Can I sleep in my car?

I would like to tour the UK and Ireland next year. I plan to visit for about 3 or 4 months. I would like to travel as cheaply as posible and was hoping I could buy a vehicle upon arrival, keep it for 3 months, then sell it before I return to th US. I would be traveling alone and I was hopeing I could sleep in the vehicle at least part of the time. Does anyone see any unforseen problems with this scenario? I would like the smallest and most inexpensive to operate vehicle posible that had a flat area 6 feet long that I could sleep in. Any suggestions?
Marshall

I believe in order to purchase a car in the UK you may need to have a permanent address there, otherwise where would the DVLA send the logbook (ownership papers) to? Check out the DVLA website, Short Description of URL Content Also, you need to ensure that you can use your foreign license to obtain suitable auto insurance (you can't tax a car on UK roads without insurance, and if you drive on a car that has no tax you will be picked up and the car possibly confiscated, ie destroyed). If you have considered all those options then go ahead, try out www.autotrader.co.uk, but if you haven't considered the above mentioned options, it sounds like you need to think the situation through more thoroughly. Sorry to rain on your parade ...

I forgot to mention - nobody will stop you from sleeping in your car, but it would be awfully cold and somewhat uncomfortable ...

I'm not sure actually that 'no-one will stop you from sleeping in your car'. If you're in the middle of nowhere, fine, but if not I can see you getting told to move on by the coppers. You'd have to choose your sleeping places carefully.

And if you do sleep in your car don't do it whilst drunk with the keys in your habd/the ignitition. English law can class this as being in charge of a vehicle whilst over the limit. Rare but not unheard of.

1. A decent, reliable car/van will set you back £1000 - £1500
   - like this one
   2. Insurance for 3 months will be very difficult (but not impossible to get), premiums will be very high especially seeing you're foreign, you have no driving history in the UK, you have zero no-claim bonus, you're insuring for a very short period of time and you do not have proof of residency - this is key to getting insurance in the UK, actually it's key to doing anything that involves the law in the UK.
   3. Petrol is expensive, average 95p (USD$1.92) per LITRE (not per gallon)
   
   Suggestions:
   If you must drive, would be cheaper to hire a camper van like wicked campers. For 3 months with wicked campers (not inc. insurance waiver, assuming there is one) you can get a 2 berth van for £900.
   
   You can still travel by road in the UK very cheaply and quickly without driving yourself. You can use coach services like National Express and Mega Bus. Train travel can also be a cost effective way to see the UK without flying (if bought wisely ie in advance, non-flexible tickets, etc). As for accommodation using these alternate travel methods, B&B (Bed and Breakfast) average around £25-30 per person per night and sometimes less for single occupancy. There are also plenty of hostels about of course which are probably (on average) cheaper than your B&B style accommodation. Of course that will all probably work out more expensive than having your own, portable accommodation.

#4...and they take that very seriously. The only way around that is to unlock the car and go hise the keys somewhere nearby. If the police then check you, in theory, you are unable to operate the car...however I would not like to try it!

Last we tried (5 years ago) we were unable to get insurance for less than a year - the good old temporary month by month insurance days are long gone. If you had to insure the vehicle for a whole year it would make it even more expensive!

Actually, those days are not over... Norwich Union Short-Term Car Insurance and other options.

I dont imagine that it would be high on your priority list, but you are not allowed to sleep in your car overnight in most motorway service stations (petrol stations).
Most of them have notices in the car parks to say "no overnight parking", and they hire security guards to patrol the parking areas.

I have a friend who was driving the length of the country overnight and got too tired to go on driving. She pulled in to a service station for an hour long sleep in the drivers seat, and woke up to find a parking fine on the windscreen. She was mighty cross about it too.

Genghis. quite a few service stations will now allow overnight parking but at a cost of approximately £7. Certainly the five or six I have stopped at recently have allowed this. 2 hours free then a charge of £7 after that....

Check out Auto Trader for a pretty cool selection of used vans, campervans and stuff

as #2 says... I did this for a couple of nights in a hire car, and damn it's cold... make sure you have a good sleeping bag!

Apparently the DVLA will NOT register a car without a proof of address in the UK (utility bill valid within the last three months, bank statement valid within the last three months, medical card, or council tax bill for current year). So any discussion as to whether or not you can sleep in a car that you can't legally own anyway, sounds like hot air to me....

