Popular and Practical Cars in Poland

Just wondering, what kind of cars are popular in Poland, and are there any particulars one should be aware of when picking the right kind of car.

I'm asking cuz I might ship a car from the states there as I've never even ridden in a stickshift, let alone know how to drive one and have connections wherein I can get a car cheap in the states that would (apparently) be worth way more over in PL

I was told that an SUV might be a good idea due to winter driving/poor road conditions and a late 90's ML 320 was suggested as a good choice

any input?

A jeep cherokee would be popular in Poland , and you can get parts for them over here , Poles don,t like automatics too much , so a stick shift would sell better....I just bought one myself in the UK , but i guess they are much cheaper in the USA....

If you look an alegro the Polish car site , you can see what it would sell for in Poland , might be a good idea to check out how much its going to cost you to import it , taxes and such , there is a thread about this on Polishforum someplace....

I don't think 4x4 cars are that popular in Poland at all, they are still an expensive vehicle for most of Poles - initial costs and maintance (they consume a lot) , but having one would be pretty handy while driving through Polish roads.. just recently I bent one of my rims in my little Honda Civic ; )

We are moving this summer and trying to decide if we ship over my husband's 2002 Toyota 4-Runner or if that would just stick out too much We don't want to come off as Americans who love our big cars but the 4-Runner is not big by SUV standards and the 4-wheel drive might be handy in Poland.

Any thoughts? Thank you!

Why not just buy a car here? With the cost of shipping and taxes, plus the hassle involved in both, you might as well not bother trying to import your current car.

However, if you are going to import a car, make sure how much it'll cost you to convert it to EU standards (as regards things like lights). For some cars the cost makes importing them prohibitively expensive.

Skoda! Ironically i was told that it means "pity" in polish,

yes... the worst drivers were/are driving skodas in PL... :/

I'd say they are driving black AUDI's BMW's and VW's : o

so their number is growing.... scary!

[quote=frd]
they are still an expensive vehicle for most of Poles -

True , but there seem to be plenty of them about , driven by the richer Poles , and in any case she is bringing this vehicle over for herself , not to sell to somebody in Polska....

Trabant does the trick.

Yeah ,i have seen the tricks they do...! I think i would feel safer in a Jeep if some mad Polish driver decides to use the same bit of road as me...at the same time...!

from what i know the shipping is going to be about $1,500 usd to ship it over, and that way i can stuff the thing full of stuff thus lower shipping cost of my other stuff (though it'll take a while to get there)

There are plenty of big 4 x 4 cars in Poland , so its size would not make it stick out too much.....I think the American registration would be likely to make it stand out more...

You would have to be carefull where you parked it in big cities , as somebody might think you are a rich tourist with lots of goodies on board that might be worth stealing....

well i assume getting a polish license plate would be something required by law, and not something overly hard to do once there...

But they do!
They don't like them in Poland because they cost too much, but when they come to America, that's all they buy! Some also say they never had air conditioning in their cars in Poland.

If you bring a car to Poland be careful so it doesn't get stolen.

So having an SUV in PL won't stand out as terribly as I thought? I'll admit to not being out of the states for about half a dozen years, so in my mind there are still NO suv-size cars in PL not used for mass transport (busiki, wany, etc). The thing is also a good half foot taller than I am (i'm 5'4" in heels), and admittedly not a car popular (at least in the states) for girls in their mid 20's. Then again my family assures me the mini cooper I like so much would be a deathtrap in Poland... though I think they're being slightly over protective (thus the 'get an SUV tank... you'll be safe' attitude)


Well in my case the car would be a gift (minus the cost of getting it to PL), so the shipping/taxes/etc would almost be my only cost.

Anyone know where I could find out how much it would cost / how long it would take to get everything done (i know the shipping is about $1500 as stated before, but I'm not sure of other fees n' that like).


I was told that from what my friend (benz mechanic) saw when he went to PL, there aren't really any changes to be made to california cars, as we have very strict requirements here (for the states), and that most cars nowadays won't have to be modded to pass inspection in PL. A confirmation of this would be appreciated, especially reguarding the ML320 from 98/99.

My dad also said that the benz SUV has anti-theft systems that can't be easily bypassed so the only way to steal the car (for most crooks) would be to have the thing towed... and even then they wouldn't be able to start it.

I was also thinking of doing something like that; shipping a car to Poland
Never thought about problems with sedans in the winter though... now i got something else to thing about >_<
My dad is a Benz mechanic, and when I mentioned the model/yr you gave he said its a safe and dependable car.
I only drove regular cars thus far though, so IDK how i'd like driving an SUV, specially with what I saw of roads in Lublin... even though my aunt got a small Hyundai (I think) SUV last time i was over there. I don't think it was as big as the ones we have in cali, though the ML sounds smaller than the mammoth SUV's some idiots get. And yeah, definitely plenty of space to stuff heavy items you don't wanna ship UPS or take on the plane ^_~.

I'll second the Q about the fees and hassles and so on involved with shipping a car over. Anyone?

Here are some costs for you from when I did it in 2008:

transport to US port $500.00
container $1,500.00
polish customs fee 1,400.00 zł
transport to Warsaw 1,500.00 zł
inspection 300.00 zł
registration 750.00 zł
EU conformity changes ( lights etc and depends on the type of car) 2,000.00 zł
Commision to dealer who arranged it all $2,500.00 ( this included sourcing the vehicle for me)

On top of this you have your Polish import duty and taxes which is dependent on the model, age and engine size of the car.

