Select Language
 
English - Englisch
German - Deutsch

American Used Cars On Demand

 
 
OUR PROCEDURE
Better Business Bureau
Buying a used car is a question of trust, especially when the car in question is being imported from a far-off country and you have never seen it before.
PIADA
     

For this reason we would like to show you below what we CAN do for you, but also what we CANNOT offer.

As a member of the Pennsylvania Independent Automobile Dealers Association (PIADA) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) in the United States, we make every effort to find cars that meet the customer's requirements with respect to configuration, condition and price. Our excellent purchasing options at all US car auctions, leasing banks, dealer colleagues and private individuals mean we pretty much have the market covered.

In general, the more flexible you are on colour, equipment, mileage, etc., the quicker and easier it is for us to find a good value-for-money car.


Our Service

Price
s
As soon as you have specified your model, color, configuration, mileage, etc., we will give you an approximate price range for the vehicle incl. all cost of importation and german paperwork. Giving you an exact final price wouldn’t make sense at this point since we don’t have the exact purchase price yet. Of course, we will stick to the agreed upper price limit and will try to find the best possible car for the best possible price.
Our final prices include all import duties, german sales tax, the TüV certificate and the german paperwork. Vehicle inspection, any necessary repairs or replacement of parts are also included in the final price.
Different TüV certificates for other countries may be available upon request. The german Sales tax has not to be paid when you provide us with a valid VAT exemption number.
For cars, directly shipped from a port in the USA or Europe to a country other than Germany, a different net export-price applies.


Warranty Work, Repairs and Vehicle History
As long as they are still within the warranty period, all the used vehicles we buy are checked by the dealer to see whether any repairs are needed or if there have been any product recalls.
Any problems are dealt with on site. The same applies to damaged or worn-out parts. Any necessary replacement of parts revealed by our thorough check is also carried out on site. This allows us to avoid long waiting times and possibly higher prices once the car arrives in Europe. We also order and install any specific accessories required by the customer while the vehicle is still in the US.

To ensure that the mileage displayed on the speedometer is genuine, or to check whether the car was involved in any accident, we always acquire information on the car’s history from Carfax.


The Contract
As soon as we have agreed about the model and its features like e.g., engine type, equipment, condition, maximum mileage and the upper price limit, you will receive the appropriate contract from us.
After you signed the contract, a down payment in the amount of 20% of the purchase price is due. As soon as you have signed the contract and the down payment has been paid, we will take action.
We will of course inform you as soon as we have found a car that meets your requirements.


Difference from importing a vehicle yourself
Often we are asked about the differences between our way of doing business and a self-import, for which we also offer our support.
This can be explained quite easily. Self-import means that you have to take care of all steps, such as e.g. finding and purchasing the car, paying for it, taking care of possibly required repairs on site, or warranty work. You alone are completely responsible for the quality of the car and for taking care of all steps necessary to import the car.
Please feel free to use our online calculator (German) for self-imports to see which steps have to be observed and how to calculate the costs for a self-import.



What we CANNOT do for you

We are often amazed when customers draw our attention to remarkably low-priced offers from not particularly reputable competitors. Some of these offers are, indeed, suspiciously low.
Of course, there are ways and means of pricing a car below its true market value. But that is not something we are prepared to do. In these cases, however, you cannot count on our help.

We have often encountered the following problems:

a) Transport insurance for the car is not included. In case of damage, the customer is left empty-handed.

b) Customers are requested to make down payments of up to 90% of the purchase price. In this case, there are no self-financing costs for the seller. If something unexpected should happen with the car or the seller, the down payment will be lost.

c) The vehicle is not cleared through customs in the name of the seller, as is usual, but in the name of the customer. Sometimes a false invoice to a lower amount is used or the wrong rate of duty is given for pickups. In both cases, it is about customs fraud whose consequences will reach the customer sooner or later, not the seller.

d) Vehicle inspections, repairs and warranty work are not carried out on site. That means that the customer has to pay the bill himself for any repairs which may prove necessary once the car arrives.

e) The alleged seller does not take over any warranty for the vehicle, because he is involved in this transaction as an agent, not as a seller.

f) The mileage indication is often manipulated. Of course, cars with 100,000 miles are significantly cheaper than cars manufactured the same year but with only 30,000 miles. For this reason, each car should be checked by Carfax.

g) Such "bargains" also often turn out to be the wrong color or do not have the features required by the customer. Both these elements should not be underestimated when it comes to pricing. A black vehicle is always between $1,000 and $3,000 more expensive than the same car in the less popular colors like white or gold.

When considering the vehicles offered to you, you should check carefully whether they are e.g. four-wheel or two-wheel drive, whether they have a sunroof or not or if they have a leather interior or cloth upholstery, etc. The same applies if you are looking for a good offer yourself, for example on the american eBay site. It is not enough to only look for the lowest price. You should also check the features to make sure you are not comparing apples with oranges.

On the american used car market, everything is generally about the car`s condition, its equipment, color and mileage. The current market value, which everyone must use as a point of reference, is calculated based on these four components.
An exact comparison of the vendor you trust may save you a lot of trouble afterwards.

 
 
 

 

Heimann & Thiel GbR
Telefon: 0202-600050
Email: info@uscars24.de