Enfield 8000 Restoration

[anonymous user]

Did Corgi or Dinky ever do a model version, if so you need to get a giant cardboard box printed up to go over the crate.

[Will on Syros]

V5 arrived and correct!! 

[Will on Syros]

CUSTOMS HELL - An update for those that are interested.  The Enfield arrived in Greece 2 weeks ago and sits in the customs facility in Elefsina.  I have several people trying to get it released but so far no luck.  The problem? Well...a few years ago the Greek Parliament brought in a new law to combat the pollution caused by old vehicles; namely that any new registration of a vehicle (including those that had been even temporarily off-road) from before 1995 would have to be as "Historic Vehicles" and that these would not be allowed on the roads except for 2 days a month, and then only when going to and from a garage.  Despite the law clearly stating that it was to stop pollution caused by diesel and petrol cars, no exemption was made for electric cars.  Customs will not release the car to me without paying a hefty tax, surrendering the number plates so that it cannot go on the roads, and having the vehicle registered as "historic".  It's so absurd and also very typical of the blind bureaucracy plaguing this country.  I do not feel optimistic.  The irony is that the Prime-Minister of Greece posed next to an Enfield 8000 just last year in an attempt to promote electric cars in Greece...and yet, when I bring an E8000 that is roadworthy into this country I am told it is not welcome!  Really...you couldn't dream it up!

The transport company who brought it here and who were paid to arrange customs clearance...and who were supposed to have told customs  what was coming but clearly hadn't...are just being defensive.

I am expecting this to go on and on for a while.  Maybe a direct appeal to the PM here will get some results....

[High Jetter]

Pollution, from an EV?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

9 hours ago, Will on Syros said:

.....  Maybe a direct appeal to the PM here will get some results....

Are you sure the PM will remain in office long enough?

[Will on Syros]

11 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Pollution, from an EV?

Exactly.  The law just says all vehicles pre-95 cannot be newly registered to use on the roads. It was clearly written assuming that there were no electric vehicles pre-95.  It's absurd...but it will require someone with authority here to have imagination.  Hence my lack of optimism.

[Will on Syros]

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Are you sure the PM will remain in office long enough?

This one's got 2 more years and is likely to he reelected after that for a further 4. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 minutes ago, Will on Syros said:

This one's got 2 more years ..... 

Two years is a very long time in politics.

[Mrs6C]

19 hours ago, Will on Syros said:

Maybe a direct appeal to the PM here will get some results....

I would do that, yes. The worst that can happen is that he isn't interested or that he says 'No'.

[Will on Syros]

More drama today.  It seems that Greece does not want the car.  Tomorrow I will know for sure. I'm not importing it here just to sit outside the house, so if that's all they will allow, then the car goes back to the UK and I make sure journalists here know why.  I am so pissed off.  

[puddlethumper]

I would be tempted to get a journo on it now. An environmentally friendly built in Greece electric car, pictured with top bloke and isn't allowed to be imported. For a journo there is a few angles there. Environment and hypocrisy for a start.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

10 minutes ago, puddlethumper said:

.....  hypocrisy for a start.

The Shakespearean irony of a word that has its origins in Ancient Greece. It doesn't get any better than that. 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

1 hour ago, Will on Syros said:

More drama today.  It seems that Greece does not want the car.  Tomorrow I will know for sure. I'm not importing it here just to sit outside the house, so if that's all they will allow, then the car goes back to the UK and I make sure journalists here know why.  I am so pissed off.  

That's utterly barmy. Are you on twatter? Jonny Smith is a big name who massively supports EVs, although I doubt his clout wouldn't be enough to change some ridiculous rules!

[timolloyd]

Could end up being an amazing contender for the Late Reg Madness thread?

[Will on Syros]

I'm afraid that most people here in Greece will not be bothered by a story in a website or newspaper...they will think that I should accept the "historic plates" that I will be allowed. 

FYI, with historic plates, a car can be driven to and from a mechanic every first Wednesday, third Saturday and on every second and fourth Sunday of the month.  All other use of the roads is forbidden.  Classic car owners are supposed to take their cars to car shows on trailers...there have been hundreds of people fined for driving them instead.

These rules were not meant to apply to electric cars...the law specifically says it covers polluting cars...but you can always trust Greek Bureaucracy to be utterly unbending.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

20 hours ago, Will on Syros said:

.... you can always trust Greek Bureaucracy to be utterly unbending.

Timeo danaos et dona ferentes, wha'?

[Will on Syros]

4 weeks...still trying to get the car through customs.

[somewhatfoolish]

How does Greek registration work? Can you ring it as something that's already on the road, or bribe the minister of transport(mostly kidding)?

[D.E]

1 hour ago, somewhatfoolish said:

 Can you ring it as something that's already on the road, or bribe the minister of transport(mostly kidding)?

Or (also mostly kidding) drive it on foreign plates. I know of a guy who moved to Greece in the 90s and took his Ford with him. Never registered there, inspection ran out in 1999, is obviously in shite condition... no one seems to care.

[Will on Syros]

On 06/09/2021 at 20:54, somewhatfoolish said:

How does Greek registration work? Can you ring it as something that's already on the road, or bribe the minister of transport(mostly kidding)?

You can drive your car across the border.  My Enfield came across in a crate on a lorry...and since Brexit and the (dumb decision to) exit from the Customs Union this means the car was seized by Customs.  It has taken just short of 2 months to get it released...at a cost of 1200 euros.  Now begins the possibly even longer and more stressful process of registering the car here.  I could drive it around on UK plates for up to 6 months now...except I have no insurance, so can't.

After 10 weeks in a crate, I am assuming that the set of batteries that cost over 1000 quid will be ruined.  Wonderful, ain't it.

This whole business could have been easily avoided if the UK transport company had actually bothered to look into what they had to do when exporting this car to Greece...and also if even one of the (many) people here in Greece who have been paid to get this car released from Customs weren't bone-idle contemptuous sacks of sh*t.  Greek bureaucracy is far worse than any of the tales you may have heard about it, and the selfish shiftlessness of officials seems to be a cultural necessity. 

[Will on Syros]

Two months after arriving in Greece, the car has been released from its prison at the customs warehouse in Athens and has arrived in Syros.  This afternoon, we uncrate it and start it.  I'm very excited

Then...we begin the battle to get it registered here.

[Datsuncog]

Best of luck with the next phase, dude - sounds like it's been a right old fuckabout to even get this far.

I wouldn't have thought that the restoration of such a rarity would be the easy bit!

You've come this far with it though - fingers crossed that someone, somewhere in the bureaucratic labyrinth cuts you some slack.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

On 10/1/2021 at 7:39 PM, Will on Syros said:

....  Greek bureaucracy is far worse than any of the tales you may have heard about it, and the selfish shiftlessness of officials seems to be a cultural necessity. 

Hence 'tis all Greek to me. 

[Will on Syros]

Unwrapped!

[dollywobbler]

Good luck! I hope the batteries are ok.

[Mrs6C]

2 hours ago, Will on Syros said:

Unwrapped!

Huzzah!!!

[Will on Syros]

1 hour ago, dollywobbler said:

Good luck! I hope the batteries are ok.

not even one joule of power left in them...we'll see tomorrow. 

[EmperorPigeon]

On 10/11/2021 at 2:54 PM, Will on Syros said:

Unwrapped!

It's about time!

Looks absolutely fantastic! Good luck on the next battle.

[Will on Syros]

Today...a very proud me drove this wonderful little car for the first time

in the background is Ermoupoli, where this car was built 47 years ago.

 

[dave j]

Brilliant news! Glad you finally got to drive it, although hopefully that means you have driven it on the road!