TimFountain

So my French wife really loves her 2016 Volvo V60 cross country. She has stated many times she wishes she could bring it with use when we move to France. I have been trying to wrap my brain around whether this is even possible and been getting conflicting information, mainly around the certificate of conformity and DOT vs EU compliance. Does anyone know whether this is even possible? We have owned the car for 3 years.

Thanks

- Tim

Listen Very Carefully

Frankly do not bother.It will cost you a lot of money to get it to conform to EU standards as I assume it was sold in the US and complies with US standards.It may be worth checking with a Volvo dealer to see what the variations are or if it does comply/or can be easily made to comply with EU regs. I assume it is an automatic You should be aware that automatic gear boxes are rare in France. I assume you are moving to France permanently?
Have you checked whether you can get an equivalent model in the EU? You can buy anywhere in the EU and register it in France

Jack_Russells4ever

It is possible to bring a car into the EU from the US but it will be expensive. Then to get the car to comply with EU regulations at a minimum will require switching out the headlights. IF the Volvo had a European variant produced then it might be possible to convert it to comply. You might even be lucky and find the required parts in a salvage yard. I would look at how much is the car worth presently in the USA, How much to ship the car plus the import fees etc and then look online in Europe for the same model and decide then. If it were me I would sell the car and replace it when you move to France.

Tweedpipe

Tim, there’s a simple answer to this which has already been voiced, and imho it's a no brainer. "Don't do it!"
Yes it is possible, but the hassle, let alone the costs involved to comply with EU regulations are just not worth exporting the vehicle.
Yes, the Volvo V60 Cross Country is available here, and a quick check indicates at least 68 vehicles advertised as available on the used market place in France. As a quick comparison:
- Volvo V60 Cross Country D3 150ch, diesel manual 12/2016, 14573 klm,at 14900 euros. (private sale)
- Volvo V60 Cross Country D4 AWD 190ch, Geartronic 11/2016, 99000klm 21190 euros. (pro site)
- 2015 Volvo V60 Cross Country diesel auto, 168300klm, 13000 euros (private sale).
- 2023 Volvo V60 Cross Country B4 AWD 197ch, diesel auto 9900klm 57500 euros (pro site).

Note that private sales are generally less expensive that pro sites - which offer a warranty, but whether it be vehicles or a new or s/h lap top computer, one should ALWAYS negotiate the price - I always do! This practise disturbs many buyers but I can never understand why. When I occasionally sell an item on a popular national site, I try and price it to 'sell', undercutting similar items. If one then tries to negotiate my very reasonable listed price I refuse.
In recent years we have only sold one vehicle, a Toyota Yaris (marvellously reliable vehicle over 15 year ownship!). Instantly sold privately as it was a one-owner car with complete service history.
I wish you luck with your search.

Tweedpipe

Apologies, correction to above posting:
Should read, - Volvo V60 Cross Country D3 150ch, diesel manual 12/2016, 147300 klm, at 14900 euros. (private sale).
Disclaimer: I have no connection with any vehicle seller on any website.

Pulaski

As Volvo didn't have a car factory in the US in 2016, I would guess that your wife's car was manufactured in Europe (you can tell for sure where it was manufactured based on the start of the VIN: YS-YW is Sweden, SN-ST is Germany, XL-XR is the Netherlands, and L is China, which I think is a complete list of locations of Volvo car factories in 2016), then making it EU compliant should be relatively easy, swapping out a few market-specific parts. As both the US and France are LHD countries, I don't think the headlights should need to be changed, but then France does have a history of its own peculiar headlight regulations, so I may be wrong.

The cost of transatlantic shipping depends in whether you put it in a container, which could be sent from and delivered to pretty much any container port of your choosing, or if you sent it ro-ro (roll on, roll off, i.e. a vehicle ferry), I suspect that would limit you to sending from east coast US ports (per another post of yours, you could always drive it across country, hang out in a state over here long enough to establish residence, and swap your existing license for one that is swappable in France, before taking your car to the port) sending it to ports in Begium, Netherlands and Germany as there is negligible trading of cars between France and the US (cars sent commercially are all sent ro-ro). For a container I'd guess about $2k, for ro-ro, may $400-$500. It will need to be totally cleaned of any soil or mud, and especially if I was shipping ro-ro I would give it a heavy coat of wax. Note the car will need to be shipped empty, as empty as when you bought it, it cannot be used as a container for any of your belongings.

