Moving back to Ireland - Suggest a car for making use of VRT exemption

marathonic

As per the title, I'm intending to move back to Ireland from the UK in the next 12-18 months.

My current car, a 2011 Honda Accord Type-S 180bhp, is valued at £10,000. However, I'm considering upgrading and have a budget of approximately £25k.

My mileage is under 10k per year - so is low enough to consider a petrol and low enough to render mpg less of a concern than resale value a few years down the line.

I'm flexible as to type of car and have been looking at things like:

• Lexus IS 300H F-Sport
• Lexus GS 450H F-Sport
• Volkswagen Golf GTI
• Audi A4/S4
• Audi A5/S5
• BMW 335i
• BMW 535i

Does anyone have any particular suggestions or would anyone care to reveal what car they would choose if they were in the same position?

livingthedream

Hi,

Whatever you decide on, make sure you check out its road tax in Ireland.
Big engined or 'high' emission cars (depending on year) get crucified here for road tax and as a result their market value here plummets as people are scared off by the high annual road tax. So something that you bring over may depreciate more than you might imagine.

There is a whole thread on boards about older big engined lovely cars for sale for very little for this very reason (search for luxobarges). There are actually people making a living exporting these cars to the UK where there is a higher demand and a more favorable road tax rate and the ability to recoup some VRT if the car is exported out of the juristiction..

Anyway, you are in a nice position....

~LTD

Special Circumstances

You looking to keep long term? Gotta be diesel beemer or Audi otherwise if you're looking for easy sale.

marathonic

livingthedream wrote: »

Whatever you decide on, make sure you check out its road tax in Ireland.
Big engined or 'high' emission cars (depending on year) get crucified here for road tax and as a result their market value here plummets as people are scared off by the high annual road tax. So something that you bring over may depreciate more than you might imagine.

Thanks for the advice. Yes, I've been looking at Audi S5's and some fall into the >225 g/km tax band, others into the 191 - 225 g/km tax band and, from 2011, there are some that fall into the 171 - 190 g/km band.

If I were going for one of these, I'd go for the lowest emission version - not just for the tax savings, but also for the potential increased resale value and the reduced expectations of problems with a newer car.

marathonic

Special Circumstances wrote: »

You looking to keep long term? Gotta be diesel beemer or Audi otherwise if you're looking for easy sale.

I'm probably going to keep it for 3-4 years.

I reckon a low spec BMW 320i, or similar, would be difficult to resell.

However, if I were to up the budget and go with a 2014 BMW 335i M-Sport (169 g/km), I'm not sure if there'd be too much difficulty in selling. After all, it's a 6-cylinder 3 litre petrol with 306bhp costing €570 to tax.

marathonic

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Large petrol engined cars don't sell too well in Ireland. Mention a 2.0 litre petrol to your average Joe and they will look at you like you are mental.

Exactly. A bog-standard BMW 316i or 320i would be aimed at the average joe come resale time which is why I think resale would be difficult.

I know I'm contradicting myself here but I think the 3.0 litre BMW 335i M-Sport would sell easier. It's a niche market and there are VERY few of them available in Ireland due, in part, to the initial VRT hit.

But, in my opinion, there will be plenty of people in 3-4 years willing to purchase a 3.0l petrol BMW that can do 0-100 km/h in just over 5 seconds, despite the €570 to tax. Basically, it's a niche market.

Special Circumstances

marathonic wrote: »

However, if I were to up the budget and go with a 2014 BMW 335i M-Sport (169 g/km), I'm not sure if there'd be too much difficulty in selling. After all, it's a 6-cylinder 3 litre petrol with 306bhp costing €570 to tax.

F**k the tractor boys - go for it.
I apologise for my previous diesel encouragement - Hang around this forum long enough and people will try to convince you that 4pot diesels are more refined, cleaner, and sound better than petrols in general.

sunnysoutheast

marathonic wrote: »

As per the title, I'm intending to move back to Ireland from the UK in the next 12-18 months.

My current car, a 2011 Honda Accord Type-S 180bhp, is valued at £10,000. However, I'm considering upgrading and have a budget of approximately £25k.

My mileage is under 10k per year - so is low enough to consider a petrol and low enough to render mpg less of a concern than resale value a few years down the line.

I'm flexible as to type of car and have been looking at things like:

• Lexus IS 300H F-Sport
• Lexus GS 450H F-Sport
• Volkswagen Golf GTI
• Audi A4/S4
• Audi A5/S5
• BMW 335i
• BMW 535i

Does anyone have any particular suggestions or would anyone care to reveal what car they would choose if they were in the same position?

Golf R
S3 saloon
3-series x-drive

Nice dilemma to have!

bazz26

You will loose your shirt on anything petrol other than maybe a Golf GTi over here. The GTi still has a market here and a decent spec one would sell here a few years down the road no problem imo.

Anything else would want to be diesel with low or modest motor tax, that's what the majority of buyers want over here. Demand for newish large engined petrol cars is low so could take longer to sell on.

Foxhole Norman

I'd go for one of the 35i versions to be honest. There's a decent bit of demand for post 08 35i's at the moment and I'd say you'd shift one of them very easily in a few years when it comes time to sell.

