gavr4

I'm in a desperate place and hope someone can help. I have recently moved back to the UK to live having spent 15 years living in Mexico. I had just bought a new A5 and since I was sending a container with household belongings, I decided to send the car as well.

It turns out that I cannot get a Certificate of Conformity to be able to get it registered in the UK.

It is an Audi A5 Sportback 2018 2.0 TFSI

HELP!!!!

jbbarrette

gavr4

Thanks for the reply, I have responded to Audi UK asking for details as to what modifications are needed. Hopefully it is something as simple as the lights!

gavr4

Thanks for the reply, I have responded to Audi UK asking what modifications are required, I'd be delighted if it was as simple as changing the headlights. Thanks again.

uberwgn

They're used to be a function called Tourist Mode that would permit the headlights to be switched to RHD with VCDS. Maybe that still exists.

Did the Mexican A5 have orange turn signals in the rear? That will be an issue. I suspect this is going to be more complicated than one would hope. In the USA, there are people called Registered Importers (RI) that deal with this sort of stuff. I have to believe people in the UK regularly import cars from elsewhere, no?

gavr4

It does have orange turn signals as standard. They don't actually import that many cars from around the world since most are left hand drive and the UK is right hand drive. I never thought that there would be an issue but I'll keep pursuing Audi UK to tell me what needs to be changed.
Thanks.

N8!

I don't know about the UK, but it is damn near financially impossible to bring a European Spec car into the USA unless it is 25 year old.

The amount of money needed to convert a EU car to US specification is insane.

https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-impo.../importing-car

SCarGuy

you might want to reach out to a registered importer, such as

https://mycarimport.co.uk/

(I don't know them at all btw - I can ask some British friends if they suggest anyone in particular though if you like)

superswiss

I'm guessing that LHD is the main issue here, because the lights are pointing in the wrong direction and blinding oncoming cars. I believe that's what the tourist mode is about. It might be as simple as activating the tourist mode. There are also other concerns with how high the lights are pointing. I don't know about Mexico, but the USA has different requirements than Europe in this regard and vice versa. Amber rear turning signals vs red has already been answered. Not sure what else might be an issue. It won't keep you from registering the car, but if you plan on using the nav if you have it, that would need to be converted first. Also I think you need the MPH dash, even if the car has both scales as North American cars tend to do, but UK may require that the main scale is MPH. If you have the virtual cockpit, then you can just change it to MPH, but otherwise replacing the dash is expensive. Different countries also have different crash test requirements, so there could be mechanical differences that don't meet UK crash safety. Cars often have different designs under the skin to meet the specific crash safety requirements of the country they are sold in. Sometimes that hinders certain options or models from being sold altogether and I'm sure is a factor if you are trying to import. Hindsight is 20/20, but these are things that one should research before shipping a car. It's generally not worth it, unless the car already meets all the specs of the destination country. For example US military personnel abroad can buy US spec cars that they can legally drive in Europe, much like the European Delivery cars and then ship them home at the end of their service.

Here's a link I quickly found while googling. Doesn't' sound impossible, but a lot of red tape apparently.

Registering a Left Hand Drive Car in the UK - Total Auto Imports

gavr4

Thank-you so much for your information and help, I'll look into those options