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

The_Conductor

If you're willing to consider a slightly higher mileage model, or one from the earlier registration period- I really don't see that you're being unrealistic. The UK car scrappage scheme that they recently introduced has had a knock-on effect on secondhand prices- you'd be surprised at some prices.

Deedsie

smccarrick wrote: »

If you're willing to consider a slightly higher mileage model, or one from the earlier registration period- I really don't see that you're being unrealistic. The UK car scrappage scheme that they recently introduced has had a knock-on effect on secondhand prices- you'd be surprised at some prices.

Hopefully, I have been looking for the last week and i am not having much luck bargaining people down on the phone?

Is there much difference between a SDi and a TDi?

NewBalance

Any one have an idea what the VRT is on a Commercial Vehicle - 06 Nissan Primastar 50k miles? roughly?

I have seen something about it being only €50 but then seen it could be c€1600 +?

Anyone know for sure??

air

A friend recently bought one here in Ireland & he mentioned that the VRT would only be 50 euro on it but don't take my word for it.
Great deals to be got on vans now, he got a 07 Primastar with 18k kilometres, ply lined, long wb, mint - for 10k inc vat, plenty more to be had at similar prices.

Cissor

NewBalance wrote: »

Any one have an idea what the VRT is on a Commercial Vehicle - 06 Nissan Primastar 50k miles? roughly?

I have seen something about it being only €50 but then seen it could be c€1600 +?

Anyone know for sure??

I am looking at getting a van also.

heres the thing, I am not vat registered in ireland.

IF i buy in the UK or NI i know i will be liable for the €50 vrt. (i have checked this)

But my question is, most vans in the north and uk are Price+vat. . . e.g (£4500 + Vat). . .same in ireland actually.
Will i have to pay this vat??

Kotek Besar

Cissor wrote: »

I am looking at getting a van also.

heres the thing, I am not vat registered in ireland.

IF i buy in the UK or NI i know i will be liable for the €50 vrt. (i have checked this)

But my question is, most vans in the north and uk are Price+vat. . . e.g (£4500 + Vat). . .same in ireland actually.
Will i have to pay this vat??

You will have to pay VAT in the UK @ 15% on top of the "+ VAT" price that they're advertising. You will not pay VAT in Ireland.

Cissor

benifa wrote: »

You will have to pay VAT in the UK @ 15% on top of the "+ VAT" price that they're advertising. You will not pay VAT in Ireland.

what you are saying there, is that i have to pay £5500 + Vat which say is £6435 and then add %15 on again,

are you sure. .

It think its just that i have to pay the £935.

unless you know something i dont have a clue, , your saying so i will incorr 2 vat charges and a VRT of £50.

I was not aware of this

Kotek Besar

Cissor wrote: »

what you are saying there, is that i have to pay £5500 + Vat which say is £6435 and then add %15 on again,

are you sure. .

It think its just that i have to pay the £935.

unless you know something i dont have a clue, , your saying so i will incorr 2 vat charges and a VRT of £50.

I was not aware of this

No mate. Let's say the vehicle is advertised as "£5500 + VAT". VAT in the UK is 15%, so 15% of £5500 is £825. So that's "£5500 + £825" = £6325 to pay.

You won't pay VAT again in Ireland, just VRT.

Cissor

yes, now you have it.. .

cheers. .
ps, thats 15% on top of the marked price, as opposed to 15% on the + vat figure.

we are straight now anyway.

cheers.

Cissor

00sully

Im just back from UK - imported a 2007 ford focus - thought I'd share my experience!

dealer - gocar.co.uk
model - Focus 2007 Zetec climate s 1.6 TDCI
price - £7880
VRT - ~€2000 hopefully! 127 g/km co2
Expenses - €70 flight. €150 for ferry

RAC inspection carried out n' 2 new tires on car - done.

flew to leeds on friday morning. arrived 10.20. left airport with dealer at 10.40 to head to scunthorpe.
Arrive at dealers at 12.22 - 22 mins behind schedule since i've to make it to holyhead for ferry at 4.45 (30 mins prior to departure) 209 miles.
Paper work etc... at delears means I dont get on road till near 1pm
make holyhead at 5pm after taking some liberties with speed limit!

gonna pay vrt on monday. was pretty painless experience overall even though I was knackered when I got home. I brought cash too after I initially paid £500 deposit on my CC.

