Bring car to London from Spain?
Discussion
Hello everyone, i've been a long reader of pistonheads since evo time but never registered just because I live overseas and english is not my native language; now i'm a johny foreigner and living the dream of living in london for one year. Miss my car and specially talk about cars but all for my wife and his career.
So, enough of me, and i need some advise:
I was thinking of buying a car but with all the insurance costs for a foreigner, plus the hassle of buy and sell for only a few months i think is non-sense, but anyway i really need a car to travel, i do a lot of mountain bike and the car is something required to approach to the appropriate places to ride and not runover pedestrians at hampstead and because drive.
A very good friend in spain have an old vw golf mk2 with diesel engine. Is running ok, insured in spain and he is willing to lend to me to bring it here to london (i know the max time for a foreigner car is six months so im thinking in bringing here in april until we left in september).
Now things gets a bit complicated: i have a chilean driving license, i have uk resident permit and the golf mk2 is from spain. If a cop stops me for sure he will ask WTF is this clusterf
k. If any have been in this situation i will appreciate some advise; seems that the figure is the same if i've rented a car in other EU country and bring it to UK, so i'm thinking on make a rental contract with my friend and that could be enough but the uk resident status is giving me some doubts about bring an EU car.
Thanks in advance and sorry for my grammar errors!
So, enough of me, and i need some advise:
I was thinking of buying a car but with all the insurance costs for a foreigner, plus the hassle of buy and sell for only a few months i think is non-sense, but anyway i really need a car to travel, i do a lot of mountain bike and the car is something required to approach to the appropriate places to ride and not runover pedestrians at hampstead and because drive.
A very good friend in spain have an old vw golf mk2 with diesel engine. Is running ok, insured in spain and he is willing to lend to me to bring it here to london (i know the max time for a foreigner car is six months so im thinking in bringing here in april until we left in september).
Now things gets a bit complicated: i have a chilean driving license, i have uk resident permit and the golf mk2 is from spain. If a cop stops me for sure he will ask WTF is this clusterf
k. If any have been in this situation i will appreciate some advise; seems that the figure is the same if i've rented a car in other EU country and bring it to UK, so i'm thinking on make a rental contract with my friend and that could be enough but the uk resident status is giving me some doubts about bring an EU car.Thanks in advance and sorry for my grammar errors!
Hi,
I'd suggest you to consider:
1) to swap your Chilean driving license for one you can use in Spain, to begin with. Then worry about an UK driving license as the UK would have left the EU by when you'd be moving over for 6 months.
Being such a length of stay the risk of being involved in an incident is not trivial, and you'd still need to demonstrate you've got appropriate insurance to drive in the UK (or in Spain, for that matter!).
2) the rental contract between yourself and your friend is not going to operate much of an effect unless your friend is a registered individual/company trading on or in the business of car rental. The issue with owning a car is that there are responsibilities derived from ownership which cannot be completely transferred to another person (unless you agree on him transferring the domain of the car onto yourself). The only thing you're possibly going to prove is that the car hasn't been stolen -which you don't need to prove yourself unless you want to sell it in another country, simply because the legitimate owner has the legal obligation to make a police report should their car need to be considered as "stolen"-.
3) The length of 6 months for you to drive a foreign registered vehicle gets you away from having to register it in the UK (which you won't be able to unless you are its "owner" or registered "keeper") which in practical terms only saves you some money you'd have otherwise spent in MOT (the UK's version of the Spanish ITV).
4) Above all, please consider not to drive a foreign registered car anywhere outside where the car has been registered, except for holidays. This is one of the reasons which makes motor insurance more expensive for everybody else! By the way, you should get in possession of the registration document for the vehicle, issued by the Spanish motor registration office.
5) There is an ultra-low emission zone in London. It might not affect your journeys but if you've got no option different than to drive through it, your journeys will become quite expensive. That ULEZ will be enlarged in 2021 but that's unlikely to affect you if you leave sooner. At the moment, ULEZ runs alongside the London's Congestion Charge area, so if you drive through it you'd need to fork something like 20 Pounds already, per day.
