LebGeeks

Draguen

Member

Importing a Car

Hey, as mentioned in the title, I'd like to gather information aboht how to import a car.

The headlines are :
Car is a wolkswagen beetle convertible, model 2012 and up.
It is not available on the lebanese market, even after asking the official wolkswagen reseller.

So questions are :
Do you know how much taxes to expect?
Do you trust any second hand car dealership to import it?

Advices and general ideas are appreciated

Thanks.

Georges00

Member

Re: Importing a Car

I advise against doing it.
There is around 40% of the car value you'll have to pay as far as I know.
I'm not sure if there are more customs/tax.
Registration will cost you 1500-2000$
Shipping is expensive.

Regardless if you do it or not. It's a mafia. They will make your life hell because you're trying to bypass the big car importers.

That's what I read and heard.

Draguen

Member

Re: Importing a Car

yes so i've heard,

i was more or less thinking about getting one of those second hand car dealer to import it under their name; then sell it to me once it's here. however it's both hard to trust someone with this kind of money and to buy a car without checking it first

beezer

Member

Re: Importing a Car

Hi, I just did this not too long ago as I'm moving back to Lebanon. It was a fairly simple and straight forward process, I did it all myself and everyone at customs was very helpful and clear on the requirements.

Tax/Customs: There is an official document that lists all the car values and their customs charges. That will be your biggest fee (approx 40% of the car value in Lebanon, from the dealership, this is the ridiculous thing) the other stuff is mainly standard things that you do even if you were to buy a car in Lebanon. A few stamps here and there, and you'll need an authorization to enter the port to do it yourself. But like I said, it is all fairly simple as long as you are the kind of person who is willing to go from office to office, building to building and get it done. My Arabic is broken and I got the job done.

In the end I wouldn't do this if I wanted a new car as it's a ridiculous price, but if you are moving and you already own a car, then it's probably a better deal than finding a second hand in Lebanon from someone you don't know.

Oh, I almost forgot, I shipped it to Tripoli as there was a cargo ship going there sooner than one to Beirut. From what I heard, I basically saved a few hundred dollars by doing that as the port fees in Tripoli are much less than those in Beirut. I'm not sure but this is what I heard from brokers who were there.

Last edited by beezer (February 22 2017)

Draguen

Member

Re: Importing a Car

@beezer, thanks for all the info! Quick question, how did you ship it to Lebanon?

Silentcontrol

Member

Re: Importing a Car

all i can help you with is stuff i heard from people that done that :
dubai is your best option (car condition shipping and time...)
usually you save around 5 to 10% if you compare it with cars in the lebanese market

beezer

Member

Re: Importing a Car

Not sure what you mean how I shipped it. I basically found a shipping company that cleared it out of the origin country and put it on a ship headed to Suez, which would then put the car on the next ship headed to Lebanon. Turned out it was headed to Tripoli.