Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: My S1 on Thursday,January 26, 2023, 09:53:42 AM
-
If anyone is considering an overseas purchase I would like to give you a run down of my recent experience. After ten years of pestering Johannes Ditz to sell me his S1 #460202, he finally relented. The negotiations were amicable and we were both satisfied with the details.
The first upset in the shipping process occurred with the wire transfer of funds. My bank established their "spot rate" which was an exchange rate much higher than the actual USD/Euro rate at the time which resulted in a loss for me of about $900.00.
The actual shipping had it's struggles with documentation exchanges, customs and so on but the greatest pain was the agony of the wait. From Johannes' door to mine took three months and five days. The most anxious periods were those spent in the ports. In Rotterdam we waited for 18 days to load the car and in San Francisco it took 26 days to unload, clear customs and do the three hour ground transport to my house!
Though I paid for enclosed transport and was assured that the car would always be in either the warehouse or the container, it obviously spent some time out in the weather. There was no significant damage as far as I can tell other than the dead battery which they failed to disconnect.
All told the shipping cost me about $9,400.00 and allot of stress and some sleepless nights. It was worth the trouble and the wait however
-
Beautiful !
-
Congrats, great car!
I'm in the last leg of shipping my Elise from Europe to Baltimore. It is in port, cleared customs and I fly out Monday to pick it up. Shipping prices have more than doubled in the last 5 years, it is crazy! But as you said, worth the wait.
-
After ten years of pestering Johannes Ditz to sell me his S1 #460202, he finally relented.
All told the shipping cost me about $9,400.00 and allot of stress and some sleepless nights.
OK - you're in Northern California, where exactly was Johannes Ditz ?
-
Congratulations on your new baby! She's a beauty! Sadly you had to endure some "wrinkles" in the transaction but all's well that ends well!
-
She is a cracker, well done. Really like the colour
-
Awesome! Love the color too (is it French Blue?)!
-
Cool Europa! I love the Austere look. Glad everything worked out in the end.
-
Congratulations to your purchase. Johannes' S1 is well known and must be one of the best original S1s around. What a beauty. The combination of French Blue with black steel wheels looks the part. It would be great if you could post some more pictures
-
Thank you Nockenwelle. I have been lusting over Johannes' car for over a decade and have bugged him numerous times to sell it to me. I could not be happier to have it. From the looks of your car, it appears to be a very fine example as well.
I've had 460202 up on jack stands most of the time since it arrived so I have not had an opportunity to drive it as it begs to be driven. At some point I will post some pictures.
-
You are a lucky guy. Besides the French S1 (460222) this must be the best original S1 that changed hands in the last 10 years or so.
My car is indeed one of the better examples, very original, imported from the US :-). It still needs some restoration work but I can't find the time currently.
Looking forward to see some pictures of 460202 in the future.