Importing from the UK - definitive guide (Q&A)

copacetic · 21-01-2009 10:05pm

seems a bit steep for a 320i Miccko, I'd be wanting a 320d for 22k, loads of them available for 23-24 list, should be able to get one for 22.

L-M · 21-01-2009 10:06pm

Miccko wrote: »

should have said that it's a coupe...although thats probably obvious from the price.

So what's it going to cost you all in cleared?

Would a diesel not be a better option?

Miccko · 21-01-2009 10:17pm

I reckon it'll cost about 31 all in - depending on exchange rate.

The 320d's seem to be more expensive, although they're only charged 16% VRT - the 320i's are 20%.

So, the cheaper price for the 320i is sort of offset but the higher VRT rate, meaning there's little difference in the overall price between the two (from what I can see).

But, if you think 22 is a reasonable price for a 320d, then 22 for the 320i is probably not reasonable...I might have a look at a few 320d's and see if they'll come down to that price.

copacetic · 21-01-2009 10:21pm

the 320d is a better drive Miccko, more pull from lower down, it's a bit faster, but feels a lot faster if you know what I mean. If you are the remapping type you can get it up to 215bhp for about €500. Will be worth a fair bit more second hand when you come to sell also.

robbie99 · 21-01-2009 11:49pm

My two cents on this (but it'll probably confuse things further!)

Diesel or petrol?

I think importing the diesel is better value as a new 320d here is 3 or 4k more expensive than a 320i. You might even land a 320d here cheaper than a 320i. The diesel also has better economy, (not much) lower motor tax and better performance than the petrol. The lower VRT rate applies to the extras as well so your bluetooth and leather will come in cheaper too.

I haven't driven the 320i so I can't really compare but I have a 320d and the only thing I dislike about it is its driveability at low speeds ( <10mph). Maybe this is a common thing with all diesels but for those tight corners where you need to slow down to a crawl, I would have taken those corners in 2nd gear but in the 320d I find that I need to change down to first and when you do that the car starts to bunny hop if you release the clutch too quickly! I think there's a software update due out in April to help this (and clutch juddering) as the way the brake energy regeneration cuts in and an anti stall feature of fly by wire throttle control doesn't seem to work that well together. Take a test drive here first to make sure you can live with it.

RAC check?

The coupés are a solid car. They are Approved Used and I can't imagine them having any mechanical problems. If any arise the warranty will take care of it. But I'm a real picky person. When I bought mine I did get a check done. I wanted someone to make sure that there wasn't a scratch on the car. I particularly wanted to make sure that the wheels weren't scuffed because I don't do kerbs and I don't want anyone to think that I do either! If you want the reassurance that the car you're buying is pristine and can pass off as a brand new car then I'd reccomend getting the check done. One other reason for doing the check is that some of the wheels (particularly the 19" rear ones) are suseptical to cracking on the inside rim and BMW do not replace these under warranty - they say that the cracks must have been caused by kerbing or potholes but many believe that there must be a faulty batch of brittle wheels out there. The car needs to be on a ramp to examine for cracks and is something I'd ask the RAC engineer to specifically look out for.

Now, whose post will make it to the top of page 100?

robbie99 · 22-01-2009 1:56am

Oh, and one other thing, the hubs (brake discs) and the brake calipers get very rusty very quickly on the beemers. Unfortunately this was not pointed out to me on my inspection so if I could do it again I'd ask the engineer to check for this. As you're buying the car 'subject to a satisfactory engineer's inspection report', when the report comes back saying 'rusty hubs/calipers' you can then ask the dealer to put a lick of paint on them without affecting your agreed price!

McSpud · 22-01-2009 10:30am

I do all my calculations at Sterling = 10% so with Euro back up to 93p sterling now that seems realistic with commissions & charges for money transfer...?

Culchie · 22-01-2009 11:17am

Do I have to pay any duty/VRT on a commercial vehicle imported from UK?

