Re Driving from Bulgaria to the UK

@SimCityAT
Many thanks for the link, it seems the official price is 10 euros for the 10 days. My link works too, but it does appear they are adding a hefty markup!

It's a consumer protection thing allowing you 14 days to cancel your purchase. So (a) Simply, order 2 weeks before leaving, instead of the day before. Or (b) just say you are "representing a company" rather than buying as an individual (then the consumer protection doesn't apply) as it offers this choice during checkout.

This website works for foreign registration plates, and you don't need to be an Austria resident.
-@gwynj

It's very annoying it's a minimum 10 days for AT and 10 days for HU.   

There used to be a 4-day  transit vignette for HU, mainly aimed at all the Turkish people doing their annual migration from Germany.  AT should have that too.   Transit only takes about 4 or 5 hours depending so all that extra time on 10 days is a con.   

When we go to Austria (usually to SCS VIenna for shopping), we regularly go overland from the HU border (via Sopron motorway) so we don't have to pay for that €10 AT vignette.  OK, it's not a lot but it all adds up.   So long as we have time, want to dawdle and we don't have go on the motorway or the S-roads, there's no need to have one. 

The HU vignette is or was the most expensive in Europe - €20 for 10 days!  Madness.

@gwynj  is it possible you can help me  and send a message  to this transport company in Sofia  who will take my car from Sofia to Nuremberg Germany I have been in contact on WhatsApp with him using the Deepl translator but he  speaks only a little bit of English  i can not book the job until he gives me the address in Nuremberg where I have to meet him to pick the car up which I have asked him for  on more than one occasion but he has not responded  can you help me out please.

If you can I will I will give you his number.

@jimcrickuk69

I'm in the same boat, as I don't speak Bulgarian either! :-) Many (most?) Bulgarians who use Viber (it's more popular here) or Whatsapp are able to translate our messages pretty easily, even we write in English. I suppose it's even easier for them if we run them through a translator first and send the Bulgarian version.

More generally, any Bulgarian business that's using Viber is probably getting a ton of messages. So I find they have a pretty short attention span. If it's really important and they're the only supplier, I have occasionally paid my translator to call them and sort it out. But, usually, I just write them off and find another supplier who's more responsive (and/or speaks English).

I thought the forum was quite supportive of your driving plan. Having it transported some of the way seems to be a more expensive (and logistically complicated) option. But either one should work out just fine in the end.

@gwynj    The car is now  being transported from Sofia to Dartford  in the UK so no stress for me no border crossings no vignettes no diesel to purchase no 3 nights in  hotels and no ferry from Calais to Dover and no  wear and tear on the car and this will basically cost me around £200 extra what a relieve.

@Scott James

Congratulations! £200 to get it all the way from Bulgaria to the UK seems like quite the bargain.

However... I am now curious how they're managing to do it this cheap, I'd have guessed that it would cost them this much in fuel alone. And that's leaving aside vignettes, insurance, ferry, tolls, food/drinks, accommodation... and 2 or 3 days of their time.

@Scott James
Congratulations! £200 to get it all the way from Bulgaria to the UK seems like quite the bargain.

However... I am now curious how they're managing to do it this cheap, I'd have guessed that it would cost them this much in fuel alone. And that's leaving aside vignettes, insurance, ferry, tolls, food/drinks, accommodation... and 2 or 3 days of their time.
-@gwynj

£200 seems too cheap. I'd have thought £400-500. 

If it's on Bulgarian plates, it could be a customs problem as well.

@gwynj You did not understand  the cost was €1000 to transport it to my front door but would have cost me £800 to drive it back.

@gwynj You did not understand the cost was €1000 to transport it to my front door but would have cost me £800 to drive it back.
-@Scott James

Is it a British registered car? Just interested to know.

I used to put my UK car on the overnight train from Vienna South railway station and it was delivered to Duesseldorf.  I had a sleeper compartment to myself and got some sleep there. It was a bit tatty in the sleeper compartment, no proper power and no internet but it was years ago and things will have changed. It was cheaper and safer to do that than pay for hotels, wear and tear on the car, vignettes and fuel, lack of sleep etc.  I wouldn't do it if my Mrs and I were driving in shifts.

I think they're doing sleeper and motor rail trains again but I don't have a UK car anymore post-Brexit and no real need to drive there.

@gwynj he said 200 extra, not 200 in total. I take from that he meant, fuel costs, hotels etc plus 200.

Hello everyone, I've just joined expat.com today and was interested in this thread manly because reading what a lot of people on her have said it would terrify anyone out of driving from the UK to Bulgaria! And I admit that I was apprehensive myself? Now having done the journey I have to say it was very easy and uneventful. It took three days with me and my wife sharing the driving and with two dogs. We bought the vignettes at each boarder the same for toll roads for Serbia and do go through Serbia if you're in a car really great road's. There's loads of stopping places to park up and have a dose of you don't what an hotel. I am going to have to do this journey every three months now because of the visa situation! But really have no worries about it.

