In case anyone is importing a car from outside Europe which they havnt driven abroad, this might be of interests.

Currently the rules is that only 50 cars of any one make and model can be imported per year. (Note this for cars from outside the EEC, like Japan, Cyprus, etc). Hence you can get in the nightmare scenario where you've got the car in your garage but cant get the SVA tests and concequently cant register it.

All this was supposed to have changed early this year but hadnt. Well according to the following release it finally has now:

 

I'm afraid it's not quite that straightforward. The press release "expects" to change the rules on 18 August - not sure if it really did happen. Secondly, with all grey import vehicles under 10 years old requiring a SVA test, the queues at the SVA test centres are bound to increase in the short term.

 

I guess if pass press releases are anything to go by you could be right.

I believe they are building more SVA test centers. I assume to accomodate these changes.

Still, being put a queue for an SVA test is better than not being put on a queue at all.

I rang around SVA test centers and if you are prepared to go the distance you can get an SVA test without waiting to long. I had mine in 10 days. Took longer than that for the DVLA to agree I could have one.

bkar