6) If after all these being considered you need to take your friend's car from Spain, I'd recommend you to get roadside/breakdown insurance. I think it is fairly obvious why unless you both have agreed that at the first breakdown the car will be considered as written off.
I'd suggest you to consider:
1) to swap your Chilean driving license for one you can use in Spain, to begin with. Then worry about an UK driving license as the UK would have left the EU by when you'd be moving over for 6 months.
Being such a length of stay the risk of being involved in an incident is not trivial, and you'd still need to demonstrate you've got appropriate insurance to drive in the UK (or in Spain, for that matter!).
2) the rental contract between yourself and your friend is not going to operate much of an effect unless your friend is a registered individual/company trading on or in the business of car rental. The issue with owning a car is that there are responsibilities derived from ownership which cannot be completely transferred to another person (unless you agree on him transferring the domain of the car onto yourself). The only thing you're possibly going to prove is that the car hasn't been stolen -which you don't need to prove yourself unless you want to sell it in another country, simply because the legitimate owner has the legal obligation to make a police report should their car need to be considered as "stolen"-.
3) The length of 6 months for you to drive a foreign registered vehicle gets you away from having to register it in the UK (which you won't be able to unless you are its "owner" or registered "keeper") which in practical terms only saves you some money you'd have otherwise spent in MOT (the UK's version of the Spanish ITV).
4) Above all, please consider not to drive a foreign registered car anywhere outside where the car has been registered, except for holidays. This is one of the reasons which makes motor insurance more expensive for everybody else! By the way, you should get in possession of the registration document for the vehicle, issued by the Spanish motor registration office.
5) There is an ultra-low emission zone in London. It might not affect your journeys but if you've got no option different than to drive through it, your journeys will become quite expensive. That ULEZ will be enlarged in 2021 but that's unlikely to affect you if you leave sooner. At the moment, ULEZ runs alongside the London's Congestion Charge area, so if you drive through it you'd need to fork something like 20 Pounds already, per day.
6) If after all these being considered you need to take your friend's car from Spain, I'd recommend you to get roadside/breakdown insurance. I think it is fairly obvious why unless you both have agreed that at the first breakdown the car will be considered as written off.
Hey mate, thanks a lot, really helpful!
Just arrived from Spain and checked more in detail the golf, is very well maintained (5 doors, diesel engine) but after deliberate, reading the content of your post and many beers and tapas we conclude that we will look to another option, including buying a more convenient car in Spain and pick up from there to travel around (registered to my friend).
About the driving license in Spain, yes, is a good idea but seems that i have to take a complete course and give a full exam, i will take it if we move to Spain later. Edit: is possible to convalidate! but i need residence in Spain first, damn!
I was aware about LEZ and ULEZ, and yes, the purpose was to use the car only on weekends and outside London, but also i don't have parking and was trying to get a permission to park in the street of my borough (Islington) and is like 250 pounds a year and seems that the car must be registered in UK, at least in the online form.
I wish things were a bit less complicated.
Just arrived from Spain and checked more in detail the golf, is very well maintained (5 doors, diesel engine) but after deliberate, reading the content of your post and many beers and tapas we conclude that we will look to another option, including buying a more convenient car in Spain and pick up from there to travel around (registered to my friend).
About the driving license in Spain, yes, is a good idea but seems that i have to take a complete course and give a full exam, i will take it if we move to Spain later. Edit: is possible to convalidate! but i need residence in Spain first, damn!
I was aware about LEZ and ULEZ, and yes, the purpose was to use the car only on weekends and outside London, but also i don't have parking and was trying to get a permission to park in the street of my borough (Islington) and is like 250 pounds a year and seems that the car must be registered in UK, at least in the online form.
I wish things were a bit less complicated.
Edited by junk on Thursday 16th January 11:46
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