HandsomeDan

+1 on the x35i option. It's a stoner of an engine and has a second hand market following. Although less so in the 5 series.

Up to me I'd go gs450h

Marcusm

I may have a similar dilemma in the autumn. Bigger issue is my man car is getting on for 10 years (55 plate full fat Range Rover 4.2S/C). Runs perfectly, no hassle. I am considering changing for an E63AMG estate - 2011 or so for £32k - would need to change soon or else delay return if indeed it happens.

To the OP I say get what you want - you can always send it back to the UK. If you look at the "Buying" subforum, you'll se that there is a Golf GTi/d/R thread relating to new buyers. These markets while small are growing. Audi, BMW or VW I suspect will succeed better than Lexus IS if that's your concern.

marathonic

A car that I forgot to include in the list of potentials would be the only diesel I've really looked at - a BMW 640D M-Sport.

If going for this option, I'd have to go for a 2012 as opposed to the 2013 I could go for in, for example, the Lexus GS 450H.

marathonic

Or I could take my mind off the 'man maths', save a few thousand pounds and go for a 2014 Volkswagen CC 2.0 TDI (177PS) BMT R-Line instead.

Idbatterim

I'm probably going to keep it for 3-4 years.

I reckon a low spec BMW 320i, or similar, would be difficult to resell.

However, if I were to up the budget and go with a 2014 BMW 335i M-Sport (169 g/km), I'm not sure if there'd be too much difficulty in selling. After all, it's a 6-cylinder 3 litre petrol with 306bhp costing €570 to tax.

E570 to tax that car, what a bloody steal!

H3llR4iser

marathonic wrote: »

As per the title, I'm intending to move back to Ireland from the UK in the next 12-18 months.

My current car, a 2011 Honda Accord Type-S 180bhp, is valued at £10,000. However, I'm considering upgrading and have a budget of approximately £25k...

There might be more hiding in the folds that it looks like right now. I won't go into "depreciation" and "value" considerations; I'll keep it to day-do-day costs.

The fact is this: the direction Ireland has taken is that of completely murdering high performance/big engined/high emissions cars with stupidly high motor tax. Right now, tax on post-2008 cars is usually somewhat reasonable, while on older cars is beyond insane (710/year for a 2.0L).

There is an additional twist: Irish insurers try, and often manage, to apply larger premiums to cars that are older than 10 years, citing various baloney about them being "unsafe"; according to them, everything in a car fails as soon as they turn 10 - but not when they're 9...

Those two reasons will, in the next few years, probably push for a premature disappeareance of most pre-2008 cars from Irish roads.

What's likely going to happen at that point is that the Government, having lost a huge amount of revenue from the replacement of cars paying motor tax based off engine capacity with ones that incur in a significantly lower rate in the CO2 bands (sometimes more than 50% less), will make such rates skyrocket to try and meet what they were before - with the excuse that newer, more "efficient" and "green" cars are available on the market.

Moreso, insurance might be a problem. They will try to load your premium as soon as they hear "import", and will try to scam you out of your NCB that you build up in the UK. f I was in your position, I would actually try to run a few quotes with the models considered, specifying it is an UK import.

I don't mean to discourage you, just pointing out that there are these factors to consider as well!

marathonic

The above post makes complete sense. The CO2 rates are likely to be pushed significantly higher over the coming years as motor tax takings reduce due to reduced CO2 cars.

In the UK, there appears to be a movement starting to remove the significant advantage, from a motor tax perspective, of diesels over petrols. The politicians appear to be admitting that they got it wrong and that they are more harmful emmissions than CO2 that need to be considered when over-populating the roads with diesel vehicles. I wonder will the same ever happen here?

H3llR4iser

marathonic wrote: »

The above post makes complete sense. The CO2 rates are likely to be pushed significantly higher over the coming years as motor tax takings reduce due to reduced CO2 cars.

In the UK, there appears to be a movement starting to remove the significant advantage, from a motor tax perspective, of diesels over petrols. The politicians appear to be admitting that they got it wrong and that they are more harmful emmissions than CO2 that need to be considered when over-populating the roads with diesel vehicles. I wonder will the same ever happen here?

The reality, if one wants to be completely objective, is that scrapping a tonne and a half of metal, plastics, composites and various toxic materials will generate more pollutants than the same vehicle would push into the air in 5 years of running. Therefore, basing the tax off "pollution produced while running", pushing people towards buying new cars, is a concept that is pointless in its very basic idea.

But car manufacturers and, most importantly, dealership networks love it...

Idbatterim

The above post makes complete sense. The CO2 rates are likely to be pushed significantly higher over the coming years as motor tax takings reduce due to reduced CO2 cars.

It is not only the motor tax, it is the VRT also, if a 335 can now be taxed for E570 that is 27%, on the old system it would have been 36%. For example the new Audi A7 6 pot diesel can be taxed for E270, which is the 18 or 19% rate, again on the old system it would have been 36%

And I dont think they can go back to the old systems robbery on emissions, because the luxury car manufacturers have such good perfmornance and low emissions, that if they want to up the rates, then people in fords and hyundai's etc would be hammered to and they wont get away with that...