V6TOMMYGUN

Hi All,
I'm sorry to ask this question as I can imagine it's asked a lot.

I've recently moved to Székesfehérvár with work for 1- possibly 3 years.
I am wanting to bring my uk registered car here. I've found on google that there are only two places in Hungary that can register a foreign car & it is very expensive. Does anyone have any experience with this & a rough price to pay?
I have read that after 6 months a foreign car has to be registered here but I have seen lots of uk cars here that have been here what looks like many years.
There is a uk car on my road that looks like it hasn't moved for a while but is still parked on the road. I done a mot check on it & it came back saying the mot expired in 2009.
Thanks for any input
Tom

duztee

Yes it is asked a lot, and a search will probably find useful threads. but basically if you wish to register a vehicle in Hungary just take it to the nearest Test station (they are in most towns, despite what Google might say) and fill in the paperwork. Take a translator with you!

I was lucky my test centre had an English speaker who did the form for me.
they will photograph the vehicle and engine/vin numbers.
You will need to change the headlights.
Cost are not that bad, my pick-up counts as a commercial and was 22,800 fts.
cars have a different rate.

Hungarian police are not stupid!
staying on UK plates is only ok until you get stopped, then you will really need a translator! and probably a lot more than 22,000 fts.

wolfi

I've probably described my/our experience before - but here again:

I had a second car in Hungary with German licence plates (originally my late first wife's car) which came in handy when we had visitors flying in via Sármellék (oh, those were the days ...) which of course I took back regularly to Germany for the TÜV/MOT.
When I met my new Hungarian girlfriend/wife I gave the car to her son and his family and they were stopped one day by police. Though they had all the papers from me the policeman said he'd have to confiscate the car and a big fine would have to be paid ...
Only when he saw the baby in the back seat he relented and let them go - so soon after I officially "sold" the car to the son and he got Hungarian papers for it ...

PS:
The Hungarian authorities kept all the car's original papers and the licence plates too - it seems too much had been going on there ..
So in Germany I was waiting in vain for news on the sale - in the end I phoned the local German car registration and asked what to do. A very nice lady just asked for the old registration number and told me she had got all the necessary info online - there was nothing for me to do but wait and then I got the news and the tax was repaid ...

So the EU is efficient here!

fidobsa

I had not realised it could be that cheap to get it registered. As I have mentioned before, I want to get my LDV Convoy van registered on Hungarian plates and some people have said it's not worth it. It is getting more urgent now the house is up for sale as I will have to clear it of my furniture etc at some point.

V6TOMMYGUN

Thanks for all the replies.
Duztee- I thought it would be a lot more than that so that's good. I will try to get a work colegue to help me with any paper work as my Hungarian is not that great yet.

Also I am looking for a good online insurance company but the ones I have tried won't insure me because of the type of car I have & my age

Peter_in_Hungary

Hang on a minute - there is a world of difference between a commercial vehicle and a car !!
Commercial vehicles are cheap to re-register - cars however are a different story.

For cars it depends upon the age, engine size and euro standard of the engine. Basically the bigger and dirtier the engine the more you pay.

If V6 is an indication of your engine size/style then it could be expensive, I recently looked up a Jeep with a 3.0ltr engine for a friend and it came in at just over 1000GBP. Ouch !!

There is an on-line calculator
Regisztrációs adó kalkulátor 2016 - Regisztrációsadó kalkulátor 2016
where you can fill in the engine details and get a price.

If you are only going to stay 1 year or so then consider staying on UK plates. I know an Austrian who has been driving his German registered car here for about 8 years. He says the registration tax is too high (its a 3.0ltr Shogun) He drives back to Germany to get the MOT. And thats the problem if you leave it on UK plates you will have to get it MOT'd in the UK

Wolfi's step-son had a problem because he is Hungarian and driving a foreign registered car. The authorities take a different view of Hungarians driving foreign cars as they take the view that they have gone abroad, bought a cheap car and are avoiding the import taxes. Foreigners driving foreign cars don't seem to get the problems.

