Insurance question - is this car imported?

fiona-f

Hi,

Firstly apologies if this is in the wrong place. I'm about to get my first ever car of my own (v excited) and have been researching insurance costs, etc. Now, I'm pretty much decided on a particular car; it was first registered in Northern Ireland in 2002 and the owner in 2007 moved to the Republic and VRTed and registered it here and all the paperwork seems to be in order. When I look at online insurance quotes, one of the questions it asks is "has this car been imported?" Now, given that we don't make cars in this country, I assume this means something different than the literal meaning of the words - and can anyone tell me whether it would apply to a car first registered in the North and now registered here? And if so, could I expect to see a big difference in insurance premium? Would I be better off forgetting all about this particular car and looking for another one?

Thanks for any help - I'm terribly new to car ownership and am very grateful for any assistance.

CR 7

i assume being from northern ireland won't affect it really. It's more of a loading for japanese imports etc., for the perceived higher cost of replacement parts.

bazz26

It's a poorly phrased question to be honest. What they really mean is "was the car originally registered outside of this country?" which in your case is yes.

Graham_B18C

bazz26 wrote: »

It's a poorly phrased question to be honest. What they really mean is "was the car originally registered outside of this country?" which in your case is yes.

No, a lot of them ask "is this car an import", I always took that as meaning a Jap import or something of the like, ring the insurance comp and ask is your best bet

seanybiker

I agree with the lads on the jap import kinda thing.
Ring insurance to be 100%.
What car ya getting anyways?

evogirl

id guess it would be classed as an import as it was first registered in the north. but id ring and ask just to be sure though.

fiona-f

Thanks everyone. I guess I'll ring them and see. I'm so completely new to this and didn't want to look entirely clueless on the phone! Thanks!

evogirl

best of luck with the new car anyway

Del2005

I asked about this ages ago when I had a Jap import and was p!ssed off with the stupid question asking if the car was imported on all the sites. I emailed one company and asked why they asked the question about was the car imported to Ireland which had no indigenous car industry therefore all cars where imported, bar some Beatles, early Fords and the Shamrock. They came back with imported from outside the EU as far as I remember.

As the others have said, best is to ring up and ask as each company will have different T&C's.

Tipsy Mac

The question is asked purely for Jap imports as the majority have no immobilizer and so are a high theft risk.

Owen

Del2005 wrote: »

Ireland which had no indigenous car industry therefore all cars where imported, bar some Beatles, early Fords and the Shamrock

Don't forget Minis were built here too, and DeLoreans!