(buying and) Driving a car in another country?

Kinja'd!!! by "Dogapult" (dogapult)
Published 10/05/2017 at 13:00

Tags: Sensible European Ideas ; Russia ; Ukraine ; Gaz
STARS: 0


I have a plan. It’s a bad plan.

Kinja'd!!!


It’s a plan to buy an old Soviet car in Ukraine, and then road trip it across approximately 4000 miles of Europe visiting a few cool places and all of my European friends, and then ship the car back home to Michigan.
However, I’m going to ignore registration for now, because I think if I keep a bill of sale with me and plates on the car, I should be in good shape with that.
Insurance, though. How do I go about getting insurance on a car in Europe when I don’t live in Europe? I called my insurance company, they said even if I gave them the information, I wouldn’t be covered driving a car in Europe.

I figure there might be an Oppo- ite who has some info?


Replies (7)

Kinja'd!!! "Manwich - now Keto-Friendly" (manwich)
10/05/2017 at 13:15, STARS: 1

My suggestion is to make friends with someone in Ukraine who can be your local eyes/ears... as well as getting you info on car registration/insurance.

So how do you find/make a friend in Ukraine?

Why not take the pen pal route?

https://www.globalpenfriends.com/country/Ukraine_penpals.html

https://www.mylanguageexchange.com/Pen-pals/Country/Ukraine.asp

Kinja'd!!! "Dogapult" (dogapult)
10/05/2017 at 13:43, STARS: 0

It’s not a bad idea. I figured when I got there I would just take a day and look at some cars around the Kiev area.

Kinja'd!!! "So Shiney. So Chrome! So Frunky" (badams109)
10/05/2017 at 13:55, STARS: 0

I’ve always wanted to take a Lada to the dream cruise all done up in full low-rider style. Something about the decadence of lowrider culture on something as utilitarian as a Soviet car just makes sense to me. I actually saw a tuner style Yugo a coupe years ago broken down in town. Wish I had pictures.

Kinja'd!!! "Jonee" (Jonee)
10/05/2017 at 14:09, STARS: 1

That sounds awesome. I just bought an old car in France and drove it around for a few days before shipping it to America. I don’t know what the rules are in Ukraine, but I just got temporary insurance and they didn’t need any kind of European address. This was the place I used:

https://direct-temporaires.fr/

It’s a French company, but maybe there’s a Ukrainian equivalent, or maybe these guys would do it for you.

Kinja'd!!! "duurtlang" (duurtlang)
10/05/2017 at 19:10, STARS: 0

You’ll need help in the specific country you want to buy the car. You’re going to need insurance and plates. For those plates, depending on the country, you’ll need some kind of (temp?) registration as well.

For example, in Germany you can get temp plates and temp insurance quite easily. As a foreigner, without German address! Assuming the car has a valid inspection that is. If you don’t succeed finding what you need in Eastern Europe, I suggest Germany. You’ll find Soviet cars there too, although they probably won’t be as dirt cheap. You can order an export plate (registration), valid for 30 days for €300, although you might be able to get one a lot cheaper at a German DMV (I’m not entirely sure). When you’ve got those plates insurance is a piece of cake.

Link to commie cars for sale in Germany.

Kinja'd!!! "Dogapult" (dogapult)
02/26/2018 at 03:13, STARS: 0

Kinja'd!!!

This is months and months later, but in researching this story, I came across a full-on lowrider club in Moscow that uses Gaz 21, 22, 24 for their canvas.

https://vk.com/boyaremoscow

Kinja'd!!! "So Shiney. So Chrome! So Frunky" (badams109)
02/26/2018 at 09:24, STARS: 0

Man that is like an alternate reality, love it.