Mobile.de (1 Viewer)

[Dartagnan]

i have previously read many posts with regard to buying abroad and importing the van to the UK. I have read so many that all the information is a little bit of a blur
Should I decide to go down this route I will have to go back and avail myself of the links previously provided to ensure I get it right.
However, would I be right in thinking that due to the current currency issues that the main advantages now are more choice and availability with regard to German vans and they are left hand drive?
In addition I am confused as to how you drive your vehicle to the UK as I have it in my head that there are insurance difficulties as the vehicle will not be registered in the U.K. at that time. I would be grateful if anyone has info on this. I have read that camperana in Belgium Belf with this but unfortunately the vehicles I am looking at are not in Belgium

 

[Kim H]

We've used mobile.de to locate a Motorhome and travelled to a dealership in Dortmund (Duerrwang) to view it. We're currently in the process of importing it using Bundesvan, as we didn't feel confident in doing it ourselves.

 

[Speve]

We used Bundesvan two years ago and they did everything including delivering it to the door ours was a new Hymer from Ulrich Duerwang, Dortmund.
BV are well worth the money. IMHO.

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[Brakers]

Hi There I would really like to help, never done it myself but I was talking to someone who bought a MH in Germany "second hand" and it did not have a certain checklist which is supplied when the vehicle is new, not sure what this check list is but he had terrible time trying to get the DVLA to register it over here, he had to get it tested and loads of other stuff I can't remember and it took him months to sort out. Perhaps someone on here who has done it will know which paperwork this chap was referring to. He did say that if he ever buys another second hand MH abroad he will make sure it has this paperwork.
Best Wishes Tony

 

[Lenny HB]

I've imported 3 Hymers last one in 4 months ago. Always bought from Belgium where my dealer drives the van to the port for us and we follow in his car.
Even with current exchange rates still big savings to be had and I expect UK prices which we proably be set at the end of August for 2018 models will rocket.

If you have LHD drive to part ex you can save a packet as not only do you save on the new van, trade in prices are far higher they work on much smaller margins over the ditch. Much easer to deal whith Belgium's & German's they give you their best price none of this stupid haggling lark. Also they will give you a price for the new van and a price for the trade in none of this price to change and can't get a straight answer out of them that UK dealer practice, altogether a more pleasant experience.

 

[Dartagnan]

We've used mobile.de to locate a Motorhome and travelled to a dealership in Dortmund (Duerrwang) to view it. We're currently in the process of importing it using Bundesvan, as we didn't feel confident in doing it ourselves.

Thank you very much for the information it's very helpful. I will give them a call as I like the idea of someone holding my hand along the way. I would like to keep the stress levels down if possible

We used Bundesvan two years ago and they did everything including delivering it to the door ours was a new Hymer from Ulrich Duerwang, Dortmund.
BV are well worth the money. IMHO.

Thank you very much. I would quite like to collect it if I buy one abroad as part of the adventure but it may be the case that I do as you have done as it may be more sensible.

Hi There I would really like to help, never done it myself but I was talking to someone who bought a MH in Germany "second hand" and it did not have a certain checklist which is supplied when the vehicle is new, not sure what this check list is but he had terrible time trying to get the DVLA to register it over here, he had to get it tested and loads of other stuff I can't remember and it took him months to sort out. Perhaps someone on here who has done it will know which paperwork this chap was referring to. He did say that if he ever buys another second hand MH abroad he will make sure it has this paperwork.
Best Wishes Tony

Thank you very much for the heads up. It's particularly relevant to me as I would be buying second hand. Forewarned is forearmed. Very grateful.

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[jollyrodger]

Have bought roughly 10 2nd hand ,(over ten years old)so far from Germany mobile.de and eBay.de .
Source Moho / buy temp insurance the longer you want that for the harder it is but a two week temp is fine for driving out of G.and easy to get (Google is your friend)
The owner ,/ dealer should be able to help.temp export plate book ferry drive home .
Register with hmrc(nova form can be done online and simple) within 14 days you will get a reply with a ref number.
insure in this country on vin plate (AIB insurance no probs)mot ,then whilst doing all this or before apply for form V5/55 to register in this country easy enough to fill in ref number from hmrc is one of the Q,s .lots of the Q irreverent ,Q50(?) Exempt due to being a motor caravan.
Do your homework and easy enough .imo
Worked better when the pound was stronger .
I used Hifx ( but other firms )Stirling in euro out and clarity card to keep cost down .
Lots of ways of doing it up to personal choice but not rocket science
The current one advertised mobile.de but located France temp insurance drove home on French plate
Forgot to say quickest back from Dvla 1 week ,slowest 5 weeks ,luck of the draw .was easier when you had lvlc

 

[Dartagnan]

I've imported 3 Hymers last one in 4 months ago. Always bought from Belgium where my dealer drives the van to the port for us and we follow in his car.
Even with current exchange rates still big savings to be had and I expect UK prices which we proably be set at the end of August for 2018 models will rocket.

