In my previous post, I outlined what’s legally required to visit Europe with your car. Now a question often pops up, what happens if you forget something?
On my first trip, I prepared well in advance and didn’t forget anything. My second trip was a bit rushed and I had the confidence of doing it once before, so I ended up forgetting the physical copy of my V5C en route to LeShuttle.
I briefly considered going back but then remembered that on my first trip, only my passport and VISA were checked. Unless you get into an accident, you can probably get away with a few missing stuff here and there.
I am not recommending that you ignore legal requirements btw. Just stating the reality that it’s not as rigorous as it should be. It makes sense though. If the police decided to check all cars for every requirement, it wouldn’t scale.