Just imported myself and my vz clubsport
Discussion
Hi guys, some months ago I posted a topic asking advise as to whether I could bring my my car into the UK/ what other peoples experiences were. Well, the car is currently clearing customs and I have a couple of other questions that maybe someone can have a go at answering.
First off, I need it insured. It has had the UK mods done in that I had a VXR instrumentation set fitted and a high intensity fog light in the back. I called A-Plan insurance as they advertise here, and they are invesitgating options. Interestingly, the Australian registration, does not seem to concern them as much as the fact that I still havean Australian drivers licence (having only been here for a couple of weeks). Has anyone else had any experiences with thgis/ have some other insurers that may be able to help in the instance that A-plan cant (but heres hoping).
Secondly, I have checked the regulations and as far as I can tell, I should be able to drive it no problems with Australian domestic registration until I have my SVA done etc. Does anyone have any conflicting information that may cause me problems with this? I checked the policy for britaion on foreign drivers and it does say in that document
"Bringing Vehicles into the UK
There are international agreements which provide for the temporary use
of a vehicle in a foreign country for a limited time, usually 6 months in a
12 month period. It is the responsibility of the driver to prove how long
the vehicle has been in the country. A visitor to the U.K. may use a
vehicle displaying foreign plates, provided that all taxes (including
vehicle excise duty) are paid in their country of origin. Once a vehicle
has been registered in the U.K. it must display a current Vehicle Excise
Licence and if over three years old be submitted for a Ministry of
Transport Test" so I think I am in the clear.
Thirdly, I notice that there is a new topic on car club events. Do many of the forum members go to these events. Are they family events etc? Once settled, I wouldn't mind looking into joining etc.
Thanks for any help provided
First off, I need it insured. It has had the UK mods done in that I had a VXR instrumentation set fitted and a high intensity fog light in the back. I called A-Plan insurance as they advertise here, and they are invesitgating options. Interestingly, the Australian registration, does not seem to concern them as much as the fact that I still havean Australian drivers licence (having only been here for a couple of weeks). Has anyone else had any experiences with thgis/ have some other insurers that may be able to help in the instance that A-plan cant (but heres hoping).
Secondly, I have checked the regulations and as far as I can tell, I should be able to drive it no problems with Australian domestic registration until I have my SVA done etc. Does anyone have any conflicting information that may cause me problems with this? I checked the policy for britaion on foreign drivers and it does say in that document
"Bringing Vehicles into the UK
There are international agreements which provide for the temporary use
of a vehicle in a foreign country for a limited time, usually 6 months in a
12 month period. It is the responsibility of the driver to prove how long
the vehicle has been in the country. A visitor to the U.K. may use a
vehicle displaying foreign plates, provided that all taxes (including
vehicle excise duty) are paid in their country of origin. Once a vehicle
has been registered in the U.K. it must display a current Vehicle Excise
Licence and if over three years old be submitted for a Ministry of
Transport Test" so I think I am in the clear.
Thirdly, I notice that there is a new topic on car club events. Do many of the forum members go to these events. Are they family events etc? Once settled, I wouldn't mind looking into joining etc.
Thanks for any help provided
Hi, I imported my VY2 Clubby here a couple of years ago, and agree with what you quoted. I had my car insured initially (on VIC plates) with Natwest- about 900 squid. SVA was pretty straight forward, MPH, fog lt, but I did have to make a few smaller changes tho. During the test they check 'edges' for a min radius of 3mm (I think), the edges on the exhaust outlets failed so I had to round them off - I did this by buying a couple of chrome tips from local Halfrauds, fitting them and then chucking them once test passed. I also had to file down rhe edges of the knob on top of the radio aerial, as it too was too sharp!! If you have any tinting on your windows, you will may have to remove it from the front 2 windows as it will prob fail their transmissivity test - mine did. Other than these few thubgs it sailed thru 
byronw70 said:
Thanks heaps for that. It sounds like I will need to do the same changes to mine as I am pretty sure that the exhaust sleaves did not change with the VZ. Did you have factory tints? I do have whatever HSV offer so if that is what you have, I might have an issue their too.
I had the dealer apply Holden's "Tint Conditioning" when I purchased the car, this is what I had to remove, leaving the original factory tint.
Welcome!
