Getting a SORNed car to the MOT station

No.

Righto. I can't remember all the ins and outs of this anymore - a couple of my family members have insurance where they can drive any car so long as they don't own it. Does the car also need to be insured in by the owner for this to be valid?

If their policy says so.

[...]

Sorry if this seems pedantic, but strictly speaking, *only* if their

*certificate of insurance* says so, surely?

Chris

"Doki" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Since you'll need to insure it to tax it once it's passed the test, wouldn't it just make sense to take it there under it's own cover...?

I'm in a similar position, in my case I want to MOT a SORNed car and then sell it. Insuring and then taxing it would cost a lot, while probably not increasing the value by the same amount. When I get round to it, I'll ask the garage if they have time to collect it themselves on their own insurance. That way, it gets a couple of miles to warm up and bed in the new brake pads before the test.

Most insurance policies I've seen only provide cover for borrowed cars if they are already covered elsewhere.

Willy Eckerslyke gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Adding it short-term as a temporary second car onto your existing main policy shouldn't be expensive - when I bought the Saab and was selling the XM, I think I paid about £20 for a couple of weeks. Add in 6mo tax, and whilst you might be slightly down on the overall "cost-to-change", you'll find it a DAMN sight easier to sell.

[...]

In 45 years of motoring, and lots of different insurers, I've never had such a condition imposed on me. I have only seen it once, on my Son's certificate of insurance for a van.

Chris

And the 2x£25* "Policy Amendment fee" (one to add, another to remove).

*or whatever your policy states, which may be nothing. D

I have two cars - a 406 and the Golf, which is SORNed. I plan to sell the

406, and MOT the Golf, and transfer the policy over from the 406.

However, I don't need the Golf (or a car) at the moment, I simply want it MOTed, so that I know that when I do need it (could be in a month, could be in 3 months), it's just a case of taxing it and insuring it, without having to do any mechanical work. Tax for the Golf is £185, and I've not got the cashflow, or the inclination to possibly waste a quarter of it for the sake of convenience.

David Hearn gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Buy pikey insurance...

"Doki" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Right - but you can almost certainly keep two cars on that one policy for a short overlap period for a fairly nominal extra cost.

Spend an hour or two going over the Golf with the aid of the tester's manual on

to make sure it's not going to fail on anything obvious, then just insure/MOT/tax it when you need it?

I agree with the OP, far better to have the car sitting there with an MoT rather than wait till you must have it on the road.

Seven Ps. In 3 months time I may need the car, have an MOT fail sheet and already be working all the hours god sends...

That's what I thought, but they refused because it's a BMW. So I waited until my classic policy was due for renewal and asked them to add it (it's old enough to qualify - 1984). Normally extra classics only add an extra 20 or 30 quid for the whole year of cover. But nope, they said that as it's a fecking Beamer, it would have to go on its own policy. At that point, I should have started a new policy for the BMW, adding the Rover and Land Rover as additional classics, but it was getting on for 5pm and I needed them covered by the end of the day, so I didn't bother.

Indeed. It'd also be easier to sell if I used it for a few weeks to recommission it properly and shake out any teething troubles (it's been standing for 5 years). But I can't see any options beyond taking out a full policy, then cancelling it after a month or two. Classics policies don't earn a refund on cancellation. All in all, it's going to cost a fair bit. The only consolation is seeing one sell on eBay recently for 2900 quid in only slightly better condition but higher mileage. It's that 48,000 mile E28 520i I mentioned a few months back.