Hi,

We're moving form Portland, OR, US to Zurich soon. I have a 2008 Toyota RAV4, V6 AWD. It seems that these cards are round 40% more expensive in Switzerland so selling it here and buying another car in Switzerland will be huge loss. I was thinking I might import the car. I have a quote for door-to-door shipping for less than $3000 which is not too bad. What I'm worried about is, however:

• Insurance? Is it easy to get insurance for a non EU model?
• Parts and repairs? Does anyone here has experience with Toyota? Besides engine, is the body and other parts very different?
• Cost for modifications to meet EU and Swiss standards? Can anyone comment on that?

I searched the forum before and there were some old posts about mostly German cars. However nobody commented on Toyota or other japanese cars. Any comments or ideas are appreciated.

-AlefSin

In Switzerland the 2008 RAV4 was available as 2.0L petrol or 2.2L diesel, both would be 4 cylinder.

So immediately this makes availability of engine parts difficult

Generally, most manufacturers have ECE and USA differences to comply with the various regulatory issues. So expect differences.
It is actually very common for the USA version of a Japanese car to be significantly different to the European version.

Looking at www.toyota.com and www.toyota.ch and comparing current RAV4 models, one notes that the USA RAV4 is the same width, but significantly LONGER, thus there are some core differences in the USA and Swiss models. Keep browsing their website and you'll find more differences.

These differences will also likely increase the insurance premium, because in an accident the vehicle may cost more to repair, if body panels etc have to come from the USA.

Example: headlights. USA regulations are DOT-standard. ECE has a different standard, if the headlights don't comply, they must be replaced. If you have Xenon HID lights, this can alone cost 2,000 to 3,000....
(USA HID is very different to ECE HID!!)

Then you get the other comfort issues, like the radio may not work over here due to different FM standards - if it tunes on FM in 0.2MHz increments, it cannot tune to all the European stations.
Plus you may be missing the extremely useful RDS functions. If you have navigation fitted, it may be a different type, and maps may not be available.

Prices for 2008 RAV4s here vary from 27,500 CHF (petrol, 40k km) to 38,000 CHF (petrol, 18k km) with lots of variance in between. Check specification level to compare!

As a 2008 car is only 3 years old, you will likely get some form of guarantee when buying here from a dealer. And the 3yr free service + 100,000km guarantee only applies to Swiss models - you'll have to pay all service and will lose all guarantee benefits.

See here for 2008 RAV4 2nd hand pricing and specification examples:
http://www.autoscout24.ch/AS24Web/Li...&zipcountry=CH

Given that the import price is 10% of the vehicles value, and that you WILL have to go through homologation and that that will add a lot of bureaucratic hassle, and you loose guarantee and free service, one must seriously ask if it is worth it.

Not necessarily, a Toyota V6 engine is used in certain models in Switzerland; engines are not usualy "car specific"

Free service ?? The "Free Service" you pay up front when you buy the car, it's included in the price.

OK, but the Swiss RAV4 is NOT available with a 6 cylinder engine!!

Thanks a lot FriendlyKiwi and Charlie R. Soles.

I've sent an email to "Emil Frey" about the parts and repairs and another email to "Generali" about insurance. I'm waiting for their answer.

FriendlyKiwi, what you say makes lots sense though in the past I never had a problem with engine with a Toyota so I'm willing to take the risk and assume I will not need an engine repair for a couple of years. The body repairs is the part is the part that worries me most since as you noticed US and EU models are different.

I thought since it is my personal car I wouldn't have to pay taxes to import it if I'm not going to sell in the first year. Isn't that right?

Charlie you are right that this engine is used in many different Toyota models but I don't know if any of those other cars/models are sold in Europe or they are US specific.

I think you can bring it over for less than 3K. It fits in a regular cargo container along with your household goods.

You can probably make money by selling it here and buying a car that uses up less fuel.

By the way, there are plenty of Rav4s here.

Unlikely you'll make money as an American Rav4 with a non standard Swiss engine will be difficult to sell. Even a Mercedes i bought in Germany, new, was worth more than 15% less than the equivalent model bought via Swiss importer. Why i don't really know, but this is the way it is.

As I've said before, unless your car is rare, very expensive, or has huge sentimental value then its not worth importing.

Don't just take the import costs into account, take the export costs too, I take it your not intending on staying here for the rest of your life so at some point you'll need to export the car out again or sell it here. Rav 4's are not rare or desirable, a rav 4 that was never available here is going to be worth next to nothing, sure the v6 is used in other cars but things like exhaust's wont be available (in the correct lenght), which mean you'll need to import an OEM exhaust from the USA to get it through the MFK test.

Then of course you have all the grief (and costs) of the actual import procedure which is a total pita multiplied by a thousand if you don't speak the local language.

sell the car in the states and lease a car here.

I tend to agree. Especially as you may not even need a car. Zurich is very good with public transport and driving into the city or anywhere around it is not worth the hassle of finding a place to park/pay the money. I have a car and it sits outside my house unused for up to two weeks at a time.

Thanks guys. Your comments have been very helpful. I'm starting to feel that imporing my car might not be such a briliant idea after all. I didn't get very positive feedback from other sources either. So most probably I'll sell the car here and try to see how things go when I actually arrive in Zurich.

-AlefSin

From what I have read, unless you have a luxury car or specialty auto sentimentally and physically worth more to you than a smaller Euro car, it is not worth it. I am in the process of selling my 06 Corolla in Washington state. (It doesn't have the malfunction, fortunately.) I know a Corolla is not a RAV, but I love that car.