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

Robertr

For those looking to save a few quid here is my difinitive guide to importing cars from the UK based on my own experiences.

Firstly here is the best information you can get: Revenue.ie - VRT

When you want to get a car from the UK there are a few rules to follow:

(1) You will have to pay VRT on any car coming into Ireland from any country unless over 30 years old.
(2) You will have to pay VAT on all cars coming from outside the EU, so always buy in the EU as an additional 21% will never bring it under the Irish price.
(3) You will have to pay VAT on all cars under 6 mths old or less than 6,000kms even if they are from within the EU.

VRT

When you are looking at the price of different cars in the UK (Autotrader.co.uk is the best site) it might seem like the prices are great. This can be true for some cars but others this is not the case.

Obviously, you will firstly have to convert the price into EURO using the most up to date rate that your bank will Sell GBP (This can be quite different from the daily exchange rates that you might see in the papers).

Then you will have to calculate the VRT. This can vary in a number of ways:
(1) The % of VRT is based on the engine size of the car. You can see the table using the above link.
(2) It is not based on the price you bought the car for but the Open Market Selling Price or OMSP. This is a value decided by the Revenue. In my experience these can be way off. Sometimes they are way above the retail value and sometimes they are less than the Trade value. Depends on the car. I've noticed that they will value an Audi at about trade or less but BMW's are above what you would expect to pay on a forecourt.


Procedure for Buying:

(1) Get a shortlist of cars that you are interested in knock off about 5% of the listed price for a cash discount. Should get more off but leave that as a nice surprise.

(2) Call your local VRO office (listed in the contact page on Revenue.ie) and ask for a VRT quote. They should be able to give you the amount straight away unless it is a high-end luxury car (over say €60,000). They will then need the chassis number and they will get their VRO Department in Rosslare to do up a valuation - usually 1 day.

(3) You will now have the cost of the car.

(4) Factor in expenses, usually about €1,000.
- Flights
- Ferry
- RAC/AA inspection (has to be done!!!)
- HPI Check

(5) Contact the Dealer (never buy privately) you want to buy from and give them as many questions as you can think of. Tell them that you will be getting an inspection done so they may as well tell you everything now. If you are not 100% happy with all answers, walk away!!!!! Every Tom, Dick and Harry has a 'car dealership' in the UK, loads of guys operating out of their back gardens, so be wary. Don't bother getting a warranty from the dealer if the car is still covered by the manufacturer's warranty, in fact you should be able to get money off if you tell them you don't want it.
**EU law states that a manufacturer must stand over their warranty in every EU country regardless of which country the car was originally purchased so if something goes wrong you can go to your local dealership and you will be covered by the warranty. This does not cover Dealership warranties, only Manufacturer!!

(6) Once happy, you will have to pay a deposit, (by Credit Card) don't worry, once it’s by credit card you are covered from fraud. Make sure it is subject to the inspection not showing up anything that will change the overall value of the car from his decryption.

(7) Get inspection done. Make sure you get the expensive one. An engineer will call you to discuss the car and these guys do a great job. One time he even told me that there was a tiny dent the size of a 10P coin in one of the speakers in the back door. When I got the car it took me ages to find it. They do a really good job.

(8) Agree a date to travel over and get the Dealer to collect you from the closest Airport.

(9) Get a bank draft for the remaining GBP balance to pay the dealer.

(10) Call you insurance company and ask them to transfer your policy to the new car. They will only issue a temporary cover for a non-Irish reg that lasts for 1 month.

(11) You should have no trouble of making the journey in one day if you leave early in the morning you will be back in Dublin that night.

(12) Get a bank draft for the amount you were quoted when you got the VRT quote. Knock off about 10% from the draft and bring cash as some time will have passed and the amount they want will have gone down.

(13)With in 24hrs of arriving in Ireland you are required to present the car at the VRO. You will have to fill out a few forms and then they will have a look to see if you have honestly described the car. Don't worry about telling them about every extra, they don't seem to care as long as the Make, Model and Year as are you said. (So make sure that it’s fully loaded).

