I know this may help some Compact owners.

[Panzer_M]

www.ebay.de

I have used Ebay Germany to find alot of stuff for the TI.

Steering wheels, Gauge clusters, my current 1.9 Bosi Exhaust and other BMW stuff.

[writeb]

Arm twisting to get them to ship to america though... additional help:

http://babelfish.altavista.com

Life saver.

writeb

[Panzer_M]

I speak pretty good german/ read about the same level. Born there in 1981 and lived til 1989.

But the shipping isn't as hard as you think.

Most are more than willing to do it, as long as you pay the handling fees.

Times have varied from a month to 7 days..depending on the items. My exhaust(cat-back) took about 2 weeks with UPS.

[tastade]

Another good translating tool is google, http://www.google.com/language_tools Just remember to translate what you are writing both ways to make sure it translates correctly, you might have to change the english word you are using if it does not. Stay away from slangs and idioms as they don't translate well. Avoid unnecessary words, be terse. Words like well, also, very, like, just, etc don't translate well. Notice I am not practicing what I preach (also avoid cliches).

For example, I translated the paragraph i just wrote, look at the german, and notice how it translated back, terrible. Short sentences will also help.

Ein anderes gutes C$übersetzungswerkzeug ist google, HTTP:// www.google.com/language_tools. Erinnern gerade, sich zu übersetzen was Sie beiden Weisen zu überprüfen schreiben, daß es richtig übersetzt, Sie konnte das englische Wort ändern müssen, das Sie verwenden, wenn es nicht. Aufenthalt weg von den Slangs und von den Idiomen, da sie nicht gut übersetzen. Vermeiden Sie nicht notwendige Wörter, seien Sie kurz. Wörter mögen gut, auch sehr wie, gerade, usw. übersetzen nicht gut. Nachricht übe ich nicht, was ich predige (vermeiden Sie auch cliches).

Another good translation tool is google, HTTP:// www.google.com/language_tools. Remind straight, to translate itself which you both ways to examine write that it translates correctly, you could the English word to change have, which you use, if it not. Stay away of the Slangs and of the Idiomen, since they do not translate well. If you do not avoid necessary words, you are short. Words like well, also much as, straight, etc. translate not well. I do not practice message, which I preach (you avoid also cliches).

[hotdog19d]

I figured this out, a few years back and thought it was the geatest thing. The only problem I have found was that most german ebayers won't export any one have any ideas to fix this?

[writeb]

If you are already a member of ebay, I discovered that you can actually log into ebay.de to send them a message and inquire if they'll ship to America. Most of them were impressed with my babelfish german, and replied right away positively. Unfortunately, post or carrier (as they call postage/shipping) is rather expensive, so ebaying anything outside of 10-15lbs becomes prohibitively expensive.

So, seeing that Americans aren't the most popular folks, worldwide about now, I definitely recommend you contact them in their native tongue, be brief, friendly and complete with your request/inquiry.

what are you looking to get?

[hotdog19d]

I'm always looking for deals for stuff on the TI, but I don't sprechen the the deutche so well. I was thinking about taking a class