Hey guys. So I've been on this forum for something like 7 years now and mentioned a while back that I was moving to Finland and wanted to bring my 2012 GL 350 with me. It was a quick move and I didn't have too much time but all the reasearch indicated it shouldn't be problematic. I know many people were under the impression that it would be necessary to swap a bunch of parts, like lights and instrument clusters, but in the end none of that was necessary. So if you find yourself in a similar situation, here's what I did. Please keep in mind that other EU countries *may* be different, but for Finland, this is what I did.


Before....in Pennsylvania


1. Find a shipping company. I sent out requests to several companies to ship the GL from either Baltimore or Elizabeth, NJ to Helsinki. The best price came from an outfit called Schumacher Logistics which operates out of NJ and ships to Kotka rather than Helsinki, which at the time didn't seem like a big deal. I want it to be clear that I'm a procurement professional and I sent out a very detailed request asking for ALL costs, including port fees in the USA and Finland, transport, and any customs clearance necessary once it arrived. They assured me that it was an 'all-in' quote. But in the end, Schumacher Logistics ended up being a bunch of lying crooks, and didn't include the customs clearance or the port fees in Finland. So this raised my costs quite a bit, and the total to move the car over the ocean was about $3400 at the end of the day. Not terrible, but still much more than what they originally told me. As it turns out, you can't do a roll-on/roll-off to Finland, you can only do container shipment, and that's part of the reason why it's expensive. Many ports, especially in Germany and the UK, have RO/RO and that is considerably cheaper. It's worth mentioning that when you ship the car it needs to be empty, and have less than 1/4 tank of fuel. You can pay extra to put stuff inside the car for container shipment, but RO/RO it has to be empty. Take photos of the car to document it's condition, inside and out, and note the mileage. The vehicle title will go with the vehicle, so make sure you have it when you drop it off (make sure you have a copy if they don't give you one.) Your car insurance is worthless as soon as it leaves the dock, and they will try to sell you insurance. I checked with a good friend who has spent his entire career in ocean logistics and he told me not to waste my money on the insurance offered by the carrier; the fine print on 99% of the potential calamaties (i.e. the ship sinks) will limit your payout to $500; you've been warned.

2. Apply for temporary registration plates, and insure the vehicle in the destination country. I'm not sure about other countries, but in Finland you first submit a "declaration of use" online which alerts the taxing agency that you are importing a vehicle. Then you have to go to a local inspection/registration office (think DMV, but privatized) and get some temporary plates. In order to do that, you need a copy of the title (the original title is with the car in the container) and proof of insurance. This was all pretty cheap, like 25 Euros. Insurance here is pretty comparable from a cost standpoint, but totally different than the USA in execution. The temporary registration in Finland is good for a maximum of three months.

3. Customs/Port Pick Up. Schumacher, those lying dogs, wanted to charge me like 500 Euros for customs clearance (they only told me this once it was on the ship and I was trapped) but I just did it myself. Honestly, it wasn't that hard. You just need a copy of the title, details on the car like GVW and engine size, the container number, the name of the ship (which you get by tracking the container on a website like www.track-trace.com), and the agent that will be receiving it from the ship. I got the paperwork off the Finnish customs website (Tulli) and downloaded them and filled them out before going to customs. In order to complete the customs work, the receiving agent needs to email you some documentation, so essentially you can't do this until the car arrives at port. I think it cost maybe 50 euros for the paperwork. Once you have the customs documents approved, you drive to the port and pick up the vehicle. Inspect the car and make sure there is no damage. In the photo below, you can see the temporary plates taped to the windshield. There's a similar one in the back.


Picking up the vehicle at Kotka.

4. Get the car inspected. At this point, I had three months to get the car inspected. Ha, piece of cake I thought. Well...not so fast. When I got the car home from the port, I used my Autel tool to switch the instrument cluster display from MPH to KPH. I wasn't 100% sure that I would be able to do this, and my back up plan was just to use the center display, which you can use by toggling the settings. But in the end, I was able to reprogram the car and the little 'mph' in the middle of the speedometer now reads km/h and the speedometer, odometer, and other functions use metric units. I had read several places that this was not possible for US vehicles, but it is. You'll note that the speedometer only goes up to 160 km/h which is 100 mph, but the speed limits here are so low that won't be a problem. Incidently, the one unintended change that resulted was that my daytime running lights no longer light up (even though they are set to do so) but after messing with it for a couple hours, I've temporarily given up on them and not worrying about it. I can just run the headlights during the day until I get it figured out. Oh, one last thing; you need a warning triangle in your trunk. I got three for $15 off eBay.

Once this was done, I went to the local inspection station and the car passed with no issues. One thing to note is that they need to verify the VIN in two place on the car. One is on the dash which you can see through the windshield, and the other is under the rear (2nd row) passenger seat (there is a cutout in the carpet as you can see in the photos.)

