Importation and the DVLA

[Gfhug]

[chrisfell]

In the spirit of keeping this thread on track, and helping in some way thse interested in the subject, I've asked a question of my club, one of whose officials used to provide help to members to get their cars registered. I'll report back when I've received a reply.

[Hugo]

About ten years ago I brough a Moke over from Australia & collected it from Southampton. Three things stick in my mind from that experience; the fact that I had to make an appointment at a specific time to go & pay the duty etc; that they employed a cashier who had nothing to do all day but collect the payments, after somebody else had calculated it; what a pig's ear both 'officials' made of their jobs - (how difficult can it be to calculate a few percent of something and add it to the original sum? And it must have taken half an hour to do the calculations and a further twenty minutes for the totally innumerate 'cashier' to work out how much change to give me); and that VAT was charged not only on the cost of the vehicle itself, and on the shipping cost, but on the import duty also! You even have to pay tax on the tax in the EU! (I know, that's four things - I can't count either). Neither of these people would have been employable in the real world.
I believe that it was ll centralised just afterwards, so no doubt it is much worse now. I am about to find out, as I have a Carver One coming from Italy this week.

[chrisfell]

In the spirit of keeping this thread on track, and helping in some way thse interested in the subject, I've asked a question of my club, one of whose officials used to provide help to members to get their cars registered. I'll report back when I've received a reply.

For those of you who are JDC members (or future members) contact Mick Duffy at the club for assistance in getting your imported Jag registered.

[Hugo]

Well, my little Carver One has finally arrived from Italy, and with typical forward planning I am now trying to figure out how to get it back from the car transporters' yard, which is only five miles up the road. It doesn't have any licence plates at the moment. Actually it only needs one at the back - the front is like a motorcycle & doesn't have a number plate.
Should I a) drive it without plates?; b) stick my Florida plates on there & hope for the best?; c) look for a legal way of doing it?
I suppose it would be a bit much to expect anybody on this list to advise me to break the law, in which case is their an answer to c)? Or is a) legal?
Sorry, not E Type I know, but it is at least relevant to the subject heading

[Series1 Stu]

Borrow a trolley from Tesco and push it home in that.

[neil4444]

I've hired transporters from these guys to get my imports back from Southampton. Might be a bit overkill for a Carver though. http://www.transporterhire.co.uk/

[Hugo]

It's only about five miles up the road, that's the thing. Just a bit too far to push though

[Series1 Stu]

Get your local garage to recover it for you? Mine charges £2 per mile.

[Hugo]

I had it in my head there was a way of driving it (legally!) before the plates were issued. Must have been thinking of Florida - they're much more laid back about such matters over there. I drove a big-rig tractor all the way from California to Florida with the license plate 'borrowed' from another truck, and without insurance; I self-insure my vehicles over there and print my own insurance cards. And they don't have MoT's in Florida either.
I suppose I'm going to have to trailer this damn thing down to the DVLA before I can use it

[Series1 Stu]

It needs to be MOT'd first and, provided it's insured you can drive it there. Once it's got an MOT you can tax it.
It's not a complex process.

Regards

[Hugo]

Yes, that's what I was thinking of - so you can drive it to the MoT without licence plates?

[Series1 Stu]

The delightful and incredibly helpful lady at the DVLA that I spoke to seemed to think it would be fine, provided you're insured and you have an appointment. MOT is done on the chassis or VIN number, not the registration number.

Just don't take the Mickey by going the long way there.

Regards