Selling a TCS to Europe…advice needed.

[ottocycle]

Hi Guys,
I wanted to get your advice on selling my 1974 TCS, 5 speed. She is an  original 26,000 mile car. I have enjoyed her tremendously but old age and previous injuries are catching up with me. She is too nice to modify to fit me properly (6'3' size 14 shoes). My wife hates the stock seats headrest location. I am thinking of selling it to Europe and wanted to get some advice from our European members. I am thinking of putting it on E Bay UK or another European E Bay auction, perhaps Germany or Scandinavia. It is LHD and that might be a problem for the UK. I can get her to Baltimore where she can be shipped to any major European port.
I would appreciate a PM from any of our European friends with advice on where/how to market it and what value they would put on it. I can send you more details when you contact me. Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dermot.

[BDA]

Gorgeous car! Sorry to see you go but I certainly understand about the size situation.

Just curious, why do you want to sell it in Europe? Are the prices good enough to cover shipping and insurance?

Good luck with the sale and let us know how it went.

[cal44]

Dermont,
your wife is 100% correct about the stock headrest.......I find it just silly how far forward it makes your head go.   One of these days (I have mentioned this before) I'm taking the seats the upholsterer and having the head rests shaved down to very little.   This will provide much more distance from my face and A pillar.   And lets "face it"...........if I get hit in this car, whiplash is the least of my problems.

Nice car

mike

[Grumblebuns]

Gorgeous car! Sorry to see you go but I certainly understand about the size situation.

Just curious, why do you want to sell it in Europe? Are the prices good enough to cover shipping and insurance?

Good luck with the sale and let us know how it went.

I was thinking the same thing. The cost of shipping the car to Europe may offset the premium price that you can get there and don't forget the Japanese market.

Why not test the waters by advertising here in the US first and see what if any offers you get. You may have to spend a bit of cash but advertise on all of the Lotus forums/clubs newsletters, Hemmings, Bring a trailer, Ebay and Club Lotus in the UK. Serious foreign buyers will probably be scanning those sites for potential cars.

As for the actual logistics of shipping a car overseas, I haven't a clue. There have got to be car brokers who can handle these things for you.   

[4129R]

I know all about importing Europas to the UK. I have imported 4.

It all comes down to one thing really, $.

What do you think it is worth in the US?

I know how much it costs to convert from LHD to RHD, shipping and import duty, so just let me know the chassis number, and how much you were expecting to get for it, and I will let you know if it is worthwhile advertising it over here.

Alex in Norfolk, UK, the home of Lotus.

[gt6II]

Hi Dermot
Very nice car you've got there
I'm in Denmark
Our main site is veteranposten.dk - at present there's a Europa TC for sale here for DKK 170,000- of course that's not to say he'll get this!
A really good S2 with a highly tuned 160 BHP engine and new gearbox conversion recently sold for DKK 120,000 after 6 months where the owner had to drop the price from DKK 170,000 due to lack of interest.

One of the main sites in Germany is mobile.de - you can find a link to the Europa sales here to give you an idea of the prices:

http://suchen.mobile.de/auto/lotus-europa.html?isSearchRequest=true&lang=en&scopeId=C&export=ALSO_EXPORT&damageUnrepaired=ALSO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&sortOption.sortBy=searchNetGrossPrice&makeModelVariant1.makeId=15900&makeModelVariant1.modelId=8


In Sweden there's blocket.se and Norway finn.no

As well as the above there's the British/European
http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/search-classic-cars/
http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/

I can imagine that some of the dealers would be interested in picking up a good condition car - eg oldtimerfarm.be who have this S2 for sale priced at 26,000 euro.

http://www.oldtimerfarm.be/en/collection-cars-for-sale/1993/lotus-europa-s2-green-.php#.VCCaPvmSySo

There's also
http://www.thegallerybrummen.nl/en_EN/autobedrijf/onze-collectie.html


Hope this helps
Nick Porter
(Thought I'd post here as wasn't sure that the PM had been sent)

[ottocycle]

Sorry for the tardy reply, work gets in the way of life from time to time!!
Thank you all for your feedback. I appreciate the advice. I had the car sold to a local buyer for $22.000.00 but the deal fell through. It did not meet my reserve on E Bay so I thought Europe might be a  market for it. I believe it to be a rare time capsule item and although I really cannot afford to have a car I do not drive and would like to sell it, I will hold on to it and use it sparingly for shows, rather than give it away. There are nicer restored cars out there but an unrestored one in this condition is a rare bird.
Regardless of whether I sell her or not I have been bitten by the Lotus bug and would like to find a rougher late model Europa or early Elan to restore as a driver that fits my phisique.
Once again thanks for the advice and thanks to the website owner for having this forum.

Cheers-

Dermot.

[4129R]

What is the chassis number?

[ottocycle]

Sorry, I forgot 73104085R.