I am currently living in Canada and plan to buy a Tucson 1.6T (regular gas). However, i will move for good to Switzerland in about 2 years and want to be sure i won’t have a hard time finding spare parts for the car (and the engine) back in Europe.
Both canadians and swiss dealers have a hard time to confirm its the same engine.
IN Switzerland, they call the engine 1.6T-GDI 177hp DCT (compared to 1.6T Gamma in-line DCT 175hp in Canada)
I guess if its not the same engine it will be harder to find spare parts once back in Europe.
Are you sure the “GDI” for the Swiss engine doesn’t mean Diesel Injection? Maybe the Swiss engine is a diesel version? The nomenclature for the USA version of the 2018 Tucson 1.6 turbo gasoline engine is “L4 1.6 L Turbo” from what I can tell, if that’s of any help.
What about the idea of buying a used Tuscson for now, and buying a new one when you get to Switzerland? Seems like that would prevent a lot of grief. If you want to continue on this path, suggest to make sure Switzerland will allow you to import a Canadian car. They might not.
We normally do not recommend taking a car to another country.
In addition to differences in engines there is a whole host of other safety and environmental differences. I agree with San Jose that it’s better to buy a local car when you get back to Switzerland.
Years ago before safety and environmental standards, it was possible to buy a car in Europe and take it overseas. Those days are long gone.
Both US and Canadian governments, for instance, have detailed instructions as to all the modifications needed if you were to import a car form overseas.
European standards for many things automotive are different than North American standards.
I suspect Switzerland will gladly let you import a Canadian car . . . they’ll just tax the heck out of you, and probably force you to convert it to meet the local standards. Might be differences with headlights, emissions, and so on.
-you might have seen another post similar for VW. Its because I am not sure to go for one or the other, and it mostly depends if i can get confirmation that engines are similar.
-I Will use the car for a while here and then ship it when i move back to switzerland, The reason is that a 25K$ car in America cost 45K$ in Switzerland. And as long as I own it for more than 6months, i won’t pay any taxes and won’t have to comply with any Swiss regulation so no modification to be made at all (as long as lights are NOT xenon and mileage in kmh). I am 100% sure about that. The reason its because i am currently living in Canada and will bring back the car when i move back. I could NOT do that if I was trying to import a canadian car while living in switzerland.
-The GDI engine is the gas version in switzerland.
I just need to find the car that is as close as its european counterpart, hence my post.
The other thing is that American Tucsons are built in Korea, whereas European’s are built in Czech Republic. What is unclear is whether engine for European market are also built in Czech Republic or imported there for car assembly.
I guess if Europeans engine would also be built in Korea, then likelihood that they are identical would further increase, unlike VW where engines are built in Mexico and Europe for American and European cars, respectively…
I agree with the others but I’m not sure I would be fixated on the engine parts. The main parts of an engine seem to rarely fail but things like electronics, sensors, body parts, etc. can be more troublesome. Think I’d lease something here and buy over there.
In Canada,the Hyundai 1.6 T engine means " TURBO" Its the same engine found in many Hyundai and Kia products all over the world.It has 175hp. Many car journalist find this vehicule underpowered for its size.The standard engine is the 2.0 GDI " gasoline direct injection" has 164hp.
However, that doesn’t help. I don’t know if a cross reference exists for Canadian vs. Swiss versions of the same car. Perhaps if you could contact the manufacturer directly?
My recommendation would be to wait until after you move to buy the new buggy. It’d be a shame to buy the car and find out two years from now that they don’t sell them over there… or that they’re configured totally differently… or that you can’t even import it to Switzerland.
So its 100% sure i can import and won’t have to do any modification or pay any taxes. And if i can save 20’000$ on buy price, i guess its probably worth it, as long as i can find a car that is as similar as possible both sides of the Atlantic…
I wouldn’t count on that unless you checked for sure with the Swiss. Had a friend in Germany that bought his cars in the Netherlands because the German tax was about 50% of the value. Not sure how he got around the import tax but you’d better check. Things are quite different over there and they don’t like cars.
I went there 3 times over the last year, got all the bylaws and had those checked by a lawyer friend. As long as I own it for 6 months, speed is in kmh (already the case in Canada) and lights are not xenon, i won’t have to do any modification.
Moreover, i had some friends who also brought a car back when moving from US to Switzerland and they all confirmed they had no issue.
Issue might arise later when trying to find spare part is something breaks, hence the idea to have the car as similar as its european counterpart, but for 20k$ saving its probably worth it…
Not sure how you will save $20,000? If it is savings, you could consider a car like Skoda over there. Uses many of the same parts as a VW but cheaper and you’ll see a lot more of them.
Skoda has improved a lot their quality in the last years and their price in Switzerland are not that far anymore from the equivalent model in VW. Would still save at least 15K when comparing to the equivalent skoda…
Sounds like you’ve already made your decision and are suffering from “post decision dissonance” (a term from a college course I took 40++ years ago). That means you’re looking for confirmation that your decision is a good one.
I sincerely wish you only the best. I hope this works out for you.
I already decided i will try to bring a car back since i am 100% sure i won’t have any taxe or registration issue, so i was not looking for confirmation that my decision was a good one
I know it has some risks, but not for registration/importation. Problems might arise when i will need spare parts down the road… and that’s why i was looking for infos about discrepancies between european and american versions of the same model… which might help me choose between the Tucson and the Golf… but the discussion focused on whether i should do it or not
