I spend about half my time in Budapest where cars are much more expensive than in the UK.Import duties are very high and it is quite a complicated procedure.
I am currently exploring many options but keep running into the same questions and can't find the answers to them-
1)Is there any insurance company that insures a UK car abroad for more than a three month period? I heard a long time ago about something like a "trippers" one year insurance used by, for example people driving around europe on an extended trip (Aussie or Kiwi style) but no internet search comes up with anything
2)If the answer to 1 is yes, (so I do not need to drive it back to the UK 4 or more times a year,) what happens with a UK car over three years old regarding the MOT?
3)Are there any countries where their equivalent to the MOT is accepted by the authorities in the UK?
I see many ads for UK registered cars (on ebay for example) which are in Spain or France- do their owners really drive them back to the UK several times per year or is there another solution?
Thanks in anticpation
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Loads of illegal UK cars in France and Spain,have alook around any of the airports that Ryanair fly into and you will see Uk cars with tax discs years out of date or nothing at all.
A friend of mine has an 86 Sierra in Spain on UK plates that has been there since about 1994,very nice condition as well.
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Loads of illegal UK cars in France and Spain,have alook around any of the airports that Ryanair fly into and you will see Uk cars with tax discs years out of date or nothing at all. A friend of mine has an 86 Sierra in Spain on UK plates that has been there since about 1994,very nice condition as well.
Lots of UK-reg cars in Ireland, cos the UK is mucho cheaper for nbw cars, and the gap is even bigger on used ones. But it gets very expensive if the Gardai catch you, and they are cracking down hard these days.
Name-change time: NoWheels + Almera = NowWheels
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Lots of UK-reg cars in Ireland, cos the UK is mucho cheaper for nbw cars, and the gap is even bigger on used ones. But it gets very expensive if the Gardai catch you, and they are cracking down hard these days.
FiL was unfortunate enough when he was in the ROI. However, he just got a bill for the duty.
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One for Big Bad Dave - he's running a UK registered 406 around Warsaw. He may have some pearls of wisdom for you.
Excuse my ignorance, is Hungary in the EU now as well?
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This has been discussed before re insurance for 12 months. Do a forum search.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=28...7
A friend of mine found a specialist broker in Cardiff (or was it Swansea?) who would do 12 month cover for France.
Try
www.stuartcollins.com/index1.html
As an earlier post, a walk round the car park at Montpellier (or Nimes or Carcassonne) Airport provides many uk cars with missing or out of date tax dics. Some have French CT (=MoT) stickers.
Historically French some French insurers would offer temporary cover pending re-registration in France, but were not too fussy on how long it took! But nowadays most refuse.
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pmh (was peter)
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No pearls of wisdom I?m afraid I?m going to register the 406 over here once I?ve had it six months (which is not far off) as that?s the amount of time I need to own it to be exempt from import tax. To do this I need permission from the motoring minister as it?s RHD, new headlights and Polish MOT. I started to do this with the last car but the ministry dithered for so long that the UK MOT expired and I had to get rid. Permission came a couple of weeks later.
It?s too much of a faff having a UK car, I don?t recommend it but I wasn?t sure how long I?d stay here. Since I?m buying a house it?s time to either register it or buy here. But one thing is for sure, there?s no where in Europe you can be a used vehicle as cheap as in England.
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I think you're wrong HJ......back shortly.
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I believe that HJ is almost correct. The correction I would make is that the 6 months limit is based continuous presence, ie the clock is reset on a border crossing. ie a day trip to Spain from France for example.
I will be interested in PU reply.
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pmh (was peter)
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My information that any car can be used in an EU member country for
12 months without having to be re-registered and tested in that country, my understanding is that this a "harmonized" regulation accross the EU, my source is the DVLA's information, off the top of my head I can't remember whether this was on the website or from another document or reference. It forms part of a document I held on my laptop hence the delay in replying. I will sand corrected on this but won't eat HJ's hat. The main document i still current (I think).
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Saga car insurance allows full use of that car in the EU for 364 days per annum. Liverpool Victoria allows up to six months use.
If you reside in France for more than six months continuously you are supposed to go through the motions of French residency. This involves registering for French income tax; registering your vehicle within the French system etc.
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I should have mentioned that if you use a British registered car anywhere in the EU your car has to conform to UK requiremnts. This means up to date MOT and Road Fund Licence.
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My BiL planned to take a camper van around Europe for 18 months, idea now canned, though he determined that he would have to come back to the UK within a year to renew the MOT, if it had been a newish vehicle (i.e. less that three years old when he returned) he could have stayed over there for longer. Wonder if MOT centres in Dover etc do a good trade with expats?
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You can mot in any country in the EU to comply with there laws eg, In germany if your cars mot expires you can go to a tuv or decra station and get a German test certificate and the authoirities in Germany will accept it as the vehicle complying to the regulations.
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You can mot in any country in the EU to comply with there laws eg, In germany if your cars mot expires you can go to a tuv or decra station and get a German test certificate and the authoirities in Germany will accept it as the vehicle complying to the regulations.
Yes but IIRC it will not be accepted for UK insurer or RFL.
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Are you sure ? I think you will find buried in EU regs they have to.
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No not sure, someone will clarify.
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My Girlfriends Dad had a 97P Audi A4 out at his house in Malaga for 3yrs. Registered it here as 'exported' but it was still running round on GB plates in Spain. Insurance was all done in Spain through a local agent, but the car was never actually regisitered on Spanish plates. I drove it back in the summer, drove it from Dover to Ipswich to a pre booked MOT, Taxed it the next day and sold it 3 days later.