When it comes to car safety , size matters.! Its a fact , that if a small car , and a big car hit each other , the people in the small car are likely to die.... If you can afford to fuel and maintain a big car its the much safer option...

Somewhere on this forum there is a thread about what exactly it costs to import a car , and the rules and regulations for doing so...From what i remember you have to pay a percentage of the value of the car , and you have to own it for six months before import , but all the information is on here somewhere....

Another thing to consider is spare parts , some models , like Chrysler for example have dealers over here , might be worth while to check out where is the nearest dealer for the car you choose to the place you are going to be living...

*hugs*
Thanks db, this was just the kind of info I needed! If I may ask, what kind of car did you transport, and from which port (east coast/west coast)? and where/how you found out how much they would charge you (and if there's someplace I can check as far as what the EU conformity thing and the import duty/tax for a specific car would be).

Also, I caught sight of an older thread from feb here, and was wondering if you knew if the 6 month thing [so you don't pay the taxes (scenario one [urlc=hhttps://polishforums.com/law/poland-import-car-15356/]here[/url]

) ] calculated from when the car is shipped, or from when the car is processed in PL. I'll be moving to PL late summer so if the latter I can probably get away with buying the car NOW and shipping it so when it arrives it's at the 6month mark... if i have to wait 6months to ship it there may be an annoying bit of lag -__-;


Well, like I said, my dad is a Mercedes mechanic... he'd kill me if I got anything else (maybe a BMW could slip, but anything else I'd get an earful), so I don't expect parts to be a problem ^_^

Also, yeah, I found the thread (linked above) while looking stuff up DB mentioned... but some things were still unclear (my Q's above)

Okay,
so for me it'd be $1500 for the container (I live in a Port city, if you've seen the original Fast and Furious and a good chunk of the new one that's where I live), about 2500zl for the customs, inspect and reg (do you have to have it transported once it arrives? can't I just go with a friend and drive it back? or must all the inspection/registration stuff be taken care of before you can hit pavement?), which translates to about $730.

So $2,230 thus far
assuming transport to Lublin will be more than Warsaw (1700zl maybe? so about $500) that puts me to $2,730 not counting EU conformity and the import duty/tax bit

Assuming the tax/duty bit goes away with it being owned here and EU conformity about what you paid and some slight fee increases, I'm looking at a total of about $3,500 total, perhaps $4,000 if the fees stay and alterations run high

I've seen loads of old little Fiats out there on the streets, personally I would like one of those when I have enough money :)

I imported an SUV from the US east coast, I would get in touch with an agent who can advise you on the exact costs for your scenario and how much they will charge you to arrange it all on top of the costs.

Other things to consider, my container cost was cheaper because the agent shipped mine and another car in the same container.

Transfer from Polish port to Lublin - this is a matter of insurance, you can drive it from the Polish port yourself as long as it is insured, i couldn't get insurance until it was registered so had to use a transporter to get it to Warsaw.

EU conformity - buy a mercedes that has rear fog lamps and that will save you a bit of trouble as it's required in the EU. The cost of the changes will basically be how much it costs to change the front two lamps.

I've been driving a Mini Cooper in Poland for six years and I'm still alive. Get the Mini, you've got years ahead of you when you will need a bigger car (because you've got things like kids and so need a car with more than two doors). You are less safe in an SUV than you are in a Mini, just look at accident rates and death rates.


Rubbish. Watch what happens when a Volvo 940 estate (a big car) hits a Renault Modus (a small car with a 5-star NCAP rating):

The Volvo driver is dead, not the Renault driver

Even when you compare a people carrier to an SUV, guess which is safer?
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ad8dHYAIhZ4

The only time an SUV is slightly safer than a normal car is in a car to car crash from pretty much head on. In a single car accident you are far more likely to die in an SUV than a normal car. All that metal which makes you think you are safe is very very good at crushing you when you flip the SUV over (which you are far more likely to due to the high centre of gravity). Manouvers which are 100% safe in a normal car can easily kill in an SUV. Watch:

The added weight from the 'protection' is also very good at getting you into an accident. The heavier an object is, the more force it takes to slow it down. In other words, what wouldn't be an accident in a small car because the small car can stop, does become an accident in an SUV.

That volvo crashed is staged, The 940 is a rwd car so the engine would be mounted longitudinally, If you look at where it crumples it goes right through where the engine is, It looks at though the engine has been removed from the volvo for the test.

I personally would rather be in a big car as they are safer, I'm sure new large cars are safer than new small cars, These tests are using cars based on 20 yr old designs which isn't really a fair representation.

I will be moving to Poland in the winter, so it's not that big an issue for me as far as the 6-month thingy, although i'd like to know from what point it's measured as well. And how long this import actually takes before you can see your car again. And do you need an agent? Can't you just get a container? deal with the taxes n' stuff as they come, just get someone with knowhow secure the car inside?

but it would still be useful for spares ...

Our neighbour's visitors had their car stolen last year and the expectation was that it would never again be seen in one piece.

cj

that's true of any [good/popular] car though...

You can choose your new car at usaauto24.com/auto_pl

Not skoda, szkoda


Not a good idea to put anything in a car when you ship it, ever.