importing from NI

grogan_20

looking into gettin myself a mini one in the next while, and having seen the prices of cars in northern ireland i think would be mad not to head up and get it there.also with the exchange rate so good i would be still saving myself 1000's.
i know VRT has to be paid but that included looks as if id be getting a great deal.

just wondering have many people done this, and if its a long process from picking the car in a dealer, to having your ire. reg plates???

miju

takes all of about 30 mins to get your southern plate number and then you just have to get it made up.

I imported a NI car in December without a hassle at all and saved myself about €6000 in the process.

Tipsy Mac

Yes it's a simple enough process.

Make sure though that the dealer gives you the V5 Registration Cert (Log Book) as if you don't get this it could take weeks if not months to register it as Revenue need this to VRT the car. Most dealers up there will know the process inside out but some not in the know might insist on sending the full V5 to Swansea to get registered in your name which will make a balls of it as the car is being exported. There's I think 2 parts of the V5 that the dealer removes and sends to Swansea, it's written on the form that these parts are sent back on export.

grogan_20

Thanks for the advise, so up north it is then!!!

mini mouse

yup there's definately good deals to be found up in the north.... really simple to VRT and get new plates then just NCT and you're sorted! I got my mini up there about 6mths ago and saved a good few €'s !

It might be no harm to have a look down south too though - nowadays there's great value down here too! what year etc are you hoping for ?

I was also looking at mini one's but my friends who know there stuff advised getting a cooper instead ....apparently they're a better car and hold their value better ! It was a little more difficult for me to get insured on my cooper though as even though a mini one and cooper are both 1.6lt the cooper is classified as a sports car ?!

Best of luck with you're hunt!!mini's are great cars !

PauloMN

5 working days had us with new reg, tax disc and insurance disc on the car. VRC doc came a few days later. VRT office was half an hour, no problems. First tax can be done online which I didn't know before, so no need to visit tax office.

The only immediate thing you need to do is get temp insurance cover, but that can be done over the phone once you have the reg.

Completely painless. Shop around though, prices vary greatly between garages, and if you buy at the higher price range, you probably won't save on ROI prices, and you could even pay more. Work out your max price in sterling before looking around.

lifer_sean

grogan_20 wrote: »

looking into gettin myself a mini one in the next while, and having seen the prices of cars in northern ireland i think would be mad not to head up and get it there.also with the exchange rate so good i would be still saving myself 1000's.
i know VRT has to be paid but that included looks as if id be getting a great deal.

just wondering have many people done this, and if its a long process from picking the car in a dealer, to having your ire. reg plates???

I'd advise you to shop around carefully here first. Mini's are highly sought after in NI / UK and are not cheap. They are making over book value at auction. Also band D (24%) for VRT for petrol one (163g/km for the older ones). We brought in 3 of them last year to sell on. Had to replace the gearbox in one (common fault, as is the power steering system), and problems with airbag lights on the other two. Tried to import another earlier this year but prices were mental - gone up from last year, even though cars are older. Missed one in Dublin a few weeks ago that was far cheaper than you could import one for (approx 10k for a 05 !).

Great car to drive though - probably the most fun of any car I've driven ! I wanted the wife to keep the last one so that I could drive it at the weekends but she wouldn't agree !!!