Register you foreigner car in UK

Hello all finally i arrive at the end of the process of inserting my car in UK.

You can use you car in UK for 6 months (https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/temporary-imports) , i try to change it sooner because i did not wanted to pay for the very high Dutch taxes.

So if you have and European left hand drive car you have to change some things in the car:

a) put the speedometer from km/h to mp/h. The km counter can stay in km. If your car is showing both km/h and ml/h is ok.

b) you have to change the front lights of the car because left drive cars tend to have the front lights a little bit turned to the right. If you car is recent maybe it is possible to rotate the lights to the left, so you don´t need to change them.

c) If you only have on the rear lights the fog light in the left side you need to put one also in the right. If your car has both you do not need to change them.

Then you need to register your car in the nova site and for paying tax or VAT. In case of European cars, since you already payed VAT in your country when you bought the car you do not have to pay it. So you have to:

a) register your car in the nova website . Use this link.

b) ask your manufacturer, in my case Volvo, for a mutual recognition scheme. Use this link for more info.

c) pass in a MOT test. Normal check of the car test.

d) contact the DVLA for them to send you the forms to start the process. Here is the link

Then you will receive the ok and that is it, you can make your new plates and put them in the car.

I didn´t do it because my car was worth more or less 1500 euros. To change my front lights, the speedometer, the rear fog light it would cost me more that my car, so i sold the car.

You have 2 options, or sell the car in the car home country or if the car is really hold, just sell it to a scrap yard. One of the sites is the cartakeback.com. The will give you an offer and thats it.

So my advice is this, if you are in UK to stay, sell your car in your home country and buy a UK one. If you car is a recent model than probably it compensates to change it.

Here is a link with all the info. LINK. If you have any question call DVLA and HMRC they are glad to help or put a post here that i will try to help also as i can.

See you next post.

Sérgio