As Raggyman says(he now owns the HSV GTS Coupe that I imported over here 3 years ago), just tell them you have an "international licence" then all is sweet. Aussie licences are recognised as equal to UK ones as there is a written agreemnet with certain countries so you can literally rock into a UK licence office & swap an Oz licence for a UK one. Are you staying in the UK for a long time?? If so, here are some very important tips to consider for the long term joy of driving yr HSV over here... trust me, been there done that so here is some food for thought from a Melb lad who has spent 3 years here and half that time loving driving a original HSV on UK roads.
Once insured, keep your car on Aussie plates as long as possible but make sure your Oz rego is paid up (obviously keep it registered to a family addy back home). If you let the reg lapse and need to claim on insurance here you will have big dramas as one of our bretheren here experienced when his berlina got totalled. Also, dont hurry to swap your Oz licence for a UK one. Technically the rules say you must get a UK reg and licence if you settle here (I think 6 months is the rule) BUT, if you happen to take the car across the channel for a "day out", your six months starts over. If you travel outside UK (without the car) then same applies for your licence 6 month rule.
In reality, the only reason you will need to get UK reg is for when u want to sell the car - selling with Oz plates (ie no SVA done) will significantly reduce the resale potential.
The main reason you should keep your oz plates on is because the uK infringement system simply cannot cope with a plate it has no idea about. Parking tickets, speed camera & congestion zone charges just throws a wobbly on their computers. Trust me, the longer you avoid becoming part of "the system" the better. I'm not saying it gives you a free reign to flout the law but if you get a petty (sub £100) parking or camera offence they will have no idea how to process it or what your car is. hypothetically of course, if I had got a few on the coupe and the best description they could muster was, hypothetically of course, "black vauxhall"! Never heard anything and the oldest one could have been circa May 05.
Having an Oz licence is handy too... very hard for you to get demerit points if busted for anything. Once again, the UK system cannot cope with it. Once you get a UK licence then you are up for demerit points which will impact your insurance rating quite dramatically. If you do get a UK licence then you will have to surrender your Oz one - you cannot keep both. Unless you happen to "lose" yr Oz one
& get a duplicate issued from the Oz state yr from. If you happen to find your lost licence the week after then it's possible you might get the two mixed up & accidentally hand that one over for yr Uk one. Hey presto, you now have two licences! If pulled by John Laws over here & out pops the Oz one, pulled by them in Oz & the UK one comes out. I mean it can make anyone a bit nervous when pulled over so I'm sure it could be easy to pull out the wrong licence by mistake?
Anyway.. not sure if yr up for all that, if you feel it sounds too dodgy then you may want to "conform" and buy the cardy & pipe so you can eventually trade in the beast for a Jag or a Rover but hey - why not make the most of it? Thats my twenty cents worth if it helps! Feel free to contact me if u want more info, or after reading all this shifty stuff you may want to avoid me like the plague!
cheers & enjoy the driving - its way more fun than in Oz
J
(make sure you lob to the Ace cafe in W London for the Australia Day event - well worth it.)
As Raggyman says(he now owns the HSV GTS Coupe that I imported over here 3 years ago), just tell them you have an "international licence" then all is sweet. Aussie licences are recognised as equal to UK ones as there is a written agreemnet with certain countries so you can literally rock into a UK licence office & swap an Oz licence for a UK one. Are you staying in the UK for a long time?? If so, here are some very important tips to consider for the long term joy of driving yr HSV over here... trust me, been there done that so here is some food for thought from a Melb lad who has spent 3 years here and half that time loving driving a original HSV on UK roads.
Once insured, keep your car on Aussie plates as long as possible but make sure your Oz rego is paid up (obviously keep it registered to a family addy back home). If you let the reg lapse and need to claim on insurance here you will have big dramas as one of our bretheren here experienced when his berlina got totalled. Also, dont hurry to swap your Oz licence for a UK one. Technically the rules say you must get a UK reg and licence if you settle here (I think 6 months is the rule) BUT, if you happen to take the car across the channel for a "day out", your six months starts over. If you travel outside UK (without the car) then same applies for your licence 6 month rule.
In reality, the only reason you will need to get UK reg is for when u want to sell the car - selling with Oz plates (ie no SVA done) will significantly reduce the resale potential.
The main reason you should keep your oz plates on is because the uK infringement system simply cannot cope with a plate it has no idea about. Parking tickets, speed camera & congestion zone charges just throws a wobbly on their computers. Trust me, the longer you avoid becoming part of "the system" the better. I'm not saying it gives you a free reign to flout the law but if you get a petty (sub £100) parking or camera offence they will have no idea how to process it or what your car is. hypothetically of course, if I had got a few on the coupe and the best description they could muster was, hypothetically of course, "black vauxhall"! Never heard anything and the oldest one could have been circa May 05.