If you have LHD drive to part ex you can save a packet as not only do you save on the new van, trade in prices are far higher they work on much smaller margins over the ditch. Much easer to deal whith Belgium's & German's they give you their best price none of this stupid haggling lark. Also they will give you a price for the new van and a price for the trade in none of this price to change and can't get a straight answer out of them that UK dealer practice, altogether a more pleasant experience.

Thank you very much. I was hoping you would reply as I have read quite a few of your posts on the subject which sowed the seed as to give this method of purchase some serious consideration.
I like the thought of straight foreword dealing on a purchase. I detest the British method of purchasing vehicles where it is a game which can have serious financial downsides.
I am currently looking at buying new over here. I got the usual "I only have so much to play with". The figure he quoted was utter rubbish and immediately put my back. I had a similiar experience two years ago from a car dealership. The salesman said BMW did not allow him to discount.
He lost a sale as I purchased a vehicle in London at eight times the discount he was offering. His loss.
I am very grateful for the reply.

 

[bellabee]

We imported new, from Germany, two years ago, with an exchange rate of 1.42 - so very advantageous at the time. We're now considering trading that van in (nothing wrong with it - we just would like an A Class.) We spoke to two British dealers, in order to explore price differences between UK and Germany (Belgium), and have spoken to two German dealers too. We find that it's still financially worthwhile to buy abroad.
Re insurance - we drove our existing van on import plates, with third party insurance, from the dealer in the Ruhrgebiet, to Rotterdam - very carefully and at the weekend! We'd take the same risk again.

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[Dartagnan]

Have bought roughly 10 2nd hand ,(over ten years old)so far from Germany mobile.de and eBay.de .
Source Moho / buy temp insurance the longer you want that for the harder it is but a two week temp is fine for driving out of G.and easy to get (Google is your friend)
The owner ,/ dealer should be able to help.temp export plate book ferry drive home .
Register with hmrc(nova form can be done online and simple) within 14 days you will get a reply with a ref number.
insure in this country on vin plate (AIB insurance no probs)mot ,then whilst doing all this or before apply for form V5/55 to register in this country easy enough to fill in ref number from hmrc is one of the Q,s .lots of the Q irreverent ,Q50(?) Exempt due to being a motor caravan.
Do your homework and easy enough .imo
Worked better when the pound was stronger .
I used Hifx ( but other firms )Stirling in euro out and clarity card to keep cost down .
Lots of ways of doing it up to personal choice but not rocket science
The current one advertised mobile.de but located France temp insurance drove home on French plate

Thank you very much for the comprehensive reply. It is very helpful. I agree wholeheartedly re the pound but at least we still get a lot of choice with models etc. I have an account with an fx broker as I bought and sold a property in South Africa. Now there is a country with loads of issues getting your money out of the country Still if you get the right advice like everything in life it's doable.

 

[Dartagnan]

We imported new, from Germany, two years ago, with an exchange rate of 1.42 - so very advantageous at the time. We're now considering trading that van in (nothing wrong with it - we just would like an A Class.) We spoke to two British dealers, in order to explore price differences between UK and Germany (Belgium), and have spoken to two German dealers too. We find that it's still financially worthwhile to buy abroad.
Re insurance - we drove our existing van on import plates, with third party insurance, from the dealer in the Ruhrgebiet, to Rotterdam - very carefully and at the weekend! We'd take the same risk again.

I like the idea of a new van but there are no dealers in NI for the models I am interested in which presents warranty issues. I think if I was getting 1.42 that would certainly alleviate those concerns lol

 

[CazPaul]

Bundesvan are lovely, helpful people and will even help you with questions if you are not using their services. However, they are expensive for something that can be done easily yourself, you will be looking at 4k+ to use their full service.

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[androidGB]

I bought my Hymer S820 from a private individual in Germany.

When I went to collect it , he came with me to the registration office ? arranged the temporary number plates which included the insurance.

