I just attended the wedding of an Autopian reader in Nuernbreg, Germany, and you won’t be surprised to hear that it was located in an awesome car museum. I am spending the remainder of the week in the area with my parents, who live here with their dog, cat, 2011 Chevy Equinox, 2015 BMW 320i, and — most importantly — my 1994 Chrysler Voyager diesel five-speed. It is one of the greatest vehicles I’ve ever had the pleasure of owning — and it played a big role in getting me through 2020’s COVID lockdown with at least a few of my marbles still intact. Two and a half years later, the thing still runs like a sewing machine, as the cliche’d expression goes, so I don’t want to get rid of it. The only problem is: I might have to. I could use some advice
I landed in Munich a few days ago to celebrate perhaps the greatest gift I’ve received as a car writer: Friendships made with readers — specifically, one made with Andreas, a Romanian-German with a heart of gold and an Autobianchi of not-too-much rust.
I landed on Friday and attended his 12-hour wedding the following day. It was in an incredible car museum; here’s a small section of it:
There was a lot of cake:
Why was there so much cake? Because as I show in this video below, Jose, the bride, is a baking legend:
There was also dancing:
And there was Romanian moonshine (Visinata):
The wedding was beautiful. The vows, which I’ll admit made me spring a bit of a headlight-fluid leak, included much discussion of Andreas’s love of cars, and of the bride and groom’s upcoming road trip to the U.S. (which I will be third-wheeling). Plus, many of the decorations on the tables were car-related. It was epic.
I mention this primarily because the vehicle I took to the wedding was none other than Project Krassler, my 260,000 miles diesel, manual Chrysler Voyager. A bit of backstory:
Back in 2020, after Andreas bought the van on my behalf, he and I —along with some of his friends — replaced almost all the major wear components in the suspension and steering, we slapped on some new tires, fixed the shifter linkage, changed all the fluids, swapped out some bad CV joints, and on and on. Here’s a look at all that hard work:
After a number of attempts, I got the van through Germany’s grueling vehicle inspection, TÜV:
At that point, I hit the road, first to Belgium, since almost every surrounding country was closed due to COVID restrictions:
Then I headed to Sweden, where I saw the supercar-maker Koenigsegg’s headquarters:
In the summer of 2021, I traveled to an gorgeus wedding in Istanbul, and then to a honeymoon in Cappadocia, where I picked up a hitchhiker. It was hell, but also awesome:
In the 10,000 miles I put on the $600 van after reviving it from the dead, the only issues I’ve had are with headlight and taillight bulbs. There was a tiny leak from a CV boot, but I just tightened the clamp, and all was good. Now I’m back home in early 2023 — 2.5 years since wrenching this $600 beast back onto the road — and how does the ol’ van run these days? Like an absolute dream:
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A bit of an aside: On my way to the van after the wedding, I spotted this rare American Jeep ZJ:
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Anyway, now to the point of this article: What should I do with this van if my parents, who are now storing the machine, decide to move back stateside? My options include: 1. Store the van here, ask a friend to graciously register it as an antique so I can drive it when I visit 2. Sell it or 3. Import it to the U.S.
My concern with number two is that Europe is cracking down hard on diesel vehicles, and I fear that, if I sold it, it wouldn’t be long before it was on its way to the junkyard. As a rust-free highway cruiser in excellent mechanical shape, I feel it deserves better. I’d love to import it, but California likely won’t let me, even if it’s 25 years old. And the storage option? Well, that could work, but when does it end? Perhaps an overlanding trip to Africa could be the goal. These are tough decisions.
What do you think?
Sell it and take the money and run DT. You have to reign in your hoarding tendencies and besides, diesels in Europe and CA are going to be verboten very soon.
You already have too many cars in North America. You don’t need one more.
Now you have a fine car in Europe, albeit rapidly becoming a problem to use in Europe due to all the green/emission control rules & laws, still it can be used for a road trip is it’s in the vintage/historic car category. ( as long as you know the local rules/laws about those ).
If you sell it it will definitely end up in the maws of the scheder faster than you can think ( there’s a 2030/2035 deadline around here in Europe for banning new ICE engines… so even if it’s an old one, getting it allowed to run even as an heritage item is going to be a pita soon ).
Personally I’d say : keep it for as long as you can registered as a vintage car in Europe. That way you have a ride when you come our side of The Pond. And when it becomes a too big hassle to keep, sell it knowing there’s good chances it’s going to be recycled pretty fast.