I have no idea of the costs in France, but I would assume that cross-border imports within the EU are relatively common, so once any modifications are taken care of, I doubt the paperwork will be that onerous.

I would guess an upper limit of the overall cost in the region of $4,000 for agents, shipping, modifications and certification/ registration, (or $6,000 if sent in a container) and be pleasantly surprised if it was much less than that. Only you and your wife can say if importing your car is worth it. Anyone who sees a car as a metal box used for conveyance will tell you not to bother, but if you are more particular about your choice of vehicles then personally I think it could be worth importing.

I will now stand by to be beaten up by people who tell me I don't know WTF I am talking about.

Andyj100

Many yours ago I worked my passage on a ro-ro container ship across the Atlantic. Atlantic Container Lines run a service from the east coast US to Le Havre . Historically the car decks were pretty empty on the east bound voyages as the Volvos were going west (and from Canada in those days). When I did the trip there were a lot of classics going to the U.K. for refurbishment..I got to drive some interesting cars
It my be a cheaper option than a container as container pricing goes by the type and value of the contents.

Casa Santo Estevo

There is a lot of guessing from across the water. But I am not going to beat you up.Just post some corrections to help the OP.
All cars these days sold in the EU have to conform to the regulations set by the EU. For example French regulations about headlights (yellow) disappeared something like 30 years ago.
Cross border importation is not common. There are still checks to do, paperwork to gather, taxes to pay. The OP if they want can search for the information in French.

It does not matter where a car is made the components may not be to have a certificate of conformity (COC). Everything from lights to tires. Even emissions from engines can vary in various countries. The latter is very important because we are seeing more and more city emission zones being set up in Europe. If the car has not got the correct set up they will not be able to get a certificate which may allow them into zones.
If the OP wishes to import the car from the USA There is a lot of paperwork to be done in the USA too. This guide seems to give the details. https://www.moving.com/tips/your-gui...-car-shipping/ The OP can also ask a shipping agent what the process is.

Pulaski

A couple of clarifications: your "common" is not the same as mine. I didn't mean that millions of people are moving cars between countries within the EU, but I did mean that when there millions of people in Europe that have moved from one country to another, it is nonsense to suggest that there isn't a substantial number of those people who have taken their car with them. I agree, it will be more straightforward to register a car moved within the EU, but I was only pointing out that there is a process for registering an imported car, that Tim won't be exploring uncharted territory.

Secondly, my advice was specific to the 2016 Volvo S60 Cross Country, not cars in general, and that I said that Tim should check the VIN to see where it was manufactured. You may not be aware, but Volvo is not a large manufacturer and does not have many production lines, and Volvo sells so few cars in the US they were rumoured to be withdrawing from the US market a few years ago. Such manufacturers cannot afford to make cars heavily tailored to different markets. .... In fact many (all?) Volvos sold in the US have European electrical systems, as they are one of only two car brands that import cars with rear high intensity fog lights (which are not required in the US, the other brand being Jaguar).

So, given that the Volvo S60 is a European designed car, likely manufactured in Europe, it is likely that there are only a limited number of market-specific modifications for the US market that should easily be reversed, because it is primarily a European designed for the European market. Even if it was necessary to replace the ECU (computer chip), to change the emissions and/ or fuel economy, that is not a difficult or expensive modification. One of my cars (not a Volvo) has a replaced ECU chip, done when I had the engine replaced, and it only cost a couple of hundred dollars.

My advice would be very different if it was an American car, with limited or zero retail sales in Europe, or if the vehicle was a high volume manufacturer and/or model. For example Volkswagen makes a Passat in the US, and it isn't even the same car as the Passat in Europe - I don't mean just different body style or different engines, it has an entirely different floor pan (structural frame that supports the suspension, mechanical parts, and passenger compartment), so it is a different size and shape, sharing nothing with the European model of the same name, other than the name.

TimFountain

Thank you all so much for the feedback. My wife really does love the car, it has low miles (<40k), we know it has been looked after and it is fully loaded so it might still make sense. I've been quoted around $2k from LA via the Panama canal to Le Havre on a RORO. The VIN starts with YV, so I presume that it is from Sweden (I looked up the VIN on my Geico App). I am not at home so I can't go and physically look at the car. The few websites I've looked at say there is no import tax if it's a personal car owned for more than 6 months (3 years for this one)...