Having an Oz licence is handy too... very hard for you to get demerit points if busted for anything. Once again, the UK system cannot cope with it. Once you get a UK licence then you are up for demerit points which will impact your insurance rating quite dramatically. If you do get a UK licence then you will have to surrender your Oz one - you cannot keep both. Unless you happen to "lose" yr Oz one
& get a duplicate issued from the Oz state yr from. If you happen to find your lost licence the week after then it's possible you might get the two mixed up & accidentally hand that one over for yr Uk one. Hey presto, you now have two licences! If pulled by John Laws over here & out pops the Oz one, pulled by them in Oz & the UK one comes out. I mean it can make anyone a bit nervous when pulled over so I'm sure it could be easy to pull out the wrong licence by mistake? Anyway.. not sure if yr up for all that, if you feel it sounds too dodgy then you may want to "conform" and buy the cardy & pipe so you can eventually trade in the beast for a Jag or a Rover
but hey - why not make the most of it? Thats my twenty cents worth if it helps! Feel free to contact me if u want more info, or after reading all this shifty stuff you may want to avoid me like the plague! cheers & enjoy the driving - its way more fun than in Oz
J
(make sure you lob to the Ace cafe in W London for the Australia Day event - well worth it.)
Thanks very much for all of your advise. And thanks once again "hsvgtscoupe" for your extremely useful information. I remember you were a wealth of info when I first posted several months ago. Looks like the best way to go is to leave it Oz registered and insure away, at least for the moment which is more than fine with me as I have plenty of other paperwork to deal with. Not sure how long I intend to stay in the UK at this point in time. My wife and three kids have just finished a 3 month jaunt in Europe and looked to stay here for up to a couple of years maybe. Just moved into a rental place near Wimbledon and now need to get all responsible again and get work etc.
Thanks again for all your help and while I will definately look to attend the Australia day gig!
Thanks again for all your help and while I will definately look to attend the Australia day gig!
Hi All, got my car (Yeh!!). I had trouble getting insurance from A-Plan. Not sure why, but the fact that I did not quote a International license when first speaking to them seemed to cause a permanent bureaucratic barrier. Anyway for the record I was insured by a group called Footman James who were really great and easy to deal with. So anyone out there looking for Insurance options should certainly give them a go.
Thanks again for all the great advise, and if you see a Phantom Z series Clubsport driving around, it will likely be me so give me a hoy.
Thanks again for all the great advise, and if you see a Phantom Z series Clubsport driving around, it will likely be me so give me a hoy.
Thanks Alan. Will do. First I will get the damage fixed by the shipping company. When it got here, the foglight you fitted had been bent in, I have scrapes on the back bumper, and the front two wheels have incurred some damage. The tragedy is, I had all four reco-ed before I came after the tyre fitter damaged them. Oh well, that is why I took out insurance on the car in transit I guess
Cheers,
Byron
Cheers,
Byron
HSVGTSCoupe said:
Having an Oz licence is handy too... very hard for you to get demerit points if busted for anything. Once again, the UK system cannot cope with it. Once you get a UK licence then you are up for demerit points which will impact your insurance rating quite dramatically. If you do get a UK licence then you will have to surrender your Oz one - you cannot keep both. Unless you happen to "lose" yr Oz one & get a duplicate issued from the Oz state yr from. If you happen to find your lost licence the week after then it's possible you might get the two mixed up & accidentally hand that one over for yr Uk one. Hey presto, you now have two licences! If pulled by John Laws over here & out pops the Oz one, pulled by them in Oz & the UK one comes out. I mean it can make anyone a bit nervous when pulled over so I'm sure it could be easy to pull out the wrong licence by mistake?
Wish I'd known that 5 years ago! Having swapped my NSW one for a UK one 6months in, I thought I'd see if I could get another NSW one when I was back home. Would you believe the NSW system knew I'd swapped it over and would only issue me another on if I swapped it back! & get a duplicate issued from the Oz state yr from. If you happen to find your lost licence the week after then it's possible you might get the two mixed up & accidentally hand that one over for yr Uk one. Hey presto, you now have two licences! If pulled by John Laws over here & out pops the Oz one, pulled by them in Oz & the UK one comes out. I mean it can make anyone a bit nervous when pulled over so I'm sure it could be easy to pull out the wrong licence by mistake? 
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