How to register a UK car in Sweden
Discussion
Mods - General Gassing is probably the wrong place for this, but their isn't a "Scandinavia" option in the International PHers section... Feel free to move to somewhere more appropriate.
I've just imported my car from the UK to Sweden and thought I'd share this post I wrote for a local Swedish expat forum. Reading Dale Lomas' article on registering his RX-8 in Germany made me realise how useful this sort of info is if you're trying to do something similar (e.g. in a neighbouring country) - the issues are usually the same re: speedos and headlights...
I thought I would share my recent experience in importing a UK RHD car to Sweden, for those who, like me, baulk at paying almost twice the price for the same car you could get back in England, but were unsure of how easy it would be to legally register it here.
Importantly, there have been some recent changes to the Swedish requirements for converting British vehicles for use in Sweden which makes things much simpler / less subjective than it seems to have been in the past. In particular, dual scale mph/kph speedometers are now acceptable, even if mph is the primary scale.
Step 1) Choose a vehicle. I went for something a little impractical given I live in the north of Sweden (a powerful rear wheel drive sportswagon) but the price differential was huge, so there was no way I was going to sell my car and trade down for something much older and less interesting for the same value. Looking back, a 4x4 or something with a bit more ground clearance would have been more useful.
Given you will be probably doing a bit of DIY to your car to prepare it for registreringsbeskitningen, it makes sense to find something with plenty of user support online in other forums - my car has lots of great DIY information available, including how to remove and replace the headlights, saving me a fair bit of money.
Step 2) Getting the car to Sweden. You can drive an EU vehicle in Sweden for 7 days if you are permanently resident, or for up to 12 months if you are a temporary resident. I was here on an expat contract so I kept my car on UK plates (taxed and MOTed) for 12 months whilst I sorted out my employment situation.
You can find evidence of this on the Transportsyrelsen site here:
http://www.transportstyrelsen.se/en/road/Vehicles/...
A good UK insurer to use to cover your UK car for unlimited EU use is Stuart Collins - they are expensive but I couldn't find another insurer who would cover me given my circumstances (I used the car for commuting, which is excluded from most other 365-day EU use policies - see eCar).
Step 3) The Swedish registration process
The Transportsyrelsen website is excellent, and has the same information in both Swedish and English. The process essentially follows 3 steps:
i - confirmation that the car is yours, and is not stolen ("verification of origin" / "ursprungskontroll")
ii - Technical inspection and First Registration
iii - Registering for use in traffic
i - So long as you have the correct documentation (logbook / certificate of ownership, i.e. V5 doc, proof of sale), this bit was very straightforward; send in your paperwork (you won't get any of it back, so take copies of them first!), wait 2 days for Transportstyrelsen to send you an invoice (700 kr), and then about one week from then you receive confirmation of the verification of origin and a booking reference number to need to book your registration inspection.
ii - this was the bit which caused me untold sleepless nights, and there is an awful lot of old and conflicting information online about what you need to do / change on your car to make it acceptable in Sweden. In fact, you need to make sure of the following:
a - the headlights have a LHD pattern ( _/ rather than \_ )
b - the rear foglight is on the right hand side (if your car only has one - no problem if it has 2, like most cars now).
c - the speedometer has KM/H on the scale - it does NOT need to be the only scale or the major scale.
After having quite a few problems finding cheap second hand headlights online (bildelbasen.se was expensive, and searching in English didn't turn much up) I decided to use google translate to search for them on ebay.de - voila! much more choice and better prices. Look for scheinwerfers...
Since April 2009 Sweden has accepted UK cars with dual mph/kmh scales after a number of appeals and new EU legislation. I printed off the technical bulletin that stated this change in their rules as I expected to have to explain this to Bilprovingen, but I had no problems at all there. For reference, here is the information (in Swedish):
http://www.transportstyrelsen.se/Global/Press/Remi...
My local Bilprovningen facilty had a 4 week waiting period, which seems quite typical. Registration cost 1380kr and I also took the annual vehicle check (MOT) for 320 kr, so 1700 in total. It took an hour, and at the end I was presented with my new registration number and MOT certificate (kontrollbesiktning). The tester had no questions, although my headlights were pointing a bit high after fitting them myself! After, your number plates will be sent to your Swedish address (3 to 5 days).