L-M · 22-01-2009 11:35am

Culchie wrote: »

Do I have to pay any duty/VRT on a commercial vehicle imported from UK?

Yes, it's either 50 euro or 13.5%. What is it?

McSpud · 22-01-2009 11:46am

I don't know if I saw it mentioned above but are UK warranties valid in the ROI. If you buy a 1 year will ROI dealers fix it under warranty?

Legally I would guess it is really an EU warranty & while they might moan they have to work on car?

Brewster · 22-01-2009 12:09pm

copacetic wrote: »

seems a bit steep for a 320i Miccko, I'd be wanting a 320d for 22k, loads of them available for 23-24 list, should be able to get one for 22.

Miccko, having just checked bmw.co.uk, if you really push them you should he able to buy a car such as yours for 20,500-20750. There are loads available at 21850 with leather, you need to get telling them it doesnt matter where you buy you car and that you are looking at 6 similar cars and that you will pay a deposit today......

However, im buying a 320D, I think its the better car. However, Im biased, Ive never driven a petrol car in my life and would go for diesel all the time. The 320D outperforms the 320 in most aspects...

The_Conductor · 22-01-2009 12:49pm

robbie99 wrote: »

the only thing I dislike about it is its driveability at low speeds ( <10mph).

Its bizarre at low speeds- you can have your foot wholly off the pedal and it actually seems to gather speed all of its own accord. Its not like a petrol- where you can take your foot off the accelerator and expect it to slow right down- it doesn't. It takes a lot of getting used to.

Fingleberries · 22-01-2009 2:58pm

Hello All,

This is truly a fascinating thread and really useful. I have already picked up some useful tidbits of information, but there are still some holes in my knowledge that may be contained in the 100 pages of the thread somewhere, but I haven't been able to sit through it all (and I think my boss would have words if I did

).

I have some questions, and hope I don't iritate anyone if they are answered elsewhere in the thread and I missed it.

I'm looking to pick up a decent second hand car (a Prius, is actually what I have my eye on).

If I were to buy here in the Republic, the best I could hope for is a 2005 model with the garage looking for €16,000.

OK, if I look over the border I see that I could actually find a number of 2007 models for the equivalent of about €14,000.

Great, seems like an easy decision, but I know there are some gotchas and just wanted to see if I understood this correctly.

Using the VRT Calculator on the Revenue site, I get a quote of €835.
Motor Tax comes in at about €100 for the year
Because it's only two years old, there's no need for an NCT.
Because the car is over 6 months old and has more than 6,000km on the clock, there should be no VAT.

From the way I look at it, that's still working out at about €15,000 - Saving a grand and getting a car that's two years newer and also not getting stuck with the higher motor tax that I would for the Irish second hand car (which would be €455 for the year because of the 1.5l petrol engine in the Prius).

Questions:
1. I've seen it mentioned here to get an RAC / AA service check.

How much do they cost? And
How do you go about organising one?

2. Where do you get the VRT4 form? The links to the Revenue site don't appear to work.

3. Even if I managed to haggle the dealer in the Republic to match the NI price (I know, not gonna happen), would I still get screwed on Motor Tax?
From my calculations, that's nearly 350 a year. (e.g., is it possible that the CO2 tax rate would be charged on a car bought in the Republic - or is it solely because the car was registered before July '08 that it will be charged at the higher rate, even though the CO2 emissions would be the same?)

4. Any other steps or hidden charges that I might have overlooked?

Many thanks in advance for any tips, input or advice.

L-M · 22-01-2009 3:01pm

Tax won't be €100, it'll be based on the engine size (1.5) which is a few hundred more. If you want to benifit from the lower tax you need to buy something registered in 08. You seem to have everything sorted out well there, fair play.

Fingleberries · 22-01-2009 3:52pm

Limerick man wrote: »

Tax won't be €100, it'll be based on the engine size (1.5) which is a few hundred more. If you want to benifit from the lower tax you need to buy something registered in 08. You seem to have everything sorted out well there, fair play.

