Bought a car abroad? How do you get it delivered?

What do you need from the seller?

Make sure the car is paid for and that the seller knows it will be collected. The seller hands these over with the car at pickup, or sends them to you directly:

• The registration certificate, in the original. Where the country issues it in two parts, as Germany does, you need both parts.
• The purchase contract or invoice with your name as the buyer.
• All the keys, and the service book if there is one.
• For a new car: the certificate of conformity (CoC). The registration office may ask for it.

For an auction car, you also need the release code or PIN that lets us collect it.

How can you check that a transport company is real?

A transport company working across EU borders should have an EU VAT number, which you can check in the European Commission's VIES database. Ours is BG208038880: VIES shows it under our Bulgarian name, МАП ЛОГИСТИК - ООД, which is MAP Logistic OOD in Latin letters.

Ask how and when you pay before you agree to anything. Be careful if someone asks you to pay an unknown transport company in advance. We never ask private buyers to pay before delivery.

How do you book the transport?

1. Send your request with the form: the vehicle, the pickup town, the delivery town and when the car is ready.
2. You get your price within 1 hour during office hours.
3. Accept it and send us the seller's address and contact. For an auction car, add the release code or PIN.

What happens when we collect the car?

You don't need to be there. The seller, the dealer or the auction compound hands over the car, its keys and its documents. The driver checks them, and the car is loaded onto the transporter.

The car travels with a CMR consignment note, the international document for goods carried by road. It is signed at pickup and again at delivery. Because the car is cargo, it needs no plates, export plates or road insurance for the journey.

How do you follow the car on the way?

Your tracking link shows the car's status and its estimated arrival. On most of our own trucks you also see the truck's approximate position, updated about every hour.

What should you check at delivery?

1. Walk round the car before you sign anything, in daylight if you can. Look for scratches, dents and damage to the glass and the wheels.
2. Check the keys and the documents.
3. Write any damage you find on the CMR consignment note before you sign it, and take photos.
4. Pay for the transport: private buyers pay on delivery.

This order matters. Under the CMR Convention, signing for the car without noting visible damage counts as evidence that it arrived as described on the consignment note. Damage you couldn't see at delivery must be reported in writing within 7 days, not counting Sundays and public holidays.

What do you do after delivery?

Register the car in the country where you live. You need the original registration certificate, both parts where there are two, and the office may ask for more documents.

When you register it, the authorities can check that VAT was paid correctly. A new car pays VAT in the country where it is registered: for VAT, a car counts as new if it has done no more than 6,000 km or was supplied to its owner within 6 months of its first registration.