How to change an EU car over to UK Registered?

[bangwhosnext]

Hi, I just bought a car from Southern Ireland (EU) and trying to register in Northern Ireland.

It's an Audi A4 (b7). I got it very cheap and seems to be in very good nick for its age (2007)

So, this is my first time doing this and I'm very sketchy on it.

Here is what I've found out:

I need to insure the car on the chassis number.
Book M.O.T. on chassis number.
Send off EU/Irish Logbook with proof of insurance and photo id.
Pay fees for registration and tax.

What I don't know...

Will this EU car pass M.O.T. with an EU speedometer in Km/h? Will I need to get a UK A4 instrument cluster or is there any other way around it?

What about taking the car to my local mechanic to get it checked over for M.O.T. (it has the airbag light on, so at the very least, needs that sorted or automatic fail).
Will I be taking a big chance legally? AFAIK... it is only legal to drive to M.O.T. centre for test and back.

Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

[underwhelmist]

Can’t help with most of your questions, but when I had a Japanese import bike with km/h speedo, some blobs of paint to indicate 30, 50 and 70 mph (50, 80 and 110 km/h I think?) were good enough for the MOT.
Edit: you used to be able to get purpose made stickers, would be a better solution.

[bangwhosnext]

underwhelmist said:

Can’t help with most of your questions, but when I had a Japanese import bike with km/h speedo, some blobs of paint to indicate 30, 50 and 70 mph (50, 80 and 110 km/h I think?) were good enough for the MOT.
Edit: you used to be able to get purpose made stickers, would be a better solution.

Cheers Brother... will look for those stickers. Appreciate the reply.

What about legal status of driving it to my mechanic to get it ready for M.O.T.?
Anyone any ideas?

[Wooda80]

bangwhosnext said:

What about legal status of driving it to my mechanic to get it ready for M.O.T.?
Anyone any ideas?

I appreciate that there are rules about how long you can drive a foreign registered car for if you are not actually a foreign resident, but aside from that what would you actually be doing wrong, and what are the risks of anyone taking an interest?

The car is insured so you've fulfilled that obligation. Obviously the car needs to be in a safe and legal condition to use, but that's only the same as if you were driving a British registered car with a 6 month old MOT and the airbag light on. You shouldn't be driving it but a police is not likely to trouble you about it.

Apart from that, what other laws could you be breaking. Obviously make sure you are sober and stick to the speed limits!

[anonymous-user]

I think the law regarding driving a foreign registered vehicle is a bit of a grey area. As long as its road legal insured MOT'd or equivalent you should be fine as long as you don't take the piss and drive it around for months at a time.

How do you define or prove residency anyway? We have a property in Poland and a property in the UK and split our time between the 2. As a result 2 of our vehicles are on PL plates and one is on UK plates. Does this mean we can't drive our PL registered vehicles in the UK? There is no such law in PL regarding driving a UK registered vehicle.

Similarly my parents have a property in Greece and one in the UK and their car is Greek plated. (Can they not visit the UK in their car?)

Personally I would just drive the thing to the MOT station and get it road legal and not worry too much. As long as its insured you will be fine

Regarding the dial faces If Audi are anything like BMW's you can just swap the dial faces out for MPH/KPH ones. I did the reverse with an e46 years ago and it took all of 20 mins. I bought from these guys and they seemed to be decent quality and they speak English

https://moman.pl/en/home/127-11-audi-a3-8v-zamienn...

Maybe drop them an email and ask if they can make the MPH ones? 100 pln is 20 quid

[Wooda80]

CDB1983 said:

I think the law regarding driving a foreign registered vehicle is a bit of a grey area. As long as its road legal insured MOT'd or equivalent you should be fine as long as you don't take the piss and drive it around for months at a time.

How do you define or prove residency anyway? We have a property in Poland and a property in the UK and split our time between the 2. As a result 2 of our vehicles are on PL plates and one is on UK plates. Does this mean we can't drive our PL registered vehicles in the UK? There is no such law in PL regarding driving a UK registered vehicle.

Similarly my parents have a property in Greece and one in the UK and their car is Greek plated. (Can they not visit the UK in their car?)

I don't think the rules are to do with driving it, more that the car should be registered in the country where it's kept.

Anecdotally ( stories in the press of footballers with foreign registered cars, and experiences of friends and relatives ) I believe that if the car stays in the country where you are living for longer than 6 months continuously then you should get it re-reg'd in that country. But I know of people who have left foreign plates in this country and British plates abroad for much longer than that.

Just don't go giving them the middle finger as you drive through the speed camera with your untraceable plates!

[bangwhosnext]

Hi, thanks folks.... this has put my mind at ease a bit. I just need to take it to my mechanic and make sure its ready for M.O.T. which is booked for about 3 weeks time.