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, TÃœV:
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?
Import it for show and display only then just road trip it from car show to car show. Kind of a loose interpretation of the rules but it’d probably be the only Voyager ever imported under those terms.
Sell it. Now. Bringing it to the US would be even less rational than Ian bringing Betty from NZ to the UK, even if California let you do that. What would be the point of storing in Germany — how often would you go there once your parents have moved to the US?
If it really runs and drives (and the A/C works!), it will be exported, probably to Africa, and probably serve its purpose there for many years to come.
Don’t come back with that thing still to your name!
“Don’t go back” I should say, as you are now “here” from my point of view.
Another HubNut viewer: Nice.
If it’s gong to Africa anyway, why not with DT in it then? 😉
Hi David. The Africa trip sounds like a great idea!
Manual transmission and a stone age diesel engine sounds like a good combination for that. Just give it some taller rougher tires for a little more ground clearance and grip, and maybe some home made skid plates underneith. You will get a long way without needing 4WD, and things it hasn’t wont break down..
So store it in Europe until that dream can come true! Good luck 🙂
You didn’t get the aussie ute imported to the states, so don’t with this one either! That’s just ridiculous expenses (with a not very exciting outcome) that could be used for great adventures instead.
Get rid of it. Now.
I watch with interest for California to eventually pass the David Tracy Law, a one-of-a-kind which will ban some combination of imported 29yo diesel minivans and rusty Jeep products (any age).
Donating the van to a NGO in Ukraine would be a great way to give the beast a new home. They’re not going to worry about emissions tests or strict inspections, they just need vehicles for their work and this is perfect. Minivans are so versatile, and the local mechanics can probably sort the diesel maintenance. You could do some real good by donating this trusty steed to Ukraine relief.
Sell it to that AutoAlex fella. https://www.instagram.com/autoalex/?hl=en
#1, He’s German, but lives in UK, so will get at least 1x road trip out of it
#2, He gets shitty old cars maybe even better than you lot on here
#3, Quality cross promotion for both Autopian, and AutoAlex.
#4, ‘Cause importing it to the US is pretty daft
#5, If you’re parents are no longer in Germany, how often are you really likely to go back and drive it. It will honestly be trips back just to keep it on the road.
I’m not joking, this is genuinely the best option for this car.
David, one of your fellow writers is clearly obsessed with RVs and van life is a huge trend right now. This van of yours is clearly a well-sorted candidate for a custom camper van conversion, which you and Mercedes Streeter could totally turn into a really fun series of articles and videos! When you’re not using it, it would also be available for Mercedes to take on road trips and explore the RV scene with. There’s still plenty of potential Autopian content that could be made with this van.
Import it, register it at my place in Oregon and my buddies and I will road trip the shit out of it.
How about you import it on the boss man’s dime and raffle it off to the last 1000 (5000??) people to sign up for an Autopian membership. Everyone wins and the van survives.
I hear Vermont is lovely this time of year. Import it and get some green plates on it!
Find some very excellent location in Europe, buy a cement block for the accelerator pedal, set up a camera to record the event, and do a Thelma and Louise (jump out first, of course).
Of course, the greenies would probably crucify you for adulterating their pristine environment.
The correct answer is import it and start logging landmark visits with it through the United States. Maybe take it to Alaska.
You can leave it with me and I’ll make it my daily driver.
think of this way. you muck around with shitboxen and make money off the content generated by that. project krassler has been taken as far as that story really can go. it wont make sense to import it as you’ll never see a ROI. now go find some “new-to-you” ludicrously unsafe rust bucket to entertain us with.
I don’t believe this has been mentioned yet…
Is there something Radwood-y you can do with it? Maybe they can use it for their official staff car or something. 🙂
Easy answer: Don’t live in Cali.
Import it, register it in another state, convert it to run on waste vegetable oil and/or homemade biodiesel.
Import and register under your newly created Montana LLC
Where are your parents going to live in the States? Will it be outside of California? Have you got a mate where you can stash it? This Italian Austrian American German car needs to cross the Atlantic.
Import Project Krassler and register it out of state
Import it, have a buddy register it outside cali, then challenge Jason and Mercedes to a top gear style challenge, battle of the vans….
3:1 Mercedes shows up in a bus
Sell it! Make room for the next bad decision.
Storing it in CA or trying to engineer some sort of workaround for CAs strict emissions doesn’t seem right. Surely one of the other Autopians has a place in their driveway for this thing? It would make a better family car than a Yugo. Or rather, in addition to a Yugo.
Otherwise, bring it over and sell it to the Autopian readership.
I recently imported a car from Europe and it was around USD$3,500 to the PNW. I have a hard time seeing how that makes sense for a car that most people wouldn’t value very high.
Sadly, unless you are going to keep it or donate it to someone in the States, importing it makes no sense. Have you priced diesel here lately? Still around $5/gal. Can you donate it to a charity over there? I see people saying to send it to Ukraine; not sure if they want something that old, but if they do, that’s not a bad choice.
“Have you priced diesel here lately?”
Don’t remind me! For the longest time, diesel in my area used to be either equal to 87, or some cents cheaper. I’m not really sure why, perhaps low demand? But I always fuel at home before hitting the highway, where diesel’s more expensive.
Anyway, when fuel prices spiked diesel went up to $5.50, or more than a dollar more than 87. Then when fuel prices reversed course for the holidays, diesel didn’t. So regular was like 2.90 and diesel was still freaking $5.
I feel bad for truckers. I can just drive a gasoline-powered car until diesel gets back down, but man, truckers are stuck paying these prices.
You’re sweet, in europe, we are between 7 and 8€ a gal (both diesel and 98) and it’s never ever coming back down.
But there’s probably €3 of taxes in that over and above the taxes that the US & states put on Diesel fuel in the USA.
Mercedes, I am old enough to remember when diesel was literally half or less the price of gas and about the same as kerosene. That’s when owning a diesel really made sense. Of course that far back there weren’t many diesel cars other than your namesake.
Open your own Autopian “Holy Grail Museum of Rust” and ask the government for a grant:
https://www.imls.gov/grants/available/inspire-grants-small-museums
Import it with a sorta-legal Montana title.