I've just brought a new car (not a Scoob - too embarassing to reveal here what it actually is . . .) back from Holland, driving it back on temporary Dutch plates.

Unfortunately, the laid back Amsterdam dealer hadn't obtained the Certificate of Conformity which he'd promised would be ready with the car.

My question is: after my Dutch licence expires in 2 days, will I have to keep the car off the road (possibly for weeks) until I get the C.o.C. which I need to register the car here?

Any advice would be appreciated. (And apologies in advance for posting a non-Sub specific question!)

epyjymp.

Yep, I'm afraid so. In fact, you strictly speaking shouldn't drive it at all between arriving home from Holland and taking it to the VRO.

Richard

Richard I agree partially with what you have said except that Dutch transit plates last 7 days and only allow a vehicle to brought to the UK and once landed the vehicle can only be driven to an address where the car is to be registered i.e. one road trip only. You cannot drive the vehicle after this trip legally on UK roads until, registered and issued with a UK reg. mark.

Additionally your insurance is only valid for this return journey and is not covered for further road use.

Returning to the original problem re. the CoC taking the vehicle without the CoC could be a grave mistake since you have no guarantee that the vehicle complies with European legislation. If the CoC does not materialise you will have to undergo Single Vehicle Approval (SVA)which is costly and longwinded. Even if your vehicl is UK/European spec. without the CoC it is classified as a grey import which will affect warranty, insurance and resale value - sorry for the bad news.

Ipswich VRO told me that if I took it home, I wasn't entitled to then drive it to the VRO to register it. Since Chelmsford VRO (where I eventually registered it) wanted to inspect, how am I supposed to get it there? Trailer it?

I didn't drive it (much) on the transit plates before registering, as I didn't want it to have loadsa miles on it when they inspected it. However, having paid for the tax at the VRO I reasoned I could drive it on the transit plates until the real ones turned up, even though they'd expired. I did this for five days (including a weekend).

on this subject, what if you had personalised number plates? could you register the car in the u.k. (using the chassis number), take the plates to wherever, fit them, and drive back??
alan

Personalised plates: still not valid. The car isn't registered against them, and you haven't got a tax disc.

VRO policy seems to vary. Leeds told me it was OK to drive on the temporary Dutch registration once I'd got my papers into the VRO until the registration expired.

Police answer is "no". I suspect all hell would break loose in the case of you having an accident. God only knows what the insurance company would say.

The original question: answer is definitely that it is not legal to drive, unless you can get hold of a set of trade plates somewhere.

I was told you can drive it to the VRO - particularly as they will then not only tax the car, but forward the details on to the VAT office etc for you. Certainly that's what I did. That and the 150 other miles in the meantime http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif

Richard

I asked AA Legal about whether I was allowed to drive on transit plates as various import guides gave conflicting advice. They struggled with it for a bit, but then came back and said I shouldn't drive on them, but they thought that I'd be unlikely to be done for it. There is less excuse for it now - you used to have to wait for the VAT to clear before getting the tax done, now you can do the tax first.