What do you do once you have found a used car you want to buy?

armabelle

Hi folks. I am new to Ireland and need to purchase a car. I have done the process in other countries but it may be different here so please could someone help me out

You found a car and you want to buy it. What then? Do you pay the money and take the car home first or do you have to fill out forms first before paying? Then what happens? This is the to-do-list I am used to but could someone tell me if it is right or in the right order?

1) Buy the car by paying for it
2) Transfer the car into your name (how do you do this and where can you get the form?)
3) Get insurance for the car

Is there anything else you need to do?

thanks for any help and tips!

bazz26

There is a sticky thread on this forum about buying a car in Ireland, its a few years old but the information is still relevant:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056198864

Also car insurance is expensive in this country especially for non nationals so my advice is before buying any car make sure you can afford to insure it first. To do this take a few examples of the make, model and year of the car you want and get insurance quotes. This should give you a ballpark figure of what such cars will cost to insure.

armabelle

bazz26 wrote: »

There is a sticky thread on this forum about buying a car in Ireland, its a few years old but the information is still relevant:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056198864

Also car insurance is expensive in this country especially for non nationals so my advice is before buying any car make sure you can afford to insure it first. To do this take a few examples of the make, model and year of the car you want and get insurance quotes. This should give you a ballpark figure of what such cars will cost to insure.

Thanks, read that and it is great but was more concerned about after choosing the car. like what steps do you take, what forms do you fill, where do you fill them out etc...

Your advice on insurance was really good. Do you know any good insurance companies?

colm_mcm

You just need to fill out a change of ownership. The garage or seller will have the registration document which is filled out and posted.

bazz26

Insurance prices are tailored to the individual so there is no good insurance company for everyone. I would suggest googling "insurance companies or insurance brokers in Ireland" and either get online quotes or ring them directly as there really isn't any shortcuts to getting the best offers without putting in the legwork. Prices can vary greatly so worth ringing them all if you can.

As regarding transfer of ownership, once you are happy to buy and pay for the car then the seller will fill in your name and address details on the change of ownership section of the vehicle registration certificate which is also referred to as the car's "logbook". Once that is done the seller is required to send the logbook off to the Department of the Environment so that they can update their records and issue a new vehicle registration certificate (logbook) to the new owner. A week or two later you the new owner, should receive your new registration certification with your name and address on it. This then means you are the new registered owner of the car and if the car needs motor tax then you can do it.

One thing to note about this procedure is that it is flawed in that many sellers get lazy once they have your money and don't bother sending off the vehicle registration certificate so that transfer of ownership can be completed. Insead the new buyer ends up having to sort it themselves via a more awkward process. So the best advice here is to bring a blank envelope and put the address of where it has to be sent to on it. Both you and the seller just drop it into the closest post box and be done with it. Remember that the seller is not to give the buyer the old vehicle registration document as that is not how it is done.

If you are buying from a motor dealer then the procedure is different in that the dealer will either do the transfer of ownership online or will send off the vehicle registration with your details on it. Again about a week or two later you will receive a new vehicle registration certificate in the post.

colm_mcm

There is a good guide to buying a used car in this forum. It's sticky'd at the top

bazz26

And a sticky on the main motors forum around car insurance too.