If you are worried about how much it will cost you to bring the car to the DR, don’t fret...
You can get a straight quote prior to shipping it.
But first you need to establish you CAN import the vehicle on your own. You just can’t import a car without meeting the requirements as per customs.
The value of the car is not what you paid or bluebook or else. It’s whatever customs has jotted down in their master book.
Then you have added VAT and the usual suspects since CAFTA -DR came into effect.
I tried bringing my classic 2003 E500 to conserve my classic, but it wasn’t worth the expense here.
Then I was set on bringing my other car from Florida to here as well, but I figured wasn’t a great idea at this point in time. Those two got sold and now I drive something less peculiar together with an early 90’s Toyota for loads in the DR.
The E500 was the first one in 2003 for that pre-AMG production. A classic! Great car and a superb engine. Later it was replaced by the E55 as it competed with the S500 and provided more bang for the buck.
The other one was a crazy impulse buy as I reached midlife crisis mode. My hormones were imbalanced. This one put some order to that.
I later came to hate the stripping as this was not what I wanted, but the guy was pitching them like crazy. What do I know! Here you can see it before the stripes and after... you be the judge...
Anyhow, it was a nightmare to drive in the streets of Orlando, as even with the suspension adjusted at max it kept hitting everywhere on front and rear. Nasty scrapes under the spoilers. If you went too fast, the paint on front received a nice batch of nicks from the loose gravel/pavement. They look nice, but are a pain to get in and out. Just lately I understood why older folks loved their Cadillacs and Lincoln cars.
That made my mind quick about bringing it to the DR, together with the taxes to be paid $$$$.
I left my Altima and X6 for later visits. Altima in Orlando and had the X6 shipped to NY (snow).
My niece and nephews made a lunar landing picture atop my Sienna (somehow the sheet metal is thinner on it than my other cars as you can notice on pic) dealer was not so open to a trade-in with as it was. Ended up giving it to the oldest nephew (will need two more years to drive it legally). I don’t understand why kids have a need to sunbath atop cars!
All in all I feel I made the right decisions about not bringing any of the cars to the DR, without having to make a declaration of moving to the country. I seldom drove here during my stays from work overseas and really was not challenged to keep up with traffic as much as I do now.
Here I posted some pics of some of the cars (yes! There were more!) As I put lots of miles on them daily due to work, so the more the less miles on each. I loved to drive there.
Here in DR I drive with the SUV in a defensive and extra careful mode. The older Toyota Camry I drive like the Devil to a soul reaper’s meeting.
Like a maniac! Hhhhhhhh
I believe here you can drive whatever you love to drive. Just keep in mind where you go to and where you park. It is worth it to bring a car? In my personal opinion, no... Warranty is out the door for a newer car once you take it out of the country.
Add that some parts are even hard to come by in a large market like the US, imagine here.
Yes you can get them there and bring them over, but is it worth it?
I think unless you are bringing an older vehicle 🚗 to the DR, it’s best to just buy it here and have some sort of warranty covering your investment. BMW, Merc and other $$$ brands are not cheap to keep up with.
I did sell the E500 only because I had no place to keep it. Was parking it at my sister’s apt complex near me, but she sold her unit and as such there too went the parking space with it.
There are plenty of Porsche here in the DR, one more you bring ain’t going to make it a problem.
If you love the car and wish to, why not?
I think my next car will be a recliner sofa, I mean a Lincoln Navigator or Cadillac Escalade... hhhhhhh