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You can mot in any country in the EU to comply with there laws eg, In germany if your cars mot expires you can go to a tuv or decra station and get a German test certificate and the authoirities in Germany will accept it as the vehicle complying to the regulations.
Not my experience Andy, although I´m not saying that´s an impossibility. I had to re-register the Astra over here on German plates, and get a German fahrzeugschein. Was a bit of a hassle, and I needed new headlights as RHD ones were a straight fail.
~~But one thing is for sure, there?s no where in Europe you can ~~be a used vehicle as cheap as in England.
Germany? At least for nearly new stuff. They´re giving Opels away. Try mobile.de - translates into English too.
Good luck whatever.
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In France the CT will accept taped headlights, certainly for the first test. But I guess it depends on the relationship with the tester. Incidentally a little known fact is that the MoT will (or are supposed to) accept taped LHD headlights provided the taping is done correctly.
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pmh (was peter)
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One thing I certainly discovered when I was registering the last car was that if you asked 50 people (including knowledgable Polish motoring journalists) is that you?ll get 50 different answers all absolutely sure that they are correct. Until you actually start dragging your backside around council offices and town halls and ministery buildings, you won?t know what the correct procedure is for the country you?re in. Even the officials weren?t sure. They all said I?d never be allowed to register RHD and they all said I?d have to pay import tax. Neither was true.
Another cautionary tail. Having a UK car abroad is a pain when you need parts. Wiring looms are different, electrical connectors are different. Door mirrors aren?t sculptured symetrically, so when some thug rips them off and you put on continental ones, your vision is compromised and they can?t be wired up. I?ve had two garages refuse my custom because they won?t touch RHD.
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Big Bad Dave is right - ask 50 people and you get fifty 'informed and knowledgable' opinions. Different police and border guards in France have different ideas and you don't know what the score is until you try to do something with the local administration. Then it can be smooth or rough depending on how helpful the burocrats are (and depending on which 'rules' they are choosing to follow). What happens getting a French MOT on an English car depends on who is doing it, but isn't normally a problem. Taped on headlights are accepted for a French MOT but the Swiss insist on a full headlight change (at least in my experience).
As to the precise EU laws, no-one really seems to know, even those who ought to.
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It never bothers me as I am a German resident and have German car in Germany an UK car in the UK ,but I have imported quite a few Porsches and had no problem with the lights when registering.I also have imported into Germany a couple of Jags and a Citoen from the UK with abslutely no problem.But there is always the jobsworth in all countries.
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Mad thing in the UK is that its quite simple to register a LHD car and rather more difficult to register a RHD.
As far as VOSA and DVLA are concerned a LHD Hummer is a safer car to have on UK roads than a RHD Toyota Yaris.
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One more point I forgot to mention - if Hungary is anything like Poland, and I suspect it probably is, boxes of chocolates and fifty zloty notes go a long way to smoothing out issues and speeding up processes with council officials. Whether you?re registering a car, applying for residency or registering your business for VAT.
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Some quotes from the British Embassy website in Spain (doesn't mean the information correct):
IMPORTATION AND REGISTRATION
UK nationals who are not residents may bring their car into Spain, but neither they nor anyone else can use it in Spain for more than six months in any one year. Anyone who spends more than a total of six months a year in Spain is considered resident, and so not entitled to this.
VEHICLE REGISTRATION
Non-residents can only register vehicles in Spain on temporary tourist plates, valid for a six-month period in any one year, and renewable annually. If non-residents become resident they must obtain full national plates and pay the Impuesto Especial of 12%, which is based on the car's ready-reckoned value. (Non-residents from outside the EU are exempt from the Impuesto Especial).
Residents importing a vehicle must register it with the local authorities and obtain Spanish national plates. They should surrender the British vehicle's Registration Document to the DVLA in the UK and obtain a certificate of permanent export (V561) from them to present in Spain.
Road worthiness certificates for right-hand drive cars are available from Spanish ITV (MOT) centres. Some adjustments to the vehicle may be needed to comply with EU regulations.
Traffic Regulations require that the following items be kept in the vehicle:
Set of bulbs and tools necessary to replace them
Two warning triangles - officially approved by the Ministerio del Interior, bearing a round symbol E9 and the code 27R03
Spare tyre and the tools necessary to replace it (good luck with your 1- & 3-series!)
A reflective jacket
A spare pair of glasses (for those who wear spectacles to drive)
A fine is payable if these are not carried.
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Thanks for all your replies !
I think the person who wrote "ask 50 people and you get 50 replies" seems to have summed up the situation correctly.
It seems perverse if you can buy an insurance policy to use outside the UK for 364 days per year but the car can't remain outside the UK for that long !
I have sent a quote request to Stuart Collins and co on my current car to see what they come back with.
If the situation is really that the " 6 months in one country" does start again then I could drive the car out of Hungary for a weekend- Hungary is bordered by 7 other countries, 3 in the EU and 4 not- and then back to the UK once a year for its MOT.As this is due in early January and I am usually in the UK for Christmas, this could be the best/cheapest/easiest solution.
Having spent a lot of time on foreign websites looking for cars I feel Germany, Holland and the UK semm to be the cheapest for second hand cars, depending on what you are looking for.
Hungary is horrendously expensive for small second hand cars.The locally made Suzuki Swift (old model)which you can not really give a way in the UK can still cost the equivalent of £1000 for a 10 year old one in Hungary.Big BMWs and Audis tend to be relatively the cheapest due to high servicing and parts costs but there is nothing like a Glasses or Parkers Guide so it is not so easy finding what is value or not.
The new Suzuki Swift (still made in Hungary) is about the only car that is cheaper to buy in Hungary than in the UK and that is only by a small percentage.
If I find further clarification on any of the points raised I will of course post them.
Thanks again
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