I bought a '79 308 in Germany - how difficult will the import process be?

Good day,

Outside of the US importation process, you may have to deal with your State's vehicle registration process (DMV). You look to be in Los Angeles, CA... and I have heard of horror stories of trying to register non originally USA intended cars that were made after 1975 in CA. Consequently, I would check to see if your 308 is a Euro or US car and then check with CA's DMV to see what is involved.

Cheers,

Sam

 

Contact one of the shipping brokers that handle international shipping from Europe to the US. I have used CARS Europe in the past and have been happy with them.

They will handle everything. You won't have any issues, given the vehicle is >25 years old. You'll have to pay import duty, of course.

EDIT: I see that you're in California. You'll get it into the US easily enough, but you won't get it registered there without a lot of hassle, given that it's a 1979.

 

Pics? A marrone 308 GTB sounds pretty great.

 

There's a thread a couple of weeks ago of a guy who has just brought in a 308 from the UK - find & read - seemed easy enough

 

Very nice color. Don't think I've ever seen it in pictures or in the flesh. Particularly nice with the camel/beige interior. Regarding the radio, as is the accepted history, none of these cars were fitted with a radio at the factory in Maranello. The only thing Ferrari did was install and wire speakers and the power antenna/cable, and provide wiring for a radio. It was up to the Ferrari dealer, whether here or abroad, to provide and install the radio unit per the wishes of the new owner. Also, per the picture, the car seems to have had a set of additional fog/driving lights installed behind the grill. Do not believe that those are standard fitment from the factory, unless specific to a particular market, i.e., Germany, Switzerland, Japan, etc. The car certainly seems to have not been manufactured for the North American market given the presence of the small, round front side repeaters and absence of rear side markers. The early cars are just lovely; purest of the line. And I am partial to the berlinettas.

 

Fantastic spec indeed. Enjoy it!

 

Considering it's coming from Europe, and you want to register it in FL, why not import it into FL? It will be cheaper on the shipping side too!

 

I used CARS recently and it was easy. Highly recommend them.

 

Ship your car into Florida or Georgia. Plenty of options. Silly to send it CA from Europe. None of it is difficult.

 

Yes it is carseurope.net. The process was easy and reasonably priced.

 

Dickie - Great find, I did the same thing... imported a carb 308 GTB Dry Sump from Germany (but that was in 1985, and it's in my garage today)

The lights behind the grill are not "fog lights" but (I believe, and at the time) they're German-market Daytime "Flash to Pass" lights (they may turn on when you pull the light stalk toward you when the lights are retracted)

Hard to tell from the picture, but your car may have the factory optional 16" Speedlines with P7's, or they could be the UK re-pros(?)

@ZikZak Appreciate if you share the chassis number. Also, I'd be interested to hear which spare tire it has (14", 16" or Euro space saver?).
GREAT car, congratulations. v/r Paul

 

P.S. As mentioned, all 308's were technically all "radio delete" I my younger years I was the first to install a radio in my 5 year old Dry Sump. Rarely turned the radio on with all the flat-crank music behind me... but now it's back to it's proper "Radio Delete" configuration.

 

Car looks great....my car (Sept 76 production) has pretty much the same color story. It was Marrone and was repainted red... It has a black interior. I am considering painting it back to the original color, not because I feel it has to be the original color, but because I think it is a nice color and much more appreciated now than in the 70's.

 

You may want to import the car to Canada. Because it is over 15 years old then it requires nothing to allow it to be plated and registered. In addition because of its age, the car comes in duty free. Having a Canadian registration can make it much easier to bring it into the US and with no duties to be paid there is very little down side to bringing it into Canada first.

 

I <believe> the flasher lights would have been installed by the countries importing dealer. If 27633 was an original to Germany, the importer/dealer would have been Auto Becker in Düsseldorf at the time.

 

I shipped a car from Germany in March of 2022. If you have a good shipping agent, the legal stuff is easy. My issue was that the car handlers had trouble starting the car at port. The car arrived at my home about 30 days late due to starting issues.