(14) They will then give you a document that will have your new Irish Reg on it. Go and get some plates done up and put them on the car.

(15) Get your insurance changed to the new reg.

(16) A few days later you will receive the Vehicle Registration Cert. This is not the same as the one that you usually have as it in only the initial cert. and is used to Tax a car for the first time only.

(17) Go to the Tax office and tax that puppy!

(18) In a few days you will have you proper Vehicle Registration Document.



In general, even with VRT, most cars are cheaper from the UK. Obviously, there more expensive the car the more you will save. Anything under €15,000 - €20,000 may not be worth your while but there are some exceptions out there!!

Anyways, hope this helps everyone. I've been doing it for a while and its had its ups and downs, so always use your commen sense and don't let the really cheap ones get the better of you.

Any questions, let me know

Good Luck!!!

Tommy Vercetti

Excellent thread, thanks for that info - I'm going to look into importing in the next 12 months hopefully. The standard spec on UK cars is usually way higher than what we get too.

unkel

Thanks a lot for that constructive thread, Robertr

The one thing that's put me off is the dodgy VRT calculation :rolleyes:

My current car started it's life in the UK and the dude importing it only paid about half of the VRT that he reckoned was due. The inspector that was called out and looked at the vehicle in person, failed to see it was the executive spec :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Can they not get some more direct guidelines and a web based calculator rather than this personal inspection, could go up or down, brown envelope (very Irish) kind of approach?

Borzoi

Wow - good guide. I presume the voice of ecperience there robert?

Stickied as requested. Perhaps it might go in to mike65's general help guide later.

Robertr

Originally posted by Tommy Vercetti
Excellent thread, thanks for that info - I'm going to look into importing in the next 12 months hopefully. The standard spec on UK cars is usually way higher than what we get too.

Yeah, because of VRT car manufacturers try to land the cars in Ireland for as cheap as possible. This means that they strip out all the extras so its cheaper for them. Stuff like electric rear windows and seats, trip computers, good ICE etc.. Ireland has some of the cheapest car prices in Europe before our Government adds their share.

A Bit of VRT History

Before the days of VRT the Government got its money from Import taxes. Then the EU passed a Directive that said that countries could not add import tax to cars. This was meant to bring the price of cars around Europe in line and to give us that 'Free Market' for the purchase of goods.

Of course, this was not acceptable so we devised VRT. Since this is not a tax on the import they got around the new regulations. VRT (Vehicle Registration Tax) is a tax that allows someone to drive their car on the Irish roads.

This brings the Government a huge amount of money every year so don't even entertain the possibility of it going anywhere. If they do get rid of it, it will just be replaced by something else.:(

Farls

I recently bought a northern car and just wondering why the OMSP is different for each county? I have a legitimite address in a few different counties and rang each revenue office on the same day and they all called out a different price?

Bit strange i thought

Farlz

Robertr

Well, they are all using the same system so the actual OSMP is not different. The problem is that you are dealing with different people.

No offence intended, but in my experience, some of the people working in these places have not got a clue about cars. I allways ring at least 3 or 4 different offices and make sure to give them as much information as possible so that I get an accurate quote.

I even had someone quoting me on 2001 reg car on the pre 1997 model. I told them that the quote was way off and there was no way it could be that low but they just kept on repeating "Thats what on the screen". Another office told me what she must have been looking at.

Anyway, in short:

(1) Ring at least 2-3 different offices.
(2) Give them as much information as possible.
(3) If you can't get a consistent quote get the 'Code' off them for the car they are using. They all have an internal code. Then quote this at the other offices to see if they are the same.
(4) If all else fails, ring the office in Rosslare and tell them the problem. They can take your chassis number and get the exact model of the car.

tinofapples

Do you mind me asking Robert , do you import to sell or do you just import for your own use ?

I had a fairly good idea of what was involved but you've made it a little easier for everyone !!

Robertr

tinofapples wrote:

Do you mind me asking Robert , do you import to sell or do you just import for your own use ?