Thanks very much Limerick man, good to know I was on the right track for the most part.

Just to be sure, is it if the car is registered anywhere before July '08 that you're stuck with the higher motor tax? I had thought that when you were registering the car for the first time in the Republic, as long as you were registering it for the first time after that date that the new CO2 rate would apply for motor tax.

Thanks again.

L-M · 22-01-2009 3:58pm

Fingleberries wrote: »

Thanks very much Limerick man, good to know I was on the right track for the most part.

Just to be sure, is it if the car is registered anywhere before July '08 that you're stuck with the higher motor tax? I had thought that when you were registering the car for the first time in the Republic, as long as you were registering it for the first time after that date that the new CO2 rate would apply for motor tax.

Thanks again.

I'm confusing myself now. lol gimme two mins

L-M · 22-01-2009 4:01pm

No i was right. The tax will be based on the old system as it was registered pre 08. The vrt however, will be based on the new system of ommisions. Hence why it is so cheap.

Detune · 22-01-2009 4:17pm

niceirishfella wrote: »

Hi Detune,
i would'nt assume anything -but then theres the reality..........tonnes of non VRT'd car on the road everyday. And if yours is not on the road (eventhough illegal to have in the country anyways) I doubt you'll get a visit tbh.

Just back from the Cork VRO office - here's a quick summary of the transaction. Went to pay VRT on a 2006 BMW 520D.
- Cork VRO office open from 10-4.00 including through lunch.,
- It's the big modern building on the hill opposite old Blackpool village.
- 2 minutes wait to get to the counter and 5 minutes there.
- There is no mention on the form or no questions were asked on when the car was actually imported.
- VRT man inspected the car - popped the bonnet and looked at the chassis number. DID NOT check the mileage - strangely.
- Said "This will have to be faxed to Rosslare as they always have to check the extras on these"
- VRT man filled in a standard form for me to present if I was stopped. Form just says that I'm waiting for a valuation from Rosslare. He said the form allows me to drive for up to 2 weeks.
- He said that I once they contact me with the valuation and VRT payable, I can then either drop into the office or post in the fee.

Cheers - Detune

Detune · 22-01-2009 4:49pm

While I'm posting on the VRT transaction above, here are my experiences on how the whole process of buying in the UK went for me.

- Was looking for a 05/06 BMW 520D Estate or Saloon under 75k miles. As many extras for my money, but had a budget of 15-16k cleared after VRT.
- Did most of my looking on the following websites.
- www.Autotrader.co.uk - A good place to get a view of all the options available from a privateer selling their own 3 year old car, to Main dealers, to other websites advertising to slightly dodgy small dealers (strangely mostly in the north of England) selling cars they have obviously just bought at Auction.
- www.Ebay.co.uk - similar to Autotrader cars are typically just as classifieds on Ebay rather than auctions. Again many other websites and dealers just use it to get access to customers and the sale typically happens off-ebay.
- www.Autoquake.co.uk - car supermarket in birmingham and other location. Lots of stock. Very professional set of photos, services such as inspections. No Haggling. Prices I found to be as low as anywhere else. Typically ex-lease cars with medium to slightly mileage. Never saw extremely high mileage cars here.
- www.Carsite.co.uk. Excellent site - cars direct from Finance companies. also linked to Ebay for auction. Excellent photos and including an independant RAC inspection with photos of even the smallest scratch - images of the log book and V5. Very transparent and gives confidence when selecting online. Prices are at about the average for the market, maybe a few hundred above.
- www.cargiant.co.uk - This is where I bought. Again an excellent site. I used their email notification system which like other sites above allows you to select the car you want and wait to see whats on the market before eventually decide. They are very in tune with ROI buyers. The guy there said they're overrun with Irish buyers and can't keep the garage full at this stage. Over 35% of the cars they sold that day were heading for the ferry! For ROI buyers, they will hold a car without a deposit for 24 hours. I picked the car I wanted, they held it for 24 hours. I arrived, test-drove the car. Inspected the car and all documentation and sealed the deal.
ONE Negative. They only accept UK debit cards or cash. My nerves were shot to hell in the end carrying that amount of cash around London. Best option is if you have a contact in the UK with a UK bank account who you can transfer the money to and have them pay by Debit card. (I used currency.ie for the transfer and was very pleased with the service and rate)
I inspected the car at 1530. They then do a final 110 point check on the car (including they say additional checks as the car is being exported and comeback is an issue.)
I came back at 1800 and drive the car away. These guys are a very large company with all the professionalism that goes with it.
I had one issue with the car within a few hours - unfortunately on the way to the ferry. The car was warning of a puncture in one of the Runflat tyres. I rang the customer service number from the ferry and they told me to jsut take it to my local BMW dealer and have them fax a quote and they would cover it. I was impressed. The BMW dealer was slow to work on a third-party basis for payment, but talked me through clearing the alarm. The car is still under BMW warranty.
- Other details. I travelled over Wednesday night Ryanair to Stanstead for €40 and returned Thursday night from Pembroke for €125.
Overall, the experience was fairly straightforward and I paid about €16,000 (UK£9999 plus €5679 VRT) for a June '06 520D SE with Bluetooth that would have cost between €25 and €32 k here.

