Importing classic

qazz

Hi. I'd like to import Camaro '76 from Poland. actually the car is being renovated. Problem is Camaro is not registered in Poland yet so it can't be on the road. My question is if someone has to see a car here when is imported. I mean when you go for VRT. My idea is to take all documents here, pay VRT (i think 50euro fo 30 years old car), get plates, pay tax and take it back to poland and drive it back here. Is it possible? Because if it isn't there's only recovery truck left and it would cost a lot. what do you think about it? Thanks

green-blood

if it hasnt been registered anywhere in the eu you will be liable for 21% vat on top of the VRT levied on the OMSP (Open Market Selling Price)

Your idea is not feasible

Lyre61

and they need to see the car before they will allow it to be registered, they look up the Vin plate on the car.

Anan1

Lyre61 wrote:

and they need to see the car before they will allow it to be registered, they look up the Vin plate on the car.

Strangely enough, Sligo VRT office told me last week that if a car is EU registered and over 30 years old, they will register it without having to see the car. Not much help to qazz, but interesting all the same.

Henry Ford III

1976 = no VRT. Get it EU registered and Robert is your fathers brother

mustang68

Anan1 wrote:

Strangely enough, Sligo VRT office told me last week that if a car is EU registered and over 30 years old, they will register it without having to see the car.

I'd actually beleive that one, when I went to do the vrt thing the guy looked grumpy to be pulled out of his office and when he couldn't find the chassis or engine number quickly he accepted the build plate rivited to the drivers door

Traumadoc

Yea same thing when I was getting my car registered - very grumpy!

Anan1

mustang68 wrote:

I'd actually beleive that one, when I went to do the vrt thing the guy looked grumpy to be pulled out of his office and when he couldn't find the chassis or engine number quickly he accepted the build plate rivited to the drivers door

I just registered the 280SL today in Tallaght VRO. Gave them the V5 and €50, filled out a form and left with an RF100 to tax the car. VLC will be posted to me by the tax office when I tax the car. I told them I didn't have the car with me, the nice lady said "ah sure we won't worry about that.":)

PaulK_CCI

Anan1 wrote:

I just registered the 280SL today in Tallaght VRO. Gave them the V5 and €50, filled out a form and left with an RF100 to tax the car. VLC will be posted to me by the tax office when I tax the car. I told them I didn't have the car with me, the nice lady said "ah sure we won't worry about that.":)

That would be highly, and I stress, highly, unusual, especially in the Tallaght office. I have registered so many cars in DunLaoghaire (before it was closed), Wexford, Wicklow and also Tallaght, and I have NEVER been sent away without anyone coming out to inspect the vehicle. They must inspect the vehicle to verify the chassis number matches the number on the documentation, so that they would allow you to leave without having seen the car, puzzles me outright. In many an occasion I was even denied getting all the paperwork, because either the car wasn't in the system, or they couldn't verify the date of 1st registration, you name it, once I was almost denied to register the vehicle because the official couldn;t find an engine number!!!! AS if that was going to prove something, because the engine number was not registered on any of the documents anyway!!!

I can understand about the Sligo office being a bit quirky and catching the VRO official on a bad, rainy day, would get you off the hook, but the Tallaght office???? That was one lucky escape you had, as if you had gotten another official, you would have had to come back with the car, no doubt whatsoever....

Lyre61

I went up to the Santry office first without the car, and I got sent away...no car, no reg I then brought the car up to tallaght, and they came out to look even thought it was raining

Anan1

I'd actually been trying to get Tallaght on the phone for the past two weeks without success, and finally decided to just take a spin up with the paperwork. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting them to do it either - when she asked for the €50 I had to run down to the banklink!

.atomic.

Brought in a '67 Merc from the US into Cork last week. Car arrived, so I headed into the shipping agent in town. Showed them the invoice for the purchase of the car and the shipping; they calculated the VAT, took a bank draft off me to cover it and had it cleared though Customs within an hour. Headed off to the VRO (without car - it was still sitting in the docks) and filled in what I could on the application form (make, model, VIN etc.) but left a good few blanks (e.g. what was the month of first registration - how the **** was I to know!?). The only piece of documentation that yer man was interested in was the American title document. Once he saw that he was happy enough. At no point did he mention anything about taking a look at the car. Got my ZV reg, paid the 50 yoyo's and headed off down to the docks to pick it up.

My understanding is that they inspect non-classic cars to see if they are above/below standard condition for a make/model of that age (and if it's been fitted with accessories/modified etc.) as they can then adjust the OMSP upwards or downwards accordingly, which then affects the VRT payable. But since a classic generates 50 euro VRT whether it's a heap of **** or in concours condition, why would they be bothered checking it out?

