Moving the car home: short-term plates, export plates or a trailer

A car deregistered in the country of sale loses its third-party insurance along with its plates. From that moment it is an object with no business on a public road until somebody arranges cover and plates for it again. Everything that follows is an answer to exactly that gap.

The cost question comes second and is still asked first. It is also the wrong question: an accident without valid cover costs a multiple of what the dearest option would have cost, and a border check without valid plates ends the journey on the spot.

Hence the order here: first what each route covers in insurance terms, then what each one demands in practice, and only last which of them adds up for which distance.

The German short-term plate is meant for test and transfer drives and is valid for only a few days; the expiry date is printed on the plate itself. It is applied for at a German registration office, which asks for an electronic confirmation of insurance, the vehicle papers and valid evidence that the car is roadworthy.

The restriction that wrecks most plans is not in the plate but in the insurance behind it. Many of these policies are territorially limited, and the limits are listed in the confirmation. Driving abroad on one without the destination country named there means driving uninsured — and you only find out once something has happened.

In practice: the short-term plate is the right route for a drive inside Germany — from the seller to the testing station, say — or across a border where the policy expressly covers it. Ask the insurer before you book which states the confirmation names, and get the answer in writing.

The export plate — recognisable by the red field down the right-hand side — is issued when a car is taken out of the country for good. That is exactly what an import is, which is why it is the clean route. It comes with insurance cut for the purpose, and as an order of magnitude its validity runs from a few months up to about a year.

It is applied for at the registration office where the car is currently based. You need registration certificate parts I and II, a valid roadworthiness test, the export insurance confirmation and your ID. The old plates stay behind; they are invalidated in the same operation, which also ends the tax liability in the country of sale.

The decisive difference from the short-term plate is the insurance confirmation. It names expressly the states the cover applies to, and for an export the destination is obviously among them. Read the list anyway before setting off — especially if the route crosses further states that are neither start nor finish.

Put the car on a car-transport trailer and it needs no plates and no insurance of its own — it is cargo. This is the only route that also works for a car that is not driveable, and the only one where a technical fault on the way is not a risk.

In exchange the effort moves to the towing vehicle and to you. What matters is the permissible total mass of the combination of tow car and trailer: it determines whether your licence is enough or whether an extra category is needed. The limit that applies to you is in your licence and with the licensing authority — and with a loaded trailer it is reached sooner than most people expect.

A vehicle-transport company collects the car from the seller and drops it at your door. The price depends on distance, weight and on whether the car rolls and steers. It is offered both as a dedicated run and as a slot on a transport that is already scheduled — the second is considerably cheaper and takes longer.

Two points belong in the order. First: how is the car insured during transport, for what sum and against what damage? Second: who takes delivery from the seller, and against what record? A handover protocol with photographs, signed by driver and seller, is the only evidence that later distinguishes transport damage from pre-existing damage.

For a car you have not viewed yourself, though, the haulier is still the worse route — not because of the transport but because you first see the car once it is paid for and unloaded. Anyone not going in person should at least commission an independent inspection on site.

The transfer is the one part of an import where you are on the road with a car whose status is unusual. Checks are correspondingly frequent, and the folder on the passenger seat should be correspondingly good. It is the same one you will need at the customs post shortly afterwards.

Photograph every sheet onto your phone. That replaces no original, but it saves the afternoon when a page blows away or ends up in the wrong folder.

If the route leads into a state outside the single market, the drive is not just a drive but the scheduling of a declaration. The customs post has to be staffed when you arrive, and opening hours at smaller crossings are neither continuous nor uniform. A phone call the day before is the cheapest part of the whole exercise.

That produces an order most people only adopt on their second import: fix the customs post and its hours first, then arrange collection from the seller, then apply for the plates. Start that chain at the wrong end and you finish with plates that expire on a Sunday.

Inside the single market there is no clearance, but the scheduling does not disappear entirely: the plates still expire, and the registration office at home also has opening hours and waiting times.

For a drive within one state and a roadworthy car, the short-term plate is the simplest route, provided the policy covers the distance. As soon as a border is involved and the car is staying there for good, the export plate is the right one — it is built for precisely this case and handles the deregistration as well.

The trailer wins in three situations: a car that is not driveable, one whose technical condition you could not assess, and a classic you would rather not send a thousand kilometres in one go. The haulier wins when the distance is long and your time is dearer than its price.

And a sum that is regularly underestimated: driving yourself is not free. Getting there by train or with a second driver, fuel, tolls, a night's accommodation and a lost working day quickly add up to what a slot on a lorry that is going anyway would cost — except that afterwards you are tired and the car has its first long run behind it under your ownership.