One of the reasons I brought the car was to test the pre-production prototypes roams capabilities with several nations sim cards across Europe - including Russia and Belarus.... We had stayed v close to the border with BY and knew we'd pick up their networks.
Another reason was that SC had sold the Toyota Rav4 and used the proceeds to buy another apartment and I wanted to see if I could persuade the Russian customs to accept a reasonable duty payment - as the car was bought outright in the UK and I had the receipt - showing the card transaction
SC had had to walk / take taxis - a lot - for nearly a whole month!
The situation is that I can import the car for up to a year - duty free for personal use - that includes SC driving it - as long as I'm in the car !
Unfortunately, as my Visa expires soon - I was given c 40 days and the car would need to leave Russia - if I did
The duty USED to be 25% plus VAT - but is NOW charged on the engine size and age of the car .....Bizarrely a car less than 3 years old is LESS than a car over 3 years old!
We would have ended up paying 120% duty - not viable financially - so I looked at driving the car to Georgia - but it rained HEAVILY - meaning snow in the mountains and even with winter tyres - too risky ((
What to do ?
Christmas came early for SC in the form of a new Ford Focus - Ford of Russia being desperate to right a wrong when supplying us a 'lemon', previously
Now what to do with the UK car ? .... It had to leave Russia - 'Abkhazia' was only 20 mins away and Russia treats that as another nation - while most western states say it is part of Georgia.....
The Sochi Mayor's office kindly offered to arrange for it to be stored over the border - where I could 're-import ' it on my return - but I had already bitten the bullet - bought winter tyres and decided to leave the car in an EU country - where the insurance for the car would be fully active..... Mad as it seemed - I decided to drive back via FINLAND:))) [ I did not want to cross Ukraine and Belarus - hassle with temp. importation ]
Winter tyres were bought and fitted in Sochi - the 'normal' tyres were bagged up and put in the car and we tried to book a train to St Petersburg with the car.
(For those of us unfamiliar with winter tyres, the compound stays more 'rubbery' in cooler temps and the tread pattern grips better. )
Sadly, there was no space for the car on 'car trains' for 4 days and I had to leave Russia before the 13th Dec as my 90 days out of 180 would be used up.
I booked a train to Moscow and another to St Petersburg - which meant leaving earlier - the next evening(
Our last day together was rather sad... we had to deliver the Vauxhall to Adler - where the train started and then return to Sochi - 6 six hours before the train departed. Adler is 30Km to the south and home to the airport, F1 GP circuit and airport.
This video shows why defensive driving is required at the wheel in Russia - wait for the (censored) in the BMW X5!
VIDEO Normally, we have time to prepare for the parting and this was too swift. I had been observing my colleagues 'perfect' our gadgets. ( We had abandoned ANY wired connections - adopting a little used wireless protocol - this involved a major rethink ) meaning I had had little leisure time with SC ((
This was our least joyful parting as we will not meet until the new year .....
After this photo - SC trimmed my hair - made me weigh myself and pronounced satisfaction that I had lost 3 Kg! Living with SC means a healthy diet
"I am sending you on your journey looking better than when you came", ))
The original plan was to leave the car in Finland for the winter and return with it to Russia, but I decided I was up for a grand journey back - as I'd only be driving from 'Piter' to Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, NL, Belgium, France.... "The kit could be tested in three more EU nations, right?", I reasoned to myself ...
The road trip continues ...