Hello everyone and since it’s halloween let’s talk about a true nightmare i’m Going through trying to import a 25 year old Jeep!
First problem has no coc so needs noise and emission test which I believe is around the 3,000 mark
Second problem the technical control I was quoted by a Jeep specialist 10-15,000 chf just to make it Swiss compliant to me it seems a high price since the Jeep cost me 10,000 to buy!!
I imported it from Italy it has a few mods a lift some bigger tyres but that’s about it ..
I live in Valais and see many much more modified Jeeps than mine example at the annual Jeep heep in crans Montana ..
So my question here is if anyone can help ? Clearly I don’t trust that making it compliant is as much as 15,000 chf so am looking for local garages in Valais which are more credible .. currently my Jeep is in arrau trying to get the emission tests
Another option is to try and return it to the Italian garage that sold it (possible legal dispute )
Ideally I would still prefer to immatriculate it here
Just to give a idea these are the parts and labor for which I was quoted 15,000:
Good luck, because believe me, you're going to need it !
What legal dispute with Italian garage ? You bought a car that was ok for Italy but not Switzerland, unless you have this exceptionally clearly in writting, youz don't stand a chance.
Total waste of money, sell it in Italy and buy one here, far cheaper.
oh and as for the costs iirc those jeeps where never 'officially' imported here, so someone paid to get them them tested etc, whoever did that 'owns' the certificates and can charge you any amount they want for a copy, on my US mustang the guy who went through all the grief and costs of importing them charged 5k a time.
I have e mail evidence from the garage I bought it from certifying that the Jeep would have no issues passing the test and that it needed no work on it ..
That won't help at all. The CH inspector isn't going to look at a print out of your email and decide to ignore his responsibilities.
are you into DIY? You could easily source and swap those parts for a small fraction of CHF 15,000-
Of course, you'd be doing all that work just to have a bog-standard jeep.
If you'd just bought a stock CH papered Jeep, you could maybe even do all those upgrades and still pass MFK next time. But importing with those mods, they'll bend you over the hood.
I guess you are not italian, or swiss, so just how far / how much cash you willing to take this? Good luck trying to sue an Italian garage! double good luck if you aren't fluent in Italian!! triple good luck if you don't have an italian lawyer etc etc
unless you paid for the car with credit card, then you're SOL regardless of what the garage did or didn't say. Why would an italian garage know the swiss rules anyway?? the vast majority of swiss people don't know the rules regarding cars, and in my experience quite a few MFK testers don't know the rules either.
ETA have you actually asked the italian garage to take the car back? or contacted them at all??
??? there are no 'cheap' options, you have to get the car back to the certified standard, the swiss certified standard. end of story.
you can spend a small fortune doing this, and have a car that is worth 1/2 what you paid for it, or sell it and buy a swiss version and have no headaches, the choice is yours.
Those of us who have been through this know that there are no cheap or easy solutions (short of selling it and buying one here), regardless of the make of the vehicle.
This is no Jeep forum, but you had plenty of advice from people who actually went thru the process of importing / MFKing foreign cars.
If you still believe there is some secret trick to achieve what you want to achieve but people don't know it / do not want to share it with you, then I fail to see the reason why you posted here asking for help in the first place.
if you can be bothered (and I don't blame you if you can't) I created a thread years ago on the stress and costs involved importing a car that wasn't officially imported here in that version, and I had the COC and it was only cosmetic differences.
spoiler alert
It cost A LOT of money, A LOT of time, and a LOT of paperwork and it was totally not worth it.
Oh and every MFK after the import has been a total ballache.
Second, find out which parts are different from stock and need special papers.
Third, try to source the needed papers.
Fourth, as you might not succeed in getting all the needed papers for the current installed parts find cheap replacement parts either original stock ones, or third party ones with the needed papers.
I believe all of what you guys are saying I know it’s a pain in the a@s I did many years ago import a lotus from Italy and went smooth as.. guess I was lucky .. this time round i’m Not it seems anyway I have also contacted the original garage in Italy let’s see ..