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The Volvo C303 never had a general type approval in Germany and therefore the import and the following activities are quite an effort. The story of the expert opinion following §21 of the german StVZO - the regulation for allowance of vehicles to the public traffic - I told on the page about the TuV. Some parts of that process are not conform to the law of the EU. A little example:
The car is registered in Sweden. The ownder can drive around in the whole EU without any problems. Following the swedisch documents it is allowed to drive with a trailer of up to 1.500 kg hanging on the original hook, like shown below.
If I try to get the car registered in Germany the hitch will be accepted for emergency towing only. That is an inportant limitation of usage and depreciation. Why this hitch, that was good enough for military heavy duty usage in the terrain, should not be used on the road? No one could explain to me.
For a registration of an vehicle in Germany there are different classes for the tax. A Volvo C303 is not usefull for everyday in Germany, it is mostly just a hobby, and you have to find out the cheapest classification - or you don't need to care about money. Attention: My examples I calculated unprofessional by the acutal tax regulations for 2005 - no guarantee.
If you take the car as it comes from Sweden it is a passenger car in Germany between 2.8 and 3.5 tons permissible total weight. In the swedish documents it is written "lastbil", but the 7 seats fill clearly more than half the space in the car. With a engine volume of 2.986 ccm that results in a tax of ca. 750,- Euro each year.
If you remove all seats from the load space like I did - 2 folding seats and one bench - the car will change to a light truck. The load space is now really far bigger than the space for persons and it ist seperated by a fixed wall or grid. With a total weight of 3.300 kg that results in a tax of 194,- Euro each year.
A car with an age of more than 30 years you can register as an oldtimer. The license plate ends with an additional H. For that you need a more specialized homologation following §21c of the StVZO. The usage of the car is not limited, but only smal changes at the vehicle are allowed. I.e. the conversion to Diesel is not possible, even modern seats may be a problem. The tax is 194,- Euro each year.
Examples like a seasonal registration or an exchangable 07-number for owners of many oldtimers may be interesting for others, but they cost more effort and more limitations for the usage and don't bring any advantages for me.
The classification of the car takes place with the full approval following §21 StVZO. If you want to keep the 2 folding seats in the load space you should discuss that in advance with your engineer and eventually go to an other instpection authority. The english word "expert opinion" shows mutch better than the neutral german "Gutachten" that the engineers have a scope of discretion.
In Germany every car needs to have an third party insurance to get registered. The selection of the insurance company depends on many factors, not only on the price. If you know the company already, is the communication ok, how is the regulation in case of an accident etc. etc. Very interesting are the limitations and requirements.
If you want to get insurance for a real oldtimer with a H-license you can have a look on the homepage of ghe federal assocciation of german oldtimer clubs deuvet.de. Here you will find links to specialized insurance offers, which you can compare to your own recherche. For oldtimers you often get insurance for self made damages on your own car and transport damages are included as well.
My own insurance company could not bring a good offer for my tax preferd light truck. Classified as an business truck the insurance was calculated at nearly 1.500,- Euro each year.
The LVM has an offer for oldtimers, which follows the agricultural needs. Here passenger cars, tracktors and other vehicles, which are older than 30 years will be insured sweeping as a secondary vehicle. The requirements for the historic state of the car are not so rigid as for a H-license. 2005 that costs 144,- Euro for our Volvo C303 defined as "other vehicle". But soon after I got the registration the LVM did quit my contract, may be the agent at the central office wanted me to insure my house and everything there, not only the oldtimer and my primary car. I was not amused...
But fortunately I got a new contract from the "Alte Leipziger - Hallesche" for about 140,- Euro a year. Because I needed the third party insurance only there were no further requirements and limiting conditions exept the age of the car and the registration as a light truck.
To get a new title for a used car in Germany until March 2007 you needed a confirmation from the KBA, the KraftfahrtBundesAmt (KBA) in Flensburg, that this car is not on the search list or declared as stolen. For an imported car that may be dropped if you can produce the other documents and a contract about the purchase. I was not interested to make a bet on that and asked for my confirmation by FAX with this KBA-form, what did cost me 14,20 Euro by P.O.D.
Reading the document I did feel like a fool. Mostly the content of the document was a confirmation about not being correct. The confirmation was without warranty and the facts may have changed meantime. Such an confirmation is useless and redundant buerocratic bullshit. The registration office will send all the facts about the case to the KBA as well, and then it is time enough to find out that the car was stolen and the new holder of the title should be prosecuted.
As if the secretary of transportation did read my critic this document is obsolete from April 2007 on. The registration office will get this information directly online now.
But in 2005 I had my confirmation in my hands, it was added to the process file to get a new title and everything worked. The old swedish documents are stored at the registration office for a minimum of 6 month and the swedish office will be informed about the case in a maximum of two month. Attention: Make good copies from the original documents, because the will be drawn in by the registration office and lost for you and for the history of the car.
The standard technical approval (in german Haupt-Untersuchung (HU)) you will get together with the homologation following §21 StVZO. There you will get a seperat document for the glove box, that has to be produced at the registration office, too.
For vehicles from 1969 and younger you have to make an inspection of the exhaust gas (in german Abgas-Sonder-Untersuchung (ASU)). The Volvo C303 doesn't have a catalytic converter, the following simple measurement costs only 20,50 Euro, but has to be done every year. I have been to a garage around the corner, the had less time pressure than the engineers at the TuV. Again for the ASU you will get a document with a seal for the glove box, that you have to show at registration office.
At my first visit at the TuV the engineer wanted to add to the expert opinion that the Volvo C303 needs to have a license plate with 2 rows for the backside. There is only one light for iluminate the license plate and that could be not enough for a very wide license plate. In every case a very wide plate could cover the catseye on the left hand side.
I could help with arguments for a small license plate, nearly as smal as the swedish originals. With that the limitation for 2 rows was gone. This plate may have been collided with the back door or could have prodruded from the downside of the bumper. If neccessary I will put new catseyes on the mudflaps.
While registering unfortunately my desired number "K - C 303" was occupied, but "K - T 303" was available. The "T" for "TerrainGBil" is ok as well.
In the front I mounted the license plate on the bumper like in the back for the first time. That covers a dent where someone a long time ago did hit the hitch of the car in front. After I exchanged the bumper with a straight one the license plate was moved up to the original position.
Since october 2005 you will get new registration documents by EU-standard in Germany. To keep the documents understandable the old names Fahrzeugbrief and Fahrzeugschein are printed in brackets.
A big difference is that in the Fahrzeugbrief are much less technical entries like before. Additional entrys in Field 22 are still on both documents. That is important for the Volvo C30x, because the expert opinion following §21 StVZO was not cheap. Attention: In every case you should make copies from all documents or produce a PDF, to get everything reproduced in case of loss. All the expensive paperwork from the TüV will be drawn in by the registration office.
A general juristic problem will come up: In the new documents in Germany is printed explicit: The holder of the registration is not indicated to be the owner of the car. That will make a special situation, which was an exception before, to be the normal case today.
What does it mean? Until now at court the Fahrzeugbrief was a proof of ownership, if not: that had to be verifyed. Now it is the other way round - what a nonsense. Until now you could buy a used car and if the seller and the holder in the Fahrzeugbrief are the same you can normally believe that. Now that is explicitly negated.
Does it make sense? I don't know! That field 4.c4 in the documents can have 3 different entries following the EU-standard, and others may have been possible. It could have bee written there: The holder of the document is the ownder of the car, if not negated by newer documents. Attention: You have to keep your contract of purchase in a save place for all the time in the future. It would be a good practice to print more than one on good paper and laminate later.
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