You won't be able to get insurance here if you stay on UK plates, your UK insurance will have to cover, but tell them otherwise they could bounce any claims. - by the way the only type of insurance you get here is any driver, also the basic (required) is third party, TP,F&T does not exist, if you want theft cover then you will have to have fully comp.

With regard to the need to re register you would have to look up the details (I don't know) but a return trip to the UK should start the clock again.

If its silly money to re-register consider a 'heap of the week' for about 2-300,000HUF and junk it at the end and leave your car in the UK. If you do re-register don't forget when you go back to the UK you will have to re-register there, as well as cancelling your registration here, essentially exporting the car from the UK import into Hungary and then the reverse. Talk to the DVLC to see if there is an easy option (like retaining your UK registration or something)

BTW if cars become too much hassel, unlike the UK public transport works here (with the occasional week-end car hire)

wolfi

Thanks, Peter, for the info!

Seems to me the easiest solution is to return once or twice a year to the UK - similar to what we do(but we "commute" more often.

Another question here for Tommy:
Do you want to register permanently in Hungary or will you keep your "first address" in the UK?
In the EU it should be no problem to have a primary and one (or even more ...) secondary addresses.

V6TOMMYGUN

Thanks Peter, Wow £1000 for a shogun is crazy. Mine is a gas guzzler too but only a 2.5L & a few years old but I still think it would be expensive but hopefully not near £1000.

My permanent address is in the uk. I would prefer for my car to remain registered in the uk as I don't want to register my car in Hungary for my job to last a year. I would drive it back once a year for an MOT. I have read online that cars have to be registered after 6 months but people don't tend to bother & have had not much bother by the police. I want to keep everything legal as the last thing I want is to end up with a big fine or my pride & joy impounded/ crushed etc

Peter_in_Hungary

V6tommmygun - make sure you talk to your UK insurance Co as lots of them don't like extended stays abroad - and they will look at all events / excuses to dump a claim, its not just the vehicle damage you could get left with but the injury claim(s) as well

Peter_in_Hungary

Thats the problem, if its a few years old then its probably down the environmental scale.
Just for fun I used the calculator above assuming 2.5ltr year 2010 with a EURO3 engine and it came in at just a tad under 2000 GBP then a 2.5ltr year 2012 with a euro4 engine and that was 1330GBP. However a EURO5 or better (the cheapest category) came in at just 330 quid

So it very much depends what the car is and the bottom line is that Hungary doesn't want Europes cast-off dirty old cars !!

V6TOMMYGUN

Re insurance. Yes my current insurer will only insure be outside of the uk for a maximum of 30 days a year but I am due for e renewal next month so I am shopping around to find an ensurer who will do more.

That is a big price difference.. My Car is a 2009 Audi TT RS so I'm guessing I'd be paying around £2000

Pollypaprika

We had our UK car here for about 2 yeas with valid UK insurance. I will try and dig out the name of the brokers for you. Please don't register your car in Hungary if you are only here for a year...that would be madness. We are not far from SK. Feel free to pm me :-)

V6TOMMYGUN

Thank you Pollypaprika.
I don't think I will register the car. I think my best option is to keep it on uk plates & with a good insurer who will cover me for 12 months or as near as. Maybe swap insurers after the maximum cover time is reached, that will be much cheaper than registering it for 1-2 years

PaulinEger

I know you've made your decision but here's my two penneth:
Last week my wife helped a local English couple re-register their English car. It's only a couple of years old, has an engine less than 1600cc and is Euro 5. The guy did an online calculation and it came in at just over 40,000 huf. In reality however, there are many other hidden costs to take into consideration such as the cost of the mot, plates, documents etc etc etc. The final price was about 263,000 huf! On top of that they shopped around for fully comp insurance and the best price they got was 101,000 huf.

Sachina

Try looking on

europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/vehicles/registration/taxes/hungary/index_en.htm

where you'll find all the information you need to know.

Hope the link works if not look under europa.eu Your Europe Car registration