Driving Abroad

[Bluesnose1812]

If you’re driving in Spain, Cyprus and Malta, you’ll always need a UK sticker, no matter what you have on your number plate.

For other EU countries your number plate must have plus UK to be valid.

[IPKnightly2]

+1
I have been stopped twice in Spain for not having a UK sticker … thankfully just told off and sent on my way.

[DJMCUK]

I read here recently someone had their headlights set to the other side of the road from UK spec but simply went into the PCM to correct.

Where's the setting to switch over? Anyone RTFM?

[FirstSeaLord]

I read here recently someone had their headlights set to the other side of the road from UK spec but simply went into the PCM to correct.

Where's the setting to switch over? Anyone RTFM?

I haven't RTFM but thought the car recognises which country one's in and adjusts headlight orientation accordingly

[Wolands Advocate]

If you’re driving in Spain, Cyprus and Malta, you’ll always need a UK sticker, no matter what you have on your number plate.

For other EU countries your number plate must have plus UK to be valid.

That might be the case, but in a quarter of a century of regularly driving in continental Europe on British plates, no policeman or traffic warden has ever once picked me up on this . Certainly, I think you'd have to be extremely unlucky to have one who worried about whether you had a Union Jack on your plate in addition to a UK sticker.

I am also fairly sure, based on queries from more than one of their number, that many continental policemen aren't even aware that Boris the Johnson wasted yet more government time and taxpayers' money pointlessly asking the UN to change the distinguishing sign for British road vehicles from GB to UK.

[TheTraveller]

Re the headlight switchover. My 2016 model with candles for headlights, has no automatic adjustment. To switch over, it means physically getting into them to do it manually. Which I’ve never done.
I too have driven a lot on the continent, and have never been stopped ever. Except when Covid was upon us, and the borders were closed. The Guards checked my paperwork, and timed and dated when entering and leaving Spain and France.

[Neil1911]

I read here recently someone had their headlights set to the other side of the road from UK spec but simply went into the PCM to correct.

Where's the setting to switch over? Anyone RTFM?

I haven't RTFM but thought the car recognises which country one's in and adjusts headlight orientation accordingly

I think that's true on some models but NOT the Macan.

[DJMCUK]

I read here recently someone had their headlights set to the other side of the road from UK spec but simply went into the PCM to correct.

Where's the setting to switch over? Anyone RTFM?

I haven't RTFM but thought the car recognises which country one's in and adjusts headlight orientation accordingly

I think that's true on some models but NOT the Macan.

This isn't the (more recent) thread I saw but explains how to switch from left to right hand driving on (some?) Gen 1 cars:
viewtopic.php?t=8313&start=10

It may be that LEDs don't need adjusting per bennachie's late post there.

[Wolands Advocate]

Re the headlight switchover. My 2016 model with candles for headlights, has no automatic adjustment. To switch over, it means physically getting into them to do it manually. Which I’ve never done.
I too have driven a lot on the continent, and have never been stopped ever. Except when Covid was upon us, and the borders were closed. The Guards checked my paperwork, and timed and dated when entering and leaving Spain and France.

Interesting. When they opened the borders in June 2020, we were among the first to throw everything in the car and leave Britain. Once we'd got past Calais, no-one ever checked us again. At the border into Switzerland at Basel, the guard merely checked that we had already the vignette (we did), asked if we'd done the tests and when we said he had, he had no interest in seeing proof or our passports and just waved us on. At the border from Switzerland into Italy at Chiasso a couple of days later, the border guards simply watched us drive past and didn't move a muscle. And that was that. Likewise in reverse some months later, and same again throughout 2021. The only place we ever had our C19 paperwork checked was the Channel crossing.

[IPKnightly2]

If you’re driving in Spain, Cyprus and Malta, you’ll always need a UK sticker, no matter what you have on your number plate.

For other EU countries your number plate must have plus UK to be valid.

That might be the case, but in a quarter of a century of regularly driving in continental Europe on British plates, no policeman or traffic warden has ever once picked me up on this . Certainly, I think you'd have to be extremely unlucky to have one who worried about whether you had a Union Jack on your plate in addition to a UK sticker.

I am also fairly sure, based on queries from more than one of their number, that many continental policemen aren't even aware that Boris the Johnson wasted yet more government time and taxpayers' money pointlessly asking the UN to change the distinguishing sign for British road vehicles from GB to UK.

I drive through France or via Spain 4/5 a year to get to Andorra. The Spanish equivalent of our Traffic Cops are now very hot on UK drivers not displaying a UK sticker and / or having old style GB plates and whilst I have never had a fine I have been pulled twice and told off for not displaying a sticker…. Last time I had a sticker on inside of my rear window but the tint hid it!
As stated the French don’t require a sticker though….
Finally be warned I now understand speed cameras on the French Péage system have a post brexit link with DVLA so gone are the days of cruising at 90mph!