# UK Driving Licence



## Miriam (Jul 14, 2008)

Is it legal to drive a manual car in POrtugal on a full UK automatic driving licence. The conditions for exchanging the licence which I have read do not appear to differentiate between manual or automatic. It also mentions exchanging a US for a POrtuguese licence. In the US it is almost exclusively automatic so I am wondering what applies.
Can anyone help? Thank you.


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## silvers (Sep 22, 2008)

I would be very surprised if you can. If you have only passed your test to drive automatic vehicles, I don't see how the authorities here can allow you to drive a manual car. On the plus side I have an automatic car for sale!


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## sgmee (Feb 22, 2009)

*Driving in Portugal*



Miriam said:


> Is it legal to drive a manual car in POrtugal on a full UK automatic driving licence. The conditions for exchanging the licence which I have read do not appear to differentiate between manual or automatic. It also mentions exchanging a US for a POrtuguese licence. In the US it is almost exclusively automatic so I am wondering what applies.
> Can anyone help? Thank you.


If you visit the website for the Driving Standards Agency in the UK it states "If a person passes a test in an automatic car then they are restricted to driving vehicles with automatic transmission thereafter. A full automatic licence acts as a provisional manual licence." I'm not sure if the same rule applies in Portugal, so you might try exchanging your licence and see if the Portuguese version carries any similar restrictions. But it would be as dangerous to switch to an auto in Portugal without proper instruction as it would in the UK, more so given the difference in driving standards! And there could well be implications for your insurance cover in the event of an accident. Take the manual test, either in Portugal or the UK, then both you and other road users are safe. You can find lots of info about driving in Portugal and Europe generally on our website Drive-Alive.co.uk.


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