I took my car into the Strassenverkehrsamt today. It was imported from the US when I moved here. The guy told me that I was missing my "first registration". I had no idea what he meant, so I enquired further... As it turns out, what he needs is the date that the car was first registered with the local authorities where it was first sold. In this case, the US. This is not something that they really care about in the US, so they really don't keep track of it. They only really care about the model year of the car (when it was made).
What I found about "first registration" after some googling:
- Very common in all European countries, not in the US
- The date of first registration could be completely different than the model year (if the car sat on the dealer lot for two years, for example)
- Typically the sale date, except in rare cases.
My question is, have any other folks imported cars from the US, and had this problem? How did you resolve it? I bought this car used, so I don't have the "first" registration from the local government. If, by some miracle the DMV back in the US can find this, I guess maybe they can mail it to me, but the Swiss authorities seem to want the original.
Have exactly the same problem. My car should be ready by next week in terms of all the mods needed and I have insured it, however I just have the last title document, which does not give a date of first registration.
I understand that the proof can also be a "certified copy" of the original registration. I do have serious doubts that I can get such a document from DMV in South Dakota (in my case) remotely...
Does anyone know if any alternative documents can be accepted?
PS
for place of original registration use AutoCheck or Carfax sites (VIN based).
I was finally able to contact the dealer where I bought the car. They have a *copy* of the original title, which has the place and date of purchase. I will fax this into the authorities here in the off chance they will accept it. I have my doubts.
I know there are many Americans here that have imported cars... how have you resolved this?
No problem, I can get a copy even with the DMV seal, however for that I need to fill in the Driver's Privacy and Protection Act Form where the original record holder (like i know who he is?) should give me a NOTARISED permission to get a copy of the original title.
alanbrito, I am glad to see you have waited until the very last second just as I have with this operation
I finally went to the Strassenverkehrsamt in Zurich today (Uetlihof) and got my first inspection appointment. While the guy asked about the date of first registration, he did not highlight the absence of it as an issue. He seemed to be aware that it wasn't listed in any of the standard US documents. However, this may still come up on the day of inspection...
BTW I only have one week until my year is up. How serious an offence is it to drive after the year is up? And should I avoid leaving and reentering the country with this car? Or is it sufficient to have an appointment date set up?
Alright, after calling the Strassenverkehrsamt every morning to see about available slots, I finally managed to get an appointment for today instead of the original one, which was three weeks from today.
Everything went well except they told me I needed to have modifications done to the headlights to ensure the parking lights were white and the blinkers orange. Currently they're both orange (this is a 2006 BMW X3). Plus they require washer jets for the xenon lights. Now I have two weeks to have these modifications made and to go back for a re-inspection. At least no additional appointment needed.
As expected, the guys at BMW estimate the changes to be up to CHF 6,000 (or the equivalent of three Tata Nanos). With the help of other forums I have managed to find a small garage that'll do it for just under CHF 3,000. After researching even harder I am hoping I will get away with modding the thing myself for under CHF 500. More to come on that...
Good news... as of today, I am now the proud owner of two Swiss license plates. The only thing that I had a problem with was the orange-to-white turn signals as faber mentioned, and the first registration.
The turn signal lights were easily fixed, and I was able to get the dealership here to search their database for the original sale date. That, coupled with a copy of the original title did the trick. The guy told at first me that he needed the original, but in the end, he happily accepted these two "not so official" documents.
Finding a shop to change the lights and install jets for the Xenon headlights turned out to be quite a pain. In case anyone has to go through the same process, here's a quick summary:
As for all the official BMW garages around Zurich, I have found them to be utterly uncreative and expensive. They all claimed it was necessary to reprogram the lights controller and/or to replace the headlights. Estimates ranged from CHF 3,500 to 8,000.
I also tried general garages specializing in different things such as imports or electrics and found that they didn't want to make the changes for fear of messing up the electronics. So no luck there.
Via BMW Switzerland's HQ, I eventually tracked down a garage in Wil, which actually has experience in converting various BMWs to European requirements. The estimate was a range of CHF 800 to 1,500 and the actual bill ended up being CHF 1,850.
So for anyone needing to convert a BMW, contacting http://faessler-garage.ch might be a good start (ask for Mr. Kolp).
You need washer jets for xenon lights over here as particles of dirt/debris on the headlight can alter the beam projection. I can imagine this would be expensive to retro fit. THe BMW garage would have sai they would replace the headlamps because US spec headlamps have a completely different beam pattern to those in Europe (wider and flatter, I believe), which is far more likely to blind oncoming traffic.
Folks, I am trying to register my car in Basel Land which I imported from the US with Jersey plates. I am being asked for a certified copy of the first Registration/Title with the registration date. Has anyone had a similar recent experience.
I went through some of the threads and saw that most of the folks that experienced this issue, were either first time buyers (thus had the original registration) or were able to get a copy of the original registration from the dealer. In my case, my car dealer closed business.
Any ideas/pointers, as to where should I start first trying to obtain this documentation. Has anyone had any luck getting a copy through their DMV?
For me, they asked for documentation regarding that date at first but then acknowledged that such documentation was not available for US registered vehicles. So for the Zurich DMV, the document was simply not necessary.
Interestlingly, they simply ended up using the date of import.
I will take anything really, as long as they dont ask me to go on a wild goose chase back in the US. Hopefully the guys in Basel are as understanding as the ones in Zurich. Why is it so difficult for European DMV's to update their process information and not ask for something impossible to retrieve.