Simply drove it home, made an appointment at the local DVLA office, they had a quick look at the van checked the serial number and chassis no. and that was about it.

This was some years ago but I would be surprised if much has changed.

Andrew

 

[Dartagnan]

Bundesvan are lovely, helpful people and will even help you with questions if you are not using their services. However, they are expensive for something that can be done easily yourself, you will be looking at 4k+ to use their full service.

I now have chest pains. Even though I swore I would change my tight fisted ways there is a limit
Lol

I bought my Hymer S820 from a private individual in Germany.

When I went to collect it , he came with me to the registration office ? arranged the temporary number plates which included the insurance.

Simply drove it home, made an appointment at the local DVLA office, they had a quick look at the van checked the serial number and chassis no. and that was about it.

This was some years ago but I would be surprised if much has changed.

Andrew

That's very helpful. I had seen a couple of vans that were private but I wondered how you went about buying from a private individual.

 

[bellabee]

I like the idea of a new van but there are no dealers in NI for the models I am interested in which presents warranty issues. I think if I was getting 1.42 that would certainly alleviate those concerns

Which brand are you looking at? How difficult/easy is it to travel from NI to Germany? I know that @Lenny HB has found that his local Hymer dealer in the UK is willing to deal with warranty issues. We are frequent travellers to Germany and had one issue - created by a local uk Hymer dealership - rectified by dropping into Hymer at Bad Waldsee, while in Germany. I think that, even if we were to buy locally (which we won't), we wouldn't want local dealerships to touch the van!
If you should end up buying a Hymer, I can strongly recommend visiting Bad Waldsee. It's a nice little town, in a lovely area of Germany, and the people at Hymer Service are extremely helpful. I do recognise that that may not be possible for you, though.
With regard to buying second-hand - I wouldn't hesitate.

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[Lenny HB]

I bought my Hymer S820 from a private individual in Germany.

When I went to collect it , he came with me to the registration office ? arranged the temporary number plates which included the insurance.

Simply drove it home, made an appointment at the local DVLA office, they had a quick look at the van checked the serial number and chassis no. and that was about it.

This was some years ago but I would be surprised if much has changed.

Andrew

No local offices these day, still easy if over 10 years old. A bit harder under 10 years old, you need an IVA test which costs £200.

 

[androidGB]

I now have chest pains. Even though I swore I would change my tight fisted ways there is a limit
Lol

That's very helpful. I had seen a couple of vans that were private but I wondered how you went about buying from a private individual.

I was pretty certain of the van I wanted, had an email conversation with the seller in which I requested pictures of things I needed to see.

I then negotiated a price which included him handling the export documentation and plates as stated previously.

I flew over and satisfied myself of the condition and that I was happy with the seller, and then arranged to fly back in a week to collect the vehicle.

I sorted out the curency exchange with currencies direct in advance, and only gave them the Ok to transfer into the sellers account when I was back over there with the seller.

Might seem a bit long winded but the flights were dirt cheap, and at the time it was about 1.50 Euros to the £1

Andrew

 

[Dartagnan]

Which brand are you looking at? How difficult/easy is it to travel from NI to Germany? I know that @Lenny HB has found that his local Hymer dealer in the UK is willing to deal with warranty issues. We are frequent travellers to Germany and had one issue - created by a local uk Hymer dealership - rectified by dropping into Hymer at Bad Waldsee, while in Germany. I think that, even if we were to buy locally (which we won't), we wouldn't want local dealerships to touch the van!
If you should end up buying a Hymer, I can strongly recommend visiting Bad Waldsee. It's a nice little town, in a lovely area of Germany, and the people at Hymer Service are extremely helpful. I do recognise that that may not be possible for you, though.
With regard to buying second-hand - I wouldn't hesitate.

I am looking at Burstner elegance range. I am not averse to other makes it's just that I am unsure of their model ranges e.g. What would be equivalent to the elegance range.

I was pretty certain of the van I wanted, had an email conversation with the seller in which I requested pictures of things I needed to see.

I then negotiated a price which included him handling the export documentation and plates as stated previously.

I flew over and satisfied myself of the condition and that I was happy with the seller, and then arranged to fly back in a week to collect the vehicle.

I sorted out the curency exchange with currencies direct in advance, and only gave them the Ok to transfer into the sellers account when I was back over there with the seller.

Might seem a bit long winded but the flights were dirt cheap, and at the time it was about 1.50 Euros to the £1

Andrew

The more I hear of this process the more I like the sound of it.