If you’re OK with it being outside, I’ve got loads of parking space, you can import it and stage it as your East Coast shuttle
Ad me to the list of those saying donate it to the Ukrainians. I actually have a specific charity to recommend. This is a very learn search/rescue/aid delivery organization that runs on a shoestring budget. A retired coworker of a good friend of mine got off her comfy couch in Illinois to be their field mechanic for several months, patching their vehicles together with whatever they can get their hands on. They could use another good reliable van. It might shorten it’s life, but in service of a great cause.
https://fundrazr.com/b1zVM8?ref=ab_8BFGg3_ab_AT6RDvAdKkyAT6RDvAdKky
I have a couple of Ukrainian refugees in one of my classes. Darn good kids. They don’t speak a lick of English, but we’re doing our best.
Donate it to the Ukrainians. I’m sure it’ll be helpful as a cargo vehicle or maybe they’ll mount a machine gun in the back. Either way, helping defeat the Russians will be a great way for the minivan to go.
I agree. Don’t bother shipping this hooptie to LA, David. You’re going to be in a land where you’ll be able to buy interesting cars that aren’t rusted out heaps. This thing will slide to the far corner of your cars and in a year, you’ll have driven it so little you’ll wonder why you bothered.
This feels like a Nice Price or Crack Pipe and it’s totally Crack Pipe if you ship it.
Holy crap, EVERYONE wants to see a Caravan Technical.
Nah. Just pack it with C4 and send it to the nearest Russian army depot.
Before you seriously consider storing it in Germany, consider this – with your parents no longer there, how often will you be in Germany where the vehicle is with time and reason to drive it, and without other options? IOW, will you be incurring the storage and maintenance costs in the hope you drive it again maybe once a year? If that math works the way I suspect it will, sell it. Let someone who needs it get good use out of it while they still can. Same argument for importing it – you’ll spend more on the transport than you have in the vehicle now, for it to come here and sit, waiting for you to fight through the importation headaches and then find time to drive it wherever you end up storing it. (And yes, I’m assuming CA isn’t going to be its home. It’ll be an enforcement magnet there.)
Donate it to the Peterson Automotive Museum. You can go and visit it anytime!
Import it to the US, but register the van in a state other than CA. MT and VT should have no problem giving it a plate since it’s over 25 years old.
Rent it out to Utopians going to Europe. Cheaper than AVIS and you get an income stream
There’s going to be a museum dedicated to you one day, David, and this needs to be in it. Import it!
Why do you write “Nuernberg” instead of “Nuremberg” but then go on to write “Munich”?
Donate it to Ukraine. They’ll use it.
Give it to Andreas, or let him ‘borrow’ it? Does he live in Romania or Germany? Seems like it could have a future in Romania.
Import it and keep it in Michigan? Do you have an address you could use to register it there?
I live in Germany. Romania is even worse with regards to old Diesels. Basically you pay 4 digits of tax if you bring an old diesel into the country.
Sell it. If you import it, you’ll have to store it and if you sell it here, you won’t get much for it. I assume you may get more on it’s native continent.
Kind of like “All Dogs go to Heaven”, all cars will end up in the junk yard eventually. The point is you had fun with this while you had it.
Take it on next year’s Budapest-Bamako rally.
Or the Mongol Rally.
YES!
Just found out about Budapest-Bamako. Excellent story fodder.
Okay, Tracy, you have a task in front of you to figure out for all Autopians. Will California allow you to import a pre-1998 diesel passenger vehicle, seeing it’s smog exempt?
Ship it to me ???? I love weird old diesels, having owned a 240D, a 300D, a TDI Gold, and a manual transmission 1981 Peugeot 504 diesel wagon.
Bring it to the US, have one of your lackeys like Torch or Mercedes register it in their state, and then use it California and dare them to stop you.
That won’t work.
I moved to California many years ago and kept my Michigan plates on my car , and about after living there for 6 months I received a letter from the C.H.I.P. stating that it has been confirmed that I was living in California full time, ( I have no idea how they confirmed that, but I was leasing an apartment at that time) and that I had 30 days to get a California license plate and vehicle registration. And, I had to have a smog test as well. (Which the state graciously exempted my car from California emission standards due to my vehicle originally being from another state)
But if it’s registered in someone else’s name and he’s “borrowing” it that probably wouldn’t happen.
Okay, so the other person will receive the letter from CHIP mandating a CA plate and registration. Because **they will know** that this car is being used long term in the state of CA. You can only say you’re “borrowing” the vehicle for only so long before they throw down the gauntlet.
