What you should know when moving overseas... and taking a vehicle
Sep 25 '01
The Bottom Line Make sure that if you move a vehicle overseas, you have a mechanic look at it before you go.
September 2000... my beautiful 1993 Ford Taurus SHO worked great. It was reliable, all I had to do was put gas in it and check the oil every once in a while... maybe a tuneup now and then.
The time came to move my car overseas... and I made some unfortunate mistakes that hopefully you will not make after reading this epinion. I left my car off at the Los Angeles Vehicle Processing Center in Carson California, assuming that I would see it safe and healthy on the other side.
First problem when I got the car back, the battery was dead. I can deal with that. I drove it to work and parked it. When I left for home that evening, the car wouldn't start. I had someone jump it and drove home... unfortunately, about 100 yards outside of the gates to where I live, the car died while I drove it.
That weekend, we replaced the battery and alternator. I had noticed a problem outside of that, the check oil light was on. We had just had the oil changed too. We checked the oil, there was plenty in there, but we figured that we'd take the car in for an oil change anyway.
The car never made it.
The engine froze up on the way to the gas station. Seems that the oil pump had broken in shipment. So I had the engine replaced (for $3500).
Got the car back. Now, I don't know if there was something fishy about the guys that replaced my engine, or if something broke in shipment, but the transmission was acting funny. And it still is. We just took it in to have the transmission looked at, since it's not running any more. We also replaced the starter.
What are some of the things that happened when my car was in shipment other than that? They drained most of the fluids in my car without telling me. The radiator had been drained. It needed brake fluid. I didn't know this until we had the car looked at to have the battery replaced. Nobody told me.
This year, I've spent about $4000 in car repairs... a good majority of that due to problems the car got in shipment. All of this money has been paid through a car repair loan I got for the engine and out of pocket expenses for everything else. There was no way for me to prove that the car was destroyed while in shipment because I didn't take it to a mechanic before I dropped it off.
So if you have to ship your car overseas, have it looked over with a fine tooth comb before you drop it off. When you get it back, take it immediately to a mechanic to look at it again. They will be able to tell you if anything broke while in shipment, making it easier for you to make an appeal. Otherwise you might be looking at getting a new car. In my case, I have a car back in the US, and we're thinking of having it shipped over here. It's still under warantee, and yes, we WILL have it looked at by a mechanic before and after we bring it over here.
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