I probably didn't save too much money but a 1.6 tdci 3 door black 07 focus was kinda hard to come by over here!

ballybrone

Just to let people know .I imported a spotless Sept 2007 ford galaxy Zetec 1.8TDCI with 6000 miles on it in Feb 2009 .I paid the VRT of €6780 as they calculated.In March I lodged an appeal on the OMSP of €28250 and the subsiquent VRT of €6780 that I paid . I challenged their valuation and said that a more realistic price was €23000 given the way the car market is at the moment and the price of other cars on carzone at the time .It has taken till today but I got a letter saying I will be issued a refund of €1300 and they have revalues the OMSP at €22750 .So I am very happy and it maked my work on going over to import the car an even better deal that it first appeared so all in the car will have cost €20,500 included all expenses .

Result

PaulKK

Deedsie wrote: »

Hopefully, I have been looking for the last week and i am not having much luck bargaining people down on the phone?

Is there much difference between a SDi and a TDi?

Avoid the SDI like the plague, no turbo and 75ish bhp from a 2L, no thanks!!

cooper38

oosully

you paid in case so you also lost approx 3-5% on the foreign exchange rate. Thats what you lose by converting sterling cash and bringing over so 300-350 euro

CantGetNoSleep

Just wondering what happens if you buy a car in the UK with no v5 reg document?

Can you insure it straight away?

The one i'm looking at is being sold by a council for unpaid parking fines

miko

Iv'e just bought a car in the UK off a private seller, going to collect it on wednesday. I'll be taking it straight back to ireland so I was wondering what I do with the V5 document when i'm buying it, do i just take it off the owner, or do i have to fill out a section for importing??

Daibheid

miko wrote: »

Iv'e just bought a car in the UK off a private seller, going to collect it on wednesday. I'll be taking it straight back to ireland so I was wondering what I do with the V5 document when i'm buying it, do i just take it off the owner, or do i have to fill out a section for importing??

Get the whole document - the Revenue will want it but your seller will be keen to complete the change-of ownership and send part of it off to Swansea so let him/her know in advance you'll be wanting the V5 in its entirety. Arrange a copy each of a Bill of Sale so the seller will have something to show Plod if the car is snapped by a Gatso.

If you don't get it, things will get complicated and you'll be on to Swansea for a certificate of export and so on.

Kotek Besar

Daibheid wrote: »

Get the whole document - the Revenue will want it but your seller will be keen to complete the change-of ownership and send part of it off to Swansea so let him/her know in advance you'll be wanting the V5 in its entirety. Arrange a copy each of a Bill of Sale so the seller will have something to show Plod if the car is snapped by a Gatso.

If you don't get it, things will get complicated and you'll be on to Swansea for a certificate of export and so on.

This is slightly incorrect. The seller should submit the V5C to the buyer, in it's entirety, *except* for section 11 (notification of permanent export). That's the part that the seller should detach, fill in and send off to the DVLA.

miko

benifa wrote: »

This is slightly incorrect. The seller should submit the V5C to the buyer, in it's entirety, *except* for section 11 (notification of permanent export). That's the part that the seller should detach, fill in and send off to the DVLA.

great, thanks for the info.

Yuppie

Hi there

Im just about to buy and bring down a 02 Audi A4 Avant 1.9TDI(private buy) from the North and was looking at the VRT cost since i have a fairly strict budget. The OMSP of the vechical according to ros is somewhere in the region of €12,000 which puts the VRT at around €3000,

nearly any UK evaluation site i've found says the most i should be paying for a vechile of this age + spec should be around €8700 after the currency conversion. ive found one for around 5900 whic is just inside my budget(after a bit of haggling) and i'd feel a bit sick paying and extra 3K just to buy from up North,

since there is such a big difference between these prices is there anyway to get the VRT calculated at the lower rate?

kingshankly

Looking at a 06 320d se up north with 70k miles for £10800 (12500 euro) plus vrt of approx 4600. Does this represent value as opposed to going to England and factoring travel costs

medelina

I was looking at bringing in a used Audi A4 from the UK that is past its manufactures warranty. As it’s from an Audi dealer they give a 12 month warranty with all their approved used cars. However, when I asked if that meant I could get the car fixed in Republic of Ireland, they said the warranty wouldn’t apply here. They said it would be covered in Northen Ireland. I know if there was something major wrong with it, I could get it towed to Northern Ireland with the AA, but that would cause a lot of inconvenience as I live in Munster.

Audi is Audi, so I don’t see what the big deal would be to get it fixed in an Audi dealership here. Surely even if Audi Ireland and Audi UK are separate companies, they could bill each other or something. Has anyone experienced this kind of problem and found a way around it ?

medelina

Yuppie wrote: »

Hi there

Im just about to buy and bring down a 02 Audi A4 Avant 1.9TDI(private buy) from the North and was looking at the VRT cost since i have a fairly strict budget. The OMSP of the vechical according to ros is somewhere in the region of €12,000 which puts the VRT at around €3000,

nearly any UK evaluation site i've found says the most i should be paying for a vechile of this age + spec should be around €8700 after the currency conversion. ive found one for around 5900 whic is just inside my budget(after a bit of haggling) and i'd feel a bit sick paying and extra 3K just to buy from up North,

since there is such a big difference between these prices is there anyway to get the VRT calculated at the lower rate?

