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Insurance in the UK is a funny business so I\'m not massively surprised by the insurance issue. I know this doesn\'t help, though.

If you\'re buying a car from a dealer who knows about the export process, ask them if they can recommend an insurance broker who can get insurance for a non-UK resident. It\'s most likely a case of talking to the right people but as I\'ve never been involved in exporting a new car from the UK I can\'t recommend anybody.

The temporary plates as available in Germany are not valid outside Germany even though their use is usually tolerated.

While you can get temporary number plates in the UK, these are for dealer use only and if you\'re not a UK car dealer, you can\'t get them.

When you say you\'re buying a new car here, does that mean that the car will not be registered in the UK at all? If that\'s the case you\'re probably best off in borrowing something like a van and a trailer.

If you\'re buying a car here that is registered, it\'ll most likely be just the normal insurance but then again you\'ll have to jump over the hurdle that you aren\'t a UK resident and most UK insurance companies regard any sort of foreigner with a suspicion (has happened to me often enough and I am a UK resident) so $DEITY only knows what they\'ll say...

That said, it might be worth looking at these people for short term insurance: http://dayinsure.com/

Unfortunately regular UK insurance is for a 12 month contract and there aren\'t many other options.

rich, looking good .

Check if it doesn\'t have a decat pipe already, I vaguely remember that it might have.

I\'ve just sold a car to Austria and it looks like the process is a matter of insuring the car, informing the DVLA that it is being exported (that is the purple part of the registration document), then drive it over there.

A UK car will have plates as over here the plates stay on the car (in contrast to Germany, Austria, Switzerland etc where a change of owner often means a change of plates as well and a deregistered car will not carry plates). You\'ll have to have MOT, Tax and insurance to drive it to Austria but that\'s it.

thanks guys

my budget is err negotiable, but i dont want to go over the 1k mark.

but there is some nice cars at the top end of that.

i think the turbo looks better, and has the potential for fun too, although a n/a at the right price could tempt me for the winter at least :yes

but a 1st gen with a 13b sounds like the most \'fun\' if you get my drift :Thumbsup!

Find a bit more cash and buy my convertible? The price is somewhat negotiable and I\'d probably let it go for less than I mention in the ad if it goes to an enthusiast...

I\'ve got a (well, two actually) Accumates - very similar to the Optimate charger but they do 6V as well, which I need because I\'ve got two bikes with 6V electrics.

Optimates are very good as well and there are several other, similar chargers out there. Just stay away from the 5 quid specials.

Don\'t run the engine then - you\'re better off that way rather than running it a little. Disconnecting the battery would certainly help, but I\'d still charge it up occasionally as that\'d extend the lifespan of the battery.

Put fresh oil in it, don\'t take it for a spin unless it\'s a long one because you want to ensure that everything including the exhaust heats up properly and ten minutes ain\'t going to do it.

Stick the battery on a smart charger as well. Other than that, it\'s only a few months.

Oh, and leave the handbrake off unless you want the pads corroded to the disk, plus exercise the clutch occasionally to stop it from sticking. Possibly some fuel stabiliser in the tank.

No worries, good luck with the sale. I need another car like I need a hole in the head so I think I better not start thinking about just waving cash .

Arrgggh. Would you be interested in a deal involving an Evo II?

The article is in German so it probably won\'t be of use to most on here, but here\'s a link to the pictures:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-34725.html#backToArticle=575143

It\'s a (forgotten - they found it behind a load of junk) prototype of a rotary-engined town car in the Smart Car category that Fichtel&Sachs designed about 30 years ago. Supposedly this prototype was built by Porsche as F&S didn\'t have the facilities to build a complete car at that time. F&S didn\'t renew their license for the rotary engine so the whole thing got shelved and they only found the car (single existing prototype) very recently when they were trying to clear some junk off.

According to the article the exterior dimensions are very close to those of a Smart, but it sits three. It even has the engine in the same place as the Smart...

The plate was a bit of a giveaway . Didn\'t attend a/the meet, was just on the way back from picking up my car from RoTechniks.

Looked like a JDM import and I believe that the driver did notice that he was overtaking a white \'vert...

Forget the rears, all they\'ll do is making the setup harder to sort out so you don\'t get any funny imaging effects.