Buying a foreign registered car for export

[kambites]

I'm thinking of buying a car here for my father in law (who lives in Bulgaria) and driving it out there. Most of the left hand drive cars for sale in the UK are still on foreign plates so how does the transfer of ownership work? Ideally I'd want registration transferred from the current country straight to a Bulgarian registration without ever bothering with the DVLA.

Also, what kinds of checks can be done to insure that a car is not stolen when it's not registered in the UK?

[TVR1]

kambites said:

I'm thinking of buying a car here for my father in law (who lives in Bulgaria) and driving it out there. Most of the left hand drive cars for sale in the UK are still on foreign plates so how does the transfer of ownership work? Ideally I'd want registration transferred from the current country straight to a Bulgarian registration without ever bothering with the DVLA.

Also, what kinds of checks can be done to insure that a car is not stolen when it's not registered in the UK?

It is pretty straightforward if the car is on foreign plates and has never been registered in the UK as there is no need to involve DVLA. At the Bulgarian end, depending on how old the car is, you may have a VAT liability there. However, if it is over 6 months old from first registration anywhere in the EU, then there is no liability. Simply take the car to the Bulgarian registration authority and have the car registered there. The only bit of mucking around you will have, is that you will need to provide a certificate of European compliance. This can only be issued by the manufacturer in the original country of supply.

Alternatively, have you considered a brand new UK supplied LHD car for export? UK prices for left hand drive cars are considerably less than their European eqivalent due to the Euro/Pound exchange rate. I run a LHD/export department (amongst other things) for a French manufacturer and can put a brand new LHD car into France (for example) for the same cost as a 3 year old car there. Feel free to PM me if you would like any other info.

HTH

[kambites]

Thanks.

I'm looking relatively low down the market, so new isn't really an option. We're looking for a Vectra sized car for around four grand (which is around the average yearly wage in Bulgaria).

So when I turn up to buy a car, what happens? Say it's registered in Spain, do I fill in some kind of Spanish registration document and it gets assigned me be in Spain, then it gets transferred from me as a Spanish owner to the FIL as a Bulgarian owner?