Bringing a tax vignette home

Originally Posted by RVD

fyi, i know that this is an old thread but when i got my car back this week, the vignette from the Czech republic was gone as well as the Germany sticker (emissions thing) was gone.

maybe next time i'll get a sticker shield and bring them back with me.

Did you not place the sheet of paper in the car asking everyone to leave the vignettes and zoll tags in place? I brought two of these with me on my ED, and the kind frau at LogInOut already had some to use.

no i did not do that. in hamburg, it was never brought to my attention that i could do that. but i also didn't ask. i just thought it would come in with them still attached. it's not a big deal though...oh well.

My guess is that all these solutions are imperfect at best. On one hand, I'm probably more obsessive than most of you. OTOH, my obsessiveness does not extend to stuff like this. We did not post any notes, but left it to fate. The car came through in 2010 with both the Swiss vignette and the Umweltzone sticker in place, with the latter directly under the temp California registration (see pix). They are there to this day.

As much as I was tempted, I decided not to push it by leaving my iDrive parody sticker on the dash (second pix).

Originally Posted by b-y

As much as I was tempted, I decided not to push it by leaving my iDrive parody sticker on the dash (second pix).

nice to see the efficiency in your version of iDrive with placement of the options for sex and invasion of neighboring countries at the top level. How... German.

We've had the stickers left on one time and then removed the next. Last time, we had no tape or fancy sheet protectors, etc., so we put the vignettes on using bandaids lol! as Jonathan points out, we'd have been ticketed if stopped.

This time we will need vignettes for Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, so I'm going to bring the signs asking everyone to leave the vignettes and zoll tags in place. I'm not sure I'd have enough bandaids to affix all of those .

Originally Posted by RVD

when i received the car at my dealership, both were gone and the area was cleaned (as if nothing was there).

Your dealer probably removed them. They were prepping the car as if it were a new car delivery. This was probably a result of the fact that you didn't give your dealer explicit instructions not to remove them. LOGINOUT did not remove them (they have no reason to) and the VCD at Port Hueneme most likely did not remove them.

I e-mailed my CA explicit instructions on how to "prep" my car for redelivery:

• Leave both Euro plates on. DO NOT remove the the front plate and drill for the front license bracket (E9x).
• Do not remove any stickers from the windshield of the car.
• Do not wash the car!
• Do not affix any dealer plaques, stickers, or license plate frames.

Not only did I e-mail him these instructions, I explicitly reminded him verbally when he called to say the car arrived. Literally, once the car was unloaded, he parked it and locked it. It was never touched by the service department.

Originally Posted by JSpira

Otherwise, the Swiss will apply it for you and they probably don´t use face cream.

The beautiful Swiss Border Guard that questionned us when we entered from France sure appeared to use face cream. Yowser... was she good looking!

Oh wait a minute, you meant the sticker...

I left three of the "please leave me stuff alone" stickers throughout my car, called my CA and emailed the dealership telling them to leave everything on the car, but still lost the rear plate in the transaction. At least my widow stickers and my front plate remained. I would've liked the rear plate for my mancave's travel souvenirs wall, but that just gives me an excuse to do it again in three years.

Dandanio,

Face cream trick worked like a charm for me! Thanks for the tip!

The Austrian vignette applied last July is still there. I also used the "keep yo filthy meat hooks off meine plates/vignettes" flier.

Originally Posted by spencer842

Dandanio,

Face cream trick worked like a charm for me! Thanks for the tip!

I am glad it did the trick! It worked for me as well!

I wonder if a European buying a car in the USA would obsess over a smog inspection sticker?

Originally Posted by Bikie

I wonder if a European buying a car in the USA would obsess over a smog inspection sticker?

First, we have to answer one fundamental question: What car would be worth picking up in the US? 'vette? Viper? F150?

Actually my German friend took home the Park Service sticker he got while touring out West a few years ago. Smart move because they no longer pass them out and are collector's items. But then again the dude is kind of a wierdo, even for a German: he took home a milk carton from Schwanz Dairies finding the name hilarious whenever we put out milk for breakfast.

Originally Posted by Gluhwein

But then again the dude is kind of a wierdo, even for a German: he took home a milk carton from Schwanz Dairies finding the name hilarious whenever we put out milk for breakfast.

Was he 13 years old? :-)

Hahahahaha

Actually he's in his thirties but acts like a pre-teen. And he no longer lives in Germany. I think they exiled him to the Canary Islands.