@garrycollins295

Welcome to the expat.com forum and good luck with the new life in Bulgaria!

Thank you for another perspective. That's my experience too, actually. It's a long old drive, but it's very straightforward, especially if you've got a co-driver.

I wouldn't fancy it every 3 months though, I have to say. :-) But I understand the time restriction with a Brit passport, pre-residence. I think you will find that you're better off having a vehicle here, and getting cheapo Ryanair or Wizzair flights instead. But, for now, you're probably enjoying the adventure.

More generally, I agree with you that the vibe can be a bit scary here, sometimes. But that's because threads typically start in response to problems that we're having trying to do something here in Bulgaria, rather than what a nice time we're having. So then it's easy to conclude that driving here is really complicated, immigration is a nightmare, and all the houses are tumble-down shacks that will suck up our savings. :-)

Personally, I have a life in Bulgaria that is as near to problem-free and stress-free as it's possible to get... and certainly much more so than anywhere else I've lived. The cost of living is very low (even after recent high inflation), the weather is good, the food is fresh and tasty, and the people are nice (especially in the village). And this is from someone who had absolutely ZERO intention of living in Bulgaria - we only came here to get Brexit-beating EU residence permits. But in a few days here, Bulgaria won us over, and we've barely left since.

And fake informations about Bosna.

@gwynj

I also had no intention of living or buying a property here. But I was sick of the property market in Britain and the country as a hole. My brothers had bought property here and persuaded me to do the same! It was definitely the right decision. Great people great local produce, and I have a lovely neighbor who just loves having us here, we hardly speak  a word of each other's language but seem to get buy. The house needs a total rebuild, but my brother is a builder and I'm a qualified sparks 😄 so nothing to daunting.

@fluffy2560 Hello, I  bought the car in BG for Export to the UK I had to put it on to Transit plates which now cost an extra  BGN-390 this extra fee is because we are no longer in the EU ,I wished we had never left the EU as now we are charged for everything we import plus this car is due for import fees.

I wanted to drive the  car back to the UK but after working out the  costs and driving 3 days as a single driver I decided to have the car transported all the way back to the UK it's another £1000 for  this but it would have roughly cost me between £750/800 to get home so basically no hassle no stress no wear and tear and I flew back to the Stanstead  yesterday in 2,3/4 hours and the car is being delivered to the transport company on Saturday .

@garrycollins295 Gary if you are planning on doing  this trip every 3 months  i would appreciate if you can give me at some point your actual route back as everybody says avoid Serbia maybe you can give me your Email or I give you mine as besides just  importing  this car I have been importing honey but I would like to do this trip with the honey on board as it basically costs £55 for a  1 x 25kg tin of honey to transport and if I have 10 or more it's very costly .

@jimcrickuk69 Hi Jim We have done this trip many times and it doesn't get any easier. Firstly 2 days is doable if you clog it taking it steady driving 8 to 10 hours a day you are looking at 3/4 day's. Aim for Vidin and go over the bridge into Romania it's a great new road and follow the route you have been given . We always carry euro's but Romania we try to fill up just before we leave Bulgaria then we don't need Romanian money if we get stuck we use our card. Make sure you buy vinettes at the borders

@fluffy2560 Hello, I bought the car in BG for Export to the UK I had to put it on to Transit plates which now cost an extra BGN-390 this extra fee is because we are no longer in the EU ,I wished we had never left the EU as now we are charged for everything we import plus this car is due for import fees.
I wanted to drive the car back to the UK but after working out the costs and driving 3 days as a single driver I decided to have the car transported all the way back to the UK it's another £1000 for this but it would have roughly cost me between £750/800 to get home so basically no hassle no stress no wear and tear and I flew back to the Stansted yesterday in 2,3/4 hours and the car is being delivered to the transport company on Saturday .
-@jimcrickuk69

If you own the car for 6 months then you should not have to pay import duties when you bring it into the UK as it's your personal goods.

You could also leave it there in Bulgaria.  And just use it every 90 days if you don't have a Article 50 or other residence permit.

I imported my LHD UK registered car into Hungary. It cost a lot to register it but I have saved loads not having to drive it back to the UK. I was getting it MoT'd in Dover and it was a dodgy business for that particularly unusual car. It needed a new exhaust one time for the MoT and they ordered the wrong one. Then they modified it to fit.  That was despite me telling them they were ordering the wrong one. They didn't listen. Of course, it was an absolute horrendous bodge. I had to replace it when I got back to Hungary a couple of months later as their welding failed. It had broken welding rods stuck to it. UK MoTs....pfff...give me a HU one every time as some things are negotiable.

You aren't the only one annoyed about Brexit.  There are many millions of us kicked in the face by fellow Brits and that bloke Johnson.