To be honest, a bit of both. I only buy cars that I like so that I don't mind holding on to them and I usually sell them on after a few months. I only do it as a hobbie so I don't mind sharing my knowledge with everyone.

I have a website (see signature) where I offer to do it, but its nothing that serious. I would encourage people to do it themelves.

I guess if you had the time and money you could probably make a living at it but I've got bigger fish to fry!

unkel

Robertr wrote:

I have a website (see signature) where I offer to do it, but its nothing that serious

Nice site



Nice car. Have the same model, a '96 735iA myself and would consider importing my next car from the UK

Robertr wrote:

you could probably make a living at it but I've got bigger fish to fry!

Do you mind giving a rough breakdown on above car? I would very much appreciate it. The asking price in the UK is something like £14.950 (€22 something grand) and your asking price over here is €40 grand

I'd be very interested in the split up of this difference in:

- VRT charge
- shipping costs (if not covered by ferry under administrative costs)
- registration costs
- testing costs
- other and administrative costs (flights, ferry, hotel, car rental, telephone, etc.)
- profit margin (including the cover for all the time you spent. How many mandays of work go into importing a car like this?)

Robertr

Well, I have not idea of the breakdown on that particular car. I just threw a few cars up there last year and did quick estimates of the prices. Don't even know where it is. Probably well gone by now.

Just had a quick look and you would expect to pay around £17,000 for a good quality, hi spec 2000 740i. I did see one for £14,950 but I would tend to stay away from any cars that seem really under priced. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!

At a guess you'd be looking at:

Price: £17,000.00
Ex-Rate: .66
EUR Price: €25,757.00

VRT Est: €10,303.00
(I allways estimate at about 40% of the purchase price. Should be less when you get an actual quote but could be more!! You never know)

Expenses: €1,500.00 (can vary depending on car location and type)

Profit Margin: Why pay someone elses profit margin??? Do it yourself!!!

So the all-in cost would be about €37,500.00.

unkel

Thanks for the reply

Starting of with the asking price of £14950, lets say the cash purchase price is £13k (€19.7k). The previous owner of my car who imported it from the UK paid £4k punts in VRT back in early 2001 on a car just over 4 years old. Admittedly, he was probably undercharged.

Lets put a VRT charge of €7k on it shall we? That brings the price up to €27k

A good bit less than the unrealistic asking price of €40k imho. I'm unsure about going the importing route now myself. The few and far between offers of superb barges are very good value in Ireland anyway. Deerparkmotors are quoting under €16k for a '98 735 atm - seems sound value for money

Robertr wrote:

In general, even with VRT, most cars are cheaper from the UK. Obviously, there more expensive the car the more you will save. Anything under €15,000 - €20,000 may not be worth your while but there are some exceptions out there!!

You just proved your point there

Our man in Havana

If they under quote the VRT can they after you later say a year down the line, and ask for more?

Nuttzz

is it the same for importing from Northern Ireland?

ando

Hey Robert, excellent guide.

One question, when calculating the OMSP of a 2 year old car 2nd hand car, is it calculated as if the car was being sold new in Ireland or as a 2 year old, 2nd hand car in Ireland?

BabyEater

The OSMP is calculated as a 2 year old car 2nd hand car and not a new car.

johndoe77ie

Just came across this on the revenue website.
http://www.revenue.ie/services/vrt/vrtkiosk.htm
Seems there is a kiosk in the Tallaht office when you can calculate the VRT on used cars.

kilasser

I have been living in the UK for past 10 years and have an '03 Toyota Yaris in the UK. Planing on going home to Ireland in a year or so would I be better selling the car in the UK and getting an other in Ireland? Is there different rates if you are moving form another country to Ireland?

Our man in Havana

kilasser wrote:

I have been living in the UK for past 10 years and have an '03 Toyota Yaris in the UK. Planing on going home to Ireland in a year or so would I be better selling the car in the UK and getting an other in Ireland? Is there different rates if you are moving form another country to Ireland?

