Is anyone able to point me in the direction of documentation on the prices/options of a carnet from carseurope.net? They list the price of the document itself (£210-250) but don't seem to provide any way of calulating what the cost would be. I was hoping for a table of countries with multipliers, and a formula for working it out as I saw years ago.

I'd like to be able to play with figures to see the effects of taking an expensive/cheap bike would be, or altering routes to avoid countries with excessive import penalties. If anyone has experience with getting a carnet from them, feel free to post.

As I understand it at the moment there are two options.
1. Large payment with small return, when the carnet is returned
2. Massive deposit, with most of it returned at the end if nothing goes wrong.

I would presume the second option is better for cheap bikes, the first better for expensive ones. The second option also being better for travel exceeding a year.

Any input welcome.

Edit: Academically, what is the risk of seriously undervaluing your motorbike with respect to the carnet? If all goes well, you just pay less overall. If the motorbike is written off/stolen/sold then in the case of option one you lose a small amount which is negligable compared to the cost of the motorbike, you've already paid out signifigantly and without possibility of refund.
With option two you lose a larger sum, but less than you would have otherwise, and you've already lost the bike, so no reason to put yourself more out of pocket? The only reason that would be a problem is people transporting cars to other countries to avoid sales taxes. These rules seem to unreasonable harm travellers when they are already in severe hardship and do not much else useful?

Q1) Do you get a real carnet? Or is this a fake one? If fake .. then I'll tell you not to use them. Carnet numbers can be checked to see that they are real.

Q2) The value of the bike/car. Real carnet issuers will be able to check the value given. There are several ways of getting a real value .. the maximum will be if your are prepared to wait for the right buyer, the minimum will be if you need to sell the vehicle now. You take your choice as to what method of valuation. My last carnet required a written valuation from a motor dealer. Academically .. you could be charged with fraud.

Q3) What countries are you going too? This has a major influence on the costs of a carnet! I think Iran is one of the worst ... the import duty is something like 400% ... So choose where you go if you want to minimise carnet costs.

I don't think fraud is the issue. You need a value that is acceptable to the organisation issuing the carnet and also to the people at the border. For motorhomes, I understood that the value was based on original price of the base vehicle only, less depreciation.

I've emailed carseurope.net and they won't provide the formula or any more information. They are requesting a route and vehicle value to provide a quotation, which is completely useless for working on a budget!

I've emailed the FIA to see if they can provide some clarification.

If anyone has experience with carseurope.net for carnet prices could you please post your route/quoted vehicle value/insurance or deposit payment method? That way maybe we can work out what formula they are using and can begin estimate costs. Thanks.

You need to talk to them.

Ask about valuing your vehicle. "To minimise my fees should I get an older vehicle the has cosmetic damage and thus has a low value (and lower theft potential too, but possibly a lesser reliability)?"

Ask about routes
" I want to travel from London to Delhi. I could go through Iran or avoid it and go through China ... what are the impacts on the carnet prices?" I would hope you have some general idea of what you want to do.

If they won't do that then request several quotes ... so you get some idea...

Route 1 Value 1
Route 1 value 2

Route 2 Value 1
Route 3 Value 1
Route 4 Value 1

Note the routes only need to have the countries strung out in sequence ... multiple entries shown. You don't need to show a time table nor roads ..