As with most things in life, it’s the paperwork that’s the problem
First, insurance. This very nearly caused the whole thing to be binned because it was nigh on impossible to persuade any UK insurer to cover the car, it being a foreign-registered vehicle. | tried several companies, including hurricane and terrorism specialists Lloyd’s of London, all to no avail. The Association of British |nsurers’ explanation is that insurers are reluctant on the basis of scarcity of parts, dierent vehicle approval schemes in other parts of the world (the equivalent of the MoT) and a lack of claims data for the particular car. Fair points, but how much risk can a €3000 Panda represent? |f suitable specialists do exist, | couldn’t find one in several weeks of intensive searching.
|n the end it was WhatsApp to the rescue. Ray knew a local insurer in Spain who was prepared to cover it if | sent him the Fiat’s Andorran paperwork. And €69 later, we were covered for the five-day trip north. Once you’re in the UK, V|N-plate insurance will cover you to get to your MoT (booked before you get back).
Then, once you’re back in the UK, you need to ocially import it by telling the government within 14 days of it arriving. A freight forwarding company is the easiest way, who will arrange for you to pay the VAT due on the car and fill out the relevant forms for Customs. That gives you a Notification of Vehicle Arrivals (NOVA) that will then allow it to be registered with the DVLA, assuming it has passed its MoT.
On the journey, be wary of breakdown cover. | took some out with the RAC but when we broke down, they wouldn’t come to our aid because ‘the car is not registered in the UK’.
Sadly, that’s the big takeaway from all this – a Catch-22 of UK companies not wanting to have anything to do with the car until it’s registered, and it being impossible to register the car until it’s in the UK. A shame if you let that put you o this kind of once-in-a-lifetime experience.