Missing COC: what the import costs then

The certificate of conformity — hence COC — is the manufacturer's declaration that this particular car matches the European type approval it was built under. One is issued per car and carries its chassis number. It is not a condition report: what it states applies to the car as it left the factory, not after twelve years.

In substance it is a table of numbered fields, and the numbering is identical across Europe. That is why a registration authority in one country can read a document issued in another without speaking the language — the value in field 14 means the same everywhere.

The most common case is mundane: it was in the folder and got lost around the third owner. Many buyers have never held one, because it is not needed to register at home — the domestic registration certificate already carries the relevant data.

The second case is more fundamental: no European type approval exists for the car, so no certificate of conformity can exist either. That covers cars built for another market, small series below the approval threshold, converted vehicles, and anything older than European whole-vehicle type approval.

The difference between the two decides everything that follows. In the first, the document can be reordered and the import stays an administrative matter. In the second there is nothing to reorder, and only individual approval remains.

Only the manufacturer or its designated national representative may issue a COC. In practice the order goes through the brand's national import company or a form on its website. You need the chassis number, usually evidence that you are entitled to it — a purchase contract or registration certificate — and a billing address.

Two things are worth knowing. First, a duplicate costs money, and the manufacturer sets the amount, not an authority; it differs considerably between brands. Second, it takes time. As an order of magnitude, expect several weeks — longer for older cars and for brands with no national subsidiary.

That order is the reason imports sit still. Anyone who moves the car, deregisters it and only then notices the missing COC has an unregistered car outside and waits. Ordering it while you are still negotiating costs nothing.

Where a full COC is no longer available, some manufacturers issue a data confirmation: a written statement of the technical values for that specific car, tied to its chassis number. It is not a certificate of conformity and does not legally replace one, but it gives the testing organisation the figures that would otherwise be missing.

For German registration that is the difference between a full inspection where everything has to be measured, and one where the manufacturer's data can be relied on. In the second case the effort stays manageable. Ask the testing organisation before the appointment which documents it accepts — the answer differs by vehicle.

In Germany the missing type approval is replaced by a full inspection under § 21 StVZO. An examiner from a testing organisation — TÜV, DEKRA, GTÜ or KÜS — checks the car completely and issues a report with which the registration office enters it in the register. What is checked depends on which data is documented and which has to be measured.

In Switzerland the cantonal road-traffic office requires an individual assessment where no type approval exists, particularly for emissions and noise. The mechanism is the same: whatever is not available as manufacturer data has to be established on the car itself, and that is the part that costs time and money.

Neither procedure necessarily ends in registration. If the car fails a mandatory requirement that cannot be retrofitted, there are no plates — and a car that cannot be registered in the destination country cannot be sold there either.

Naming a figure would be dishonest, because the testing organisations set their own fees and the effort varies widely from car to car. Only the order of magnitude and the breakdown are reliable: the full inspection is a multiple of an ordinary roadworthiness test, and every extra report needed comes on top.

As an order of magnitude: with complete papers an EU import is on its own plates within one to two weeks of the transfer. With a reordered COC and a subsequent full inspection, rather six to twelve weeks. Those are typical figures, not promises — a query from the examiner can move any plan by weeks.

Time here is not a soft factor. A car waiting three months costs insurance and parking, keeps depreciating and ties up money that could be working elsewhere. Anyone doing the sums on an import should carry those months as a line item, not as an inconvenience.

Everything above can be short-circuited with four questions on the phone, and they cost nothing. Ask them before you drive out and get the answers in writing — a message with a photo of the documents is enough.