Important note - you do not need a Certificate of Conformity for an EU type approved car - your V5 should have a long "e" number (looks something like e*89298*eehm//2002) which is the type approval reference. If you start changing the speedo, then previous members have stated that a CofC is required. Therefore, with the post 2009 TSB it is much easier and cheaper to import UK cars...
iii - registering for traffic use
Basically, this is sorting out insurance and tax, and it can all be done online / over the phone in an hour - but you need your swedish reg. I used a very good broker, Suredo, who speak English and take the hassle out of finding the best deal. I couldn't find any quotes online for a direct imported car, so I needed to call come companies, but the broker came back with the best deal after all (approx 15% higher than if the car was an original Swedish registered vehicle).
Once you order this, the insurance is immediately activated, which means you can go back to the Transportstyrelsen website to order car tax. Again, this is then immediately activated and Transportstyrelsen send you an invoice within the next 3 days to pay. For me, my car was insured and ready for driving as a swedish vehicle (minus the physical plates) within 2 hours of leaving Bilprovningen.
--
Summary of costs
Verification of Origin - 700kr
New LHD headlights (secondhand xenons, adjust depending on car) - 5000 kr
First Registration Inspection & plates - 1380 kr (not bad given new plates are 800 kr anyway)
Annual Inspection - 320 kr
Total = 7400 kr approx
Insurance and tax vary with each car, but the total for me was within 10% of what I would have paid back in the UK and significantly less than the comprehensive EU policy I had the previous year (effectively the insurance savings paid for the new headlights and registration costs).
From start to finish, the process took about 5 weeks - waiting for a free slot at Bilprovningen was the critical path.
So - hope this helps; I spent months browsing in English and Swedish to try to find a definitive guide to importing a UK car, and other people's experiences put me off a little. The end result was much easier than it might have been back in 2008 or earlier given others' experiences on here (no need to change speedo, argue with Bilprovningen, attach bits of black tape over the MPH scale or get CofCs from the manufacturer).
Any questions, feel free to ask. I'd definitely do it again.
Cheers
N
I've just imported my car from the UK to Sweden and thought I'd share this post I wrote for a local Swedish expat forum. Reading Dale Lomas' article on registering his RX-8 in Germany made me realise how useful this sort of info is if you're trying to do something similar (e.g. in a neighbouring country) - the issues are usually the same re: speedos and headlights...
I thought I would share my recent experience in importing a UK RHD car to Sweden, for those who, like me, baulk at paying almost twice the price for the same car you could get back in England, but were unsure of how easy it would be to legally register it here.
Importantly, there have been some recent changes to the Swedish requirements for converting British vehicles for use in Sweden which makes things much simpler / less subjective than it seems to have been in the past. In particular, dual scale mph/kph speedometers are now acceptable, even if mph is the primary scale.
Step 1) Choose a vehicle. I went for something a little impractical given I live in the north of Sweden (a powerful rear wheel drive sportswagon) but the price differential was huge, so there was no way I was going to sell my car and trade down for something much older and less interesting for the same value. Looking back, a 4x4 or something with a bit more ground clearance would have been more useful.
Given you will be probably doing a bit of DIY to your car to prepare it for registreringsbeskitningen, it makes sense to find something with plenty of user support online in other forums - my car has lots of great DIY information available, including how to remove and replace the headlights, saving me a fair bit of money.
Step 2) Getting the car to Sweden. You can drive an EU vehicle in Sweden for 7 days if you are permanently resident, or for up to 12 months if you are a temporary resident. I was here on an expat contract so I kept my car on UK plates (taxed and MOTed) for 12 months whilst I sorted out my employment situation.
You can find evidence of this on the Transportsyrelsen site here:
http://www.transportstyrelsen.se/en/road/Vehicles/...
A good UK insurer to use to cover your UK car for unlimited EU use is Stuart Collins - they are expensive but I couldn't find another insurer who would cover me given my circumstances (I used the car for commuting, which is excluded from most other 365-day EU use policies - see eCar).
