Trail Riding in France

[Bebop]

Some friends made a video of a ride a few weekends ago. Thought it was cool and wanted to share it.
You guys have no idea how much the level of the vehicles upped during the past 2 years I've been stateside. There is a lot of cool stuff now.

Rockcrawling Château Lastours Mai 2017

 

[clemsonjeep]

You could figure around 4 to 5 grand for the round trip. (for the rig only).
But I can find you a sweet rental for waaaaay less than that.

So above you mentioned that if someone had a rig built here then shipped it there they would pay for the trip across the pond and then the customs on top of that. So what's to keep someone from having a rig built then having the builder or a representative of the builder ship it over...and that the representative flies over to pick it up and deliver it to the new owner. In this case the representative could indicate they shipped it over to go wheeling, and when they return just write it off as they don't want to pay the return shipping. Wouldn't this get around the customs?

You have to understand I've sent plenty of stuff across the pond, but never had to deal with the customs personally so I'm just looking for a loop hole in the process.

 

[TacomaJD]

Re:

Yeah that doesn't sound like an idea that would work out. Lol

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Bebop]

It's not that simple.

Either you declare the vehicle as a permanent import and you pay customs on it at the entry point, either it's a temporary import.

Temporary imports in the EU are limited to 1 year (just like USA for that matter) and must return to their country of origin at the end of this period. Customs are checking this periodically and the chance of you leaving a rig in EU under a temporary import more than 1 year is unlikely.

Remember customs can seize the vehicle if they want so I wouldn't play that game.

I haven't heard about any other loophole.

Édit : sending the vehicle in parts (I.E. axles on a pallet, drivetrain on another, etc) is the only sure thing I know to reduce customs price as parts are less taxed than a complete vehicle.