Bringing my Tacoma to the UK with me?

I met a guy in

Last November in Reykjavik we met a local professor. Nice guy, taught in Berkeley and Calgary. He owns and drives f-350 on the island

Yeah, beer sucks.

 

You gotta drive on the other side of the road too - I'd be dead in an hour with that rule alone.

Store it or sell it. Buy a scooter and get about 75 MPG and be done. Or get a nice electric bike.

The thing about European countries is they are small, so you can go from one end to the other inside of a few hours at most.
If you live in a city you won't need transportation you can walk to just about anything/everything.

 

They have extreme terrain and weather there. This isn't that surprising, they use some bad ass trucks to get around outside of the city.

 

I made it 1:46 into this video before turning it off. The narrator sounds like a “real fun guy to hangout with”. Never heard someone complain so much about SUVs/trucks before (didn’t realize they were the worst things in the world, I guess I’ll check my tone deaf toxic privilege at the door). I hope that guy and his Vespa are happy and can somehow forgive our evil ways

 

Iceland =/= UK

No way I'd want the hassle of driving my Tacoma everyday in most of the UK.

Just buy a cool little car there. Their small cars are way nicer than ours.

 

Just for gas price comparison..

 

@RI_OR21

I married a Scott and lived in England from Feb 1989 to Sep 1993. (RAF Wethersfield & RAF Mildenhall)

While Americans stayed in base-housing and the BX (Base Exchange), I visited my wife's family (6 sisters & 1 brother) on weekends.

Boy, did I get an ear-full for being American at family gatherings.

One of the many subjects that would come up was the enormity of the cars Americans drive.

They narrowed it down to how self-indulgent Americans have always been.

The truth may give you pause but their opinion can be taken with a grain of salt.

I'm glad I lived in 3 European countries during my 25 year USAF career: England/Germany/Italy.

My adult children have expressed how fortunate they were to have been cultured during my US Air Force tenure.

 

from what i have read, its a pipedream to bring it to the U.K sell it and move on

 

His points are valid and hard to argue with.
He never stated that anyone was "evil"; maybe misinformed and brainwashed by advertising in the name of profit, but not evil.
The fact that pedestrian deaths (and motor vehicle deaths in general in the US) have risen in the past decade only allude to a failure of policy.
What points that were brought up are so objectionable?
Vehicles have never been safer, so why are more people ( motorcyclists, pedestrians, cyclists, other drivers) dying per mile driven?
It's a nuclear arms race to make bigger and bigger vehicles to protect occupants, when if we were forced to drive smaller vehicles, the opposite effect would happen.
Small cars are far less wasteful of finite resources, safer to all parties in a crash, and not a big F U to future generations.

Cell phones are used by people driving, and there are huge screens allowed in cars. Again, driving is likely the most dangerous activity you will engage in during the day, yet people think they can fly along while texting or watching a movie.
You would never see someone operating a firearm at a gun range while operating a cell phone, and if you did, they'd be asked to leave the range in so many words.
Would you be OK with your surgeon operating on you while on snapchat?

Your personal freedom to do whatever you wish ends when it affects my or my families well being.

 

There a few members here who drove across the World with their Tacomas. If I could remember who they were they would answer your question bringing you Taco to the U.K. just sayhing

 

I'm a brit, but have now lived in Canada for the last 10 years.

Sell it, buy something local.

As well as being completely unsuitable for the roads, traffic, tax, fuel reasons all previously already listed, I don't actually think you'd be able to import it under current restrictions and laws. gov.uk and dvla websites such as https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/getting-vehicle-approval should be considered as your only authority on the matter.

Enjoy the experience and take advantage of it to try something that would not be suitable in your current home state/province.

 

@AndrewInCanada

Good advice.

I guess in my previous response, I was more focused on defining the American Dream persona as opposed to giving your valued advice.

If I remember correctly, back in the early 90s, the big stink was "amber turn signals".

Personnel complained of having to install make-shift ambers to meet MOT standards.

I'll never forget the time I saw a Double Wide on the M4...I'm like, WTF? (You can land a small aircraft on that thing...lol)

Not sure what the standards are nowadays for military shipping vehicles to the UK.

I don't believe the petrol prices will deter Americans because the US Bases issue Fuel Coupons based on engine size/rations.

 

Sell it and get a BMW Touring. I'll bet you can even get it with a manual. Long Live The Wagon!

 

I see countless wideload and heavy haul trucks on the road daily along with other truck traffic. They definitely serve a purpose and are completing a task, but I don't think the billions of pick ups on the road are a danger.

Screens and mobile devices don't need to be on the road.

Every negative driving trait agressive driving, inept driving, and DUI can be compounded with distracted driving. If anyone wants to address any of those issues. They should srart with distracted driving, to eliminate the additional element that makes those dangerous driving conditions worse.

I wouldn't worry too much about businesses who advertise in the name of profits.

 

Take it, make sure it’s properly lifted, and mount an enormous American flag off the bed.

Or, don’t take it, and buy a smaller, more economical car that better fits the local traffic grid.

Hope that helps, good luck.

 

All really good points.
It's a chicken and egg thing in regards to deaths. Yes, distracted driving may be what causes the majority of collisions, but the severity of those collisions can also be mitigated by safer hoodlines, and vehicles with less mass.

We could also do a much better job of urban planning (as pointed out in the video). Traffic circles, for instance, almost completely negate a driver blowing through a red light or stop sign, while allowing for more efficient traffic flow, but we continue to use stoplight intersections, which are effectively an urban planner saying "I suck at my job, and think people are too stupid to understand traffic circles."
On the topic of the UK, make sure to visit the "Magic roundabout" near where I lived in Hemel Hempstead, or the one in Swindon. 5 traffic circles around one much larger one.I made the mistake of checking out what was in the centre of the one in Hemel Hempstead, and it took 30 minutes before there was enough of a break in traffic to get off of the centre!

 

Are you military? That helps a little with some of the costs. Stepson was in the Navy, then and now the Army, he's arranged to have a car/truck shipped a couple times in his way around the world (Japan, Germany, Hawaii, other places) and looking back on it he said it just wasn't worth it, would sell before doing it again. Not only the cost and difficulties in getting it shipped, the licensing, fees, other legal stuff. So there's that to consider.

 

Many British roads are two lane where you have to go into an opposing lane to pass. That is a lot riskier with a LHD vehicle since half the vehicle would be over the center line before you can see oncoming traffic.

 

Sell it go German

 

This. Get something you can’t get over here.