Norway imposes a steep tax on new cars. Nonetheless, car ownership in the country ranks in the top 20 in the world, with 411 cars for every thousand people, well ahead of the UK with 384. Despite the number of cars, driving is comparatively safe: with an accident rate of half that of the USA and slightly less than a third that of the UK, Norway ranks 48th in the world.

Otherwise, driving is much like driving elsewhere in continental Europe, on the right with increasingly international traffic regulations. A few things to remember:

• Alcohol: drink-drive limits are similar to those elsewhere in Europe. If convicted, usually on the basis of a breathalyser test, you may be fined, jailed and/or lose your driving licence for a year or more.
• Automatic traffic surveillance is common across the country. Speed, and in some cases traffic light violations, are monitored.
• Breakdown: several emergency services as well as the automobile associations offer breakdown services. You must carry a red, reflecting warning triangle (varselstrekant) to set at the roadside behind your car in case of a breakdown.
• Bridges and tunnels are numerous, and many of them have tolls.
• Driving lights: when driving, your front and rear lights must be on, day and night.
• Ferries are commonplace, particularly along the west coast.
• Main roads are mostly the international European E-roads.
• Right of way: at unmarked intersections between roads without priority, such as streets in cities and towns, the car on the right has priority.
• Roundabouts: traffic on roundabouts has priority over entering traffic. Triangular yield signs are posted on all entering roads to remind you of this.
• Signs follow European norms, though some are particular to Norway.
• Speed: if not posted, the speed limit is 50 km/h in built-up areas and 80 km/h on open roads.
• Spot checks may be made at any time, on any road, to check vehicles and drivers.
• Tyres must grip the road, regardless of conditions. For most drivers, this means winter tyres in winter and ordinary road tyres in summer.
• Zebra crossings: pedestrians have priority at zebra crossings, and cars must stop for them.

It’s useful to know the essential words in the vocabulary of cars and driving, which is large and changing, with new words continuously coming into the language, particularly from English. Fortunately, the two automobile associations and the Public Roads Administration publish key brochures in English, and many maps feature legends in Norwegian, English and other languages.

In reading maps and city guides, as well as addresses in telephone directories, you will soon find that there are two spellings of the word for road – vei and veg. They are pronounced alike, rhyming with jeg, the first-person pronoun. In turn, jeg nearly rhymes with I, its equivalent in English. The reason for the two spellings lies in the history of the Norwegian languages (Chapter 28) and their use varies across the country, though the Public Roads Administration consistently uses veg, in its name and all publications.

Accident reporting (Skademelding)

If you are involved in a car accident in which people are injured, you should immediately call the police emergency number 112 and, if necessary, the ambulance number 113 or fire number 110. If nobody is injured and you only collided with another car, you and the driver of the other car should file reports to your insurance companies if the damage is sufficient to file an insurance claim. All car insurance companies support telephone and online reporting of accidents. For accuracy of reporting, it’s best to fill in an Accident Statement form at the site of the accident, using the Norwegian or English version of the international form compiled by the European Federation of National Insurance Associations (CEA), available from your insurance company. The form is A4 size and folds conveniently to A5 to tuck in with your registration card, so you’ll always have one on hand.

Annual road tax (Årsavgift)

In January and February of each year, Norwegian Customs and Excise (Chapter 43) sends out bills due 15 March for a combined road tax and traffic injury tariff (trafikkskadeavgift) to all cars registered with number plates. For new registrations, the full tax is charged for the first half of the year, until 30 June; thereafter the tax is halved. Old cars delivered to vehicle dismantlers and taken off registry before 15 March are exempt.

The tax varies by category of vehicle: NOK 2,775 for cars, vans, recreational vehicles, minibuses and combi-vehicles weighing up to 3.5 tons, and NOK 1,550 for motorcycles and NOK 920 for towed caravans. The tax for trucks is less, but heavy trucks, weighing 12 tons and more, pay an annual HGV (heavy goods vehicle) tax (vektårsavgift). There is no annual road tax on veteran cars (more than 30 years old), tractors and mopeds; these vehicles pay only a traffic injury tariff of NOK 175. In June, the Public Roads Administration posts a set of two small, 2 × 5 cm, coloured validation stickers (kontrollmerker), sometimes called seals (oblater), to all owners who have paid the tax. The stickers have the same number as the vehicle’s number plate and the four digits of the following year when the tax must again be paid.