You wouldn't be able to sell the car in Ireland for 12 months after you re-register it. You might be better off selling in the UK rather than waiting a year.

Rates of VRT are the same regardless of where you import from.

Robertr

Bond-007 wrote:

You wouldn't be able to sell the car in Ireland for 12 months after you re-register it. You might be better off selling in the UK rather than waiting a year.

Rates of VRT are the same regardless of where you import from.

If you have been living in the UK for the last 10 years you should not have to pay the VRT when you are registering it in Irelend but as Bond said you will have to wait 12 months before you can sell it.

Robertr

Nuttzz wrote:

is it the same for importing from Northern Ireland?

Yes, it is the same.

Blinda

Anyone tried the following site? www.moterpoint.com (is in Blackburn/Burnley region UK.
Have VW GOLFS from £7K+ BPS.

Gmodified

Vehicles imported from Northern Ireland and abroadVehicles imported to Ireland from outside the State (including Northern Ireland) must also go through the NCT (once the vehicle is 4 years old or more). This applies even if the vehicle previously received an MOT or any other vehicle test abroad. NCT test certificates will be issued for a period of 2 years, after which the vehicle (if still in Ireland) must be tested again.

The NCT on these imported vehicles is due on the anniversary date of first registration in the country of origin. (Again, the NCT will only be due once the vehicle is at 4 years old or more). Read more about importing a vehicle into Ireland here. After you have imported your vehicle and paid Vehicle Registration Tax you receive a Vehicle Registration Certificate. Bring this to your nearest NCT centre and have the vehicle input on the NCT database so that a record of your vehicle is kept. The next day, a test can be booked for your vehicle by contacting NCT (see 'Where to apply').


more info on nct.ie

rogue.goofball

Robert,
You seem to go for UK imports rather than from the north. As you have experience with importing, perhaps you have good reasons for this?
I would have though the north would be a good place to go as it avoids the ferry and flight costs and with only fuel costs you could get to try the cars out before you even bother with the AA and HPI checks. Have you had any bad experiences with imports from the north... would you advise against importing from there?

shagman

AFAIK anything over 3 tonne pays a standard rate of €40 vrt. This is bugger all use for cars of course and is designed to make business/goods vehicles cheaper. But american dayvans are generally just over the mark and I'm sure some of the larger (dually, F450, Larame) trucks /pick ups are too. Can'tthink of anything else drivable that would be.

Kersh

So, Ill be going to the UK in next month to buy a car. When I hand over my cash, what documents should I get, and how many. Are there any documents I should not be without,to save being stung, like someone passing on a stolen car, or write off. And what are the documents called?.
Like I know I would not buy a car here without log book, or reg cert. Thanks.

dark_knight_ire

Question buying a car in the UK i'm guess VAT there does not have to be paid??? no i was just doing some sums and for say a mini cooper when i took off 5% cash price and also 17% VAT i changed that to euro and when i dded on VRT here at 6800 euro and then VAT it worked out te same price as here. Am i doing it wrong?????????

eelpie

When I come over I'll be landing in the UK and I'll be looking for an older Audi around 2,000 quid or so before I come to Ireland.

It seems a high-mileage car in the UK would qualify as a low-mileage car here in the Colonies, and there are some bargains to be had.

Is there a point on ten year-old cars where the VRT starts to decline rapidly?

By the way, does anyone know of a good sports car dealer in the Galway region, looking for staff?

I've sold BMWs, new, in Arizona, and I spent a few years in F1 with American television, so I know my way around a performance motor . . .

Cheers.

Kersh

:mad:

billy3sheets

Great guide, robertr.
A few questions around documentation...
1. When you buy in the UK, what do you do with the log book? Is it filled in with your address in Ireland & sent to the DVLA?
2. Do you need the logbook as proof of ownership when travelling back to Ireland?
3. Do you need evidence of when you imported the car, i.e. ferrry ticket in the reg of the car?
4. What if you don't pay vrt within 24 hours of import? Seems very short time if you have to drive to Mayo or somewhere a long distance from the East coast...

