Should You Ship Your Car?

Owning a car anywhere is a liability, an expense, and a hassle, so we recommend that you think long and hard before you make the determination that you want to ship yours with you to your new home overseas.

We spent more than four years in Paris happily car-free. This is a city easily navigated à pied. And we lived in Panama for more than a year before finally deciding to invest in a vehicle there. We used that first year as an opportunity to get to know our way around on foot and to determine what kind of vehicle would make most sense for our family in this city.

We would have been happy living indefinitely in Panama City without a car. The traffic in this town is indescribably chaotic, and the drivers can be most generously described as lunatics. On the other hand, this isn’t a city for walking either. It’s hot and humid year-round, and the terrain is not easily navigated in business attire (as we try to do each day).

Finally, therefore, we broke down and bought a car. A Prado, specifically, because to explore Panama beyond Panama City you need a four-wheel-drive SUV and because Prados are among the most popular SUVs in this country (meaning repairs and maintenance are easy and affordable).

When we made the purchase, we recognized that owning a car means registering and maintaining a car. It also means getting a local Panama driver’s license, which presents a separate challenge that we’ll address later in the program.

In Ireland, we realized that we needed a car from the start. Ireland isn’t a place you can navigate easily without your own means of transportation. We set aside our first Saturday to go car shopping, only to discover that every car dealership in town was closed. Car dealerships in Ireland kept weekday hours only. Our second surprise, when we returned the following Monday, was the prices. Super-high import duties make even standard cars in this country—Hondas and Toyotas, for example—expensive. We couldn’t bring ourselves to spend 50% more for a new Accord than we would have in the States, so we bought used instead.

This turned out to be a very fortunate decision. Ireland is one of the most challenging places in the world to be a driver. The narrow, winding country lanes are bordered on both sides by stone walls and dense hedgerows. Outside the country’s biggest cities, there are no shoulders, no lane markings, and no streetlights. Around any bend could be a tractor or a Guinness truck, headed seemingly straight for you, as the road is rarely wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other. The farmer on his tractor or the Guinness deliveryman could be followed, over the next hill, by a mother walking her children to school or another farmer leading a flock of sheep from one field to another. You must navigate these obstacles all the while reminding yourself to stay to the left and, most days, trying to see through the rain and fog. During the first month behind the wheel in this country, we scraped three stone walls and two box hedges and got stuck in a ditch. Easier to handle as our car wasn’t fresh off the assembly line…

The point is that, while going car-free has definite advantages and is our strongly recommended strategy if at all possible, it isn’t a strategy that works everywhere. Some places, you’re going to want a car, either immediately or eventually. So, again, the question is: Should you bring yours with you from home?

You might be able to import your car duty free once you establish residency…

If this is the case, and you won’t have to pay any import duty (which can be a significant expense, depending on the vehicle and the country), the consideration becomes whether the vehicle is appropriate.

In Ireland, your U.S. car’s steering wheel will be on the wrong side. You see right-hand-drive vehicles on the road in this country, but sitting on the wrong side makes navigating these byways even more difficult than it is ordinarily. Different car makes and models are more or less common in different parts of the world, meaning that, for some cars in some places, it can be difficult to find either mechanics who know how to repair them or the parts that might be required to make the fixes.

If you want to own a car in your new home, it can be easier and more sensible to buy it there. The key is to be at least as careful during the purchase process as you would be at home. Don’t buy the first car you see, and don’t buy any car without having it inspected by a local mechanic you trust. Even if you speak the language, take a local friend shopping with you. Everything, including buying a car, has a protocol that’s different country to country. How much should you expect to be able to negotiate off the sticker price? What warranties or extras are standard?

In the United States, it is possible to shop for and even to purchase a car for the price you want to pay without leaving your home. In the rest of the world, this isn’t the case. The car purchase process works like it used to work a couple of decades ago in the States. You’ve got to invest the time to visit different dealerships, comb classified ads, and pound the pavement looking for “for sale” signs in car windows.

Before choosing a car, research repair costs. They can vary dramatically for different makes and models…

Know what you must carry in your car. In France, for example, you’re required to keep an emergency green reflective vest in your vehicle…

If you’re moving to a city, look up costs of parking. You may be able to find an apartment with a parking space, but you won’t be able to count on it, so factor in the cost of a monthly garage…

If you’re moving to a small village hours from the nearest city, will you be able to find a suitable local mechanic and parts to maintain and repair it when needed…?