Automobile associations (Automobil foreninger)

Two automobile associations offer services to their members, including breakdown assistance (veitjenester), discounts (rabatter), legal advice (juridisk rådgivning), technical advice (teknisk rådgivning), car testing (testing), camping grounds (campingplasser), trip services (turservice), international driving licence (internasjonale førerkort) issue and member magazines (blad).

The Royal Norwegian Automobile Club (Kongelig Norsk Automobilklub, KNA) was founded in 1907 and is the older of the two associations. As its name implies, it originally was exclusive and concerned with cars as a pastime. But it is now more egalitarian and open to all, though it remains involved in motor sports and is the Norwegian member of Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the international motor sports governing body. KNA now has some 20,000 members and 29 local associations across the country. For further details, contact the head office in Oslo, Cord Adelersgt 26, PO Box 2425 Solli, Tel: 21604900, Fax: 21604901, www.kna.no.

The Norwegian Automobile Association (Norges Automobil-Forbund, NAF) was founded in 1924 and now is the larger of the two associations, with some 430,000 members and 32 local associations across the country. Its member benefits include the services of a countrywide 24-hour emergency centre (alarmsentral) local-call-rate help line, Tel: 81000505. It is a member of Alliance Internationale de Tourisme (AIT), the international federation of national automobile associations and provides services for members of other national associations belonging to the AIT. For further details, look under Norges Automobil-Forbund in the Pink Pages if you live in a city where the local association may be large enough to have a staffed office. Otherwise, contact the head office, Østensjøveien 14, PO Box 6682 Etterstad, 0609 Oslo, Tel: 22341400, Fax: 22331372, www.naf.no.

Automotive books (Bøker om biler)

As elsewhere, books on cars are scarce in ordinary shops. Book shops stock coffee-table books on cars, car parts shops and petrol stations offer small selections of owner’s workshop manuals for currently popular cars, and the clubs for veteran cars (Chapter 41) have manuals for their marques. There are a few specialty shops selling automotive books; Norway and Scandinavia’s largest is Automobilia, a few blocks north of the Royal Palace grounds in Oslo. It catalogues and has an online database of more than 24,000 book titles and carries more than 10,000 titles in stock, most in English and many in Norwegian and other European languages. The subject categories include cars, motorcycles, cycles, aeroplanes, ships, trains, model railways, military and weapons. For further information, catalogues or ordering, contact Uranienborgveien 25, PO Box 7035 Majorstua, 0306 Oslo, Tel: 22608660, Fax: 22608602, www.automobilia.no.

AutoPASS

If you use toll roads often, you can save time and money by using AutoPASS, an Electronic Fee Collection (EFC) system in which an On-Board Unit (OBU) fixed to the inside of your windscreen communicates with a roadside unit at a toll plaza to identify your car. With an AutoPASS reduced-rate subscription paid in advance, you choose the AutoPASS lane at a toll plaza and slow down to 60 km/h and drive through without stopping. The system automatically debits your subscription for each passing, and after you have debited your subscription a pre-specified number of times, you will receive a renewal notice. There are 45 toll roads in the country, 23 of which have EFC. AutoPASS is valid in many, but not all EFC equipped toll plazas, so look for an AutoPASS sign before you drive through a plaza without stopping and paying. For further details, contact the Public Roads Administration.

Autosys

Autosys is a database of registered motor vehicles and driving licences that is maintained by the Public Roads Administration and is accessible to road and traffic authorities, the police, authorised car dealers and car insurance companies. It contains additional information, such as penalty points totted up on driving licences and listings of stolen cars and is linked to the ELYS police database (Chapter 10) of stolen items and wanted persons.

Bridges (Broer)

There are some 17,000 bridges on the public road network. The Drammen Bridge on E18 is the longest, at 1,892 metres, followed by the Nordhordlandsbrua on E39 which is 1,614 metres long. Understandably, the technology of bridge-building is advanced, and Norway was the first country in Europe to build floating bridges, for roads along the west coast, employing technologies developed in building North Sea offshore oil platforms.

