Best way to get an MOT

[TEE]

Hi guys,

I have a friend who needs to get his German registered 993 converted to English plates. I guess he then also needs an MOT. Anyone have any experience with doing this? What changes have to be made to the car? How much should this cost? He lives in London - could anyone make any recommendations on where to go without spending to much? Maybe there is a turnkey solution, i.e. someone willing to do the leg work for a few pounds?

Thanks for the help and excuse the many questions.

TEE

[domster]

TEE said:

Hi guys, I have a friend who needs to get his German registered 993 converted to English plates. I guess he then also needs an MOT. Anyone have any experience with doing this? What changes have to be made to the car? How much should this cost? He lives in London - could anyone make any recommendations on where to go without spending to much? Maybe there is a turnkey solution, i.e. someone willing to do the leg work for a few pounds? Thanks for the help and excuse the many questions. TEE

OK, the first thing he needs to do is look on the DVLA's website, or contact the DVLA in Swansea, to find out about registering an imported car. They have lots of factsheets and are geared up for punters with imported cars ever since the boom in the late 90s.

He may also need a certificate of conformity from Porsche (about 80 GBP).... this means he doesn't need to spend 500 GBP on an SVA test, which non-conformity cars need to pass. The conformity cert says what the differences are between different markets, so if the Porsche was made for Umpurlumpur land to a different spec, it will say what needs to be done to convert to UK spec. Typically this will be headlights, speedo, rear foglight at the very least. The cost of these can be 500 GBP or so from Porsche, less if you use breakers etc.

No-one is going to go through the hassle of registration on your friend's behalf, so there will be no turnkey solution. It is a hassle to say the least, as someone who has imported a couple of cars in the past myself. However, once you have the cert of conformity most independents (say JZ Machtech if you wanted a recommendation) will carry all the work out and then MoT it in readiness for registration. Remember that once the export plates run out the car should not be driven until UK registered and the whole process can take many weeks. Even awaiting a reg number (100 GBP or something to be allocated with one these days, used to be free) can be a couple of days. Once you have the plate allocated you can get tax and drive around; the V5 follows in a couple of weeks.

[TEE]

Thanks for your replay,

I check with him and he already has the certificate. But his understand is that he needs an MOT because the car is older than 3 years (i.e. 1997). Does the MOT also imply that he has to get the lights adjusted and a new speedo (its only in KM/h)?

Do you know any good place where to get the MOT done in Central/ West London?

Thanks

[clapham993]

You will have to do the lights - easy on a 993 - but not the speedo. Suggest you contact John at Tower Porsche who does this all the time

[rubystone]

You can pass the MOT with the appropriate blanking stickers on the lights and the car can also be MOTd on its chassis number. The speedo won't have to be converted either. If it has to go through an SVA I'm pretty sure you'll have to do the lights and speedo thogh. Plus lots of other stupid stuff...but as it's a recognised model I don't see that you will need the SVA.

IMHO importing a car isn't that much hassle either (if it doesn't have to go thru the SVA) - I can only assume that Dom had so much trouble because of the nature of the vehicle he was trying to import - a Tiger Tank...

[TEE]

clapham993 said:

You will have to do the lights - easy on a 993 - but not the speedo. Suggest you contact John at Tower Porsche who does this all the time

Thanks for the tip, that was really helpful, my friend just spoke to Tower Porsche. He will take care of it for him.

Cheers

TEE