For this guide, “second POV” means an additional personally owned vehicle beyond the vehicle covered by your normal government shipment entitlement. Whether you should privately ship it, sell it or store it depends on the actual car and route — not a one-size-fits-all rule.
Use your VIN or vehicle details, mileage and destination. Ship or Sell compares the private SHIP path against SELL and STORE.
Analyze my second POV →POV means privately owned vehicle. In this guide, a second POV is the additional vehicle that sits outside the normal one-vehicle government shipment decision. It may still be possible to move it, but the private cost, import rules and financial tradeoffs need to be evaluated separately.
Military OneSource says that for OCONUS moves only one POV owned or leased for personal use may generally be shipped at government expense, although exceptions can apply and your transportation office controls the entitlement. An additional vehicle can therefore become a private financial decision rather than a standard government shipment.
If your first question is simply whether you can move two vehicles, start with Can I ship two cars during a PCS from Germany to the USA?. That guide separates the current one-POV government rule, the newer two-POV legislative authority and a privately arranged second-POV shipment.
Privately transport the additional vehicle if the import path is workable and keeping it beats the cost of selling and replacing it.
Sell before departure when replacement economics, import risk or cash flow make private shipping unattractive.
Keep the vehicle in Europe when the move is temporary or the car matters to you but does not need to follow you now.
Confirm what your Orders and transportation office actually authorize. Do not assume a second privately arranged shipment is reimbursable. Once entitlement is clear, compare the second vehicle as a private transaction: how much does keeping it really cost, and what would replacing it at the destination really cost?
If the second vehicle was purchased overseas, check its federal U.S. import path early. NHTSA says vehicles under 25 years old that were not originally manufactured and certified to applicable FMVSS generally need an approved eligibility/importer route for permanent import. EPA emissions requirements are separate. A cheap ocean rate cannot fix an unworkable federal import path.
The private route may include Germany-side pickup, export handling, ocean freight, marine insurance, U.S. customs/import handling, a gateway port and inland trucking to the destination. At the same time, the German resale market and the U.S. replacement market can value the same vehicle very differently.
If you want the route-cost breakdown before requesting a quote, see how much it costs to ship a car from Germany to the USA. It separates origin movement, international transport, import or compliance exposure, destination charges and U.S. inland delivery.
It is an additional privately owned vehicle beyond the vehicle covered by your normal PCS shipment entitlement.
Do not assume so. Current Military OneSource guidance still publishes the one-POV general rule for OCONUS moves. Confirm your own Orders and any exception with the transportation office.
Compare complete private shipping cost against realistic Germany sale proceeds and U.S. replacement cost. Import eligibility comes first.
Storage deserves a serious look when the PCS is temporary and you want the vehicle back after the assignment. Compare the full storage period rather than only the monthly rate.
See what privately shipping an additional vehicle actually involves.
Shipping process →Last reviewed: 7 October 2026.