Buying a Second hand motorhome in Germany

Just wondering if anyone can help. ....
Posting on behalf of my sister. ....
Point details are:
NZ family of 7
They are currently in Germany without a vehicle of any kind.
Living in a cabin in forest with limited Internet.
Want to travel around Europe in second hand motorhome.
Need to leave / exit Germany by Feb 21 due to Visa.
Would like to purchase an older (30 years) motor home as it positively affects environmental (green sticker) requirements and cost.
Looking to spend 15000 EU on purchase.
Despite advice otherwise, have hit a wall with officials advising they need to be EU residents to purchase the vehicle.
Can anyone help? :)

The following link is one of the best online motor sales in Germany.
You can filter results by filling in details such as price, location (you don't say where your sister is) and any other preferences.
http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/search.html?scopeId=MH&lang=en

TBH I don't see how your sister can purchase insurance without a German address.

Thank you. I will pass on. Yes, she is finding it difficult with registration / papers however there have been a few people who have commented previously / elsewhere that they successfully did so.... so I am hoping to find someone on here who may be able to provide specifies such as a particular company they can deal with. As strange as it sounds I am unsure of"where" my sister is. I do know the last place she stayed was Tuebeingen (I am winging the spelling!). Thank you again. Every little bit of advice helps :)

The older the motorhome, the less green on paper it is.
If they're looking at a 7 berth & something around the 30 year old mark, €15k is way over budget. A more realistic price would be just under €10k for a good runner with a recorded service history. At 30+ years old it won't attract any green certificates or tax/duty exemptions at all.
They do not need to be EU citizens/residents to purchase a vehicle within the EU. Anyone, from any country, can buy a vehicle in Germany.
However getting insurance will be fiddly, though not impossible. They need to visit a German broker or dealer who specialises in/sells motorhome insurance for foreigners. It's not a rarity. Many non-EU residents from Australia, Canada & the USA buy motorhomes short term in Europe for a few month's usage. It's not unheard of.

And they really need to consider the "green" emissions question. All modern european vehicles for the last 20 years or so have been given a euro emissions rating. It started in about 1995 or 6 with euro 0 and is currently on euro 6. Increasingly cities are banning access to earlier models and "low emission" zones are becoming more common - particularly favoured among politicians!! Assuming they go ahead with a purchase, I would recommend they go for the highest euro rating they can afford. But to get insurance they need a permanent address in their country of residence.

I don't understand the remark about the visa. If they have a "normal" visa, it would mean they are visa-exempt and can stay within the Schengen-zone for 90 days within a 180 days period. If they would have a "special" visa, just for Germany, they would be eligible for a Schengen-visa for the next 90 days and not have to leave Germany or the Schengen-zone as a whole.

Hi All, My sister has managed to get enough Internet time to read everyone's thoughts. Thank you. She has sent me several Viber messages, so rather than reply individually I thought I would cut and paste en mass.....

As far as the green emission rating/sticker is concerned we were advised by the Camping Club and the Landratsamt (regional council authority) that if we had an oldtimer (with H-Kennzeichen) then we would be allowed to travel anywhere including areas that now demand a minimum of Euro 3 or 4. I have yet to find this information verbatim from the STVA website (the country's transport agency), in law or elsewhere.

As for where we are....near Deufringen in Baden Wuerttemberg.

As for the visa thingy .... we are here on a Bi-lateral visa waiver agreement (pre-dating the Schengen agreements but including many of the Schengen countries). The particular details are complicated but the basis is that our 90 days in Germany is up on the 21st February and we were to have made our way our of this country and be travelling around other bi-lateral visa waiver countries for 90 days until we could re-enter Germany again.

I am interested in further explanation of what lennythelion wrote "At 30+ years old it won't attract any green certificates or tax/duty exemptions at all." What do they mean exactly? We were told that the tax on an oldtimer is only 191 EUR which I thought was a huge reduction on regular tax, but I may be wrong. What is meant by duty exemptions?

the H-numberplate is indeed an essential loophole in this case: most cities nowadays only accept the green stickers, i.e. you'd need a fairly young car (likely less than 10 years old, expensive) in order to pass. the details are e.g. here: http://www.brd.nrw.de/umweltschutz/umweltzone_luftreinhaltung/Ausnahmen_von_Verkehrsverboten_in_der_Umweltzonefinal.pdf - and scroll down to the bottom of the first page

Thank you. She will read this when she wakes up over there :)

More from myshushed: As for the link in the other thread. Yes we were made aware of the possibility of registering the vehicle (without registering ourselves as living at a particular permanent residence) on an Ausfuhrkennzeichen but that the cost for 9-12 months would be prohibitive. That does seem to be the case as far as the online reckoner is concerned.

We just found out that one of the two vehicles that we might have considered is not for us. The other is not perfect and according to the advice you have been given is more expensive than it needs to be. Although I do wonder if the advice is based on a MOHO that is driveable on a car license, whereas we both have our 'C' truck licenses and so were looking at a longer and heavier vehicle (mainly to keep the family sane). Some of the shorter ones that you can drive on a 'B' license are around the 10,000 EUR mark though.

And have you also any ideas about what you will do with the mobil home after your trip?

@Auntynell btw, if you don't mind, please keep us updated. a query like yours crops up now and then an it's always nice to have some good/bad evidence (even if it's just empirical) for future visitors - thanks!

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