Hello everyone –

I am currently a US citizen. I am pursuing a lead on long-term, full-time employment in Germany. While there is no indication that I will be offered the job yet, or take the job, I am doing research about all that would be involved with a **hypothetical** relocation.

My car is a US-market car, of a European make, of a model that is sold in both Germany and the United States. It is model year 2010. The car is nothing special, but it has sentimental value and I like it very much.

Hypothetically, my intention would be to import the car and register it in Germany. I understand all the necessary requirements for documentation, duties, taxes, etc. However, there [appears to be a requirement that to register an imported car, it must not have been registered in Germany before.](https://www.howtogermany.com/pages/import-car.html)

I have reason to believe that my car was originally registered in Germany and driven there for approximately the first 3 years after a purchase and factory overseas delivery. The car has a German sticker in the engine bay near the 12 Volt battery, and there is evidence on the back of the car that it previously wore the wider European license plate. I assume that it was driven by a United States service member stationed in Germany.

I am the car’s current registered owner, with valid registration and title from my home state in the USA. The car has been legally registered in the USA since 2013, though it had several previous owners before me.

The question is… Do you think I could register it in Germany?

I will be making some phone calls and sending some emails about this as well, I am very curious. I understand that it’s just a car, but it’s a car I have wanted for a very long time and only recently purchased. It has some sentimental value. If I could make it work, I want to. This is all still hypothetical.

Thank you!

5 comments

  1. > It is model year 2010.

    > but it has sentimental value and I like it very much.

    That has to be an *immense* sentimental value to be worth all the headaches.

  2. Never heard before about the *requirement that to register an imported car, it must not have been registered in Germany before.* As this statement has come from the “How to Germany” site and not from an official site, I would seek confirmation elsewhere. I also don’t see any logic behind this requirement.

    Example – I, Otto Bravburger, want to take my VW Cabrio from Germany to the US while I’m on a 2 year secondment. Then I want to take it back to Germany at the end of the two years. But the rule you mention would appear to prevent that. It just doesn’t seem logical.

    But that aside – don’t do it – really. It will be like opening your pocket to the motor industry and saying, “Help yourself”. That after the shipping and importations costs. I’ve been there and done that and regreted it within days.

  3. First of all, there is an diffrence in Importing,
    and bringing an car over as part of an move to Germany.

    In your case an already existing registration from 2010-2013 with the US Forces will safe your ass.
    From 2005 on, the US Force Members were issued normal german Plates
    from the county their bases were in. So the cars had an german registration.

    Its not allowed to register Cars with Euro 5 or worse the first Time in germany,
    it has to be a classic car(older as 30 yerars) or Euro 6 Smog level.
    With being 2010, your car should have an Euro 5 Level.

    So with your car has an registered history in germany, this may help you.

    Not sure how to proof that, but it should be possible with running the VIN at the Kraftfahrtbundesamt in Flensburg.

    You may run an Carfax in the US to track down some histrory of the car, and the gabarges catering US Customers around their bases, sometines report to Carfax too.

  5. I don’t know whether they were doing this by 2010, but new cars sold in the US always have a sticker that says something like this vehicle conforms to US requirements. You should look on a website like [AutoScout24.de](https://AutoScout24.de) to see what a car costs in Germany. I think it’s cheaper than the US, and the mileage is usually a lot lower. Pay attention to how old the TUV inspection is. They are required every 2 years, in general.

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