Importing a US Prius to Europe

Congratulations on your pending move.

The major differences between NA and European Prius include the fuel tank bladder and the engine coolant heat recovery pump. Minor differences would be whatever has to be done to the lighting to make it conform to the safety standards in the country that you will be moving to.

If you have a problem with the above-mentioned first two items, it will be tough to get it serviced in Europe since 1) they won't have parts and 2) their mechanics likely won't have been trained on how to diagnose and repair those systems.

Good luck with your decision.

 

Is it daytime running lights ? Canadians importing from US sometimes have to have some lighting mods done.

 

Each "European country" has it's own rules and regulations about vehicles as well as its own tariffs.

I'm not sure how easy it would be to refuel in Europe with the different pumps.

Selling the car in Europe would be really tough due to the lack of warranty and the big drop in resale value with most used car prices in Europe compared to the US.

You need to do a lot of preparation on this in my opinion.

 

A number of owners have complained about noisy engine coolant heat recovery pumps, and a subset of that number managed to get a replacement under warranty. A few owners have had problems with the fuel tank and had the tank replaced.

You should expect that the US warranty will not be honored outside North America.

Realizing that Prius prices in Europe are much higher than the US, you might do well to buy a used European Prius while you are on assignment there.

 

The Prius is known to suffer from engine start problems if gasoline with octane higher than 87 is used, especially the Classic model.

I don't know for sure whether the European Prius will have the same diagnostic protocol compared to the US Prius. You'd have to obtain the European Prius repair manual info from the toyota-europe website and compare diagnostics to the diagnostics documented in the US Prius repair manual, which can be found at techinfo.toyota.com

I don't imagine that many Prius are sold in Switzerland, hence you will have the problem that the local mechanics are unfamiliar with the car and probably won't do a good job servicing it, not even considering the fact that it is a US import. The local dealers may refuse to service the car, using the excuse that it is a US import.

I know of a Prius owner in Malaysia who had to pay very big $$$s to import a UK Prius to that country. He is totally on his own for service as the Toyota dealers in that country do not sell Prius. If desperate he could drive to Singapore for help, but of course his car has no warranty coverage.

I really think you would be better off buying a locally-sold vehicle and keeping Prius in mind for a future purchase when you return to the US. I assume that you are moving because you have a new job, and probably will not have lots of time to spend fooling around trying to get your Prius serviced.

 

You would have to research that, ideally look to find other users who moved. Alternatively you could remove the bladder of course, European Prius does not have it.

I don't know that the European way of calculating "octanes" is the same. People have correctly noted that high octane gas may cause engine problems in the US Prius, but I haven't seen any posts explaining why the US and EU engine versions would be different in any way shape or form.

The UK has some websites about importing a car that you can look into, including projectile dimensions etc. I looked a while back for the UK...

 

With respect there's a couple of obvious places to get the answers to these questions:

1. Toyota. They should have a wealth of knowlege about this issue.
2. The Swiss government. You cannot be the first American who has wanted to bring a car with him.

I can understand your desire to get input from a place like this, but you really do need some good input from those two sources.

There are a number of good points that have come up in this thread, such as the EU method for calculating octane rating (I don't think they use R+M/2, but I honestly can't remember), lighting requirements, etc. But the Swiss consulate is going to be the best place to get info like that.

Don't be shy, it sounds like you're going to be spending some time in their country you might as well introduce yourself now....

 

My Canadian owners manual says no; probably US is same. Heck, my Canadian Prius can't get warranty service in Hawaii or Mexico.

 

Hi Michael,

Both of my Prius were first sold in Honolulu. Toyota dealerships in Hawaii are owned by Servco Pacific which is a separate legal entity not associated with Toyota Motor Sales USA. Although the warranty book says that the warranty will be honored in the US and Canada, in fact some delay must be expected as TMS USA doesn't have a record of Prius sold by Servco Pacific. Hence TMS USA needs to update their vehicle databases before warranty service can be performed.

When I had warranty service performed in California on both Prius, I had to provide a copy of the factory window sticker and the bill of sale to provide evidence that the cars were sold in Hawaii. (The service writer initially thought that they had come from Canada since the VINs were not in the TMS USA database.)

 

I'd also check regarding insurance. I know that in the UK car insurance goes through the roof if you're either driving a foreign imported car or are driving on a foreign license, even if you have an IDP (International Driver's Permit).

Nikki.

 

hi
you dont need to import prius from usa i can get you a local prius and japan import a lot cheaper than USA with warranty
barghybridcars.

 

I think that they would have that all sorted out in the intervening 11 years since inquiring.

 

The newbs never look at the dates.