john steele

My $.0002. The bank will look at your ability to pay, the cars value, and insurance. There may be a requirement in the loan that the car remain registed (or in the US). This would be to maintain the cars' loan value. You would need to document that car would not loose value as a loan, or convert the loan to an unsecured loan, or offer other security for the loan if the bank has problems. Your problems with insurance will likely be because your car may not meet European code so it can not be registered (just to begin with, side marker lights, rear tail light, fuel adapter, spedo conversion, etc). Read a British car magazine (eg Japanese Performance) they have lots of adds from import companies that specialize in preping cars to meet European standards. Some cars in some countries are required to anti-hijacking devices installed. Then you can pay the taxes and then get insurance (again, there are lots of adds in British car mags). There are companies that specialize in doing all of this and the paperwork for a fee. I'd try to find someone on base who had done this before and ask how they did it.