we have been through the mill trying to keep our beautiful 17 year old BMW 318 convertible in Turkey more than 6 months to the point that if we cannot get it resolved in the next week we will have to hand it to customs for scrap. Before reading our woes the most important thing is we live in Didim near Altinkum so wanted to know if anyone has done this, i.e. where do we take it and what is the procedure?

For others wishing to try to import, a few facts

We brought the car in 6 months ago, knowing I was retired and knowing thinking we could get a permit as a retired person from the Turkish Touring Association www.turing.org.tr/eng/mavikarne.asp think again

As a starting point, the car is RHD and in the UK worth about 800 pounds so it would cost more to take home than it would to scrap and as a RHD it has no real value other than scrap, which given that it is 17 years old, broke down twice on route here and as it is in need of work, even the scrap value is nothing.

On the site above there is a scale which gives you the guarantee needed by year and cc and at the bottom it clearly says if the car has a low or nil value to contact the association for a valuation. We informed the Touring Association of our circumstances by email and got no reply so we called and were told they would call back, again no reply, wind forward 3 months and numerous emails and calls with no reply our 6 months is fast running out so we decide to sod it and go to the bank today to organise the security letter taken from their site for 4000 TL.

We downloaded the form naively thinking it would take 10 minutes to get a it signed at HSBC and be on our way, nope, after queuing all afternoon the next problem came when the bank said they could get the letter signed but it would have to go to the Head Office in Ankara, which could take 3-4 weeks pushing us over our 6 month limit. Further to this the Touring Association said the bond would only be accepted from a current account meaning we would lose the interest of 4000 TL for as long as we keep the car in the country, which my bank manager worked out would be around 800 TL a year. The other quicker option us to take the money 4000 TL from our savings account and deposit it in US dollars or Euros in The Touring Association account, where we would lose the interest and the Turkish Government earn interest on our 4000 TL.

On top of this there was a 370 TL fee to keep the car for 2 years.

Further to this we had to take a trip to Aydin to get Retired entered on my Residents Visa as for some strange reason it was not done when we first came and as I could not read Turkish I did not know. When we asked the police in Aydin why they had not put down my occupation as retired he shrugged and said you did not say you wanted to bring a car, lesson learnt for the future.

We also had to pay to translate my retirement documents into Turkish and have them validated by a lawyer/notary.

We are really upset at how poor we have been treated and how bureaucratic and inflexible the system is, the law in this case is an arse, if we were allowed to keep the car we would have spent money at a local garage having it repaired, we would be buying petrol every month and local insurance, which the government would gain taxes from, we would be visiting more tourists sites around Turkey generating revenue to the tourist industry. Our pictures of those visits would be on myspace or Facebook encouraging friends or family to visit Turkey. As is we cannot afford to replace the car so we will not be able to travel as much, and rather than read how wonderful Turkey is friends and family and message board readers will be reading how the Turkish system left us upset, car-less and how a beautiful old car was scrapped for the sake of bureaucracy.

Sadly no matter how much we love the car my wife calls Anton it is simply not prudent to keep a car worth nothing and needing repair so unlees someone knows a trick we say goodbye on Monday

Starman.Been through all this on one of your ' old forums ' with the same person. Guess they are desperate and trying anywhere they can.

Ian

thanks for the replies, which is kind.

We have tried a few other forums in the hope there was an answer but also with a view to lettting as many people as we can know the difficulties and time scale needed to do things, in the hope they do not suffer the same fate as us, i.e. having to scrap a car we love.

We also did look at all the forums before bringing the car and spoke to the Touring Association who told us it would be fine and they would get back to us, which is the route of the problem, they kept saying they would get back and did not and their website was not clear about what was needed from the bank, nor did we expect a major bank dealing with many UK customers not to have authority or the ability to sign a simple form.

I love living in Turkey, where we live a frugal, private and enjoyable life and we have the utmost respect for the people, customs and laws here! That stated it still seems punitive that a serviceable old car with no real value has to be scraped on Monday for not other reason than inflexible bureaucracy and people not being polite enough to reply and no matter how naive I feel we have been in thinking we could be treated in a timely fashion and with fairness respect and/or even compassion, I fully understand that what is a major problem for me and my wife is a minor one to the officials dealing with it. Sadly it is this type of story that scares people from investing in Turkey and fuels the negativity and racism I so often here from UK Residents in bars and cafes.

thanks again for those who took time to reply, sorry to those who have stumbled across this on other forums (yes we were/are desperate) and for others reading this thread, irrespective of this problem and having lived in the US, Middle East and Germany, be assured that poor bureaucracy is common in all countries so it has not affected my belief that Turkey is an amazing country and it is still a joy and privilege to live here.

