How can you tell a car is an import ?

Barr

Hi All

As above I was wondering what is the easiest way to find if a car was imported into Ireland?

Could you tell from the reg number or is there another way.

Thanks

Gumbo

yeap, check the reg against

www.motorcheck.ie
www.mywheels.ie
etc
etc

for example, when you check an irish car on my wheels, you get this option :

Irish History and Finance Report * €7
*A Finance Check is completed within 1 working day and emailed separately.
Total cost... €7

But when you enter a reg that was imported, you get these options :

Available Reports:
[Compare Report Options] Irish History and Finance Report * (Excludes UK history) €7
This vehicle was imported from the UK. [?]
Irish and UK History Report
(Excludes any Finance Checks) €12
Irish and UK History Report including Irish Finance Check *
€15
*A Finance Check is completed within 1 working day and emailed separately.
Total cost... €15

Barr

So you always have to pay just to find out if its an import or not Bit of a pain if you’re looking at a few cars for sale.

YBTurbo

Previous reg, or date of first licensing on the tax book would tell you.

R.O.R

In general, if it's a high reg number for the year it should start alarm bells ringing.

Of course, that means being sad enough to know what would be high for the year...........

rebel.ranter

R.O.R wrote: »

In general, if it's a high reg number for the year it should start alarm bells ringing.

Of course, that means being sad enough to know what would be high for the year...........

......for each & every county! What's a high number in Laois might be low in Cork. And even at that it might not capture all imports. If the importer paid for a registration then they could have gotten a low number, I know of two cars with this, 96-C-999 is one example. Used to belong to my friend, he imported it from the UK.

Anan1

The service book will tell you where the car had its PDI.

Gumbo

Barr wrote: »

So you always have to pay just to find out if its an import or not Bit of a pain if you’re looking at a few cars for sale.

Nope, all done free of charge using www.mywheels.ie as per my first post
Go on, click on it and try it out

Gumbo

Anan1 wrote: »

The service book will tell you where the car had its PDI.

I have an e46 at home (mams old car, cousins current car), bought new from Joe Duffys in 2004 and it was PDI'd in the UK.

Just thinking back on this, maybe it was checked somehow in the UK first prior to delivery to Duffys? I'll check the service book the weekend if i see him.

Anan1

kceire wrote: »

I have an e46 at home (mams old car, cousins current car), bought new from Joe Duffys in 2004 and it was PDI'd in the UK.

Just thinking back on this, maybe it was checked somehow in the UK first prior to delivery to Duffys? I'll check the service book the weekend if i see him.

That's very strange. Were BMW UK and Ireland the same company at this stage?

dmc17

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056536206

Jarren

VIN number

Anan1

dmc17 wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056536206

That's only from last November.

Barr

kceire wrote: »

Nope, all done free of charge using www.mywheels.ie as per my first post
Go on, click on it and try it out

Ah I'm with you now. Tested it and worked

Mc Love

Just did mine and it said it was imported

Timmaay

Hmm didn't work for me? My last car was imported from the north, and it just gives this:

Irish History and Finance Report * €7
*A Finance Check is completed within 1 working day and emailed separately.

Total cost... €7

stimpson

Timmaay wrote: »

Hmm didn't work for me? My last car was imported from the north, and it just gives this:

Mine too - its a Jap import.

gerryo777

On most UK imports the speedo will read in mph as opposed to kph.

mgbgt1978

mywheels.ie seems to give a better result. I just checked 7 cars (that have passed through my hands) and it flagged up the three UK imports.

colm_mcm

electric windows in the back.

Timmaay

gerryo777 wrote: »

On most UK imports the speedo will read in mph as opposed to kph.

We only went km from 05 on, so bear in mind that doesn't mean much for pre 05 vehicles.

zilog_jones

A lot of UK cars have different trim levels and badging. For example with Toyotas sold here (starting with E110 Corolla and first Avensis) they have latin names for the trim levels e.g. Terra, Luna, Sol; whereas UK Toyotas are letters and numbers e.g. T2, T3, GS, SR.

Some trim level differences are less obvious. I don't know about other Peugeots but with the 406 UK trim levels were significantly different to what we got, and seemed to use the same names for completely different trims. My Irish-spec 406 Rapier has half-leather seats, manual aircon and steel wheels; whereas a UK equivalent would have alloys, cloth seats, and climate control. Also UK spec 406s have trim level badges on the wing (under the indicator repeater), but Irish ones have no trim level badges.

Sites like www.parkers.co.uk have lists of different equipment levels for UK cars, but it's much harder to find specs for Irish cars if they're no longer current models.

Barr

colm_mcm wrote: »

electric windows in the back.

Its funny because its true