I’m a lifelong Volvo fan after driving different Volvos the past 12 years, and was sad to sell mine when we moved from New York. It’s quite ironic that we just moved to Sweden, and I still don’t drive a Volvo! I’m not complaining about the brand new shiny Mercedes-Benz though, but we are also planning on buying a Volvo as a second car.
Even when we lived in the US, we bought all of our Volvos from Europe via Volvo Overseas Delivery program. When my husband was asked in the job interview (for the job in Sweden) if he had ever been to Sweden, he answered “oh yes, several times, the last time when I bought a new Volvo few years ago.”
The best about the Volvo Overseas Delivery? If you want to do both, travel to Europe AND buy a new car and think you can’t afford both in the same year: you CAN. You get free flights for two and cheaper price for the car. No kidding. Why do you think I love it so much?
Volvo Overseas Delivery
The Volvo Overseas Delivery program is the only overseas delivery program we have ever used, but we have done research on others as well (BMW and Mercedes-Benz) and always felt the European delivery for Volvo offered the most, but they have changed over the years, so you might want to check them out too.
You can learn more about the
Volvo Overseas Deliver on their website, but basically this is what you get:
• Two round-trip tickets with Scandinavian Airlines
• A free first class hotel night in Gothenburg, Sweden
• Savings up to 8% (varies by model) off the U.S. MSRP on U.S.-model Volvos
• Free shipping to your U.S. Volvo retailer
• Fifteen day European Car Insurance coverage, including Swedish temporary registration for six months
• Experience the Factory Delivery Center in Gothenburg, Sweden & Volvo factory tour, visit to the Volvo Cars Brand Experience Center or a visit to the Volvo Museum
• U.S. Customs Duty, port clearance fees and inland transportation to your U.S. Volvo retailer are included in purchase price
So basically you will get a car AND a vacation for the same price. You will not need a rental car for your trip in Sweden/Europe, but you can drive your own Volvo.
Now, there are a few things to consider… it’s not going to happen overnight, and needs some planning.
When you order the new Volvo, you will have to pay a $2,000 deposit, and final payment for the car is due 30 days prior the pick-up. Meaning that if you take a loan, your loan payments start running a month before the trip even though you don’t even have a car yet. And once you go to Sweden (or other Volvo dealer in Europe, we picked our cars in Finland and Germany, and dropped off in Sweden), enjoy your vacation, and drive it back to the Volvo shipping center, it still will take approximately 6 weeks for you to get your car in the US. So you have to be able to make the car payments for about three months before you even get the car home in the US. We did this during summer time and lived with one car (another Volvo…) and my husband drove his motorcycle to work.
This is pretty much the ONLY semi-bad thing about the entire overseas delivery, and it’s not bad if you just plan ahead a bit. Everything else from customer service in the US to Europe has been impeccable every single time, and most Volvo service centers we’ve used in the US have been amazing as well when it comes to customer service. Volvo has made buying a car a pleasurable experience, and that’s why we have been going back.
PS. Did you read yesterday about the contest Volvo is having..?
You could win a trip to Sweden.
