I thought fellow forum members might be interested in my experiences of registering (matriculating) my Jaguar abroad - to Portugal from the UK. It would be interesting to know of other experiences of exporting and re-registering a car.

These were the steps.

1. Move to Portugal with the car.
2. Get a Portuguese bank account
3. Get a Portuguese Fiscal number (this is a personal tax number, needed for just about everything)
4. Buy (or rent) a house
5. Get a Portuguese phone number (oddly enough, frequently requested)
6. Obtain Portuguese residency (a whole ´nother game)
7. Obtain the services of a matriculation specialist (definitely advised, though not essential)
8. Provide the specialist with
   1. proof of residence in Portugal
   2. Passport
   3. proof that you have lived in the UK for a minimum of 6 months (or is it a year - my memory fails in this as in many other issues,,,,)
   4. proof that you have owned the car for a minimum of 6 months
   5. Driving licence - at the time, a UK licence.
   6. Fiscal number
   7. Bank statements
   8. Certificate of Conformity from Jaguar. This cost a mere (!) 100 pounds. Must have entailed a lot of work.
   9. UK Car registration document
   10. and, eventually, 400 euros.
9. Go to the Consulate in Lisbon, together with all of the above stuff, just in case, and a few more euros. Swear something in front of an official, - something to do with having lived in the UK - and go away with an official piece of paper.
10. Put right hand dip headlights on.
11. Take the car to a test station, having located the position of all three VIN numbers (they insist on seeing them all) and have a special importation test. Not too pricey, and very efficiently done.
12. Obtain the document and windscreen note confirming that the test is passed, Take the certificate and the consulate letter to the matriculation specialist....wait a bit....
13. Finally, you have the livrete, which is the Portuguese logbook. Take that to a garage or car spares shop and have plates made up.
14. Drive away!

If I had not arranged the importation of the car at the time of entering the country I would have been hit with an import tax of close to 30,000 euros (Yes, this is not a mistype). All motoring in this low-wage country is expensive, though, with fuel and annual road tax costlier than the UK. The XKR road tax is a massive 950 euros pa, though a change in the rules next year should more or less halve it.

Was it worth it? Yes! The car receives a lot of warm attention, and I have been told that Jaguar has greater status here than cars such as Aston Martin and Ferrari....quite right, too! The metallic green shimmer of the paintwork is stunning under the bright Portuguese sun. The roads are well maintained and smooth, and often with very little traffic, if you disregard the cobbles in many towns and cities, so driving is a real pleasure. But some of the driving here is, shall we say, erratic, so I have a constant concern about the lack of safety margin often employed, such as overtaking just before a bend or a no overtaking stretch, and tailgating is a must, and the use of indicators is not reliable.

 

Wow, love the hard rolls, wine, and Port especially, but not sure I could go to that much trouble to move there. I spent a good bit of time in the Azores back in '73 thanks to the USAF. Found the people and the food/wine great. I hope you have a great time there. Is this full time or just an assignment?

 

It is a wonderful country, thanks, Sam. My wife and I retired here, so we are very much full time. All we need do is to play!

 

Long list to sign off before the car is ready indeed!

I plan to import a car into Spain later on, probably not the exact same procedure but likely not very different either

Lets see if it will be my Xkr or my Bmw 130i

 

Wow. You have convinced me to stay right where I am....

 

Great post.

The question arises surprisingly frequently on the forums and it's good to read such a clear and concise summary of the procedure.

The common difficulty is always the CoC (Certificate of Conformity). JLR seem vary from totally unhelpful to begrudging assistance in providing something which should be straighforward.

Not too bad moving from one EU country to another EU country but some US members have had to jump through serious hoops importing to Europe. The different lighting standards are often mentioned as a major difficulty. Similarly Canada has been reported as awkward with DLR's on vehicles from the US.

Graham

 

I suspect that the BMW will be one of many, hence easier and cheaper to maintain, whilst the XKR will be considerably rarer, with maintenance and spares more of a challenge. All European countries tend towards heavy bureaucracy, but I would not rely on Spain being anything like Portugal in that regard (or any other, for that matter. If you have visited Spain but not Portugal, you would be astonished by the cultural and linguistic differences.)

 

Thanks for the insight.

So much for the EU tenet of free circulation of goods. I understand anecdotally that Portugal is another on the list of countries that haven't entirely embraced the principles which they signed up to.

But - the climate is good, the seafood even better

 

I agree that Portugal is special, and has its advantages over Spain. Its more laidback, a bit friendlier and I think prices are generally a bit lower at least when compared to the popular coastal areas of Spain. But I have already chosen Spain, I bought a property six years ago in the town of Benalmádena, west of Málaga. To me it is important to have a major airport relatively close and now it is just 20 minutes away. I also wanted the sunniest possible winter climate in the EU, and though I think Portugal is beautiful beeing a lot greener it rains more (hence greener of course)

The Xkr is the car I would love to have there but the Bmw is the more versatile car, even having a retractable towing hook. When it comes to reliability I have had very little issues with both cars and do most of the maintenance work myself. I have a garage close to the house in Spain where work can be carried out. Fuel consumption is a worse con for the Xkr, almost 50% higher than the Bmw. It is probably a few years away before I import a car there, lets see which one I pick in the end. Either way it will be a nice car to drive around in along the coastal highways and in the twisty mountain roads

 

I have imported two cars and a boat into Spain from the UK with no problems. Provided you have the paperwork to prove you own the car and it has a Certificate of Conformity, you can register it anywhere in the EU as Diddion has just done.

 

Spares are widely available here in Spain - Amazon.es is a good source for service items like oil filters. For other parts, all the British based Jaguar spares specialists post to Spain. There is a Jaguar main dealer in Malaga - but I've never used them.

 

Agree on the spares Dibbitt. I buy all parts from the net, almost never from local suppliers anyway so in that matter it should be no difference in maintaining the car in the iberic peninsula or somewhere else in northern/western Europe

 

I actually considered going the U.S. Expat route once. More recently with the political climate here in the US especially, but reading about the problems with importing autos I'm not sure I would want to go the route of trying to bring in a auto. Of course now and at my stage of life I think I may be locked into life in S.W. Fla, and have to just hope for the best and put my faith in the U.S. political system(scary as it is). Maybe I can drive my XK to a hidden cave far into the hills and hide out.....

 

A sentiment shared by half the UK population, right now. Think there’s room in your cave for another 34 million? I hope there is more than one loo.

 

Surely only 48%

Is the CoC specific to the car, or the model?

 

Seems the UK and the US are sharing similar problems. Maybe Portugal is a solution. Tawny or Ruby??

 

I think it has something to do with hair colour/color.

Ok, okay, about half the population, then, so maybe a slightly smaller cave! The CoC was specific to my car. I believe that where a CoC is not available, such as when a manufacturer no longer exists, then other documentation, such as a contemporaneous brochure, might suffice. If any modifications have been carried out I think that things can get knotty.