Thread: Importing a car from UK (or member state) to Greece

The import of your car is always topical, and on reading the forums seems to change almost daily. So to give you the latest info I finished the process and received my Greek plates today 30th Sept.
The whole process in Greece cost me 386 Euro, including the work of the importer I used but excluding the annual road tax.
For those interested the procedure I followed was:-
Greek Embassy in Holland Park, London presented them with:-
UK documents
- Council tax bills for the last 3 years
- Electricity, water bills for the last 3 years
- P45 & P60's for last three years
- UK Passport
- UK driving licence
- V5 for the car I intend to import into Greece
Note: you must have owned this car for a minimum of 6 months
The paperwork was completed and posted to me within the week.

Get an import / export expert to prepare the paperwork.....this cost me 200 Euros, you just can not do this yourself…….even if you can read Greek and understand the forms….
They will require all the documents from the Greek Embassy and
- Deeds of purchase of your Greek plot of land or house
- Greek tax number document
- Greek address details

You have to within 30 days (very important) present this to Greek Customs (on this definitely do it within 20 days as time is critical), the importer will do all this for you but you have to be present.
Providing you meet these criteria there is NO import duty to pay. I paid Customs 61 Euro...including the 31 Euro to the man who looked under the bonnet and showed the Customs Officer where the VIN Plate was !!!!!! (Jobs for the boys)
Then off to the ministry for vehicles with the Customs papers (technical dept) to obtain more paper.
They then issue even more paper....which you take to KTEO for the (MOT) test of compliance. Cost here 50 Euro.

Back to the ministry with this document, more paper issued and 75 Euro paid for the plates. (This you have to pay direct in a bank to their account (Millennium Bank)).
The office will then issue the green vehicle "log book" which has to be taken to the tax office and the year’s road tax paid. Returning this proof of payment to the ministry office I got my Red Plates !!!!
The time all this took was painful, 4 hours two days running in customs and each visit to other offices about an hour a piece. Fantastic service at KTEO though. Was it worth it……..yes, my car in the UK would be worth 4500 pounds. Here the same aged vehicle would cost me 8000 Euro.

I can not guarantee all locations in Greece will be the same, but I found by being patient, putting up with the frustrating length of time things took to be checked and double checked in good humour pays off…..every one I came across were helpful. (Just take a good book to read whilst you wait)

Can you confirm whether you have changed residence as well. Or did you just import car. Can you only do one car per family and can your family only drive the car and no one else.

Paul

Hi there,

I believe its ONE car per family, I also imported a caravan and know I could also have imported a boat, all tax free.......
The car is not restricted to who drives it, but of course is restricted to who owns it, as if it is sold within five years of import you have to pay proportionate taxes.

Then car was actually in my wifes name, and caravan in mine but both were done at the same time without to much trouble.

I own a home both here and in the UK and spend time between both...

Sorry for the confusion are you still uk citizen or now greek. I thought you could only import once you live in the country. I only spend 10 weeks a year in kefalonia but buying a car is expensive so would rather buy left hand drive in the Uk and import .

Paul

Hi Paul,

Drop me your E mail address please.....

[email protected]