Purchasing a Vehicle in Poland and Shipping it to the U.S.

Hi,

My name is Matthew and I currently live in Los Angeles, California. A long time dream of mine has been to purchase classic cars from Poland, import them into the U.S., and sell them here in California. How awesome would it be to have an old Polonez, 125p, Trabant, Skoda, etc on streets of LA!? My mother is Polish and I have traveled back and forth several times so I know the language/culture but I am unfamiliar with the legal system.

I am not a Polish citizen yet. Would I 100% need Polish citizenship to purchase a vehicle in Poland for the purpose of directly shipping it overseas? Getting citizenship should not be an issue as I have a copy of my mother's birth certificate and marriage license. Next question - upon purchasing the vehicle (and registering it), can I put down a U.S. address on the registration form or do I need an address in Poland? If that's the case, can I set up something like a PO box over there?

Does anyone here have any experience container shipping a vehicle from Poland? If so, please post and chime in! All feedback and pointers are welcome.

Hi Matthew, I don't know the laws in question tbh but I have some thoughts - Polish people constantly import cars from further west in Europe especially from Germany - they don't need German citizenship to do it - what you would like to do is to import a vehicle from Poland to the US - what I believe Poland has very similar law as for exporting vehicles as most European countries -


similarily Poles who buy vehicles in Germany don't need a German address to do it

my other thought is that there might be additional paperwork for the vehicles you would like to import as these might be classified as historical vehicles

interia.tv/wideo-polski-maluch-w-polnocnej-karolinie,vId,1205846,vAId,89820

Not very. 125ps are dangerous, Trabants are highly dangerous and Polonez not great either. Plus all three were very badly built and, especially Trabant and Polonez, are highly unreliable. There's a reason we have better cars nowadays. Also, in a small bump with one of those huge American cars that very low petrol prices mean they still have, you would have no chance at all. If you must get an old car with no airbags, crash frame or in fact any safety features at all, get a big one. Not a Trabant which isn't even made of metal.


No.


If you're taking it out of Poland, why would you register it there? If however you want to register a car in PL, you would need an address there.


You can, however it wouldn't be acceptable as a registered address.


Depends how old.

I do hope that out there in Polish countryside and in hidden yards in cities, that there are Polish men and women who are preserving their motoring heritage......I have been here 5 years now and I have seen less and less Polish built vehicles. If this rate of attrition keeps up, you will not even have any left to put in museums......it is much worse with trucks like STAR and JELCZ......please preserve your heritage, my country, although better than some, has lost forever examples of some of it's best made vehicles and now only old photographs remain. I think part of the problem may be that everyone wants to preserve a Warsawa?? yes a nice looking car, but don't forget the 'Zuk' and 'Nysa'......and some Tarpans and Polonez special bodies are becoming rarer.........I personally would be happy to drive a Polonez Caro diesel, Polish car with a French diesel engine, it was a big seller in UK at one time, the importers could not get enough of them.

Please talk sense Kamaz. Polish built cars have always been some of the very worst in the world.

I was unlucky enough to buy an Opel Astra from the Warsaw plant. Total garbage and that is putting it politely.

My advice for Poles in the future is to stick to growing potatoes :)

There was an infamous case a few years back when Opel Gliwice got a massive shipment of steel plate - all of the wrong spec - and they only realised when their technicians examined it at the plant itself. You couldn't make it up.

For the OP: You might have Polish heritage, but no -one wants scummy Polish wrecks - "heritage cars" they are not - "communist-built cars" - yes. This thread is risible.

Low quality old vehicles are best preserved in museums and only driven out in special convoys. Someone hurtling down a freeway full of Cherokees and Hummers in a Trabant is most likely to be 'preserved' by an embalmer.


Indeed. I have a good friend who collects (God knows why) Allegros and Morris Marinas. But not 125ps or Trabants....

I have taken 2 maluch fiats to Newark port, if the car is 25 year or older you can take it as historic vehicle, limit 2 and can't sell it for 2 years a in no. Also you have to pay 14 ear registration then every 3 years u renew it free of charge.nd can't drive over 1500 miles a year and get bagger to insurance for vintage cars for around 20th oils a year.its my first hand experience.make sure u rebuild repair it in poland as it's cheaper to do it here.

I am hoping that some of you are writing tongue in cheek.....OK OK I agree some of these are not the best built cars in the world.......but just for the sake of history? I personally love to see the odd Warsawa all gleaming and looking good cruising along a country road on a holiday......I personally would not advocate taking any of the cars mentioned onto a motorway......but just for heritage sake, I am glad that a few people do have the time, money, patience to preserve. (I know it is not everyone's 'cup of tea') I consider that one of the things that make a country 'civilised' is the conscious will to preserve things, even silly things, like objects from the communist period. I had a similar argument with a colleague about a small museum in a picturesque Cotswold village......Why an old caravan? why all the old petrol cans and tools of yesteryear?? He was looking for sleek Jaguars not Morris Minors?? So I suppose each to his own, but I like to hear a growling old Jelcz (Leyland Engines - so the sound reminds me of my first driving jobs) crawling along the road not some new Scania that mews like a kitten!!!