Because plates cost so much in CA people have been trying to beat the system (like I tried to) and they are very well aware of this.
Back in 1985, (yes , I am very old) my lic plate and registration costs $210.00, again in 1985!!.
(My car was newer, it was 2 years old .)
There’s also the issue of plate data sharing. Some states share plate info- especially those with toll roads, so they can collect from out-of-staters. My state of Illinois shares, because I got a snail mail HOV ticket from the state of Washington. Other states don’t share, and I think Cali is one of them, which means Illinois won’t share with them. I’m not sure if North Carolina shares.
Let’s look at this from a pragmatic point of view, shall we. If the option remains to keep it in Germany and your parents remain cool with storing it, I’d say change nothing. If you lose this situation I’d sell it; it’s just not worth the hassle. However, before you bring it stateside you have to consider that you own:
-1992 Jeep Cherokee (first car) – you’re already paying to store this (in Michigan)
-J10 – you’re bringing this to CA but have a lot of work ahead of you to get it to pass smog, and planning on storing until then
-1994 Grand Cherokee – you’re bringing to CA and storing until you finish it, which will take up quite a bit of time
-1979 Golden Eagle – bringing to CA and storing until you convert to EV. Again, will take quite a bit of time
-1966 Mustang & 1959 Nash Metropolitan – Dailys in CA that will presumably be parked at your apartment
So by this measure, you have two dailies that you can store at your apartment (would assume that’s a hard limit). But you also have one car in storage in Michigan and three cars in storage in CA, all of which require a significant amount of work. I’d personally say bring Krassler stateside if it’s that important to you, but I wouldn’t do so unless you sell one of your other cars in storage.
Having four in storage already (one out of state even) is a lot, they and will keep you busy for years to come. It’s also hard enough to drive six or seven different cars when they’re conveniently parked in your driveway, let alone if they’re in a parking lot across the city or a different state. At least in Europe Krassler served a unique purpose, but back here it will just be another car in storage. You just managed to get your fleet down and simplify things; I wouldn’t bring over another vehicle stateside or buy anything else unless you decide to let go of something.
Luckily, Michigan antique registration lasts a decade, so I may not have to deal with CA emissions for a while.
California is cracking down on out of state plates on CA residents cars big time from what I have heard. You should just sell it. You might make more money selling it to someboy in the US who wants an oddball van like this. Since you speak english and can facilitate the logistics on the European end for a potential buyer, that might be more profitable.
Pre 97 diesel don’t need to be smog in CA.
None of David’s current or former (or even future) vehicles would run for another couple hundred thousands of miles with nothing more than occasional oil changes, like that VM Motori engine with timing gears. All the while doing high 30’s mpg. It’s the perfect post-apocalyptic chariot.
It’s just so good! I wish I had imported it earlier, as it’d be amazing for this move.
David, I hear you. Oh do I hear you. After a life of having to make these kind of choices, (not just vehicles), sometimes you have to cut the ties and savor the memories. It hurts but before you know it, another wonderful horrible sparkle in your eye you can’t resist comes along and off you go.
Sell it to the right person. Surly Germany has people as bonkers as you within their borders.
“Surly Germany”
Freudian slip?
Smart move: sell it.
Entertaining move: import it, turn it into the Autopian mobile command center.
As hard as it would be, I would just sell it. You can use the money for some of your other projects, or perhaps start a small importing business bringing rust-free Jeeps from California and shipping them to Michigan.. hmmmmmm…..
The most practical solution is to sell or donate* Krassler. Getting it to the US will be an expensive and difficult ordeal, and if diesels are about to be banned in much of Europe it doesn’t make sense to hang onto it so you can drive it, at most, a few more times. Someone who needs an inexpensive vehicle now would greatly benefit from owning the van even if it gets forced off the road in a year or two.
*Are car charities a thing in Europe like they are in the US? Some charities here will directly give safe and running donated vehicles directly to the poor, since our public transit sucks and not having a vehicle can preclude someone from working or getting their kids to school.
1-877-Autos4Kinder?
Three words: import it. Racecar.
Run it in 24 Hours of LeMons. Figure 8 racing. Diesel drags.
Enter it in every form of racing you can find, and write stories. Put a cage in, get a helmet and a fire suit and GO!!!
Ship it to Dubbo, Australia, then drive it across the Outback.
This is the correct answer.
Push it into the woods and light it on fire.
The only reasonable solution.