enthusiasts and their cars waiting to greet us outside the dockside Customs booth and to escort us to our hotel in the wee hours of the morning, kids-in-tow and all!

I'm not sure if there is a good concentrated on-line source of accurate info on that RTTFT trip... I've never searched for one. If there was, you'd get a lot of basic ideas for the preparations for your adventure. Funny thing is, just last night I decided to sit down and watch about 3 hours of old VHS videotapes that Loren Pearson (West Coast Metric fame) shot of the domestic U.S.A. crossing including all of our trials, tribulations, hijinks and fun. What timing for this thread! I also shot about eight hours of video from both the USA crossing and the European Touring leg which I haven't looked at in many years. I've always thought that there should be a book written about it from start to finish. Bill Collins was the RTTFT organizer and did a fantastic job putting the adventure together! He wrote the story which was covered by "Hot VWs" magazine in four of his monthly columns in the mag. I covered it in two articles (impossible to really do it any justice!) in the now-defunct "VW Trends" magazine. My co-driver Tom Niedernhofer and I kept a detailed daily diary/log of the adventure for article purposes, and I shot over 1,100 photos for the magazine (they only selected about 10-12 shots for the two articles!). A coffee table book about that time would be cool... hmmmmm?

I'd be happy to help in any way that I can with advice and with a visit to the St. Louis region if that is in your plans. It would be great if we could talk on the phone, as I can't type well and could convey more info about the trip and your preparations in a normal conversation.

John, thanks again to all of you SSVC folks who took the day off to come out and pick the 35 of us up upon arrival in England. We were tired and groggy, and to see those Splitty Buses in the airport parking garages waiting to swallow up all of us and our gear, and then to party with you guys both at Ipswich and at The Greyhound Coaching Inn that night was awesome. I'd love to see your photos sometime! I was in Ben Lawrence's Orange Double-slider door Deluxe for the run to the container port, that Bus is still over here in Iowa I believe.

Looking forward to following your adventures!

Bill Bowman

Sat Dec 03, 2011 11:01 am

Bill, you sent a shiver down my spine!!!!!
I believe I had larry(?) one engine, three
vehicles in my bus. Crashed out in the bed
in the back. :lol:
BDA is gonna be great.
8)

Sat Dec 03, 2011 11:10 am

cheers again bill...

so your gonna make it then jk.....

Sat Dec 03, 2011 11:39 am

Bill, how long did it take for your bus to cross the pond? I intended to ship my bus over this past summer but business didn't allow it this time. I am tentatively planning on doing it next year and am undecided as to wether or not to ship it from here on the west coast or driving cross country and shipping it from the east coast.

Rick