Alec

Hi Alec
we have found a way of keeping our uk registered car in turkey.
İf you are a student or receive a state pension from the uk it is posible.
the only draw back is every time you want to fly out the car has to be put into customes at ismir and be taken of your pasport. the cost for the whole prcedure is around 2000 usd which is a deposit and refundable on eather scraping the car or taking it out. and a small parking fee when you collect it
hope my input is of some help to you and your old jeloppy.

Alec
having said all that i totaly agree with your coments about the stupid laws and also how you love living in turkey.
we are also considering scraping our old car a lovley red seat tolado. which drgged a trailer across europe for us when we came to live here. nearly four years ago.
we will be sad to see her go. but are fed up with re importing her every time we come back from a trip out of the country. best of luck to you.
Linda

a wee update;

we went to Izmir to hand our car in yesterday and;

first the down bit was when they totally ignored me as I wondered around the customs office looking for anyone to get eye contact with for help. After bringing up enough courage to interrupt the stern looking lady sitting closest to the counter and getting through in my embarrassingly bad pigeon Turkish, I was pointed to an office and after looking at my passport a man with his child sitting behind him rudely threw me out because they only use Turkish and agressively waved me away and from what I could understand, telling me to go to the Embassy and come back with an interpreter.

More than a little stunned I went back to my wife who is German and we agreed to go back again and try to talk to them in German, again no joy, though we are not sure if it was the sight of my wife or the fact we went back for a second time and they then realised we were distressed that they started being more pleasant, then we had a stroke of luck when a Greek guy who could speak English and Turkish came in the office for something else and got his brother who lives in England from the car park to help.

It transpires that we actually had 2 stamps on the passport, one tiny illegible scribble for the car and one more official looking stamp for me on different pages.

If you can follow this you have more mental dexterity than me; first I was told that the car should have been out the country in July, as Erdine had taken 4 of my 6 months entitlement from the van we used to bring our possessions here, even though they were totally different vehicles and not informed us of this when we came in. Then they looked at the official stamp and told me I should have left the country on Saturday and stayed out for 6 months, (note you are meant to leave the day before the date on the stamp, which was new to me) so I produced my 3 year residency visa and they then said oops again, no I was fine to stay but Erdine should not have let the car in at all, aas the 6 months only apply to tourist visas. I then pointed out my residency stated retired and showed them my Army Pension slip so they said oops again and that we should come back again in a few days with the papers from the Touring Club and we can keep the car.

I asked them if they wanted to keep the car in customs while we do this and they had a little discussion and told me just to go home and not drive it until the paperwork was done, which was a kind unexpected bonus.

We then went to find the Touring Association Office, which is in a block of flats on the corner a strange and busy junction and the address and house numbering is quite confusing i.e. 31/2 is before 31/1 even though every other number runs consecutively in the street. Again nobody could speak English so other than now knowing where everything is for our next attempt, we did not achieve much. Note once and if I get all this done I would be happy to help others in future, as my wife always needs books and cranberry sauce from the Ikea shopping centre

Our biggest lessons were; just because Izmir is a major port do not expect anyone to be able to speak English so take a Turkish friend. Park at the customs for 3.5 TL and walk or get a taxi to the touring office as it took 45 minutes to find another parking space in mental traffic once we left customs.

Although it was a confusing mixture of rudeness and helpfulness and with rules changing by the second, we think karma wants us to try at least once more to keep the car so we are off around the houses again today to see if we can get the manager at HSBC to speed up the system with the threat of moving our money to Ishbank who did the form in a day for a friend and allowed their money to stay in their savings account.

Wish us luck

Alec

Hi Alec
i do wish you all the luck in the world because you will need it.
The thing that i find funny when i go to izmir customes with my car every time i have to leave the country, is that no two times are ever the same. and the 50 or so signatures and rubber stamps you need on the reems of paperwork from veriouse people who are never in the same place twice.
we now have our own translator in the form of our 13 year old son who is fluent in the turkish language now.
Good news though, when you need to renew the document as you will when your residency permit expires. you dont have to attend in person. but can give all the relavent paperwork to an agent. and the prosses will take about a week. Updates of pension document needed for this.
all the best.