bigglesafloat

Perhaps this is all irrelevant because you can only keep your foreign registered car here 6 months as we all know. If you are officially resident in Portugal, work here or are a Portuguese National you cannot drive a foreign registered car in Potugal anyway.

The_Hog

Bomber Harris

That is an urban myth perpetuated on a number of forums. If you search the EU and European Court of Justice websites you will find that Portugal has never been fined over it's registration tax, however such taxes have been looked at in general and found to be lawful. Here's a quick link to look at if you don't want to do full research to find the relevant legal pages (it took me ages ).

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs...artax_en.htm#1

The EU does recognise the disparity between different member states and published a proposal in 2005 to harmonise everyone, but have yet to adopt it into law.

moving shortly

Have you not heard that Portugal is one of the most dangerous places to drive in europe? It doesnt matter if you have insurance or not the portuguese driving is atrotious also many are only insured 3rd party well lets face it, its so expensive to buy a car in Portugual then run it along with all the other expenses I shouldnt think a few Brit cars really matter that much. That is the Portuguese police dont seem concerned.

bigglesafloat

Hmmmmm! Are you sure Portugal is the place for you ?

kyles Mummy

Hi

Yes i am aware of how dangerous portugal is, thats why i am often concerned with so many uninsured and unroadworthy cars.

kind regards


sam
X

moving shortly

Hi
No not sure yet Biggles. However one thing I do realise is that really the British should learn from the countries that they go to live in and that is "live and let live". A friend of ours who is native to Portugal but lives in London cannot understand all this "snitching" on each other he thinks it is very peculiar. He keeps a car here with a German reg (dont ask me how that works and I dont ask him). He knows many people who work in Germany/France and the UK who keep their host registered country cars in Portugal now whether they are insured or not I dont know but I do find it interesting. I also note when I am in Portugal/Spain the number of foreign registered vehicles in these countries. Again whether they belong to British/French/Germany/Portuguese/Dutch or Spanish is anyones guess!

bigglesafloat

I totally agree with the idea of 'live and let live' - there is a huge difference between having a discussion on a forum such as this and snitching to the authorities which I do not think any foreeign residents in Portugal do. In Spain however it has always been the practice to 'denounce' fellow citizens for criminal and fiscal crimes and I believe they even have a reward system for doing so. I hasten to add that this is probably more prevalent amongst Spanish Nationals than ex-pats.
What you should remember is that Portugal enforces the 6 month only for foreign registered cars and to import same is very, very expensive (except if you are becoming a legal resident and that first car is part of your goods and chattels brought with you). If foreign registered cars are being driven for years in Portugal but are insured I could not care a damn BUT if they are not insured then that is another matter. There are probably many Portuguese registered cars that are not insured without added risk from ex-pats. I personally would still not snitch on anybody but I would make my feelings known to the offender.