German Mk3 goes UK...

[tinman]

to be honest, you don't need to mot it here as its a german car and its passed all its german regulations.

you only need an mot if you plan on staying here. i think you have a year before you need to formalise the car's stay.

but who is checking? no one.

i have also been told that as long as your insurance is held abroad then you don't in theory need a uk MOT as you are simlpy "visitiing". how long your visit lasts is up to your honesty i suppose. however, if you get uk car insurance then you will need an Mot at the very minimum.

[smurfpower]

I already had the ramp problem here, but I have looooooooooots of time and pacience to drive around and find a Mot Station that has a ramp I can get on I got me UK Headlights, a UK speedometer (hope this is the right name for the thing that shows your speed) and put the cat back in some time ago when I had to replace the exhaust

[smurfpower]

Biggest problem is the distance to the ground. I?m not used to your metric system, so I?ll try to describe If you put a pack of cigarettes on the smaller side (not the top/bottom side) you have the distance I got at the front. At the back you can put about 2 fingers and the same pack of cigarettes, sides are the same. All this was done with a full bodykit. Wheeles are the original 195/50/15 BBS at the moment, original exhaust is new and cat is installed, suspension is lowered (60/40 in german, but I don?t know what this would be in inch...). There?s some mods inside, but I don?t think they?ll matter...
I?ll stay for longer as my girlfriend?s got a good job in the UK and we are actually looking for a house at the moment... I?ll also bring a mk2 gti16v but this one is in original condition, so there should be no problems...

[topher]

see this website http://www.dvla.gov.uk/faq/faq_imports_exports.htm#1

Modifications arent a problem as long as the car is road-worthy, but you will need an MOT certificate and insurance certificate plus the necessary registration documents to get a vehicle licence (tax) disc, which needs to be displayed in your window to be allowed on the public roads.

Don't worry about the metric system we can use both centimetres and inches, this isnt 1960

[mikereynolds]

Hiya mate, I live in Oxford and between me and my housemates we have 5 mk2's!!
the VW scene is alive and well in Oxford so get in contact when you finally move in.
Mike

[smurfpower]

Ok, then here are the cm details I got 8cm at the front and about 12cm at the back to the ground. Sides are about the same, declining from about 10-11cm above the back door to 8-9cm at the front door. The suspension is about two years old and lowered 6cm at the ront and 4cm at the back. As the car has T?V here and the cat is in good condition I think all the documents should thake some running around but should make no problems. But please what means "road-worthy"? Here I?m able to drive on 90% of the roads, even constructions sites on highways are no problem if I drive slow enough...

[smurfpower]

Hiya mate, I live in Oxford and between me and my housemates we have 5 mk2's!!
the VW scene is alive and well in Oxford so get in contact when you finally move in.
Mike

Great, I sure will tell you as soon as I get back there Maybe you can give me you mailadresse, so I can contact you easier. I already saw some nice mk2 gtis while my last visit some weeks ago and even bought me UK headlights on a car graveyard near London

[smurfpower]

Just realized that there?s a mail adresse in your forum-profile here, so I?ll use this to contact you as soon as I get there next time BTW do you know any good places to buy used parts around Oxford? I asked some people there but they all brought their cars to garages for maintainance...

[carrie]

road worthy basically means has and mot and works (nothing falling off).
tin around london loads of cars seem to go around with temporary german plates (and as such are probably owned by people who are not german) and others which are simply past their expiry date (probably not german either).
i think they do this to try to avoid responsibity for fines etc. what get me though is the plice dont even seem to notice them, the tempory plate is very obvious too, its about time the police learnt other european number plates as most of these cars are owned by uk residents trying it on.

[mikereynolds]

yeah i know of a few places where you can get stuff from mate