Car ferries (Fergesamband)

Norway has a coastline of 21,925 km, the second longest in Europe, after Russia (37,653 km). So there are many ferry routes across the waters of lakes, bays and fjords. Bridges and tunnels are gradually replacing the car ferries, but there are still some 2,260 km of ferry routes integrated into the road network, and each year they carry about 37 million passengers.

Car import (Innførsel av motorkjøretøy)

A motor vehicle that you bring with you to Norway may be subject to taxation when you enter the country. If your stay is short, up to three months, and your permanent home is in another country, you may bring in and drive a car just as you can throughout Europe. If your stay is longer, as for studies, and your permanent home in another country, you may bring in and drive a car registered in another country duty-free for up to one year. Upon application to the nearest Customs and Excise office, you may extend the duty-free period for no more than one more year.

If you move to the country with a car or keep a car beyond the maximum two-year duty-free temporary stay period, you must import it. A previous regulation permitting duty-free import of motor vehicles as removal goods expired in two stages, finally on 1 June 2003. All motor vehicle imports now are treated alike, whether you bring your own car in or buy a car in another country and import it to Norway.

There are three taxes. Value Added Tax (MVA) is charged on the value of the car upon import, which is either its purchase price if bought from a dealer or its assessed price if you have owned it for more than a year, plus the cost of transport to Norway. Registration tax is the sum of taxes by weight, engine displacement and engine power, discounted for the age of the car. Finally, there is a fixed end-of-life vehicle deposit that will be refunded when the car is delivered to a vehicle dismantler. VAT is a fixed 25%, and the end-of-life deposit is a fixed NOK 1,500. There are too many combinations of engines and car weights to list here. So, as an example, consider a three-year old car that you bought for NOK 100,000 just before departing and paid NOK 2,300 to transport it to Norway. It weighs 1,550 kg and has a 2,398 cubic centimetre, 110 kW (150 HP) engine. At the rates applicable in 2005, your tax bill is:

25% VAT on NOK 100,000 + 2,300 =		NOK 25,575
Registration tax:
on 1,550 kg weight		NOK 79,320
on 2,398 cubic cm displacement		69,349
on 110 kW power		40,540
Total:		NOK 189,209
Minus 36% for age 3 years:		68,115
=		NOK 121,094		NOK 121,094
End-of-life deposit:				NOK     1,500
Total:				NOK 148,169

Your total cost after import of the car then is NOK 100,000 + 2,300 + 148,169 = NOK 250,469. Tax rates are adjusted once a year, effective 1 January, so the tax bill may be higher for a car imported in 2006 or later.

For the full details of all the taxes and the procedures for attending to them, in Norwegian or in English, printed or online, contact Norwegian Customs and Excise (Chapter 43) www.toll.no or its Oslo District Information Centre (Infosenteret), Tel: 22860850, Fax: 22346830.

Car insurance (Bilforsikring)

There are two types of car insurance. Motor third-party liability insurance (trafikkforsikring) is legally required, as it is throughout Europe, in accordance with EU Motor Insurance Directives. Accidental damage coverage (kaskoforsikring) is optional and covers your own car. In English-speaking countries, the two types of insurance usually are combined in comprehensive insurance, so the Norwegian kaskoforsikring is sometimes wrongly translated to “comprehensive insurance”.

You must have motor third-party liability insurance (trafikkforsikring) to register and legally drive a car with Norwegian number plates. Along with non-payment of the annual road tax and failure to pass the periodic vehicle inspection, non-payment or lack of the required liability insurance is cause for revocation of registration and confiscation of number plates.

Full accidental damage coverage can be costly, particularly on a newer, more expensive car. Consequently, some car insurers offer a reduced rate partial accidental damage coverage (delkasko) for fire, theft and glass breakage.

Insurance premiums are calculated on the basis of the coverage involved and the distance driven each year. They are higher for younger drivers up to the age of 25. Most car insurance companies offer a no-claims bonus (bonus) in which premiums are discounted for each year with no claims, up to a maximum of 70% to 75%. Breakage of windows or windscreens does not affect a no-claims bonus discount.

