MOT for imported trucks

[Mrs Thrifty]

Having taken advice from the DVLA,in order to change a Spanish registered truck to UK plates we had to take it to English MOT.What they failed to tell us is to remove the Spanish number plates before presenting it for MOT. They did however inform us that the MOT station will do the MOT without the registration number and only put it under the VIN number. Absolute crap..
The MOT tester registered the Spanish registration number on DVLA computer and then failed the MOT for having incorrect rear colour number plate.Fortunately the only other minor failure was the rear number plate light,not working.

Moral the story being: if you take a foreign registered or imported car for MOT in order to get registered on UK plates ,take them off literally just before you take the car into the MOT centre ,they are then forced to give you an MOT on the chassis number only.

In our case we had to pay another £12 for an yellow rear plate which ,luckily we were able to get from a motor factor who was slightly blind and sympathetic as he had similar problems when he imported a truck from New Zealand.

Really,really pleased the truck passed with really minor things(fog lamp needed to be moved on the other side,number plate light ).

[slobodan]

Having taken advice from the DVLA,in order to change a Spanish registered truck to UK plates we had to take it to English MOT.What they failed to tell us is to remove the Spanish number plates before presenting it for MOT. They did however inform us that the MOT station will do the MOT without the registration number and only put it under the VIN number. Absolute crap..
The MOT tester registered the Spanish registration number on DVLA computer and then failed the MOT for having incorrect rear colour number plate.Fortunately the only other minor failure was the rear number plate light,not working.

Moral the story being: if you take a foreign registered or imported car for MOT in order to get registered on UK plates ,take them off literally just before you take the car into the MOT centre ,they are then forced to give you an MOT on the chassis number only.

In our case we had to pay another £12 for an yellow rear plate which ,luckily we were able to get from a motor factor who was slightly blind and sympathetic as he had similar problems when he imported a truck from New Zealand.

Really,really pleased the truck passed with really minor things(fog lamp needed to be moved on the other side,number plate light ).

The real moral is...

Should have asked first.

Anyway that's bo**cks, I had a German truck MOT'd with the plates left on.
The tester just wrote down the chassis no.
I was then given a new MOT with the reg no. on when I registered it.

[slobodan]

How did you get on with the lights and the speedo?

Or is it a British truck?

[slobodan]

swapped out the lights to uk ones, and the speedo was in mph as it had previously been reged in the UK

My tester had bad eyesight and didn't notice.

I'll be cycling in Romania tomorrow. To a place called Jimbolia.

[Bogus]

The real moral is...

Should have asked first.

Anyway that's bo**cks, I had a German truck MOT'd with the plates left on.
The tester just wrote down the chassis no.
I was then given a new MOT with the reg no. on when I registered it.

All the info you need is available on the DVLA direct gov website. Times change I know but I MOTd my Mercedes which I imported in 2000 with export plates on it from the country I took it in from. I insured it on export plates and drove it home from Grangemouth docks. After MOT I got it registered and got a reg number and that was it. I did change the headlights and clocks for the test with parts from a breaker, but I was surprised at how easy the personal import process was.