Buy a car in France, drive it home to the UK?

Not sure about French car tax but you should be able to insure it with your UK insurance Co using the chassis number instead of the reg number.

I'm not sure about the French side of things, but when I used to import cars from Japan a few years ago, you could drive a car directly from the docks, as long as you had trade plates. Not sure if the same applies for a car from France, or even if you have access to trade plates, but it's worth looking into. I can't see it being any different.

Yes, I have owned trade plates for over ten years, so know what they`re used for.

As I said, It was perfectly OK a few years ago to drive a freshly imported vehicle from the docks on trade plates. I spoke to the DVLA about it when I was waiting for the first car to land, and they confirmed this. This was quite a number of years ago......circa 2003, so I don`t know if things have changed since then. Obviously, being in the trade, I had trade insurance to cover me on any car, so this wasn`t a problem. Even if you don`t have trade insurance, you can insure a car on the chassis number alone, you can also MOT a car on the chassis number alone too.

EDIT; You can drive the car in the UK after you`ve paid any duties that might be due and have got the car insured, as long as it is to pre arranged appointments necessary to register the vehicle. So, you could drive the car from the docks to a pre arranged MOT, as long as you have insured the vehicle, and paid any applicable duties. Once MOT`d, it`s easy enough to register in the UK.

This is for temporary imports only.

unless I`m mistaken the guy will be wanting to register the vehicle in the UK, so import in permanently.

As I suspected, it`s perfectly OK to drive the car in the UK from the docks, as long as you are importing it permanently and follow the pre-booking rules for registration.

If they were importing them temporarily, then yes, they will have had the impounded. That`s totally irrelevant in this case though, as by the looks of things the guy is buying the car to keep; importing it permanently. The law is different in both cases.

I`ve not come on here to participate in a slanging match. I know I am right, as I have just been on the DVLA website (quiet Sunday afternoon at home) to double check. It was whilst on their website that I noticed where you copied and pasted the spiel above, which related to temp. imports, as clearly stated on the website. I don`t need to prove anything right or wrong, I`m just trying to help the guy out, by providing the correct info.

So, like I said.......if he is buying the car to register himself in the UK, he is entitled to drive it directly to a pre-booked MOT centre, as long as he has insurance cover, which can be obtained through the chassis number alone.

I can`t help with the French side of the law though I`m afraid as I`ve not had any experience of things over there.

Maybe read the DVLA website; if it`s your job to know these things, I suggest you need to do some research before advising people with incorrect information.

All the information is on the DVLA website......I suppose that is wrong too?

With regards to "any foreign car on UK soil is a temporary import" If this is the case, why are there separate paragraphs on the DVLA website for both temp. and perm. imports?

As I have said many times, it`s all on the website so I don`t need to prove anything. I`ve responded to the OP with factual information. It`s up to him if he finds is useful or not.

Whether knowing these details is part of your job or not, you can`t dispute the details given on the official DVLA website.........or maybe you can?

Great reply, well done. Clutching at straws a bit?

I'm not going to drag this thread down any further for the OP, so won't be saying anymore on the matter. The information is there if its needed.

Temp import... a car which is in the country temporary which means it is going back to the country it is registered in or on route to another country.
Permanent import... A car that is destined to stay permanently in the UK. How simple can that be?

You can drive a non UK registered car from the docks DIRECT to a VOSA test centre as long as you are insured to drive THAT car, as already said get it insured using the VIN number.

The reason that some Expats get their cars impounded is that they have UK address and no prove that the car will return to the country it is registered in so their insurance is invalid and they contravene UK import rules.

Jesus, curse word....are people being deliberately obtuse here?

Look at the V5 for an imported car - first page, bottom line. It says "Declared imported on xyz date". This is a permanently imported car - a car from elsewhere that was brought to uk, stays in uk permanently and carries a uk reg number. A. Permanent. Import.

Anything else - any other foreign car on uk soil - is a temporary import, whether its Johnny Frenchman on a week long driving holiday, a brit with a second home in spain who has brought his spanish car to Uk for whatever reason, some shady latvians living in uk and still running their car on latvian plates...These cars have been imported to the uk on a temporary basis. Maybe they will go home, maybe they will stay here for years....this does not matter, until it is re-registered in UK it is NOT a permanent import. Another temporary import is the foreign car driven by a brit who bought it in europe. It is temporarily imported to the uk and until it is reregistered it remains a temporary import, and when he gets a V5 for it, it becomes a permanant import.


So what does all that mean? well that means that as I stated above and as confirmed by the .gov website a UK resident can not drive a foreign car on UK soil.




Let me correct that for you.
The reason that some Expats get their cars impounded is that they have UK address. Full stop.

Its nothing to do with insurance, its nothing to do with proving the car is returning to its registered country.
This law is an oddity unique to UK, as it seems that the UK has interpreted an EU wide ruling differently from the rest of the EU. Pretty much every other EU country has a grace period of around 30 days where a resident can use a foreign car until it is re-registered locally. UK does not support this.