For an overview of the relevant regulations and a list of car insurance companies, contact the Norwegian Motor Insurance Bureau (Trafikkforsikringsforening), Hansteens gt 2, 0253 Oslo, Tel: 22048600, Fax: 22562116, www.tff.no, tff@fnh.no.

Car number plates (Bilskilter)

All motor vehicles registered in Autosys have number plates. The present series of plates are made of 1mm gauge aluminium. Most prevalent is the 11 × 52 cm size with two capital letters followed by five numerals, used front and back on cars, buses and trucks. Colours designate category of use: black letters inside a black border on natural aluminium, by far the most common, is for cars, buses and trucks; black on a green background for delivery vans; yellow on a blue background for diplomatic vehicles; black on a gold background for military vehicles; and white on a black background for rally cars and for vehicles not driven on roads. A smaller back plate, measuring 8.5 × 30.8 cm, is available for cars having back plate recesses too small to accommodate the standard plate. Plates for motorcycles and trailers resemble car plates but are smaller and have two letters followed by four numerals. Dealer plates, such as may be affixed for test-driving a new car, are red with white letters and numbers and are fitted with straps for temporary attachment. New and used cars brought in from abroad, as by their owners, have self-adhering red number signs with black letters and numbers as well as an expiration date. Vehicles with temporary registration, such as for duty-free export within a year, resemble the ordinary registration private car plates but have two black numerals on a red background at each end of the plate giving the month (left end) and year (right end) of expiration. Save for military plates, dealer plates and temporary registration plates, coloured validation stickers are fixed on both plates to indicate that the annual road tax has been paid.

Number plates issued before 1 January 2002 have the same dimensions, colours and lettering as the present series, but are made of thicker aluminium sheet and have no black border. A new Euro plate – so named because it is based on the EU number plate standard, with the country identified in a blue stripe at the left – has been designed. But as this book goes to press, it has not yet been issued.

The two-letter prefix code of a number plate indicates the Motor Vehicle Station of first registry, with three exceptions: CD for diplomatic vehicles, EL for electric vehicles and GA for gas-powered vehicles. The letters I, M, O, Q, W, Æ, Ø and Å are not used. An updated list of the code series (Kjennemerkeserier) issued by the 72 Stations across the country is published online by The Public Roads Administration at www.vegvesen.no.

The seven-character alphanumeric numbering system went into effect on 1 April 1971. Before then, the registration identifier was a single letter designating the county of first registration, followed by two to five numbers. In 1958, the number of cars registered in Oslo outstripped the capacity of that numbering system, so six-digit numbers without a prefix letter were issued. Old number plates can still be seen on pre-1971 cars not reregistered and may be used on veteran cars first registered or first sold before 1 April 1971.

Other than the number plates on the royal family’s official vehicles and number plates selected by veteran car owners, there are no personalised number plates. However, social climbers sometimes register new cars or buy used cars with prefix letter codes issued by Motor Vehicle Stations in wealthy districts, so as to imply the status of an address there.

Car parts and accessories (Bildeler og rekvisita)

New car dealers sell parts and accessories, principally for models up to 10 years old. Parts and accessories shops listed under bildeler og rekvisita in the Yellow Pages, sell expendable parts for most cars on the road, such as brake, electrical, exhaust and suspension system parts. Vehicle dismantlers sell used parts.

There are three chains of parts and accessories supermarkets (bilvarehus), all with printed and online catalogues; look for their shop addresses and telecommunications numbers in the Pink Pages.

• Biltema is a Swedish company with shops in the southern parts of the Nordic countries and mail-order services in Russia; it has shops in 13 Norwegian cities, with a head office at Fredrikstad, Biltema, 1601 Fredrikstad, Tel: 81532815, Fax: 69399111, www.biltema.no, kundeservice@biltema.no.
• Mekonomen is a Swedish company with 192 shops in Scandinavia, 25 of them in cities across Norway, head office at Smalvollveien 46, 0667 Oslo, Tel: 22722525, Fax: 22722526, www.mekonomen.no.
• Torshov has five shops in the Oslo area and shops in seven other cities in the southern part of the country, Tel: 81548707, www.torshovbil.no.