The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

[Rob.ie]

Right, I'll try to explain this as best I can so that (hopefully) I can get some accurate answers. Its got a couple of twists to it though, so here's hoping I do an ok job of painting a clear enough picture.

At the moment I'm job-hunting. With the pathetic state of things over here my search has now extended to the UK, so I'm hoping someone might be able to explain some things to me.

We have a Shogun, converted to commercial - with the back seats removed, floor pannelled over. However, when we bought it we also got all the original rear seating, fixings, belts, catches etc. The only thing we'd actually need to source to return it to proper passenger spec is the 2 rearmost seatbelts, as whichever lazy person worked on the conversion, decided to take a short-cut and just chopped them. Maybe they thought they'd be handy securing points, I dunno, though with the quality of the rest of the work   I wouldn't really credit them with that much foresight.  

Anyway, slipping off the point slightly.  

The fact is, as its a Shogun, it originally started its life as a passenger vehicle, registered from new (to the best of my knowledge) in the North of Ireland. When it was brought down South of the border the rear was converted and it was re-registered on Irish plates as a commercial vehicle.

Thing is, I've (think my wife is with me on this too) kinda grown fond of the thirsty girl.   So in order to avoid the grief/hassle/delay etc. of trying to sell it before a potential move, I was wondering what would the implications be with regards returning it to passenger specification, and to UK/NI plates? I understand that I'd have to get it MOT'd, but I'm wondering if the DVLA would simply re-assign its original NI plate to it and away I go? Or would I have to get a mainland UK plate issued for it?

Anyone ever heard of someone doing something like this - taking what was originally a passenger vehicle, exporting to Ireland as a commercial, and then re-importing to the UK as a passenger once again? Or simply getting a commercial from Ireland and transforming it to a passenger for the UK?

No doubt there'd probably be some expenses involved - anyone know what they might be?

And besides my fondness for the particular one we have now, part of the motivation for doing the above is that I know (hand on heart) that whatever I could get for it over here would fall well short of the going price of a similar spec one in the UK.

This is all just possibilities at the moment, as I may yet get lucky over here and secure some work, but as its an outside chance I want to do as much of my homework as I can to be able to make an informed decision about the whole thing.  

And final question for now - what sort of annual motor tax would I be looking at for a '05 passenger Shogun in the UK?

And if you've managed to read this far without falling asleep - thanks  

[Google]

[rich r]

I suspect you'll find it much easier registering it with NI DVLA (ie Belfast) rather than GB DVLA (ie Swansea), as they'll be more used to dealing with cars coming over the border from the south. The two bits of the DVLA operate separately as far as registrations are concerned (in theory a car with a NI plate should re-register with a GB plate after it's been over here for a year, but generally nobody's really that bothered as long as the plate matches the vehicle on the database). It's very unlikely it'd get it's original registration number though as that would have been reassigned by now.

Probably the best thing to do would be to call or email the DVLA in Belfast and ask them what the procedure would be. Their website is here.

[itsachallenge]

Wouldnt be a big deal. And fee is area £70

[Rob.ie]

Cheers for the replies.

Might try giving the DVLA a ring next week for further info on it  

[muddyricer]

The easiest route would be to repatrate it into NI, it should get it's original reg number back as they're not usually reissued, and then move it onto a normal GB registration later if you want.

[tubbs]

Far far easier to re register it in NI and bring it into the uk. Once its done then you can attempt swansea. If you bring it in through Southern island the dvla will be looking for engineers reports and type approval and all sorts of unnecessary hoops that you can get round by registering it in NI.

[venn105]

As for road tax it does not go over £280 for pre March 06 so less than that,not sure exactly but if you go on DVLA site it will tell you exactly
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/DG_10012524
Band k* £235 (2nd lot of info)

[Rob.ie]

Cheers Venn