Non UK citizen purchasing a vehicle for a Scottish holiday
Discussion
Hello, I’m not sure if this is the correct forum so I have posted in a couple that are of some relevance to my question in the hope of having more people see it and hopefully an answer or solution. If this is an issue feel free to move or remove my post as appropriate.
My partner and I are coming to Scotland in September from Australia for about a month and are looking to purchase a vehicle when we arrive to use during our travels and sell again when we leave.
I am aware that this will likely loose money plus the additional logistical considerations compared to hiring a car but feel it will open up a few more interesting options.
Not having a UK address it appears that the purchase of a vehicle is no issue but registration and insurance is and a UK address is needed for both. Talking to the DVLA to try and find a solution they have said that it does not need to be a residential address that you are residing at but that still doesn’t provide a solution without first having an address to use so I was wondering if anyone else had been through a similar process before or had any ideas as to possible solutions.
At the moment I am thinking possible options include if an agreement is able to be reached with a dealer to trade the car back in at the end of our holiday, using the address of a relative or acquaintance (assuming I can find one) or if Pistonheads would like the services of a ‘freelance motoring journalist’ on very reasonable terms to write a piece on a trip around Scotland with a no reserve auction at the end…
If anyone else has any ideas or possible solutions that will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rory
My partner and I are coming to Scotland in September from Australia for about a month and are looking to purchase a vehicle when we arrive to use during our travels and sell again when we leave.
I am aware that this will likely loose money plus the additional logistical considerations compared to hiring a car but feel it will open up a few more interesting options.
Not having a UK address it appears that the purchase of a vehicle is no issue but registration and insurance is and a UK address is needed for both. Talking to the DVLA to try and find a solution they have said that it does not need to be a residential address that you are residing at but that still doesn’t provide a solution without first having an address to use so I was wondering if anyone else had been through a similar process before or had any ideas as to possible solutions.
At the moment I am thinking possible options include if an agreement is able to be reached with a dealer to trade the car back in at the end of our holiday, using the address of a relative or acquaintance (assuming I can find one) or if Pistonheads would like the services of a ‘freelance motoring journalist’ on very reasonable terms to write a piece on a trip around Scotland with a no reserve auction at the end…
If anyone else has any ideas or possible solutions that will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rory
I can see all sorts of problems, particularly over just a month.
A contact address would be needed, and if you're unlucky,,you might not even get the V5 registration back in that time. I don't know what Glasgow is like, but Edinburgh has a reputation of being very anti car.
If you're looking at an interesting car, then a chat with a specialist Dealer to use one of his stock cars and source your own short term insurance.
But it looks like you'll be driving around in a miserable small hatch for 4 weeks!
A contact address would be needed, and if you're unlucky,,you might not even get the V5 registration back in that time. I don't know what Glasgow is like, but Edinburgh has a reputation of being very anti car.
If you're looking at an interesting car, then a chat with a specialist Dealer to use one of his stock cars and source your own short term insurance.
But it looks like you'll be driving around in a miserable small hatch for 4 weeks!
Your issue will be insurance.
My BiL was coming to the UK and wanted to borrow one of our cars for a month. Something we've done multiple times when visiting him without issue. Our insurance was a flat NO. Tried a few other insurance companies to get temp insurance and all said no.
There may well be specialist insurers for this kind of thing but I didn't find them and no doubt it would likely be at significant premium. He ended up renting a car.
I'll be honest buying and selling a car in the UK for a short period sounds like a right pain.
My BiL was coming to the UK and wanted to borrow one of our cars for a month. Something we've done multiple times when visiting him without issue. Our insurance was a flat NO. Tried a few other insurance companies to get temp insurance and all said no.
There may well be specialist insurers for this kind of thing but I didn't find them and no doubt it would likely be at significant premium. He ended up renting a car.
I'll be honest buying and selling a car in the UK for a short period sounds like a right pain.
I believe the solution for "short term" visitors to the UK is simply not to bother with tax and insurance given the amount of characters that seems to be ignoring the law / driving on non UK licenses and the like. But I'd echo the above, with a UK address to use it could get quite difficult plus then there's the faff of buying something "decent" and then dealing with getting rid again... unless of course you were to just scrap / WeBuyAnyCar at the other end but again may be complications with address / legal ownership etc etc.
Quick check would suggest Enterprise out of Edinburgh airport will rent you a Ford Focus for a month for £860 all in... and I'm pretty sure if you shopped around / used deal websites etc etc, you could probably get that down quite a bit more - so even say £500 for an Aygo or similar, for a month, fully insured and breakdown covered, no hassle or stress, ok it's not cheap but I think I'd be tempted to explore that option over buying.
Quick check would suggest Enterprise out of Edinburgh airport will rent you a Ford Focus for a month for £860 all in... and I'm pretty sure if you shopped around / used deal websites etc etc, you could probably get that down quite a bit more - so even say £500 for an Aygo or similar, for a month, fully insured and breakdown covered, no hassle or stress, ok it's not cheap but I think I'd be tempted to explore that option over buying.
I believe " Sterling Insurance " will be able to insure the car here -might be worth starting out with checking with them to see what is and isn't possible ?
Buying a car privately here ( and selling it ) may be too painful so perhaps the friendly dealer idea is an option with any loss on the deal being the cost of a hire car anyway ?
I guess you would also need to take breakdown cover into account for a month ?
Your budget / type of car will also play a part in decision making.
No doubt a lot more fun but whether the hassle compensates over a hire car I'm not sure ?!
Buying a car privately here ( and selling it ) may be too painful so perhaps the friendly dealer idea is an option with any loss on the deal being the cost of a hire car anyway ?
I guess you would also need to take breakdown cover into account for a month ?