The OMSP is nothing todo with the value of the car is in the UK. It's what customs value it as here. You can appeal it if you think it is incorrect. There's info about appealing it in this (long) thread

The_Conductor

Sorry for being blunt- but just why do you imagine the AA will tow your car to Northern Ireland for you from Munster- if something goes wrong? There is a snowballs chance in hell of them agreeing to do that........

Dazzler88

Robertr wrote: »

- RAC/AA inspection (has to be done!!!)

Where do you get this done??and why do you have to do it???

R.O.R

medelina wrote: »

I was looking at bringing in a used Audi A4 from the UK that is past its manufactures warranty. As it’s from an Audi dealer they give a 12 month warranty with all their approved used cars. However, when I asked if that meant I could get the car fixed in Republic of Ireland, they said the warranty wouldn’t apply here. They said it would be covered in Northen Ireland. I know if there was something major wrong with it, I could get it towed to Northern Ireland with the AA, but that would cause a lot of inconvenience as I live in Munster.

Audi is Audi, so I don’t see what the big deal would be to get it fixed in an Audi dealership here. Surely even if Audi Ireland and Audi UK are separate companies, they could bill each other or something. Has anyone experienced this kind of problem and found a way around it ?

Sounds like it's the Dealers warranty. They probably have reciprocal agreements with UK dealers, but ROI dealers are totally different. If it was manufacturer warranty it's a whole other story.

medelina

smccarrick wrote: »

Sorry for being blunt- but just why do you imagine the AA will tow your car to Northern Ireland for you from Munster- if something goes wrong? There is a snowballs chance in hell of them agreeing to do that........

I have rescue plus. They will tow you to a garage of you choice. Ok, maybe it will be only within ROI ? If I'm driving my car in Donegal and breakdown, they are entitled to tow me back to my local mechanic. I had to call them out a couple of years ago and confirmed this with the AA guy.

medelina

R.O.R wrote: »

Sounds like it's the Dealers warranty. They probably have reciprocal agreements with UK dealers, but ROI dealers are totally different. If it was manufacturer warranty it's a whole other story.

Yeah, that must be it. I don’t fancy having no warranty on a car that’s not cheap, so I think I may have to leave it. I’ve a feeling that the audi garages here might not be too willing to entertain an agreement with a uk garage, as they’ll probably see it that you’re doing them out of business by buying abroad.

The_Conductor

medelina wrote: »

I have rescue plus. They will tow you to a garage of you choice. Ok, maybe it will be only within ROI ? If I'm driving my car in Donegal and breakdown, they are entitled to tow me back to my local mechanic. I had to call them out a couple of years ago and confirmed this with the AA guy.

Rescue Plus is rescue with a choice of add-ons which include-

A replacement hired car for up to 2 days
or
Overnight accommodation for driver and maximum of five passengers
or
Refund of reasonable public transport costs incurred up to a maximum of €150 per vehicle

+

recovery of your vehicle within the ROI.

Note: if your policy is the same as mine- the AA first of all will attempt to repair your vehicle at the roadside, thereafter they have 24 hours to bring it to the nearest AA approved garage- outside of this- it can be brought for repair to a garage of your choice, or towed to your destination.

They do not automatically tow you to a garage of your choice- they have 24 hours to bring it to one of theirs first (unless I am misreading my policy).......

Loads of Boardsies took out Rescue Plus policies- they had a Boards Bargains Alert about it a while back.......

The_Conductor

Seperately:

The AA will NOT provide Rescue Plus when:

-The AA is able to arrange a repair by a patrol or garage on the same day as the breakdown occurred.

Wait until 9-10PM at night to get around this clause?

Stevie Dakota

medelina wrote: »

Yeah, that must be it. I don’t fancy having no warranty on a car that’s not cheap, so I think I may have to leave it. I’ve a feeling that the audi garages here might not be too willing to entertain an agreement with a uk garage, as they’ll probably see it that you’re doing them out of business by buying abroad.

I brought in a second hand BMW a number of years back and that is what I was told, however when I paid for warranty work here (which I did) BMW UK reimbursed me. You don't have to do that with BMW here anymore. I would have thought any warranty from an authorised dealer would cover you anywhere in Europe.