Moons ago the use of public transport was the norm when we were either too young or too poor to own a car or bike. Standing in the freezing rain cursing the driver who was late again it was a joy to get inside the warm bus, listening to the grumbling passengers whilst trying to find a seat through the cigarette smog. We the had a choice of buses as they always seemed to come along in threes
About five years ago I re-registered a 9-seater minibus that was registered in Jersey. Registering the bus was no problem, though it was at this point that I discovered that the Channel Island are outside of the EU, as are the Canaries, so IVA (VAT) had to be paid. I have kept in touch with the owner so my cricket club recently purchased the same bus to get us to away games. No power steering, no turbo but still a joy to drive with the junior members making me feel young again
Registering the mini-bus was not a problem; this one is left hand drive, but it would not have mattered had the steering position been on the right as it has less than 10 seats
Similarly over the years I have re-registered many motor homes and campervans, most of which have been right hand drive.
A few years ago it was not problem to re-register right hand drive vans and light trucks, but not now as EU regulations have changed, though you may see some on the roads here which only adds to the confusion. It is questions regarding this subject that have come along like buses in the past few weeks after a period of long absence.
To recap regarding right hand drive vehicles. Cars, mini buses with less than 10 seats and motorhomes/campers can in principle be re-registered in Spain. There may be other inhibiting factors, but the position of the steering wheel will not be one of them
Right hand drive commercial vehicles cannot be re-registered. To determine whether a vehicle is classed as commercial or not, check your registration document in section “J”. If it states Vehicle Category M1, then no problem; if it states “N1” it is commercial so NO to re- registration
I can empathise with owners who bemoan that camper vans can become Spanish when the view from the driving position may be inferior to that from their beloved white van or pick- up. Fair enough, but campers are leisure vehicles whilst vans are normally used for work. The line has to be drawn somewhere so it is scrawled under vehicle category
Incidentally in relation to both campers and caravans it does not matter which side the access door is, so if yours is on the left no problem, but don’t throw the kids out whilst parked in a lay- by even though you are sick of them asking “are we nearly there yet?”
Vehicles such as Peugeot Partners and Citroen Berlingos may be deemed to be hybrid for use as either a car or for commercial purposes. In Spain they are classed as “mixto”. There is no problem in re-registering right hand drive versions of these, but if your vehicle is classed as a mixto when it goes through its first ITV inspection the frequency of subsequent inspections will be the same as if it were commercial. This means annually until it is 10 years old and then 6 monthly. The same applies to our mini-bus.
A favour please. Many people contact me for advice after reading forums and blogs. In the majority of cases the information read is incorrect. I don’t wish to appear to be a smarty pants, but years of practice has taught me the regulations so please refer the forums to this article which is correct as of 1st May 2015