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RHD vehicle - selling it in Belgium
Hello
I'm an EU official returning from a Delegation in a country where they drive on the left side of the road (like in the UK).
I have been reassigned to Belgium and I am wondering the following:
- can I legally drive a RHD car in Belgium (after all the registration circus)?
- failing that, is it possible to sell that car in Belgium?
The car I am importing (originally purchased from Japan), is a 2014 Toyota FJ Cruiser with around 60K kilometers and in excellent condition.
Thank you for any advice/info
You can drive an RHD vehicle here. I did so for several years after moving here and going through the 'registration circus'.
You can sell the car here but you will struggle. The only potential buyer is someone who is about to return to the UK or Eire.
You can take it to sell in the UK, of course, but it may well not be worth the hassle.
Sell the car in the country where it is now and buy a decent secondhand car to replace it in Belgium. It will save you a lot of hassle.
I agree with Becasse. Sell it at a car dealer where it is. Price will not be great but no shipping costs, approvals, registration costs etc. It will be hard to sell in Belgium.
You can drive it here after re-registering, but if you ever have to go anywhere peculiar it can be a major pain, unless you only ever go out with a passenger in the car.
For example, if you ever have to go into a parking where you need to use a ticket / payment / barrier it is very difficult. If you drive to France and want to use the payages on the motorways, it is a awkward to say the least, if you use any "drive by" services like a drive-through McDonalds etc, it is complicated.
I'd also advise, (but I'm sure that someone will correct me), but I don't think that particular car was ever sold on the European market, so parts and service could well be an issue. (And registering it could well be problematic, as you'll need to get the car certified at your own cost, because Toyota will never have produced EU accepted certification documentation that you could use).
Unless you have some particularly strong emotional attachment to this car, sell it before you leave and get something new / secondhand here when you arrive.
Yes, you can drive a LHD
Yes, you can resell it in Belgium. If you PX it for a new one, there's a very good chance that it will go to Namibia. There are plenty of specialist dealers who export used Belgian cars to the rest of the world.
I imported my RHD car a few years ago. The whole process was very straightforward. As someone pointed out, barriers/tolls/overtaking can be a nuisance! I held on to it because I thought I'd have difficulty selling it in Belgium. However, when I bought a LHD car some years later, the Nissan dealership in Zaventem took it off my hands and told me they had a dealer who bought RHD vehicles.
