Staying legal whilst test driving used cars

[Krupp Stahl]

As posted in another thread, I'm on the lookout for a cheap daily snotter.

I have a fully comprehensive insurance policy on my E46 M3 which provides for lawful use of cars not owned by me and with the permission of the owner. Presumably, this covers me for the purposes of test driving a used car if pulled over by the BiB in the process.

The other issue is with the new road tax arrangements. As I understand it, the tax no longer transfers with the vehicle to the next owner (bar the month in which the vehicle transferred from its current owner, I believe?). This is probably OK if you're buying privately (assuming the seller has taxed it properly in the first place), but how does this work with trade sellers? I doubt they renew tax on each and every car that passes through their hands and that potentially puts you as a test driver out on the road at risk of being pulled over and done for driving without current road tax. The demise of the tax disc makes this even harder to check.

Obviously, when you climb behind the wheel of any vehicle it's down to you to make sure you're legal and if something's amiss, it's you who is going to cop it. How do you chaps make sure you're covered?

[kambites]

I think most dealers have trade insurance which allows anyone to drive their stock. They will, I think, also have trade-plates which serve as an alternative to taxing the car for the purposes of test drives (the red ones they sometimes put inside the windows).

[Calza]

kambites said:

I think most dealers have trade insurance which allows anyone to drive their stock. They will, I think, also have trade-plates which serve as an alternative to taxing the car for the purposes of test drives (the red ones they sometimes put inside the windows).

This was also my understanding, roughly.

We can't both be wrong so it must be right,,

[jonby]

We run trade plates. You pay an annual road fund licence for each plate, just like for a car - road tax is paid against a specific registration so the procedure is pretty much the same

Likewise for insurance - we pay for each trade plate, against the registration on same, an annual insurance premium

So the only issue is MOT - if the car is over 3 years old and doesn't have a valid MOT, you can only use the trade plates to drive the car to or from a pre-booked MOT test i.e. not for a road test/test drive

Some people get confused saying you can also use trade plates for test drives. You can, but that still doesn't exempt you from needing a valid MOT on the vehicle in question. The confusion comes about because even WITH valid MOT, there are rules about when you can use trade plates and one of the permitted uses is a test drive

You theoretically cannot use trade plates outside trade type uses, but people are very rarely stopped if they do incorrectly use them

[Krupp Stahl]

Thanks chaps - so looks like trade plate must be displayed during a test drive.

[SS2.]

Krupp Stahl said:

As I understand it, the tax no longer transfers with the vehicle to the next owner (bar the month in which the vehicle transferred from its current owner, I believe?).

From 01.10.2014, tax is no longer transferable to a new keeper (at all) - not even any unused tax within the month the vehicle changed hands.

[sjj84]

If you are buying private you might find people unwilling to let you drive their cars with only third party insurance. You may find taking out a day insurance policy a better bet. It's what I did last time, isn't overly expensive in the great scheme of things.

[TinyCappo]

Theres a new beta service on the UK.gov website you type in the reg and the manufacturer and it tells you if its got a Valid MOT and Tax and the expiry date of each.