Hey HAMBers, im crossing the pond this month, ill be landing in Amsterdam on the 15th i think. Me and my buddy are thinking of buying a car, just a beater to drive around. I was hopeing you guys could give me some advise, id rather not register it but ill want insurance. Ill only have the car 3-4 weeks. Are cars plentiful? What kind of costs? We're probably gunna go east to the czech republic then south to turkey where i fly out. Also is there a website with events, musems, and points of automotive interest? thanks in advance jyk
Well... 1st thing to check out in the Netherlands and if you are into prewar fords... http://www.fordmuseum.nl/cms/pages/english.php a real nice collection of stock Henry material. If Germany is on your to do list...go Stuttgart...the Mercedes and Porsche museum are worth going for sure. The buying a car bit will be tough. As car registration as a non citizen with no permanent registered home in Europe makes it basically impossible to get an insurance. Plus the Turkey bit also means you export it out of the European Union (more horrible paper work)... Rental cars for one way, cross border (even within Europe) traveling will also be quite expensive. So my recommendation would be trains, planes and buses. Or if you still have the chance to redesign your travel route -make a roundtrip. Hope above helps. Best from Amsterdam. P.S. If you need further advise just contact me via PM...i'll be quite busy in the next couple of weeks (a move, my wedding, and the 1st kid is coming) though, but little things should work out.
You can't go through european states without a car registered to you. And you can't register if you don't live here. Besides, european beaters are known for letting you in the middle of the road.....
I dont know how it is in the other European countries, but when you buy a car in Denmark and it is registered - then you have a legal right to wait up until three weeks before you register and insure it in your own name, so in that period it has insurance included from the previous owner... I once talked with an american citizen who lived in Denmark, he did spend the first period of his stay driving around on american plates. He brought the car with him from the states, but as I remember then the plates he used was just some he brung - they didnt belong to the vehicle. The danish Police has no chance of checking if the car is registered in USA. But if anything had happend, like a car crash or hitting a pedestrian, then this could have been very expensive for him as he would have to pay everything himself... My advice would be to go by train, bus or plane. Flying between the bigger cities is pretty cheap and with the train you could buy a euro-rail pas. "Interrail" Renting a car and gas are much more expensive ine Europe than in the states, just the rent is around 70-100$ a day for a midsized car here in Denmark... Theres is cool event in Denmark the weekend after you arrive, the Bedrock weekend. It is not that far from Amsterdam, and probably you could catch a ride with a dutch HAMB'er. Link to the Bedrock
What's the world coming to?? HAMBers recommending public transport over using a car!!! I agree that buying a beater is not a good idea for 3 weeks to a month but hiring a car will allow you to stop where you want to and get off the beaten path a bit. Really - you don't want to be mistaken for Australian backpackers or British Gap Year ponces with an inter-rail card.... You can pick up a Fiat 500 or a Ford Ka from Avis at Schipol airport for the period 15th June to 8th July and pay less than $700 USD. Get the CDW insurance from a separate online spe******t for around $75 for a year (far cheaper than buying it from Avis for the rental period only). These are Avis prices - I'm sure you can beat that by $100 if you go with someone else. A one way rental is certainly possible but I don't think anyone will want to have the car left in Eastern Europe or Turkey. Can you do a circular trip, come back to Amsterdam and then fly on to Turkey. BTW - you have to see the Schlumpff Bugatti collection.
are we sure the guy is reading our advice? And you are right...crazy world h.a.m.b.car lovers recommending public transport... ...but his outer European Union one way instead of a round trip really makes things difficult... On the other hand - getting with a US rental car into Mexico is also not that easy/cheap.
I was stationed in Germany a little over 20 years ago. When we wanted to do some serious touring/sightseeing, we took a train or bus. Made the whole thing far more enjoyable! Granted, I loved driving the Autobahns in Germany and the Autostrada in Italy, but finding PARKING anywhere was always a PITA, even with the US-spec Toyota Celica GT I had my whole time over there! Trust me, as all the above posters have said, do the train/bus thing. EuroRail p***. Relatively cheap and you can go just about anywhere! Remember, train service in Europe is far more efficient and prevalent than the ****py Amtrak we have here in the States! Buying a car over there as a tourist is one thing. Getting the MANDATORY insurance is nearly impossible! If you are really all that intent on doing a driving tour of Europe and not renting/buying a car there, you could ship your personal vehicle over and use it for tourist use. You would probably have to ship it home, too, as opposed to selling it there.
Another vote here, for a EuRail p***................You can get them for all combination's of destinations, number of travel days, etc....... Last time that I went and was traveling Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, we bought a p*** good for 12 travel days, I believe it was, and you can go to hell and back in 12 days!!!! That's 12 days of your choosing, to the destination of your choosing!!! Also, check on the prices for a ticket in the first cl*** cars, if you think you might want a comfy ride, to rest between destinations...................Ticket is not that much more..............
Have a nice stay in Europe Traveling can also be done by bus (look for "busreizen" which means traveling by touringcar bus, every booking agent will answer you in English). For about 250 to 300 dollar you can travel from Holland to Spain (and back) by bus including a hotel for about 8 to 10 days. It wouldn't be me ideal vacation but it's cheap and quit fast.
Another alternative is, if you like NEW European cars, is to arrange to buy a new US-spec Euro car (BMW, M-B, Volvo, SAAB, VW, Audi, Mini, Jaguar) before you travel to Europe. You can pick up the new car at the factory (includes a VIP tour of the plant) and travel wherever you want. The factory will then ship the car to a port in the US, where you can either pick it up at the port, or have it shipped to your closest Stateside dealer for pickup. If you are insistent on leaving through Turkey, I would not advise this course of action. It is an alternative, though. Be VERY damn careful in Turkey these days! It is NOT the same, reasonably friendly place it was ten years ago.
Thanks for the advice guys. i knew about turkey. I have travelled europe before by rental car and by train/bus/plane. I liked the car a lot better. By the time me and my friend both buy eurail p***es its quite pricy. My mother was australian so i dont mind that mistyaken idenity but i hate to be thought anything else cough canada cough. So someone says theres check points where they check registration. is this true? thanks again. jyk
If you have a chance, go to the Cite de l'Automobile (aka the Schlumpf Collection) in Mulhouse, France. It's in the southeasten corner of France near the Swiss-German border. You'll be glad you did. Kurt O.
cool.. we're going to Amsterdam same timeframe, landing there on the 15th, but we're going to stay in the Netherlands for the whole trip, vacation for the whole family. Be careful with the buying a car and not registering it, there was a loophole there once but it was closed long ago. You need to register it to get insurance unless you find someone in the states to sell you a "global driver insurance" (not sure about the name) it's essentially an insurance for any car linked to your international drivers license.. it's in case you end up on the bad side of a wreck in a car that you didn't know wasn't insured, they will cover you. While I'm there I'm planning on selling my last car that's in storage there ;-)
Do not drive a car in Europe without registration/insurance. No matter what. If you get caught, and if you're travelling about, you probably will, you're screwed. There's a lot of ''undercover'' cop cars that constantly run license plates while driving around, so yeah, mobile check points I guess.
For the Americans here who don't get the way it works in Europe. Police cars are often equipped with video cameras connected to computers with software that automatically recognizes license plates and then runs them for: Registration, Insurance, Warrants, Taxes and several other databases. The cops just have to drive around and the computer will tell them what car to stop and for what offense. I know this is the way it works in the Netherlands and several other countries in North West Europe.
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