Inspection Station

VIN location under 2nd row passenger seat

The only hiccup was that in order for me to get my plates, I had to pay the local Finnish car tax (this is something specific to Finland and not any other country in the EU) and for that I needed a documented CO2 value for the engine. The inspection guy was super nice and said to go to the local Mercedes Dealer and ask for a "certificate of conformity" and that would do the trick. So I went and ordered one (450 Euros....ouch) and waited. And waited. And waited. Soon enough, I found myself running up against the 3 months of temporary registration. I start to get nervous, and so went back to my new buddy at the inspection station. He was surprised that it's not arrived yet, and gives me another guy to call, at TUV Nord (TUV is the German standards agency, you may already be familiar with them), and sure enough, they get me a CO2 verification from Germany in like 5 days, but by this time we're enjoying a 4 week holiday on the Greek island Crete. When we return, the 3 months have expired, and the COC from TUV is in the mail bpx. (I've attached this for those that are curious, but basically the only thing they really care about in Europe anymore is CO2 emissions and Finland taxes you based on how dirty your car is.) A week later the Mercedes dealer calls! My COC has arrived! No dice, boys, too late. It turns out that the COC they provide includes documentation on the conformity of the entire vehicle, and this *may* be needed if you import the car to other EU countries. Verify this is true *before* you put the car on the boat and get your local dealership to get one for you; if you have a good relationship with a salesman, etc they may get it for you cheaper or even free (a friend that imported a BMW to Finland confirms he didn't have to pay for his in the UK.)

5. Pay the man. The Finnish car tax is brutal and you should be prepared for this. I'm not aware that other countries have anything similar, but do your research. In the end, this shouldn't be problematic because I'll sell th car in 2 1/2 years and recoup most of the tax. The tax here sort of follows the car from owner to owner and depreciates similarly to the vehicle itself, so the first owner doesn't just pay all the tax. Anyway, this was a bit more than 10,000 Euros which at the time I'm writing this is almost USD $13,000. The good news is that the 'blue book' value of the vehicle here in Finland is about 40-45,000 Euros, due to the effect of the taxes, vs. about $16,000 back in the USA. So fingers crossed that this all works out financially. I didn't want to buy a car here, because a new GL equipped like mine is more than 160,000 Euros and I didn't want to be selling a car that expensive after three year of steep depreciation, and I didn't want to pay 45,000 Euros for the same car that I had in the US with a new set of headaches (mine is a known entity since I've maintained it myself.)

6. Register the car and get your new plates. 17 Euros, took five minutes. What a relief after nearly 4 months of paperwork and waiting. I made my own bracket for the front plate. I bought the frames for the front and rear from a local auto parts store for 12 Euros and they had holes that allowed me to bolt the rear up to the US bolt holes.

It's official.

So what are the downsides, besides that ludicrous tax? Fuel here isn't cheap; about USD$6 per gallon, and while the GL gets OK fuel economy, it's not exactly cheap. The radio only tunes in every other station; I don't really listen to the radio so I'm not worried about it for now. I am keeping my eye on eBay prices for NTG 2.5 head units, as they currently are selling for roughly 700 Euros, which seems steep for such old tech. But it appears that people with older units are using these as an upgrade. I may also pursue aftermarket units once I get settled. But that's it; the GL stands out here because cars this big and luxurious are pretty rare here. It gobbles up the miles and soaks up the cobblestones, and my kids are happy because they hate mom's X1 company car.

I hope somebody finds this helpful, since it was really painful going thourgh this without a guide. Remember that other EU countries may be different, but at least you know the questions to ask.

 

Nicely done! Great 👍 write-up.
I always believed car expo/importation is a headache, but it looks like your experience went smoothly.
Wish you all the best in your new home.

Cheers.

 

Nice write-up. I have to bookmark this. I have no immediate plans, but I'm not ruling out moving back to Europe the way things are going here. I'm surprised you didn't have to change the taillights as amber turn signals are mandatory in Europe, and adjust the headlights. I think Europe has different aim. I did European Delivery with my 2019 C63S, and I got constantly flashed at night. My car technically has the multibeam LEDs, which can darken the areas of oncoming traffic, but the software is not active on US spec cars, because the DOT hasn't approved it.

Not sure you'll find it that easy to sell the car for what a domestic variant goes. Being a US spec car might scare off potential buyers if it's only for not having a proper kph speedometer. At least the car is old enough that lack of factory warranty isn't an issue anymore, but getting parts for US specific components might be an issue.

 

Funny enough, I was driving into town this morning and saw a GL up ahead. When passing it, I noticed that it had a North American plate back on it (the stainless one that the US plate bolts to), and the Finnish plate was screwed into it. Then I noticed the Seattle Seahawks sticker on the bumper. So I'm not the only one...

I was a bit jealous; his daytime running lights were working. I'll figure that out when I get a chance.

 

Also decided to take a photo of the instrument cluster area, so you can see what it's like after coding the vehicle to use Km/h on the original speedometer. This would work fine everywhere except Germany I guess. The highest speed limit in Finland is 120 kph so it's no issue here.