Moving from London to Helsinki

[olegin]

Hello BMW fans in Finland
I'm moving to Helsinki at the end of August and wanted to pop in and say Hi to the community on here. I'm a big BMW and ALPINA fan.

I currently drive a 2007 E92 325i but unfortunately will be selling it before moving. It's a very clean example with 18" Style 32 alloys and LED tail lights. I've done a lot of coding to it myself and it's a pleasure to drive.

My previous BMW was an 2004 E46 318Ci Facelift. Which I actually drove to Hämeenlinna from London 2 years ago in the summer across Europe and back.

I'm bringing my coding tools and experience (INPA, NCSExpert, Rheingold) on my laptop with me to Finland so if anyone needs some coding or error code readouts done I can try and help out. I'd love to contribute more to the forum but unfortunately I still have a long way to go to learn Finnish.

What are good sources/websites to look for cars for sale in Finland? I've been on Nettiauto a few times.

[petrolhead]

Welcome to the forum.
Yes, Nettiauto, that's about it. If a website can ever be a good place to look for cars

Jarno

[Macke]

autotalli.com and tori.fi are two more sites you can take a gander at. No comments on if they're good or not, but at least two more price references. Tori.fi is actually a pretty good site to find all kinds of other stuff one might need

[olegin]

Thanks for the replies. I'm noticing cars are a lot more expensive over in Finland compared to the UK.

[Järppä]

Thanks for the replies. I'm noticing cars are a lot more expensive over in Finland compared to the UK.

Yes unfortunately, you can blame our government

Are you moving here permanently or only certain amount of time because i think there is a way if you want to take your own car here. I dont know the law exactly about it but somebody here knows it.

Of course it can be little difficult to learn drive from right side at left side traffic at the beginning.

[nullzwei]

Welcome to Finland, one of the world's most expensive countries if You compare the taxation of the traffic. Please visit this site

https://www.vero.fi/en/individuals/vehicles/car_tax/

before moving Your vehicle to the land of the high taxes and no hope of smooth, reliable transactions with customs.

[JaniLap]

I'm noticing cars are a lot more expensive over in Finland compared to the UK.

Welcome, and by all means do contribute in English until you feel comfortable to discuss in Finnish. I'm positive your knowledge and experience will be welcomed by the community. There are also local meetings arranged every now and then which is a great way to meet other members face to face. Hop in!

You are correct in the relative high car price in Finland, used cars included, which also reflects the average age of cars on Finnish roads is currently nearly 12 years. This translates further to a lower traffic safety (deaths per capita) compared to other EU countries, such as the UK.

It is no news that for average people the money sets the limit on the age and mileage of the car you will be driving. It's unfortunate as new car models have been rated 10–40% safer compared to models that are 10 years older in both Finnish and international studies.

It partly blame the government taxation, but also due to attempts to respond to global environmental problem (emissions & climate change) and to develop a more sophisticated solutions for the public transportation, to name a few.

Aside from car price, it would be interesting to learn how much people are spending on car and road insurance in the UK per year?

[olegin]

Yes unfortunately, you can blame our government

Are you moving here permanently or only certain amount of time because i think there is a way if you want to take your own car here. I dont know the law exactly about it but somebody here knows it.

Of course it can be little difficult to learn drive from right side at left side traffic at the beginning.

Well I'm not quite sure if the move is temporary or permanent just yet. Driving on the right side is no problem, I've driven in Europe many times but of course there will be some learning curve but not a big one at all.

Welcome to Finland, one of the world's most expensive countries if You compare the taxation of the traffic. Please visit this site

https://www.vero.fi/en/individuals/vehicles/car_tax/

before moving Your vehicle to the land of the high taxes and no hope of smooth, reliable transactions with customs.

Thanks for the link I'll definitely have a look for future reference but I've decided I won't be moving my car with me.

[olegin]

Welcome, and by all means do contribute in English until you feel comfortable to discuss in Finnish. I'm positive your knowledge and experience will be welcomed by the community. There are also local meetings arranged every now and then which is a great way to meet other members face to face. Hop in!

You are correct in the relative high car price in Finland, used cars included, which also reflects the average age of cars on Finnish roads is currently nearly 12 years. This translates further to a lower traffic safety (deaths per capita) compared to other EU countries, such as the UK.

It is no news that for average people the money sets the limit on the age and mileage of the car you will be driving. It's unfortunate as new car models have been rated 10–40% safer compared to models that are 10 years older in both Finnish and international studies.

It partly blame the government taxation, but also due to attempts to respond to global environmental problem (emissions & climate change) and to develop a more sophisticated solutions for the public transportation, to name a few.

Aside from car price, it would be interesting to learn how much people are spending on car and road insurance in the UK per year?

In my opinion governments need to have better incentives to push people into buying newer, cleaner, safer, more efficient cars which the new models are. They shouldn't be punishing people because this causes situations where you drive older polluting cars and essentially has the opposite of the intended environmental and safety effect. But the UK government is to blame just as much to be honest. They are not really helping the environmental factor at all, they scrapped grants to alternative fuel vehicles and people are just not incentivised to buy the lesser polluting more efficient cars. This government is in bed with the big petroleum companies so why bother right.

The average age of cars on the road in the UK is somewhere around 7.7 according to the internet. Granted second hand car prices are cheaper here probably because these cars don't sell anywhere else in Europe at all with the steering wheel on this side. People here tend to get loans for new cars or get them on finance deals very easily. Another thing to consider is number plates in the UK have the registration year of the car on the plate. What this causes in this consumer mentality is a lot of people always want the latest plate, the latest year to show off.