#3 is wrong or joking. You can do anything inherently legal in your car as long as it is parked legally, and sleeping is legal. You could do handstands in your car for weeks if you could manage it and your car was parked legally.

Scarvant @#5
<blockquote>Quote
<hr>For 3 months with wicked campers (not inc. insurance waiver, assuming there is one) you can get a 2 berth van for £900.<hr></blockquote>

Acording to the link, the cheapest is £30 per day. That works out as £900 per month, not £900 for 3 months.
add VAT, Extra Insurance, £5 per day for additional driver....

Whoops! Maths was never my strong point ; )

At any rate that'd come to £3172 inc VAT, not including any insurance waiver - only £2272 difference! haha! Not quite as appealing as my original £900!! Haha! But at the very least, you don't have to worry about trying to sell it once you're done!

You could lose a lot of money on a vehicle if you tried to sell it in a hurry in London, especially if you're selling it at the wrong time of year when there's a lot of vans about. Which means the cost of the trip increases, possibly substantially so.

#13
That's only for brand-new car (fresh from factory) or a foreign-registered car that is to be registered in UK for the first time. If you are just changing ownership, the seller only needs to return the tear-off section of the registration certificate with your name, date of birth and an address at which you can be contacted - so it can be a friend's. You keep section 10 of the document until you receive your new registration certificate, usually in a couple of weeks. You can use section 10 plus insurance certificate to tax your car (vehicle excise licence). A vehicle 3 years or more old also needs a MOT certificate (about safety and roadworthiness). Make sure any car you buy comes with an MOT long enough for your needs.

There is an insurance intermediary who specialise in covering cars and vans of short-term visitors to UK: Downunder Insurance You can opt for cover from 15 days to 12 months.

You can sell your car/van at the end of your trip through small ads, auction or direct to the motor trade. Except rock-bottom price if you opt for the latter two.

If you did decide to stick with your buying a car plan really look into the insurance first as I think you will find the Norwich Union temporary insurance suggested above is only valid for UK/EU or EEA licences - don't think that would cover a US licence. Mind you not relevant as you won't have a UK address to register the vehicle to anyway, this in addition to all the other points raised above. Might be wise to start looking at other options.
Good luck

Thank you all very much for your comments, suggestions and advice. I will try to get solid information on the residency/registration/insurance issue for purchasing a vehicle. I spent 5 weeks traveling in the US and living in the back of my mini-pichup with a camper shell and it worked out very well. It did not take long to learn the ropes of where or where not to park and how to keep clean and warm. Hopefully I can do the same for a few months in the UK and Ireland. Any further info will be greatly appreciated.
Marshall

It's fine. Layer up. Have a good warm sleeping bag. Stay out of the cops/local authorities view and you're away!!!!

Try the www.club80-90.co.uk or www.justkampers.co.uk website which are good sites for VW campers. Go to the forums and ask your question there.

Club 80-90 is an owners club for 1980's VW campers, I think they were called Vanagon's in the USA. JustKampers is a supplier for all VW camper spares but the forum is excellent.

We have a VW 1980's Camper but wouldn't be keen on wild camping although a lot do, especially in the more remote areas. You'd be fine in rural Ireland, Scotland and Wales. England is a bit more highly populated. You should be able to get on a basic campsite for £10-14 a night although it might be more in peak summer season.

It's not just the police and local bylaws that might stop you sleeping in your vehicle though, you would have to make sure you don't get problems from local kids/youths/morons who would see you as a target for some "fun". You do say you have done this in the states though, so I'm sure the same thing would apply there. Some towns will have a council car park that allows overnight stays for a fee, Where we live in Chester does at the Little RooDee carpark.

Ebay is a good source of camper type vehicles.

If you are thinking of sleeping in the vehicle you might be best off with a van (no windows in the back) that no one can see into.

If you do get a VW camper, unless you are mechanically useful, make sure you get some sort of breakdown cover, probably with your insurance, as they can be temperamental.

You should be able to get a VW van/bus/camper in useable condition for £1-2K (maybe less but it will be a dog) and probably sell it afterwards for similar money, especially if you buy in early spring and sell while it's still summer (the price goes up in the summer, best time to buy is December). You should assume something will go wrong though as it probably will.

Have a fantastic trip. The UK is beautiful and touring round in a camper is a great way to see it.