Moving car from Hungary to the UK

What's to stop you driving it back to the UK?

Leaving Hungary should be no problem and none of the countries on the transit route would stop you travelling to the UK.

Yes, II wish it would be so easy but I left Hungary before the borders were closed which is why I cannot return now without being quarantined.

irlandia_ wrote:

Yes, II wish it would be so easy but I left Hungary before the borders were closed which is why I cannot return now without being quarantined.

I see.  Yes, you would be quarantined for 10 days.  That's a tough one.   I've been in quarantine here recently after flying to the UK and back and it's not that bad if you have a place to stay and stuff to do. They do however check up randomly.  The police do drive by checks.  It's intrusive. Feels a bit like what house arrest might be like.   But it's doable.

Brainstorming a bit, what you could possibly do is fly into Austria (no restrictions there), take public transport to the border and meet someone on the border with your car.  Then they go back to Hungary without actually leaving the country and you take the car and drive on to the UK without having actually entered Hungary. I believe there's nothing to stop someone driving all the way to the UK even through multiple countries with some caveats (people in the same bubble, no-one else gets in the car etc).  Might be an optimistic scenario.

The cost of car transportation is likely to be quite expensive to do. My guess is EUR 700-1000.  You might be able to find an expat who is leaving anyway and would be willing to drive it back if you pay for the fuel or something like that.

It may be hard to trust strangers but you could perhaps advertise for someone now in HU that wishes to drive back to the UK to drive your car back.They can pay for the petrol and any other expenses like road rolls.
In the 1970's we drove a strangers car from NYC to L.A.,Ca. and just paid for the gas/petrol.
Answered an add in the newspaper.I don't remember all the details but  they had us sign we would deliver on time and wash the car before delivery. Of course they had copies of our driving papers for their file.
We had no credit then but trust was still a thing. A agent was the go between , we never met or spoke to the owner of the car.
Suppose it would be a risk for a stranger not to speed or run the car into the ground but it's an idea.
Perhaps they can give you a bond of some sort a deposit which you will return if the car is nt a wreck on delivery?
We had a set time limit to cross the US, one week. Guess that would be a gd idea to have in writting to, a reasonable amount of time to drive from HU t the UK s they don't make a ton of side trips with your car.
In the 80's we used a service called, Europe by Car. We actually put a down payment on a brand new from the factory car in Paris and used it for 6 weeks. We had a strict insurance included in the contract and we had to take the car in for an oil change ect. as factory orders.We got our full deposit back when we returned the car in Paris before we left Europe. I don't think they do that any longer but it was a good idea at the time.
I guess you could have a trusted person in Hungary help out by taking any contract you think up to a notary to keep everything legal with having someone drive your car to the UK.
I'd add the mileage estimate and have a time limit on the delivery date, when and where they should drop the car off in the UK.
I'm sure there is someone in Hungary who wishes to return to the UK one way and be able to carry a few bits of luggage and household items in the car so it would work out for the two of you.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

It may be hard to trust strangers but you could perhaps advertise for someone now in HU that wishes to drive back to the UK to drive your car back.They can pay for the petrol and any other expenses like road rolls.
In the 1970's we drove a strangers car from NYC to L.A.,Ca. and just paid for the gas/petrol.
Answered an add in the newspaper.I don't remember all the details but  they had us sign we would deliver on time and wash the car before delivery. Of course they had copies of our driving papers for their file.
We had no credit then but trust was still a thing. A agent was the go between , we never met or spoke to the owner of the car.
...

My dearly departed brother did that in the USA.   It was way back in around perhaps the late 1970s.  He and his mate had working visas for students (when that was permitted - might still be) and worked something like 2 months in NYC at some warehouse - my Dad arranged it as he was working in an international company.  They then spent another couple of months driving and greyhound buses in some road trip or other.   Not sure where or how it was organised.  I think they went all the way to CA and back to NYC. 

Over here, there's a real possessiveness over vehicles so probably wouldn't work - second  biggest purchase after a house.  People can be really irresponsible so you have to wonder if it's really something you want in the hands of people with no clue.

Some guy I worked with had a car that I helped repair - the cylinder head as all the valves were pitted and worn.  We fixed it, set it up and I told him not to drive it aggressively as it was old and something else was going to fail if there was a lot of abuse.  Within about 2 weeks, he'd blown the head gasket by hammering up a highway at 90+ mph for no reason.  At least it was his car but I did tell him.  When I asked why he did it after I told him to use a little less pedal, he just said he drove it as he normally did!  Yeah, right, like a Formula 1 or rally car more like.

Yes, it is sad that people are idiots at times who don't respect other people's property.
We were just crazy kids when we drove that car from NY to Ca. but we took care of the car. Did the speed limit and such.
We actually drove and returned the car in less then 5 days and didn't use it for a week. I almost divorced my husband with his none stop 18 to20 hours per day of driving across the US. He was afriad something would happen to the car so he just wanted to return it as fast as possible to the owner.
We let a HU guy from FL use our Audi when he visited HU, he broke something under the car.He was a terrible driver anyways, he bought stick shift cars and had to put new clutches in his car about every 6 months! What a dummy.Riding the clutch all the time.
It's  not a bad idea for them to go to Austria to the transit zone and have a friend drive it there from Hungary.