Can I purchase, drive, and export a car as a non-resident?

5 comments

1. The vehicle will need to be registered to an address (where it will also be registered for insurance) for your time in the UK. You may have to pay export/import tax when you leave (you will definitely have to fill in a lot of paperwork!).

   Seems like a faff unless it’s some very special, rare, vehicle you desperately want, and in that case it would probably be easier just to export it straight from the seller rather than dealing with the ‘driving it in the UK first’ bit ~~unless you’re already a resident in which case the personal export thing might work for you.~~ (eta: sorry just re-read the title; yeah, unless you have a residential address here this is going to be a PITA/impossible).

   The DVLA provides quite comprehensive advice: https://www.gov.uk/taking-vehicles-out-of-uk

   https://www.gov.uk/taking-vehicles-out-of-uk/taxes-if-you-buy-new-vehicle-to-take-abroad

2. Yeah as someone else says, I’m not sure how the insurance will work. My insurance details includes my address and where the vehicle will be kept. I’m not sure if it’s possible to enter a foreign address as my home address?

   Also, the DVLA requires details of the registered keeper of the vehicle. If you get a speeding ticket then the fine is sent to the registered keeper at the address the DVLA holds for them. I’m not sure what address you could put down for this.

3. You are going to ship it out of the country? You do realise that our cars are the opposite way round to the rest of the world don’t you? The driver sits on the right. It will be tiresome and dangerous and expensive to insure a right hand drive car in a country where everyone else drives a left hand drive vehicle.

4. Yeah. That’s perfectly fine, just sign the plan to export part of the V5, you don’t have to export it straight away. Insurance may be s bit tricky though and will almost certainly be expensive but it’s not like we have any police so just risk it.

5. Compared to renting a car for a couple of weeks it’s going to be very expensive.

   But if you want a car because it’s cheaper to buy here, there are a couple of things. One is you won’t be able to buy a brand new car in two weeks, most new cars have a waiting time of at least 8 weeks.

   Second hand cars, I’m not sure you would get all the relevant paperwork back from the DVLA in time to show the car in registered in your name. Then you would need to check out shipping costs to the country you want it transported to, plus any taxes you may have to pay at it’s destination