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Mid September until Mid October is only a month. I'd save the hassle and rent a car.
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Agreed, and wouldn't it make sense to dispose of your RHD UK car if you are moving permanently, and start again with something LHD in Austria?
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www.aviva.co.uk/short-term-car-insurance/ will give you short term cover with an option for EU use.
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But the Aviva cover is for a maximum of 28 days. And you cannot cover the same car again in the same 12 month period - to stop people using short term hire all the time on a car.
If 28 days is enough though...
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So on day 28 he starts another short-term policy with another company - plenty listed on the usual search engine.
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The OP has a problem in that he won't be a UK resident.
Aviva state (as will almost every other insurance company)
Eligibility - drivers
The customer and any other person who will drive must:
Be resident in Great Britain, Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man.
That's why I mentioned hiring.
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And Aviva (ex Norwich Union) used a few brands all of which were actually still an Aviva policy.
If this is a permanent move then I'd say buying a LHD car makes sense for the country.
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Voice of experience - DON'T DO IT! Sell, rent, buy a LHD car in Austria and melt into the background as soon as possible.
Taking a RHD car to a LHD country as a permanent move abroad is barmy. I knew I was barmy when I did it! I found my car was more likely to attract the attention of the police: foreign police cannot do a quick PNC check so are much more likely to pull a foreign car over - this happened to me every couple of months and was a pain - and to be broken into (black on yellow plates stand out and scream "Tourist - rich pickings here!" (Why the UK and very few other countries persist with black and yellow is a mystery to me - was there a colour fetishist running the DVLC 40 years ago?)
Some parts may be more difficult to get, the headlight beams will never be perfectly correct, tollbooths and carparks are a hassle and having a different field of vision to other drivers on mountain bends and when overtaking is always awkward and often dangerous. And you may occasionally forget to drive on the right!
The only advantage I can think of is that your car is much less likely to get stolen - for all of the reasons above!
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Not a good option - used cars are very expensive in Austria e.g. 1999 Pug 406 for 3000 euros? Nein danke! My car is a Saab 9-5 Aero estate which cost £10,500 in 2007 before the used car price crash so it would probably fetch no more than £5k now in the UK on a good day. It's worth keeping as it has been totally trouble free. A 17-year old Golf for 1500 euros? Hmm, not a good option. Hiring is the only sensible proposal although still expensive.
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Who says you need to buy in Austria? Could you not take a trip to another nearby country and get something cheaper?
I think you will struggle for short term hire because it is usually for 28 days and the person taking it out lives in the UK.
Sounds obvious, but you have asked a good broker haven't you?
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Why are cars in Austria so expensive? Is is straightforward to import an LHD from an adjoining country? Sounds like it isn't or they'd all do it.
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Why are cars in Austria so expensive? Is is straightforward to import an LHD from an adjoining country? Sounds like it isn't or they'd all do it.
The Austrian Government imposes strict emissions standards on 2nd hand cars - Higher than the EU requires. I believe that this is currently the subject of a court case with the EU.
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Sounds obvious but you have asked a good broker haven't you?
Not yet, only discovered this while out of the UK. My usual broker hasn't offered an alternative company although I will obviously pursue this when I get back to the UK.
I understand used car prices are cheaper in Germany, so that's an option.
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Understand the issue with the price differences but if you living in Austria permanently you will have to take the hit sooner or later. Driving RHD in Europe really does become a pain very quickly. I also suspect you will be paying extra to insure a RHD drive in Austria
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Driving RHD in Europe really does become a pain very quickly.
Not really. I've been doing it for 30 years.
>>I also suspect you will be paying extra to insure a RHD drive in Austria
Apparently not. The fact that it is tuned doesn't seem to make a difference either.
Edited by Mike H on 29/08/2009 at 23:54
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I'm afraid I don't agree with all of this. We've run RHD vehicles in Continental Europe and LHD vehicles here in the UK. Our experience was that, aside from running around the car to pay at motorway and bridge tolls, car park exit barriers and so forth it really hasn't been any bother.
Overtaking can be more dangerous, it's true, especially on straight, tree-lined roads. Ironically with winding roads I find that this is far less of an issue. If you've got a reasonably powerful car you'll be ok but in general I think I ask myself the question that most of us should ask ourselves anyway: "Do I really need to overtake at all?"
On the other hand, getting in and out of the vehicle on a busy city street is far safer - the driver is always directly stepping onto the pavement. As forgetting to drive on the right...streuth...I often forget to drive on the left when leaving the Avis place at Heathrow.
There are a very small number of occasions when the handedness of the car has been an issue. As you mention when procuring the odd spare part (wiper arms and door mirror glass, in particular). This, though, is very rare indeed. Headlamps should be perfectly correct, though, because you certainly should be exchanging the RHD headlamp assemblies for LHD units. This can be quite costly (£360 quid plus re-alignment in my case) but you may be able to avoid it if you've got bi-xenons (which is just as well given their cost and complexity).
I've not had any real issues with being pulled over by police as a tourist (or simply just travelling around) unless my car was full or heavily loaded. Border and customs agencies in particular have taken an interest on such occasions but this had everything to do with the load rather than the country of origin of the registration plate. In Mike's case he's going to register the vehicle in Austria so it wouldn't be "foreign" any more. I agree with you that vandals target vehicles with foreign plates and have had an older car totalled in this manner - engine ripped out and all.
The biggest hassle of all was getting the car registered. In the UK this was painless and quick. In Portugal it took nearly 10 months and many days of effort (including a visit to the British Embassy in Lisbon) before everything was finalized.
I hope Austria's better.
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