Made a call yesterday to the airport customs people about duties.  The lady
was nice and actually looked up some stuff for me.  She believes that
anything based on the european T5 and sprinter bases would come into the US
as commercial based vehicles.  Duties would be figured at the port of entry
and would range from 10 to 20 percent.  Then comes a kicker.  Some vehicles
get an additional "luxury" and/or "special duty" tax added on top.  This is
different than the normal luxury tax at the dealer and can be massive.
Vehicle currently would mandatory have to go through a bonded inspection
company.  That company must be certified by both the EPA and the NHTSA for
vehicle inspections.  In some cases that company would also assign a
"valuation" for that vehicle.  So trying to claim customs against a one
dollar purchase is not going to work.  Then a kicker on that part.  If the
vehicle is less than a certain age it is automatically inspected and valued
as a new vehicle regardless of miles and actual age.

As she did not do vehicles (not to many airlifted into DIA), she was not
sure what parts of the rules would hit a camper but she suspected almost all
would. She could not find any VW van or mercedes vans on any lists to come
up with any real on the spot info.  That right there tells me "Warning"!
they are probably going to be case by case.

Jimt

On 9/13/05 7:25 PM, "Martine Boudreault" <martine.boud@VIDEOTRON.CA> wrote:

> I have been looking at Sprinter base camper and they are amazing with good
> gas mileage but pricing in North America for the new Westfalia/Sprinter or
> other conversion van are way too high.