I have a Spanish reg car, I am a non resident, I am looking at taking it over to the UK for a couple of months, is there any time restrictions or rules on this, as I live in the UK

A UK resident cannot drive a foreign registered car in UK unless:

1. They work in another EU member state and use an EU-registered company car on a temporary basis.

2. They lease a EU registered car and use it temporarily in the UK.

3. If the car is not yours, the owner is a non-UK resident and he is sitting in the car with you.

There's also a bit about students but I doubt that would apply to you. 

There will now follow about 500 replies about how Joe Bloggs and the bloke up the pub did it and it was OK. However, the above is from the gov.uk site on using a foreign registered car in UK.

A non UK resident can bring the car into UK for a period not exceeding 6 months or until he becomes a resident in UK when it must be re-registered on UK plates before being used again.

Have no idea about the other 499 replies you might get but certainly a Brit neighbour of mine, still a UK tax resident, takes, and uses,  his Spanish reg car to south London for months at a time. His mentality as.it is his car he is permitted to do so and to date no-one has stopped him. 

However with the horrendous amount of traffic, everywhere, in UK it wouldn't be my choice of transport.

Sorry but I do not buy this

I see no reason why a uk resident cannot drive any foreign registered car in the uk if the vehicle is road legal, they have a licence and they have the owners permission 

I can see why a uk resident cannot own a foreign registered car in uk without importing the car onto uk plates except as a temporary import as per the govt website.

I think Maridav covered your points in her post there Dazza?

Brian

Not really as i beleive she is referring to the section realtioning to importing a car

Maybe the dvla website should separate importing and driving to make it clear

There are so many scenarios that make this (if true ) nonsense

As one example

A uk resident flies to a eu country picks up a car or van (hire car friends car or even his own from his holiday hone) drives back to the uk passing through a number of non uk eu states. Arriives in uk drives around for a few weeks and then returns to the country in the car where he brought the car from.

The car or van is fully legal in its home eu state insured ,  taxed etc therefore legal to drive in the uk and the uk resident has a valid uk licence 

Yet if you take what has been said then a non uk resident could do exactly the same thing and be legal - would this then be discrimination against a uk resident

All crazy to me and is it simply misinterpreting the import guide

6. Temporary imports

You can usually use a vehicle with foreign number plates without registering or taxing it in the UK if all of the following apply:

• you’re visiting and don’t plan to live here........***** This bit makes it look like you have to be a full time resident in the country the car is registered to..*****
• the vehicle is registered and taxed in its home country.....Okay with this bit.
• you only use the vehicle for up to 6 months in total - this can be a single visit, or several shorter visits over 12 months......****Maybe again only if your NOT a UK resident

If you become a resident or stay for longer than 6 months you must register and tax your vehicle in the UK – follow the steps for importing a vehicle.

Another little bit to throw in the can.

For what it's worth I have driven quite a few French / Spanish registered cars in the UK for possible about 2 months plus, and not once have I been stopped, I gave them no cause to stop me either. 

Ok this is not from Jimmy down the pub, this is what happened to my wife’s Spanish Reg car, she is a UK national, she wrote her Spanish Reg car off in the UK, the Spanish insurance company paid out with 1 month, so you would have thought if the there a chance for the insurance company to not pay out, they would have asked if we was Spanish residents or not, they never did. This morning I have been to my car insurance Spanish broker to pick some docs up, and I have asked the question, and she says I can go anywhere in Europe ( U K also ) for 90 days, and she has given me a number in case I breakdown in the UK.  So it’s all a bit confusing, me thinks ?

Dazza.   Thanks for that it gave more perspective I think.  Glad I asked