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[bellabee]

I don't know whether you used to follow the posts of @Judgemental , now sadly deceased. He was the forum 'expert' on importing from Germany, and gave lots of good advice on it. I know that he used to use a Burstner dealer in Duelmen https://www.duemo-duelmen.de/ . Looking at google maps, they're only about 220km from Rotterdam, so that's not far to drive on third party insurance.
I have no experience of them, myself, but I know that he spoke highly of them.

 

[Dartagnan]

I don't know whether you used to follow the posts of @Judgmental , now sadly deceased. He was the forum 'expert' on importing from Germany, and gave lots of good advice on it. I know that he used to use a Burstner dealer in Duelmen https://www.duemo-duelmen.de/ . Looking at google maps, they're only about 220km from Rotterdam, so that's not far to drive on third party insurance.
I have no experience of them, myself, but I know that he spoke highly of them.

Unfortunately I didn't follow him but I did read a few of his posts as they came up in the search function. Sadly I did see that he had passed away and even though I didn't know him it made me a little sad.
Thank you very much for the additional information it is very helpful.
I am seriously considering this approach now so all the information helps.
I have seen some of their vans during my search so I will go back and have a look.

 

[SpeedyDux]

In 2007 when I imported a used MH I found on Mobile.de from a dealer in Bavaria the total cost including flights, hotel, car hire (2 trips), admin fees for temp export number plates + 3rd party insurance, ferry fare, diesel, and UK conversion, came to about £2k. I think the Sterling exchange rate was about 1.45 Euro. I could have saved more by making only 1 trip, to pay and collect! On balance, there was still a big saving against a similar used MH from a dealer in the UK, mostly because of the favourable exchange rate.

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[Lenny HB]

Even with the Euro at 1.17 as we were part exchanging we saved a huge amount around £25K half of that down to the vastly better trade in price.
Our cost of importing and getting the van on the road was about £500, no special trips as we ordered at the show, £56, 24 hr return chunnel crossing, inpection £30, VCA £100 tax & registration £220, Speedo dial £50 & fuel for 370 miles, our dealer is only 70 miles from Calais.

 

[Dartagnan]

In 2007 when I imported a used MH I found on Mobile.de from a dealer in Bavaria the total cost including flights, hotel, car hire (2 trips), admin fees for temp export number plates + 3rd party insurance, ferry fare, diesel, and UK conversion, came to about £2k. I think the Sterling exchange rate was about 1.45 Euro. I could have saved more by making only 1 trip, to pay and collect! On balance, there was still a big saving against a similar used MH from a dealer in the UK, mostly because of the favourable exchange rate.

Thank you for the information it is very helpful. I am seriously considering buying abroad not just for financial reasons but for the choice and in reality it is a little adventure. Obviously I wish the pound was stronger but hey ho that's life.
I went to the dealer today where I had previously looked at a new van. Today he informed me that he had two people seriously interested in the van that I had shown an interest in! Well I hope one of the two, if they exist, buy it because I won't be buying it now purely on principle. The games dealers play. As I drove away my wife said he had just lost a sale! She obviously knows me very well lol

 

[Brakers]

Hi There if anyone try's that on me I always say,
That's OK I have two more to look at which are cheaper a newer and better model lower mileage with lots of extras and the dealer is keen to do a really great deal, that is why I looked at yours first .
Best Wishes Tony

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[Dartagnan]

@Brakers
Thank you for your reply. He has most definitely lost a sale as I have just literature agreed to buy a different van. I will reveal all to the forum when all is confirmed.
Had he offered me a easonable deal when I broached the subject I would have agreed to buy it there and then.
I am so pleased he didn't as the van I have agreed to buy is far superior to the one I looked at and considerable more fitted out and whilst it is second hand it is only a little more expensive than th new one!

 

[kenandcaroline]

Brakers - was it Certificate of Conformity they wanted maybe?

 

[Dartagnan]

Brakers - was it Certificate of Conformity they wanted maybe?

When I was researching a purchase one of the dealers had some info on their web site and they referred to the COC as the document which is required to register the vehicle in the UK

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[Brakers]

Brakers - was it Certificate of Conformity they wanted maybe?

@kenandcaroline Not really sure, but he did say it was a nightmare trying to get another and it took him 6mths to sort out and the paperwork had to come from the company who made the MH, all that time he could not use it.
Best Wishes Tony