Anyway, said Merc is now sitting in my driveway taxed & insured and waiting for a bit of a tune-up by the mechanic. Sweet!

Abelloid

That's odd, I had to wait weeks for a code from Wexford to register because the car wasn't on the system :rolleyes:
The car was inspected for matching numbers although the inspector did ask me to call out the chassis number, couldn't be arsed lifting the seat so I called it off the MOT cert.

qazz

Camaro was registered in Germany. It would be great if they didn't check a car Anyway, Camaro will be in a perfect condition. I can always try. I hope I will get it here in september.

MercMad

When I did my other Merc in 2001 it was missing the VIN plate, but I had the paperwork and also knew where the chassis number was stamped to the chassis leg. The woman insisted that I clean the area so she could read it AND she took a photo of it !!

PaulK_CCI

.atomic. wrote:

My understanding is that they inspect non-classic cars to see if they are above/below standard condition for a make/model of that age (and if it's been fitted with accessories/modified etc.) as they can then adjust the OMSP upwards or downwards accordingly, which then affects the VRT payable. But since a classic generates 50 euro VRT whether it's a heap of **** or in concours condition, why would they be bothered checking it out?

As i mentioned, the VRO officials must come out to check the actual vehicle to confirm that the stamped chassis number (and NOT the little VIN plate!!!) matches the number on the documentation, full stop! If they don't bother to come out, or just check the little vin plate, you've just been lucky and can't really assume this is going to happen the next time!! (it certainly has NEVER happened to me once, and I have registered a whole lot of cars over the years!!!

With regards the vin plate, I had major hassle once with an old Volvo P544. In the old days Saab and Volvo didn't stamp their chassis numbers into the chassis and just used vin plates. Early Citroen DS's too. It took some explaining to convince the official that this car did not have a stamped chassis number, and the vin plate was all there was....

rrv8

Registered my 1974 Range rover last week at the Sligo office , sounds like I must have got them on a good day , went in with all the documents and forms and was given two choices , either go through all the paperwork or pay the 50 euro's .Went for the easy option , go down the 50 euro line .All I had to give the guy was the UK logbook and fill in a new form .Never even mentioned about looking at the Range Rover , just as well as on that age it only has a vin plate and that went missing years ago after the front end was replaced (cars bend , trees dont ) .The guy I dealt with was very pleasant and helpfull .Getting insurance for it as an every day use car is a different story

corktina

dont understand the choice bit...what you describe is the standard procedure for an imported car....

rrv8

corktina wrote:

dont understand the choice bit...what you describe is the standard procedure for an imported car....

Had been running the Range Rover in the UK for the past 7 years before I brought it over , was still registered in my UK address and would have had to prove residency to get it VRT free

corktina

sounds to me like it should have been VRT free.....easy enough to prove you are living here now I would guess...letter from Emlployer or Landlord, Utility bill that sort of thing.

green-blood

well I managed to reduce the VRT on my 325i Sport by convincing them it was not as good condition as their average valuation, saved me over 400 quid. NHow this is a 20 year old car so its not a 50 yoyo import but its not on the system either.

since feb they have changed the system for anything over abotu 10 years old, they consider these cars "classic or collectable" and tehy VALUE tehm individually, they will always refer to Rosslare for a valuation wich they seem to jsut make up

be wary

MercMad

Yes I heard similar stories from importers of the W124 Coupe or Convertible Merc !

The VRT has doubled on these cars recently !

rrv8

corktina wrote:

sounds to me like it should have been VRT free.....easy enough to prove you are living here now I would guess...letter from Emlployer or Landlord, Utility bill that sort of thing.

Would have been easy if I had the documentation to hand , but also I can still register another car VRT free ,as you can only regester one free every 5 years

corktina

i think you can only register VRT free when taking up permanent residence in the state from a EU country.....

Traumadoc

Not just EU, I avoided VRT coming from Australia, saved about 30K on a merc ML.

alastair

Just to add a bit of clarity (?) to the VRT issue; I'm just back from the Tallaght VRT office, where I was registering a Nissan Pao (no hissing please!). They didn't want to see the car, and seemingly they have a newish policy of only checking the high value 'new' cars. If you've an 'old' car they won't bother checking unless you're really unlucky (she did warn that the day you show up without the car is probably the day they'll decide to do their spot check ). I didn't have an engine number for the Pao, so they just reversed the chassis number to stand in for a real engine number.

So, I'd say unless you're bringing in a Bugatti or something equally exotic, chances are you don't actually need the car with you.