Well for example my 2007 325i Coupe cost me £5000 (~€5600) with 75k miles (~120k km) on the clock. I've had a look and seems similar models in Finland are twice that cost at €12k
My insurance is around £700 (~€790) a year at the moment. On top of that we pay road tax which for my 2.5l is £250 (~€282) a year. I wonder how this compares to car running costs over in Finland?

[JaniLap]

Well for example my 2007 325i Coupe cost me £5000 (~€5600) with 75k miles (~120k km) on the clock. I've had a look and seems similar models in Finland are twice that cost at €12k

My insurance is around £700 (~€790) a year at the moment. On top of that we pay road tax which for my 2.5l is £250 (~€282) a year. I wonder how this compares to car running costs over in Finland?

Yep, you will get a rough idea of the asking price average by search Nettiauto.

Regarding the running costs as a car owner, you will pay around 360 euros for the road tax (325i Coupe 2007). There are a few variables to take into account with a car insurance, but in the end you will be looking at approximately same cost as in the UK.

[Dualfun]

Cheers friend and welcome to Finland!

You can find our local Uusimaa area in the forums here:

http://www.btcf.fi/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=69

This is where all local chat takes place.

Also a good opportunity is to meet some local BMW scene friends every second Wednesday at our regular "coffee and chat" meeting at Haaga Shell:

http://www.btcf.fi/forum/showthread.php?t=362628

Could be very silent now during heart of our super short summer time, but will definitely have some 10 odd members again for a simple social gathering we move to August again!

[Harri G]

Well for example my 2007 325i Coupe cost me £5000 (~€5600) with 75k miles (~120k km) on the clock. I've had a look and seems similar models in Finland are twice that cost at €12k
My insurance is around £700 (~€790) a year at the moment. On top of that we pay road tax which for my 2.5l is £250 (~€282) a year. I wonder how this compares to car running costs over in Finland?

About insurances. Prices vary a lot between insurance companies. First of all you need to have mandatory basic insurance. That can be at range of 600-800 EUR without any bonuses. Bonuses are based on your personal driving history, i.e. no crashes, bonus goes up. Full bonus is 70-80% decreased from insurance price. Basic insurance only covers damages to opposite vehicle. On top of this you might want to have a partial coverage (osakasko) or full coverage insurance (täyskasko). These can double the insurance bill. However I suggest strongly to ask offer from all major insurance companies since prices may vary a lot.

About yearly car tax. From 2001 onwards registered cars it is calculated based on emissions. As 325i is not very green, the amount is what presented earlier, 360 EUR. Before 2001 registered cars are billed based on total mass, and thus old M5 or 750iL might be as expensive as as 325i even though emissions are way over.

[olegin]

Cheers friend and welcome to Finland!

You can find our local Uusimaa area in the forums here:

http://www.btcf.fi/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=69

This is where all local chat takes place.

Also a good opportunity is to meet some local BMW scene friends every second Wednesday at our regular "coffee and chat" meeting at Haaga Shell:

http://www.btcf.fi/forum/showthread.php?t=362628

Could be very silent now during heart of our super short summer time, but will definitely have some 10 odd members again for a simple social gathering we move to August again!

Nice one, thanks for the welcome and the links.

About insurances. Prices vary a lot between insurance companies. First of all you need to have mandatory basic insurance. That can be at range of 600-800 EUR without any bonuses. Bonuses are based on your personal driving history, i.e. no crashes, bonus goes up. Full bonus is 70-80% decreased from insurance price. Basic insurance only covers damages to opposite vehicle. On top of this you might want to have a partial coverage (osakasko) or full coverage insurance (täyskasko). These can double the insurance bill. However I suggest strongly to ask offer from all major insurance companies since prices may vary a lot.

About yearly car tax. From 2001 onwards registered cars it is calculated based on emissions. As 325i is not very green, the amount is what presented earlier, 360 EUR. Before 2001 registered cars are billed based on total mass, and thus old M5 or 750iL might be as expensive as as 325i even though emissions are way over.

Thanks for the info, great stuff. Do you have price comparison websites for car insurance over there where a single sites searches multiple companies?
I have 5 years no claims bonus from the UK so ideally I'd try to find a company which would honor those years. I know some companies would not accept those as they're from abroad but I know here some companies do accept these from other EU nations.

[Harri G]

Thanks for the info, great stuff. Do you have price comparison websites for car insurance over there where a single sites searches multiple companies?
I have 5 years no claims bonus from the UK so ideally I'd try to find a company which would honor those years. I know some companies would not accept those as they're from abroad but I know here some companies do accept these from other EU nations.

I am afraid there is no such search engine for insurances. Car insurance price depends on such many things such as your age, postal code (urban or countryside), engine size, registration year etc. And because your bonus background from another EU country it gets even more complicated. Sorry to say but might be best to visit physically major insurance companies such as Pohjola, IF, Lähi-Tapiola, Fennia, Folksam.

Changing insurance company is a hell in Finland. Everything depends on everything. It is very time consuming to calculate it all out for comparison.

Whatever assistance you need, just ask. Folks at this site will help you in all cases

[Macke]

Biggest factor in basic traffic insurance cost is how much the particular car has been crashed here in Finland. This is at least how it used to be, and thanks to this fact the insurance on my 5.0 GT Mustang was way cheaper than on a 900 Saab. This might have changed over the years, but I doubt it as the traffic insurance on my old 1.9TD T4 Transporter is really high compared to the other cars in our family.

One thing to consider is unholy alliances of insurance companies + banks. You get better deals if you've got your banking and insurances from the same company. For example OP (osuuspankki) and Pohjola are in bed and I believe LähiTapiola + S-Pankki got the same kind of juju going on.

Changing the insurance company is easy peasy, comparing the prices might not be