Your budget / type of car will also play a part in decision making.
No doubt a lot more fun but whether the hassle compensates over a hire car I'm not sure ?!
Thank you all for your responses.
My main motivation for it as an idea rather than hiring a car was to hopefully get something a bit more interesting. Looking around I found an F-Type V6 coupe for about 4,000 pounds so thought if I was willing to spend up to 25-30,000 pounds or so there might be some interesting options and loose a comparable (or ideally lesser) amount.
I’ll look more into the insurance and Sterling Insurance, thanks.
It might work out that it is not worth the hassle or risk but thanks for everyone’s input and ideas.
My main motivation for it as an idea rather than hiring a car was to hopefully get something a bit more interesting. Looking around I found an F-Type V6 coupe for about 4,000 pounds so thought if I was willing to spend up to 25-30,000 pounds or so there might be some interesting options and loose a comparable (or ideally lesser) amount.
I’ll look more into the insurance and Sterling Insurance, thanks.
It might work out that it is not worth the hassle or risk but thanks for everyone’s input and ideas.
Last year my sister came over from NZ and I tried to get her on the insurance of one of our cars as we've done in the past, but no go with that. Next we also have a car on SORN that I could to change to her ownership, but again I couldn't find any insurance company willing to put her on it. She had to hire a car in end.
I assume you mean you could rent the F type for £4k, not one for sale for that much.
Fire selling an F Type after a month would f
k you sideways. They're hard enough to shift at the best of times, and as much as it may be genuine your reason for selling would mean much scepticism.
Hire something.
Fire selling an F Type after a month would f
k you sideways. They're hard enough to shift at the best of times, and as much as it may be genuine your reason for selling would mean much scepticism.Hire something.
Perhaps selling cars is easier in Aus, but it would likely take you more than a month to sell an F-type.
And if you sell to trade I would expect depreciation, insurance, breakdown cover, tax and maintenance fund to be more than £4,000.
Also, how will you buy it? If buying privately most sellers would be very wary of accepting payment from an overseas bank account for a £25,000 car. And if you buy it from a garage you’ve got no chance of keeping the cost below £4,000.
Love the idea, but I think the logistics of buying and selling would be a nightmare.
And if you sell to trade I would expect depreciation, insurance, breakdown cover, tax and maintenance fund to be more than £4,000.
Also, how will you buy it? If buying privately most sellers would be very wary of accepting payment from an overseas bank account for a £25,000 car. And if you buy it from a garage you’ve got no chance of keeping the cost below £4,000.
Love the idea, but I think the logistics of buying and selling would be a nightmare.
macron said:
I assume you mean you could rent the F type for £4k, not one for sale for that much.
Fire selling an F Type after a month would fk you sideways. They're hard enough to shift at the best of times, and as much as it may be genuine your reason for selling would mean much scepticism.
Hire something.
Lots of F Types on Facebook for around £4k...Fire selling an F Type after a month would f
k you sideways. They're hard enough to shift at the best of times, and as much as it may be genuine your reason for selling would mean much scepticism.Hire something.
...and I can guarantee that the OP has seen these and thinks it is legit, but is now looking for that £25k Ferrari F40.
OP. Rent a car. Dumb idea.
OP I'd say you have no chance of this working.
It would be the same in Australia. Who would sell to a Brit wanting to pay from overseas and then how would the Brit arrange ownership, rego and insurance?
Besides, dealer margin on a F-type will be more than £4k on its own.
Your only option is to hire. Embrace it by hiring a few different vehicles including a Caterham in the Highlands.
It would be the same in Australia. Who would sell to a Brit wanting to pay from overseas and then how would the Brit arrange ownership, rego and insurance?
Besides, dealer margin on a F-type will be more than £4k on its own.
Your only option is to hire. Embrace it by hiring a few different vehicles including a Caterham in the Highlands.
braddo said:
Your only option is to hire. Embrace it by hiring a few different vehicles including a Caterham in the Highlands.
This, rent a boring car for the boring journeys and exciting cars for the exciting times.I have used this company in the past and they were great. https://www.caledonianclassics.co.uk/ I'm sure there will be others doing something similar.
braddo said:
Your only option is to hire. Embrace it by hiring a few different vehicles including a Caterham in the Highlands.
https://www.celticcaterhamhire.co.uk/I've hired exactly that from these guys previously and they were superb.
Just had a quick look, 5 days unlimited hire with 2 drivers is £1250.00 (give or take!) so yes, you could hire that from Perth and spend a week blasting around the nice bit of Scotland... you'd easily do the NC500 and then some.
Once you're done then hire something like a Aygo from Enterprise if you're doing a bit city exploring... or set up a few different hires and jump on the train to cover bigger distances, ie Edinburgh up to Inverness or Aberdeen then hire a car up there for a few days to explore.
Could also hire a camper for a few days, plenty companies offer anything from a VW Transporter to a big tri-axle effort. Dicksons in Perth seem very well regarded in this area, a friend has hired from them a few times and was always very impressed.
No idea what the budget is for this mind you, talk of £4k F-Types then £25k to £30k to buy something? To use for a month, then get rid of it... surely not? Then again if true then the OP definitely lives in a different world from me!
paul_c123 said:
You'd be buying retail and selling trade (anything else, probably wouldn't do it in the timeframe) and that will cost a LOT. That's even if you manage to get insurance (which I don't think you will, without a UK residential address). Hiring for a month is the way to go.
Thought I'd run some quick numbers. 2017 F-Type 3.0l with 30,000 currently on Autotrader for £25,000. WeBuyAnyCar initial valuation is £18,900, which assumes pristine condition, take another £500-£1000 for haggling and you're looking at £6,000 to drive it off the forecourt straight to your local WBAC.Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff