Selling a RHD drive car with English number plate

Hi Anita,

My advice to you is to sell your car in the UK. Alternatively, advertise the car on one of the Facebook pages for British expats. Probably you will find people there who will return to the UK. The market for RHD cars with Portuguese plates is quite low...

https://m.facebook.com/groups/265570920476558/

https://www.facebook.com/expats.portugal/

Post add here:

https://www.expat.com/en/classifieds/eu … /cars.html

...

Regards

Hi,   From experience,,,,,,  The vehicle may only be in Portugal for max 180 days on UK registration. A PT resident may NOT drive a non PT registered vehicle and this  includes dealers and mechanics (there are a few exceptions)  PT "import tax" on vehicles is high compared to other EU countries (there are ongoing EU stuff to challenge this). Because of these issues you are unlikely to find any dealer/mechane willing to buy and store it then have the problems of paperwork when their name/address is not on the UK registration document, there is no bill of sale and the import tax has not been paid. Similar issues for scrap yard.  Also UK insurance only covers 90 days in the EU so sorting it all out as soon as possible before it cannot be driven legally in PT is important. Other UK expats have also had these problems and had to resort to paying for vehicle to be transported back to UK for disposal

Isn't the simplest solution to drive/ferry the car back to the UK and sell it there? It isn't that far and that costly and could even be combines with a holiday.

We had the same problems with our English plate vehicle when we first came over here as we wanted to matriculate it over here but when we looked into it all the prices was ridiculous so in the end we took the vehicle back to the uk and sold it over there. It’s just not worth the hassle as the bigger the engine the more it cost to matriculate It and then you have the import tax to add on top. It’s easier to buy a vehicle when you get over here thats what we did in the end.

Jean

Isn't the simplest solution to drive/ferry the car back to the UK and sell it there? It isn't that far and that costly and could even be combines with a holiday.
-@nz7521137

Its complex and time consuming and several I know people have been caught in the trap of having a UK reg vehicle in PT for too long - Ferry price August  for  Santander - UK about £750 plus fuel, time, return flights and disposing of vehicle, doing V5 paperwork etc etc.

@Strontium So you now recommend keeping the vehicle in Portugal?

The only people that would be interested are Brits that are going back to the UK because no one will be bothered to have the added trouble in paying fees/taxes to import it.

Unless you do all that work and put PT plats on it.

Just follow JonnyPT's advice.

For us in 2018 to matriculate our vehicle was huge we had a 2.5lt engine which is the worse to matriculate without import tax it was going to cost us 30,000€ we said no way so  drove back to Santander ferry to uk left it with son eventually sold it bought a Portuguese vehicle no hassle. Would no like to think what the fines could be now for having an English vehicle here past the 90 days allowed to me personally not worth the hassle if you are going to be living out here permanently then just get a Portuguese vehicle.

Jean

@aherdeiro

Hi are you still looking to sell your car?

@Chad Eagle

Do not expect a reply as this is an old thread and the OP has not been active for some time now.