An interesting experience I had was that I investigated the auction setup while I was there. British car auctions sell thousands of ex lease cars a week and most sales are open to Johnny public. I subscribed to their auctionview feature at a cost of €25 for a month. This allowed me to see every 520D coming up for auction. If you're a trader buying more than 12 cars a year, you can also get to see the very useful listing of the prices made each week at auction. I picked one large auction of BMW UK cars in Nottingham on the Thursday. This included 10 520Ds of interest to me. I was convinced that I would be able to beat car supermarket prices by 500 to 1000 at least. In the end, including the auction fee of about £5000 for a 9500 car, their prices were almost level with the cargiant prices I was looking at. All cars are sold as seen involving some risk. They will accept cash or Credit cards and can clear the car in the day. I did bid on 7 cars but left them all go as they approached the retail level. One good point was that there were a lot of high spec cars and M-Sports. One oddity was that they were ALL silver - someone please explain!
They have a very interesting online bidding system that allows real-time bids from the web to appear in the auction room on a screen during the auction. Unfortunately, this is also only open to customers buying more than 12 cars per year.
If it was available to small buyers, it would be an amazing way to buy cars remotely from Ireland. They also arrange shipping to Ireland.
I can only imagine that some of the bigger Irish dealers are using this system to buy from the UK.
Interesting, there were quite a few NI dealers at the auction in Nottingham.
Overall I was disappointed that the auction prices were just short of the car supermarket retail prices, so can only imagine that the supermarkets are getting very competitive deals from the finance companies or not paying auction fees.
Otherwise, if you do the research up front and get a dealer with good reputation and plenty of photos, buying from the UK can be a simple 2-day job.

Detune

Miccko · 22-01-2009 4:49pm

Cheers to everyone for the advice.

I'm gonna go for the 320D - I've contacted a few garages already and they're very prompt in getting back to you (at least so far). They must be crying out for the business.

One BMW dealer near London told me an Irish guy came over two weeks ago and bought six cars off him....

Hope to finalise the car within the next few days and arrange pick up within next 2 weeks, so will let you know how it goes with the VRO.

Kafer · 22-01-2009 5:13pm

Great thread.

Brewster · 22-01-2009 5:16pm

Miccko wrote: »

Cheers to everyone for the advice.

I'm gonna go for the 320D - I've contacted a few garages already and they're very prompt in getting back to you (at least so far). They must be crying out for the business.

