If you are importing a car from Europe and it is more than ten years old, it will need a vehicle inspection. This is a vehicle safety check which checks the condition of items such as brakes, suspension, steering etc.

The lighting setup will also be checked to make sure you have the correct light pattern for the UK and the rear fog light is positioned in the centre or right hand side of the car. We also recommend replacing the speedometer panel with a mph reading.

If you are importing a car from Europe and it is under ten years old then additional steps will be required. Firstly we will need to obtain a certificate of compliance which will state the specification of the car and what modifications we need to make, these are usually an MPH dashboard, a rear fog light on the correct side and new UK compliant headlights.

Once these modifications have been made to the vehicle we apply to the VCA for mutual recognition and then register the vehicle with the DVLA.

If your car is more than ten years old, it will need a vehicle inspection before it can be registered in the UK. Vehicle conversion requirements may vary depending on the year of manufacture of the car.

For new cars imported from non-EU countries, unless the car was built for the European market – it cannot get a certificate of conformity and will need to pass an IVA test.

The IVA test mainly focuses on lighting modifications, such as checking that the car’s headlights are properly lit, that there are rear fog lights, rear individual yellow direction indicators, etc.