Buying from UK or NI

velomelo

Hi,

My family is growing and our Golf is getting a bit small for all the stuff that comes with babies. So we decided it might be the right time to upgrade to something bigger. Now my wife and I are not super savvy when it comes to cars so I would like to ask you for some advice before we will make any moves.

We are thinking of getting a car from either UK or NI. It's seems a bit cheaper after paying VRT. I'm sure this idea will split the opinions whether its worth or not. But what I'd like to know is - when I buy a car in UK/NI can I check it's history (is there some sort of registry?). Once I buy it and pay the VRT will I get the irish plates ? We don't drive much so we tend to keep our cars for few years (we did around 20,000 km within the 3yr period). Is it difficult to sell a car from NI/UK or is it same as if it was purchased in Ireland ?

Anything else I should know that I'm not aware of ?

Many thanks for all the help.

CiniO

velomelo wrote: »

Once I buy it and pay the VRT will I get the irish plates ?

You don't physically get plates.
They just assign you registration number once you pay VRT. Then you have 3 days to display them, so you will have to purchase them yourself (cost approx 20 quid from most motorfactors).

We don't drive much so we tend to keep our cars for few years (we did around 20,000 km within the 3yr period). Is it difficult to sell a car from NI/UK or is it same as if it was purchased in Ireland ?

In general there shouldn't be any difference, but obviously some people might be wary of buying imported car, the same as some people might be wary of buying car with more than 2 owners, over 60k miles, white in colour, and other completely irrelevant stuff.

Anything else I should know that I'm not aware of ?

When buying in NI, you can generally go there and see various cars around dealers (or privately) depending how you want to buy. Getting there to view cars and if you buy one cost of return to Ireland would be less. However cars seem to be bit more expensive than in UK.

If you decide to go to UK for a car, you either take few days in there and possibly rent a car to view some cars. Or you can arrange everything beforehand and just book a flight, pick up a car and return by the ferry. But then you generally are deciding to buy without even seeing the car before, so you might be disappointed and you get there. And at this stage deciding no to buy a car will double the transport costs.

Valetta

In my opinion unless you are spending close to 20k it is not worth going to the UK to save money alone.

If you are looking for a superior spec on the car then that's different.

velomelo

I was looking and BMW 3 series (estate) 2010. I could get it for 13-14k euro (with the vrt) comparing to min. 19k here for more or less similar mileage and spec. So I think that's decent saving and ofcourse that may vary for other makes and models.

Valetta

velomelo wrote: »

I was looking and BMW 3 series (estate) 2010. I could get it for 13-14k euro (with the vrt) comparing to min. 19k here for more or less similar mileage and spec. So I think that's decent saving and ofcourse that may vary for other makes and models.

That sounds like huge savings. Are you sure you have your calculations correct including the exchange rate?

I brought in a car 3 years ago for a total cost of 20.5K which would have cost circa 25-26K here and thought I did very well.

CiniO

Valetta wrote: »

In my opinion unless you are spending close to 20k it is not worth going to the UK to save money alone.

If you are looking for a superior spec on the car then that's different.

I recently got 09 Civic 2.2 diesel for just above 10k (including all the costs), and in Ireland it's very hard to get one like that for less than 12k, more likely 13k.

velomelo

I also think there are some websites or companies that do the history check of cars from UK. Can they be trusted ?

Valetta

I used www.mycarcheck.com and this, combined with the service report from the selling garage confirmed the details and mileage.

I also got the RAC to do a full mechanical check. I think this was about Stg£240 but well worth it.

R.O.R

velomelo wrote: »

I was looking and BMW 3 series (estate) 2010. I could get it for 13-14k euro (with the vrt) comparing to min. 19k here for more or less similar mileage and spec. So I think that's decent saving and ofcourse that may vary for other makes and models.

Looking at the cheapest 2010 3 Series Touring on Autotrader, it's working out just over €14,000 landed - if you can get the same rate as xe.com. Realistically, that's not going to happen, but it should still be possible to land it for around €15,000 and that is a huge saving compared to the very small selection of 3 Series Tourings on Carzone.

mickman

Bought an octavia elegance last week over there and it looks like i saved around 1200-1500

If you compare apples with apples (same very low mileage / very very clean car) then the savings are in the order of the above.

To many , that may not be much of a saving but if someone paid me 1500 euro for one days work then you better believe i would take it :-)

1500 buys a lot of fuel!