One BMW dealer near London told me an Irish guy came over two weeks ago and bought six cars off him....

Hope to finalise the car within the next few days and arrange pick up within next 2 weeks, so will let you know how it goes with the VRO.

Mickko, probably a dealer. They are all at it as my other post on Frank Keane indicated. Was talking to another main dealer this morning. They have a silver 08 Msport 320D for 45k! You'll land same car for at least 10k cheaper.

Harcrid · 22-01-2009 5:27pm

Great post Detune. Always interesting to hear how people get on when they imporrt their car and you went into a lot of detail there.

Culchie · 23-01-2009 2:47pm

Limerick man wrote: »

Yes, it's either 50 euro or 13.5%. What is it?

Over here at the moment.

Looking at Toyota Hi-Lux or something similar (open back truck). Commercial Jeep.

So is it €50 or 13.5% .... what determines what rate is charged?

damoz · 23-01-2009 2:58pm

Limerick man wrote: »

I'm confusing myself now. lol gimme two mins

And now im confused. Can someone clarify .....

If i bring a car in from the UK and register here in Ireland is it taxed under the old (cc) system or the new (CO2) system. I thought that any car brought in and registered here after June 2008 would be taxed under the CO2 system - regardless of the date it was first registered in the UK. Please correct me if im wrong.

copacetic · 23-01-2009 3:02pm

damoz wrote: »

And now im confused. Can someone clarify .....

If i bring a car in from the UK and register here in Ireland is it taxed under the old (cc) system or the new (CO2) system. I thought that any car brought in and registered here after June 2008 would be taxed under the CO2 system - regardless of the date it was first registered in the UK. Please correct me if im wrong.

You are wrong. Only cars first registered in 2008 (in UK) can be taxed under C02 system.

L-M · 23-01-2009 3:03pm

damoz wrote: »

And now im confused. Can someone clarify .....

If i bring a car in from the UK and register here in Ireland is it taxed under the old (cc) system or the new (CO2) system. I thought that any car brought in and registered here after June 2008 would be taxed under the CO2 system - regardless of the date it was first registered in the UK. Please correct me if im wrong.

No, taxed on the old system, VRT'd on the new system.

Culchie · 23-01-2009 3:06pm

Culchie wrote: »

Over here at the moment.

Looking at Toyota Hi-Lux or something similar (open back truck). Commercial Jeep.

So is it €50 or 13.5% .... what determines what rate is charged?

bump .... I'm heading out to do a bit of shopping now:D ....just want to know where I stand (please)

cullenswood · 23-01-2009 11:04pm

Anyone know if this is true??

Claiming Back VRT
Now: there is a way to reclaim some of that VRT, you calculate the standard price (selling price - no asking price) for the exact same model or similar models, you can use carzone and other Irish adds and make a list of them and take an average price or even the lowest price: then you can actaully argue that actaul sales prices (exhange or car and money) could be 10% lower than asking prices. You get this info tegether and appeal your VRT rate with a letter of appeal. You have an 80% chance of success going on the figures ive seen on appeals. Also even if the appeal fails, you can appeal the appeal. It takes no time, just print out the adds, calculate the prices and stick a letter together.

copacetic · 24-01-2009 2:24am

yes it's true, but 80% is of a very low number who appeal. You don't appeal the vrt rate asuch, you usually just appeal the OMSP. Assuming you aren't saying they have co2 rating wrong. You also have no way of knowing how much was saved if appeal was successful, maybe it was only partially so. if you can find say 10 dealers selling the car you brought it for 10k less than the OMSP then you are extremely likely to win an appeal.

There are some cars on the ros site that have very fair OMSPs, perhaps because the have previously been appealed. I've seen 13k difference in omsp for 2 different engines in the same car, when difference new is only 4k. One was well overvalued the other was very fair.

All the information on how to do it is on the revenue site, it ain't a new thing.

Importing from the UK - definitive guide (Q&A)

Comments