Most guides to Individual Vehicle Approval start by explaining the test. That is the second question. The first is whether your car needs one at all — and for a very large share of imported cars, it does not. Getting this answer right before you bid is worth several hundred pounds and several weeks.
The short version
- Cars and minibuses with eight passenger seats or fewer, over 10 years old, do not need vehicle approval.
- A car already registered in the EU uses its European Certificate of Conformity instead of a test.
- An EU-registered left-hand-drive car also needs a GB conversion IVA certificate — £100, a form, not an inspection.
- Exempt from approval is not the same as exempt from needing approval to tax the car. Read the CO₂ rule below.
- A seriously damaged vehicle cannot be registered or taxed at all, and nothing you spend on approval comes back.
The question that decides the budget
Two identical Toyota Alphards land at Southampton on the same vessel. One is eleven years old and goes straight into the DVLA registration queue. The other is nine and needs an inspection, a headlamp conversion, a rear fog lamp, a test slot at one of eighteen centres in the country, and another month before it can legally be driven.
Nothing about the cars differs. The age does. That is the whole reason this page exists, and it is why the approval question belongs in the buying decision rather than after it.
The exemption list in full
GOV.UK publishes a single list of vehicles that need no approval. Quoted in full, because partial quotations of it are where the misinformation comes from:
- Heavy goods vehicles (more than 3,500kg maximum weight) over 25 years old
- Light goods vehicles (3,500kg maximum weight or less) over 10 years old
- Cars and minibuses with 8 passenger seats or less (not including the driver) over 10 years old
- Buses, coaches and minibuses with more than 8 passenger seats built by a single manufacturer before 29 July 2010
- The same, with different body and chassis manufacturers, made before 29 July 2011
- Tracked vehicles
- Vehicles designed and constructed for use on construction sites, quarries, ports and airports
- Vehicles designed and constructed for, and used by, the armed services, fire and rescue forces, or used in maintaining public order
The third line is the one that matters to nearly every private importer, and it is the reason so much Japanese and Gulf stock is bought deliberately on the far side of ten years.
Reading the 10-year rule properly
The exemption page says over 10 years old. The import guidance puts the same rule slightly differently — first registered or manufactured more than 10 years ago — and adds the word might: you might not need approval. Both are current GOV.UK wording as at 1 September 2026, and the difference is not pedantry.
Manufacture date, registration date, shipping date
A car manufactured in November 2015 and first registered in March 2016 crosses the ten-year line at two different moments. If your purchase sits within a few months of the boundary, the date you rely on has to be the one you can evidence — and the document DVLA asks for is the original foreign registration certificate showing when the vehicle was manufactured.
Do not plan an exemption around a car that will cross the line while it is at sea. Age is assessed for registration, but a six-week voyage is not a margin you want to be relying on if a document is queried.
Note also that the exemption is about approval, not about the rest of the process. A fifteen-year-old import still needs the NOVA declaration, duty, VAT, MOT and DVLA pack. It skips one step, not six.
Cars already registered in the EU
An EU-registered car is a different question again, because the approval already exists — it just has to be evidenced. GOV.UK: get a European Certificate of Conformity from the manufacturer to show you have approval for an EU-registered vehicle.
If the manufacturer cannot or will not supply one, there is a paid route: DVSA charges £100 for a Mutual Recognition / EC Approved Vehicles without Certificate of Conformity certificate. It is on the same published fee table as the inspection fees, and it is the cheapest line on it.
Left-hand drive and GB conversion IVA
A left-hand-drive vehicle registered in the EU needs the Certificate of Conformity and a certificate of GB conversion Individual Vehicle Approval. This is administered by the Vehicle Certification Agency rather than DVSA, on a form specific to the vehicle type — motorcycle, car, van or light goods vehicle, or motorhome — with a £100 fee and no inspection.
| Vehicle | Route | Fee | Inspection? |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU-registered, RHD | European Certificate of Conformity | Manufacturer's charge | No |
| EU-registered, RHD, no CoC available | Mutual recognition certificate (DVSA) | £100 | No |
| EU-registered, LHD | CoC plus GB conversion IVA (VCA) | £100 | No |
| Non-EU import, under 10 years | Individual Vehicle Approval (DVSA) | £199 in working hours | Yes |
| Goods vehicle over 3,500kg from the EU | Full IVA — GB conversion is not available | See the lorry fee table | Yes |
Approval routes and published fees. Sources: GOV.UK 'Getting vehicle approval' for imports and the DVSA IVA fee tables, checked 1 September 2026.
When it is MSVA rather than IVA
If you are importing a single 2-wheeled, 3-wheeled or smaller 4-wheeled vehicle, the scheme is Motorcycle Single Vehicle Approval, not IVA. It is a parallel system with its own inspection and its own centre list, and the centre lists are not identical — some sites do IVA and not MSVA.
The cars that cannot be registered at all
One category has no route. GOV.UK: you cannot register or tax a seriously damaged vehicle, and if you pay for vehicle approval and then try, you will not be refunded.
How to spot one before you buy
For a UK car, serious damage means a Category A or B insurance write-off. For an imported car, GOV.UK says the registration certificate might say something like statutory write-off, scrapped or non-repairable. The advice is to check with the registration authority in the country the vehicle came from — and if it is not seriously damaged, to ask them for evidence of that in writing.
This is a buying check, not a shipping check
A car with a non-repairable marker on its home registration is worth exactly its parts value in Britain, and you will find that out after you have paid freight, duty and VAT on it. Auction sheets and export certificates carry the markers; reading them is the point at which the money is saved. Our people check the source-market status before we bid, and a car that fails it does not ship.
The exemption that still needs a certificate
Worth its own heading because it reverses the intuition. GOV.UK states that you will need vehicle approval to tax your vehicle if it was first registered on or after 1 March 2001 with EU type approval and it is either a light goods vehicle up to 3,500kg, or a car or minibus of eight passenger seats or fewer with a CO₂ emissions figure in g/km.
The reason is the tax system rather than the safety system: the CO₂-based vehicle tax bands need a certified emissions figure, and the approval document is where it comes from. If you do not have one, DVLA’s instruction is to send a letter with your application explaining why. It is not a wall — it is a step, and the letter is a step people miss.
Working the answer for your car
In order, and stopping at the first line that fits:
- Is it seriously damaged? Then it cannot be registered. Stop.
- Is it over 10 years old? No approval needed — but check the CO₂ rule above before assuming there is no paperwork.
- Was it registered in the EU? Certificate of Conformity, plus GB conversion IVA if it is left-hand drive.
- Has it ever been registered in the UK? Voluntary IVA, not IVA.
- Otherwise: Individual Vehicle Approval, at the fees set out in what an IVA test costs.
We run that sequence on a specific VIN before you commit, so the approval route and its cost are in the landed figure rather than in a phone call after the car has landed.
Exemptions, approval routes and fees are set by GOV.UK, DVSA and the Vehicle Certification Agency and are subject to change. Every rule and figure here was checked against the primary source on 1 September 2026. Confirm the position for your specific vehicle at gov.uk/vehicle-approval before committing to a purchase.