I might be moving to Sweden. I really like my North American S70 T5R Police Package. Does anyone know what it would take ($$$, modifications) to take my car with me to Sweden? Does anyone know who I should call? (Swedish equivalent of the DMV, etc.?)

I realize that this might be impractical. And maybe I could buy a similar or even better car over there - I'm looking in to that too (if anyone has any ideas, please let me know!) This would mean selling my S70, of course. If anyone is interested in buying it, please e-mail me.

Any general comments about moving from the US to Sweden would be much appreciated as well!

Thanks for your help,

Chelsea White

cheri458@bignet.net

Michigan, USA

I cant tell you anything about moving to Sweden, but when I moved to Norway, it was absolutely worth taking my own car. Cars in Scandinavia are very expensive, due to high vehicle taxes. A heavier car with a larger motor is especially expensive. That's why most Volvos in Norway have smaller engines than they do in the U.S., and why you hardly ever see an SUV

Call the Swedish consulate and ask for their regulations on importation of a car when moving. In Norway, you can bring in one car per person, and you have to use it in Norway a minimum of two years before you can sell it. There is also a requirement that you own the car for one year before you import it. I took a Toyota Previa minivan over there, drove it for three years, and then sold it for about what I paid for it in the U.S. six years earlier. If I had not waited the two years, I would have had to pay $16,000 in import duties (on a car with a U.S. book value of about $12,000)

Check if Sweden is similar. If you can, definitely ship your car over there. Drive-on/drive-off is a lot cheaper than putting it into a container, unless you can fill up the rest of the container with furniture. And remember to strip it of everything before you put it on the boat - even the cigarette lighter. The crew of the freighter has your car keys, and nothing much to do for two weeks.

The vehicle itself will likely need only minor modifications - different colored taillights and that sort of thing. It only cost about $200 to do the modifications that my car needed.

One last thing - your radio may not work there. European stations broadcast on the even frequencies, while U.S. stations broadcast on the odd frequencies (i.e. 94.2 instead of 94.1).

Rich

Rich,

Thank you very much for the suggestion - I will call the Swedish consulate today. If Sweden is similar to Norway, it sounds like taking my car with me is actually a great deal.

Thanks again,

Chelsea

Heloo..

I can tell about the price on the cars between Norway and Sweden is a big diffrence. In sweden it´s the half price if you looking on cars in Norway. if you buy a used S70 T5-98 in good condition it will cost 200.000 Skr..(ca 20.000 us dollar?). A new s70 T5 will cost 289.900 Skr. In Norway the same new car will cost ca.400.000-500.000.

have a Nice day

Markus // Sweden

Actually, the Euro stations (FM) broadcast in BOTH even and odd decimals whereas the US stations only in odd decimals. Furthermore, the AM (oe MW) stations here go by 10s, there they go by 8s. So, that will be a problem too.

The tail lights should not be a problem as Volvos here and there share the same colors (the blinker side is yellow and that is all that matters). Speedo will have to be changed along with the climate control face, in case the next buyer is a pain in the ass.

Yannis

Yannis,

Thanks for your message. Since my car is a police package, it has the absolute cheapest Volvo radio available. I understand that I was lucky to get a radio at all... so a better radio is in my future anyway. If I do take the car to Sweden, I'll upgrade it there.

The climate controls are already in Celsius because I bought the car in Montreal. I did change the speedo from KPH to MPH/KPH before importing it to the US - would MPH/KPH be OK or would I have to change back to KPH only?

I will contact the Swedish consulate for more information...

Thanks again!

Chelsea

Yannis, I know on the SC-816 in the MY2000 Volvos there is setting for USA or EUR, etc.

Steve F

Steve,

How do you change the settings for USA and European stations? My car came without any information about the radio... (the police radio is too cheap to be included in the owner's manual!)

Thanks,

Chelsea

Chelsea, I am not 100% sure how to do it, but I found out about the feature on this board, and I have done it on my SC-816 just to see if it worked and it did. The display shows USA(b default I guess), EUR, kinda like that. I think you have to hold the program button and press one of the track buttons at the same time, but like I said I am not sure.

Somebody else should know the trick???

Steve Ferraro

Hoboken, NJ

Steve and Chelsea,

I've fooled with those settings on my '99 S70, equipped with the SC-816 stereo. Press and hold preset number 5 when you turn the stereo on, and the display will show "USA" or "AUS" for the Australian market. When the display is in this mode, pressing that same preset a second time will switch to the other mode.

As far as I could determine, this merely switches the FM station separation from the US standard of 0.2 Mhz spacing to the rest of the world's 0.1 MHz spacing. There were other stereos offered in the european versions of these cars (SC-815, SC-805, etc.), and they might have other functions that are advantageous (necessary?) for proper operation in those markets.

BTW, that frequency mode switching is described in the regular S70 owners manual.