Billy

Robertr

1. When you buy in the UK, what do you do with the log book? Is it filled in with your address in Ireland & sent to the DVLA?
- Nothing

2. Do you need the logbook as proof of ownership when travelling back to Ireland?
- No

3. Do you need evidence of when you imported the car, i.e. ferrry ticket in the reg of the car?
- No

4. What if you don't pay vrt within 24 hours of import? Seems very short time if you have to drive to Mayo or somewhere a long distance from the East
- The VRT office have no idea of when you brought the car in and don't seem to care. The only risk is that a Guard will stop you if you keep driving around locally with a UK reg. If you leave it too long you risk loosing the car.

billy3sheets

Thanks.
I plan to bring a car back for my brother next week. He's made a contact with someone in his local VRT office. He's hoping to hold off until Jan 05 before registering it, when hopefully the OMV will have dropped a bit because of the year.

I plugged in different reg dates into the ros system. It did not seem to matter which month of the year the car was registered in - no effect on the OMV. If you cross over a year though there is a significant change in value.

cheapthrills

hi,
i've been looking at a car which is for sale in the uk, it was originally registered in ireland and then re registered in the uk. if i bought it and landed it back in ireland is it liable to vrt again. or could i simply change the plates back to the irish ones.
in other words do u have to pay vrt twice on the same car?

Robertr

Don't know. I guess you'd have to have the Irish registration cert. If you don't then you would have to prove that it was registered in Ireland and that VRT was paid.

If it was bought new in Ireland for the purpose of being imported into the UK then they would probably not have paid the VRT.

cheapthrills

the car was used in ireland for several years and apparently the irish reg plate is still with the car. dont know about the cert. though.

i'll ring the vrt office and find out.

magpie

OK, but what are the ways around this?

I understood that if you had the car registered in your name in the UK for 6 months prior to importing you didn't have to pay VRT?

Also, if you have it registered in your name at a UK address presumably you can drive it around on UK/NI plates?

Seth Brundle

magpie wrote:

I understood that if you had the car registered in your name in the UK for 6 months prior to importing you didn't have to pay VRT?

as long as you can prove that you were 'permanently' living there.

magpie wrote:

Also, if you have it registered in your name at a UK address presumably you can drive it around on UK/NI plates?

if you move here 'permanently' then it must be registered here - no exceptions.
http://www.oasis.gov.ie/moving_country/moving_to_ireland/importing_car_into_ireland.html

magpie

What if the car is registered in the name of a mate/family member in the UK and he 'loans' it to you to drive around in Ireland?

EDIT: What about all these new cars with Polish / Lithuanian / Latvian plates. How are they dodging registering their cars and paying VRT?

MrPudding

magpie wrote:

What if the car is registered in the name of a mate/family member in the UK and he 'loans' it to you to drive around in Ireland?

QUOTE]

Still doesn't work. You are technically not allowed to drive it.

MrP

magpie

Would an old Land Rover count as "small vans and some jeeps" or would it count as "tractors, large vans, lorries, etc. "?

shagman

Campervans over 3 ton only pay registration fee €40 I think. Get an american van small but heavy with a high top (converted dayvan perhaps). It must have a 6ft standing height inside a cooker and sink (fixed). Bring it in and if you don't want the camper gear switch it back to dayvan mode. Cheaper insurnce and road tax if you leave it as a camper but thats up to you. These have big engines so an lpg converted or diesel unit might be good. 4x4 versions are out there but rare enough unless you want to go to the US. Then you might as well get a Chummer .....chinook RV / Hummer 4wd

You can get camper units that would go in a dayvan and make it legal as a motorhome as far as vrt goes. So look for a ford econoline / dodge ram / or chevy g10/20/30 4x4 dayvan with camper unit. The 4x4 bit will be tough I think thhis was only available as an aftermarket addition.

steeo

Robertr wrote:

1. When you buy in the UK, what do you do with the log book? Is it filled in with your address in Ireland & sent to the DVLA?

