Buying a Unimog from Classic Unimogs, in Mandelbactal, Germany, was very painless. I could have picked it up there, I am sure, but shipping to the States is very much more their normal mode of business, and notably more convenient for me! To save cost, they prefer to ship to a roll-on roll-off port, rather than a container port. (It's your call of course, but you'll pay for it; containerized shipping of a single vehicle costs more.) This is a port where they drive the vehicles on and off the ships. In my case, the Port of Tacoma (Washington) was the closest such port. Classic Unimogs states that they've shipped a number of vehicles to Tacoma.
I was pretty worried about the vehicle being ready to drive away the day we were going to be there, as it is a day's drive from home. To add to this, we were actually on vacation then, and were going to be out of town for all but a few hours before we left for Tacoma. However, all my advance calls gave me no reason to believe there would be any problems. (Rest assured, there weren't, but things could have been accomplished more smoothly had I known more about the whole process. This is why I am writing this down.)
Because my wife was going to be driving one vehicle back (guess which one it wouldn't be!) we could not take our pickup truck, which would have been my preferred vehicle. (My wife is not stick-shift compatible.) Instead, we were in the 300 SDL sedan, which would be pretty useless as a tow vehicle. Also, its tool-carrying capacity was limited. So there was some concern there. I had to be back to work on Monday, we could only pick up the Mog on a weekday, and I didn't want to have to burn another day of vacation to go get it. Plus, if we were unable to get it on the scheduled Friday it would start accruing storage charges. (We had other plans for our vacation that predated the knowledge of when the Mog was going to be ready to pick up; I was lucky to be able to grab Friday for my own purposes.) So, we had to get it smoothly on Friday, and it had to make it home under its own steam before Monday. Anything else was going to be either costly or extremely inconvenient. Very nerve-wracking!
Anyway, here is what you do, to pick up a Unimog in the most seamless manner in Tacoma. In my case, Classic Unimogs used the Wallenius & Wilhelmsen shipping company. These instructions won't be entirely adequate if this is not your case.
Once you've received your Notice of Arrival, perhaps a week before you will be able to pick it up, you will know (or be able to find out) exactly when your Mog may be picked up. It takes a couple of days to unload the ship and go through Customs. I believe you have seven days thereafter to pick it up before storage charges begin accruing. In our case, the ship was two days later than the original schedule. No big deal, but you must be prepared for this kind of thing. You shouldn't plan on beginning the pick-up process much past noon, to allow yourself time to leap through all the required hoops and to allow for some trouble. Unless you want to come back the next day, which may or may not be a problem for you. (It would have been, for us.) The docks are union, and they won't stay open one minute past the time they want to. You don't want to run out of time.
In addition to your (pre-paid) shipping charges, there are some additional fees owed to the shipping line. I really don't know what they're for, or why they weren't included up front. You must pay them, or they won't release your truck from the port. In our case, it was about $184, to be paid in cash or money order to the line. (I think you can pay by mail in advance in other ways, but it's practically on the way to just drop by in person.) We drove to their office, a bit north of the Port in Federal Way. The easy way to get there (from the I-5 freeway) is to take the South 320th Street exit. (This is the lovely and scenic SeaTac Mall, but there's no help for it.) Head West to 1st Way (Avenue), and turn South. After several long non-promising-looking blocks you'll get to their address, 33305 1st Way South, which is three two-storey slab buildings on the West side of the road. (This is the Westside Center complex.) They're in Building B, Suite 202.
They were very nice there, and showed us a picture of a sister ship of ours (the Medea). Not much of a beauty, IMHO, but no doubt supremely functional. We paid our fee, and got a nice map of where to go next. (Of course you realize that we actually did all of this in completely the wrong order, which took considerable extra time. This is your chance to learn how to do it right!) They will fax in their release to the Terminal, so it'll be cleared by the time you need it to be.
