Importing a 10 year old car from other EU country to UK

[Pete 55]

Hi,

Just looking for some advice here. I have moved to the UK from Ireland (Republic) and I need to have my car registered here. It's just over 10 years old. The DirectGov website seems to suggest doing a single vehicle inspection for cars under 10 years, but it doesn't specify exactly what do I need to do to register it in the UK.

Any advice here? I can of course phone them on Tuesday!

[Paul Drawmer]

I would have thought that the 'Mutual Recognition' process was more appropriate for importing an already registered EU vehicle.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/BuyingAndSell...

[DavidHM]

I don't quite know about the tax positions but if you have a car already registered in the ROI, surely it'd be worth more to sell it there and then use the euros to buy something newer/better over here for the same cash?

[Pete 55]

Thanks for the advice. It has failed the MOT considerably and needs around £2k in stuff done (not unexpected).

So now that I have a choice of spending around £2.5k (well £3.5k to get insured as well in the UK) on a car worth £5k or else put it off the road.

My heart is telling me to repair it and get it roadworthy.

My gut tells me to leave it off the road for now as there are a lot of nicer motors for very good money, and turn the CLK into some sort of project for something - not sure yet.

Any advice? What would you do?

[ManOpener]

Pete 55 said:

Thanks for the advice. It has failed the MOT considerably and needs around £2k in stuff done (not unexpected).

So now that I have a choice of spending around £2.5k (well £3.5k to get insured as well in the UK) on a car worth £5k or else put it off the road.

My heart is telling me to repair it and get it roadworthy.

My gut tells me to leave it off the road for now as there are a lot of nicer motors for very good money, and turn the CLK into some sort of project for something - not sure yet.

Any advice? What would you do?

Is it a CLK hardtop? If so, turn it into a track car.
If not, part it out and buy something else.

[sim16v]

What car is it that needs £2k spending to get it MOT worthy?

[vdubbin]

How long can you drive it around on Irish plates?

[Pete 55]

ManOpener said:

Is it a CLK hardtop? If so, turn it into a track car.
If not, part it out and buy something else.

Yeah it is, it's a W208 coupe '55 AMG. Putting into storage and making it a track car project was my thinking as the cost of general road use doesn't seem to be "worth it" seeing as there is so much nicer and newer around.

RE: what does it need, well it really only needs around £1.5k on new springs, ball joints, bushings everywhere. Needs a new exhaust as well. The other 500 is for miscellaneous things to get it back into shape like repairing an alloy which had a dent, and so on. Labour on that is probably a lot, but I can't do the suspension myself especially new shocks. 2k is to get it into good condition, excluding the rust of course.

[Pete 55]

vdubbin said:

How long can you drive it around on Irish plates?

60 days, is the limit of the 3rd party insurance you get when abroad. If you are resident in UK you are meant to register the car straight away.