Can you take IAM/RoSPA in a car with foreign numberplates?

JamesE · Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 35

....?

ROG · Joined: 08 Oct 2006 Posts: 955 Location: LEICESTER

as long as vehicle is safe & legal - yes for IAM
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JamesE · Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 35

Angus · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 188 Location: Colchester, Essex

You are supposed to present registration, insurance and MOT documents to the examiner. I'm not sure they'd happily accept foreign (non english) documentation.

Why_Aye · Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:59 pm Post subject:

GS · Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 219 Location: Southeast

JamesE · Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 35

So are you saying that every single continental car that comes over the channel with a speedo only in KPH is committing an offence?

GS · Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 219 Location: Southeast

It used to be the case that any car used on the roads had to be fitted with a speedo which showed either mph or both mph and kph. There were no exemptions, not even visitors. I'm about 8 years out of date now but I suspect that this has not and will not change. We drive in mph in this country, not kph.
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Angus · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 188 Location: Colchester, Essex

manilva15b · Joined: 28 Aug 2006 Posts: 150 Location: Casares, Spain

I'll be following this thread with interest since I hope to be visiting the UK this summer, and I would be interested in brushing up on my driver training (six years in Spain has probably introduced some bad habits), but I'd be bringing my Spanish registered car.
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JamesE · Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 35

waremark · Joined: 15 Apr 2006 Posts: 592

A while back an associate with our group wanted to take an IAM test in a left hand drive car with a kph only speedo (I think that it is quite legal to drive cars with kph only speedos in this country). The examiner declined to perform the test, because of the lack of an mph calibrated speedo. The Associate offered a conversion chart for 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70, but he was not interested. The group appealed to the then Chief Examiner Bryan Lunn. He endorsed the examiner's decision, stating that you could not take an IAM test in a car without an mph calibrated speedo.

JamesE · Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 35

MGF · Joined: 29 Jun 2006 Posts: 718 Location: Warwickshire

Since 1998 it has been perfectly lawful to use vehicles with KPH-only speedometers in the UK (subject to them being EU approved for use in another EU country).

Even so the DSA still wont test drivers in a car without MPH on the speedometer so it doesn't seem surprising the IAM wont either.

waremark · Joined: 15 Apr 2006 Posts: 592

Our committee felt the position of the IAM on kph speedos was pretty feeble - if the driver can cope with conversion of the headline speeds then surely it cannot be much of a problem for a competent examiner. There are no rules on how easy it has to be to read the speedo from the passenger seat.

On the issue of kmh cars being legal in the UK, irritatingly the opposite is not the case. UK cars apparently must have a constant display of kph speeds. In my wife's SLK, there is a constant digital display of kph speed where foreign market cars display outside temperature. (Outside temperature is available, but only via menu selection on a multi-function display). I would prefer the outside temp to be displayed constantly, and the kph speed to be available by selection.