From there, your next stop is US Customs. The easiest way to get there is to again head South on 1st Way, to South 348th St, and turn East. Go to Pacific Highway (Avenue), and turn South. You will travel a few miles here to the Port of Tacoma Road, and turn West. Note that if you have a compass, you were already traveling West due to bends in the road, and your turn will actually be to the North. (Make a note of this spot, because the Flying J truck stop on this corner generally has the best diesel prices around. It's also the closest fueling stop to the port.)
This road will curve some to the left. After this, keep your eyes peeled, on the left will be the small US Customs building. A mile? Not too far. Here you will pay any owed Duty. This is generally 2.5% to 25% of the amount of your Bill of Sale. You should have your Title, Bill of Sale, and the Sea Waybill with you (all things mailed you by Classic Unimogs and/or Wallenius). It will also be very helpful if you've already consulted the US Tariff Schedule to find your vehicle's classification. (We did. Some mighty exciting reading it is, too. Unimogs would be Chapter 87; ours was 8705.10.00, and we highlighted it on a printed excerpt we brought along.)
You may assume that in any case of ambiguity, they'll choose the classification with the higher Duty, though I believe the Tariff regulations state that it is the more exact classification that governs. There is little point in arguing with them; they are all armed government employees. If you like, you could write to your Congressman in case of dispute, but that's about your only (legal) recourse. Of course while you wait for resolution, there your vehicle sits, racking up storage charges. Be prepared to pay the Duty!
As it happens, one of the officers was familiar with our vehicle, and there was no problem with our claimed Tariff classification (Mobile Crane, an exact classification in the regulations). In our case, no Duty was owed, but there was still a $9 fee. We had great difficulty breaking a $10 bill, one of the Customs officers did it out of his own pocket. They then gave us our Collection Receipt. (I no longer remember what payment forms they will accept, other than cash.)
The next (and last) step is to pick up your Unimog. Ours was in Terminal 7. Which is further down the Port road. If you continue as you were before, the road will 'end' in a couple of security gates. Through there is the Terminal. The guard will direct you, but it is to the immediate left. If you drive along the fence road, you will note a two-storey metal office building on your right. This is the administration building. In there is the T-7 office, which is your last Mog-free stop. You bring them all your paperwork, especially your Customs Receipt. They will then give you a release form that you'll take to the docks. For us, this was just across the parking lot. (Big metal building, next to the dock.) Another Classic Unimogs customer said his was back down the road, the other way from the Customs office. Regardless, they'll tell you where you need to go. Wherever you end up, you'll give this last form to the foreman there.
He will want you to sign another form, and then will take you back to your vehicle. I strongly suggest that you wait until you've inspected the vehicle before signing anything. I didn't wait, but there was no problem. It's only in retrospect that I wondered if I had done things wrong way around. I suspect that I had essentially signed for the vehicle, sight unseen, and would have been in real trouble if there had been shipping damage. The longshoremen are all blue-collar, union guys, so try not to look like too much of an accountant or lawyer dweeb! You don't want to antagonize anybody, so be tactful here.
The foreman (or whomever) will walk you back to your vehicle. Here comes into play the last of your paperwork: the Owner's Manual! You have to get the thing started and drive it off, without looking like too much of an idiot. This is not easy, if it's your first time with a Mog. I'm a former farm boy, and the Mog is really just an odd kind of tractor, so it wasn't as intimidating as it could have been, but it was still bad enough. I had brought fuel, fluids, jumper cables, and a tow rope. None were needed, thankfully. Theoretically you can get help at the Port to get it started. The other Classic Unimogs customer I referred to earlier said that there were people detailed to help you here, but things the foreman said implied that this was difficult and costly. I suspect that you'd get your best answers on this point back at the T-7 administration building (your prior stop).
Regardless, we did not need any of this. The Mog looked good, and fired right up, once I figured out the business with the hand throttle. (You use the hand throttle to set the idle speed, otherwise foot-off is shut-off!) There was in fact plenty of fuel, and the battery was good (enough). The other Classic Unimogs customer I referred to earlier said that his was drained for shipping and had a dead battery, so be forewarned.
At this point, with your last form signed and your Mog purring away, you're ready to drive off! I suggest a stop at the Flying J mentioned before to fuel up and generally make sure you're ready to travel. That's what we did.
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