Their logbook is classed as a V5 cert and when you buy a car in the UK you take the V5 with you as you can not re-register the car here without it. The revenue will not accept a photo copy of the V5 only the original and the DVLA in the UK will not forward a V5 onto you with an Irish address, they will however forward you a permanent export cert but this will take upto 5 weeks to come out to you and the car you imported will be sitting in your driveway or garage till this cert is posted to you.

RicardoSmith

That calculator on https://www.ros.ie/VRTEnquiryServlet/showCarCalculator doesn't work for me. Says no car exists???

Someone in the UK has offered us their old 95 Golf for free. How do they work the VRT on that? I assume it would have a value of around 2000. Last time I enquired about a UK car I got a different rate everytime I rang.

Our man in Havana

RicardoSmith wrote:

That calculator on https://www.ros.ie/VRTEnquiryServlet/showCarCalculator doesn't work for me. Says no car exists???

Someone in the UK has offered us their old 95 Golf for free. How do they work the VRT on that? I assume it would have a value of around 2000. Last time I enquired about a UK car I got a different rate everytime I rang.

Even if the car is free, they will value on the book price here. The actual rate depends on the condition etc so they only real quote will be when you turn up to pay the tax.

RicardoSmith

Bond-007 wrote:

Even if the car is free, they will value on the book price here. The actual rate depends on the condition etc so they only real quote will be when you turn up to pay the tax.

So valet AFTER they inspect it then....

steeo

You can strip out leather interior and put in cloth, take off alloy wheels and put on steel wheels it doesn't matter they will value the car on the make and model of that car here in Ireland at the time you bring it to them so there is no need to go to all that trouble before you bring the car to them.

mad_martian

re. the vrt & insurance rip-off...I used to live in north and work in south pre-celtic tiger (paid high tax in south but "perm" address and licence in NI.

I insured NI car through IRISH ins company and paid in sterling which covered whole island fully comp (GTI 205, then williams clio, then golf gti 150bhp, then 1.8MX5 - since age 21). Never paid more than £450sterling for premium. Drove and kept car down here for years - no problem. Had one accident in Dublin not my fault - Garda took licence details etc no question asked and insurance paid out in full.....happy days. (helps with gardai if you have n'orn iron accent!!)

But made mistake of getting company car for past few years, lost no-claims etc and moved perm to south to set up home. Now I am living in Dublin and want to buy runabout (current wheels commercial jeep - no use to soon to be family man) but cant afford overpriced cars and VRT and Ins in rip-off post tiger ireland.

Also have been tagged twice for speeding in last two months (bad luck - first time in 15 years) paid 80euro fine each time and gave my valid NI licence details but have heard nothing re points. Both times in 40mph zone of 4 lane dual c/ways that should be 60mph!!! you all know where I mean.

My point is (yes I have one)..... I would rather risk "breaking law" with regard to VRT than pay it to a government that is reaping rewards of booming economy while doing little to support it.....

I know lots of people who drive NI cars down here - as long as its insured and you have a valid licence - who is getting hurt - the government and the dealers down here Boo Hoo??!!!
:eek:

RicardoSmith

Friend of mine tried doing that and someone in the Office park he worked at reported him. Had to pay up, as they were waiting for him when he went in one morning. That said he lasted about 2 yrs before that caught him.

magpie

**** it, If I had a valid NI address there's no way in hell I'd pay VRT. Plus the old 'no penalty points' thing with the NI licence is pretty handy.

mad_martian

yeah the penalty points seems to be a winner but what happens if Irish and UK get together and share info...I am screwed.

Plus little known (maybe) "fact" that NI points are separate from UK (England) points also. In effect you can have Irish, English and NIrish points without any cumalitive effect.

Thinking of buying car in NI regestering it at parents house in Belfast and then driving straight down here (if I can get insurance that is?)

mad_martian

on the penalty points - appears that NI and GB now recognise each others points since Oct04. Hope NI and ROI don't do same.....