Step 3) The Swedish registration process
The Transportsyrelsen website is excellent, and has the same information in both Swedish and English. The process essentially follows 3 steps:
i - confirmation that the car is yours, and is not stolen ("verification of origin" / "ursprungskontroll")
ii - Technical inspection and First Registration
iii - Registering for use in traffic
i - So long as you have the correct documentation (logbook / certificate of ownership, i.e. V5 doc, proof of sale), this bit was very straightforward; send in your paperwork (you won't get any of it back, so take copies of them first!), wait 2 days for Transportstyrelsen to send you an invoice (700 kr), and then about one week from then you receive confirmation of the verification of origin and a booking reference number to need to book your registration inspection.
ii - this was the bit which caused me untold sleepless nights, and there is an awful lot of old and conflicting information online about what you need to do / change on your car to make it acceptable in Sweden. In fact, you need to make sure of the following:
a - the headlights have a LHD pattern ( _/ rather than \_ )
b - the rear foglight is on the right hand side (if your car only has one - no problem if it has 2, like most cars now).
c - the speedometer has KM/H on the scale - it does NOT need to be the only scale or the major scale.
After having quite a few problems finding cheap second hand headlights online (bildelbasen.se was expensive, and searching in English didn't turn much up) I decided to use google translate to search for them on ebay.de - voila! much more choice and better prices. Look for scheinwerfers...
Since April 2009 Sweden has accepted UK cars with dual mph/kmh scales after a number of appeals and new EU legislation. I printed off the technical bulletin that stated this change in their rules as I expected to have to explain this to Bilprovingen, but I had no problems at all there. For reference, here is the information (in Swedish):
http://www.transportstyrelsen.se/Global/Press/Remi...
My local Bilprovningen facilty had a 4 week waiting period, which seems quite typical. Registration cost 1380kr and I also took the annual vehicle check (MOT) for 320 kr, so 1700 in total. It took an hour, and at the end I was presented with my new registration number and MOT certificate (kontrollbesiktning). The tester had no questions, although my headlights were pointing a bit high after fitting them myself! After, your number plates will be sent to your Swedish address (3 to 5 days).
Important note - you do not need a Certificate of Conformity for an EU type approved car - your V5 should have a long "e" number (looks something like e*89298*eehm//2002) which is the type approval reference. If you start changing the speedo, then previous members have stated that a CofC is required. Therefore, with the post 2009 TSB it is much easier and cheaper to import UK cars...
iii - registering for traffic use
Basically, this is sorting out insurance and tax, and it can all be done online / over the phone in an hour - but you need your swedish reg. I used a very good broker, Suredo, who speak English and take the hassle out of finding the best deal. I couldn't find any quotes online for a direct imported car, so I needed to call come companies, but the broker came back with the best deal after all (approx 15% higher than if the car was an original Swedish registered vehicle).
Once you order this, the insurance is immediately activated, which means you can go back to the Transportstyrelsen website to order car tax. Again, this is then immediately activated and Transportstyrelsen send you an invoice within the next 3 days to pay. For me, my car was insured and ready for driving as a swedish vehicle (minus the physical plates) within 2 hours of leaving Bilprovningen.
--
Summary of costs
Verification of Origin - 700kr
New LHD headlights (secondhand xenons, adjust depending on car) - 5000 kr
First Registration Inspection & plates - 1380 kr (not bad given new plates are 800 kr anyway)
Annual Inspection - 320 kr
Total = 7400 kr approx
Insurance and tax vary with each car, but the total for me was within 10% of what I would have paid back in the UK and significantly less than the comprehensive EU policy I had the previous year (effectively the insurance savings paid for the new headlights and registration costs).
From start to finish, the process took about 5 weeks - waiting for a free slot at Bilprovningen was the critical path.
So - hope this helps; I spent months browsing in English and Swedish to try to find a definitive guide to importing a UK car, and other people's experiences put me off a little. The end result was much easier than it might have been back in 2008 or earlier given others' experiences on here (no need to change speedo, argue with Bilprovningen, attach bits of black tape over the MPH scale or get CofCs from the manufacturer).
Any questions, feel free to ask. I'd definitely do it again.
Cheers
N
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