Last year (2007) I already tried to register my English van over here, but after spending a lot of time having friends check with local garages and having my wife call various government offices I discovered that I can’t. You can’t register right-hand-drive (RHD) vehicles in Poland. Don’t let anyone tell you different – you will not be able to get the technical examination certificate (badanie techniczne) which you will require.
Now you might see right-hand-drive vehicles over here or know someone who knows someone who’s got one. This is perfectly possible because a number of years ago you could do it if you were able to demonstrate that you had experience of driving RHD vehicles on the right of the road. But that was stopped a number of years ago (I don’t know when exactly).
This seems unfair to me given that you can register LHD vehicles in the UK, or register English RHD vehicles in France, but that’s the rules I’m afraid.
So if you have a car here from England you have 3 choices (to stay legal):
- Continue to pay your UK insurance, return once a year to do your MOT, renew your tax disc on the internet. This is the simplest solution but with two catches – the first is that insurance in the UK costs a lot. The 2nd is that technically you are not allowed to have your car here for more than 12 months. But if you return every 12 months for the MOT then the clock starts again.
- Convert your car from RHD to LHD. I don’t know anyone who’s done that because the cost of it probably isn’t justifiable. Labour is cheap in Poland but I am sure that would still be a big garage bill, not to mention that cost of new parts (dashboard, steering rack etc..)
- Sell your car. Buy a local one.
If you don’t stay legal (i.e. your insurance runs out while your here) then if you are stopped by the police and can’t produce your documents there and then (you do always carry them with your right?) there is a chance your car will be impounded. Also I don’t think it’s worth the risk of driving without insurance anyway. It’s one of those things that you don’t need when you have, and always need when you don’t.