.Ariel.

If I take an Italian car back to the UK - to stay permanently, what do you have to do regarding insurance, tax, reg plates, etc.

TestaRossa

Have a look at the dvlc site it should be on there. Be warned though, parts for your Atoz are really hard to get and very pricey. If you remember I got all of £300 for mine in the end!

.Ariel.

It's not an Atoz, having a think about that one. This is a Matiz.

TestaRossa

Ahh! That was after the getz wasn't it? Will still cost an arm and a leg to repair but that's just Hyundai in the UK - or it was 2 years ago anyway! But as it is newer if it is anything like the Atoz it shouldn't need anything major pre-100K km anyway!! My Atoz was only costing major amounts around the 86k mile mark!! Word of advice, like anywhere probably, if you can find a garage that can service it and get the parts that isn't a dealer you will knock quite a bit off the bill.

katu

I registered a German car in the UK a few years ago and it was very straightforward...... we went to the DVLA office in the nearest large town and filled in a form or two and were given a new registration number which we took to a car parts shop who put together the new registration plate and gave us the white and yellow screw covers which are required :-)

Your European insurance should cover you until you have the UK plates then you can insure as normal. Simples.

Kenny and Moe

Ariel,
it is straightforward, however don't put it at the top of your list, you have got six months to sort it, and from experience when I go home the same cars with the same foreign plates are scooting around after 12 - 18 months. Just make sure you have Italian insurance whilst it has Italian plates on it, although I have yet to meet a UK copper who can read Italian It makes us chuckle in UK, we have a RHD italian plated car and when you see the bill look at it you can see confused all over their faces, even the people at the docks who you would think would be used to it. Where are you going back to in UK??
Kenny

mikelincs

Just whatch the areaa. Northamptonshire police are taking all foreign car registration numbers they see, ans checking them against a database. If the car was seen 6 months or more ago, then it is impounded, and you have to prove it hasn't been there all that time, this was reported in a local Spanish paper, and the paper did check the facts. Also, if you are back in the UK permanently and have a registered address, then you do NOT have the 6 months, more like 14 days. You need to get new headlights, new speedo, and the fog lights moved and rewired. Relative took his car back, and he is bringing it back to Spain this week to sell it back to the dealer here as it's getting far to expensive to make the changes, they reckon it would have cost them something like 1000 pounds before it was finished. Might just be them going to the wrong places and asking the wrong questions, but that is what they are saying. They do have the correct forms, but took the car to a garage they thought would do it cheaper. The garage made them get the new parts and pay for them, then damaged the lights trying to fit them, when they took them back to change them the shop refused as they were damaged, so they would have had to pay twice. Had they used a deaaler, they wouln't have had thaat problem.

Kenny and Moe

Mike,
I think you are correct about the fact it is where you go, that certainly depends on an MOT for instance although never have I experienced anyone getting in and out of my cars to check the speedo, only to look at how many k's or miles it has done. I have a car with a KM speedo and a UK MOT certificate to boot, and the MOT certificate is annotated kilometres. As for fog lights, it would be a pretty anal MOT Tester who picked you up for having it on the wrong side especially if it was built into the light cluster itself. Also someone said on here the other day that the beam deflectors would get you through an MOT although that was new to me.
It's as you say, it all depends on where you go to get it all done, or at least the MOT test.
Which database do they check foreign numbers against, certainly not an up to date one in UK (I have a very good ex traffic cop friend), is it one maintained by the ferry companies and the chunnel (very much doubt it). I think Ariel would be safe for a few months at least (flash your Italian ID car and speak Italian)
regards Kenny

Nuvoletta

Hmmm, Northamptonshire police force being one of the more skint ones in the UK I reckon they won't have the money to go checking things like this.. last time I was home there were enough Polish and Romanian cars running around in Milton Keynes and Northampton to make you wonder where exactly in the world you were! just a thought.

We ran our Italian car around in the UK with Italian plates for nearly 4 years, just kept it insured in the Italy and it was OK..
I'm a bit of a loss as to why you would want to take your car back with you though, What age is it? you would be better off selling it here and buying something in the UK, the state of the car market back in Blighty is such that they can't move used cars and there are bargains to be had.. plus you get the hassle of a LH drive car back home. Cars here seem to hold there money and the market is yet to suffer as much as the UK, have a hunt around on the car webites such as www.autotrader.co.uk and you will see it just isn't worth the hassle of taking it back. On top of that, pound to Euro exchange rate means you won't lose out either way. My two pennies worth!

Nuvoletta

I know its the Getz, but check the link here for prices, they start at a couple of K for a 2004 model.

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk...earch_full.y=6

mikelincs

They check against their own database, just foreign registered cars seen in the area, one person was seen last June on a visit there, then seen again this February, and pulled over, his car was impounded till he was able to show a ticket from a parking company at Alicante airport that proved it had been in Spain during that time. His car was returned to him with instructions not to drive it in the area again until he was heading back to Dover. The local paper checked with the Northamptonshire police who confirmed that this was their policy.

Kenny and Moe

Mike,
there is something not quite right (or legal probably) about what the Northamptonshire police are doing, checking with their own database (Who regulates this database, did the local paper ask that question), asking for a parking ticket from Alicante airport (Why?) given his car back and told not to drive it in the area again as opposed to driving it in UK. Is there not a national database for this information (No there isn't), who keeps parking tickets??, surely the manifest from a ferry company would have been better, at least it would have shown whether the vehicle was on the boat and therefore not on UK mainland. I know some police forces are a bit over the top but this seems absurd if it is at all true. why would the police bother if there was no ultimate monetary gain, impound fees for instance.
Ariel, take note of Nuvoletta's post which I think is more nearer reality and avoid Northamptonshire at all costs it seems or just go there once to bump up their database...........
regards Kenny

TestaRossa

Urban Myth and all that? My OH has his main office in Towcester. They are an odd bunch up there by all accounts....