Irish spec cars

irisheddie85

Is there any site that lists what came in what trim level of cars for sale originally in Ireland?

Basically an Irish version of honestjohn or parkers that seem to list everything you would want to know about UK cars.

It's a pain when looking through car ads and trying to figure out what version of a car has the gadgets or even power output you want.

colm_mcm

No, unfortunately.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Basically take the spec of the English version of the car and delete every option for the Irish version, ie no alloys, no air con, no spoiler, no sat nav, no Bluetooth, etc etc

Red Kev

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Basically take the spec of the English version of the car and delete every option for the Irish version, ie no alloys, no air con, no spoiler, no sat nav, no Bluetooth, etc etc

Bull****.


OP: The "Poverty Paddy Spec" crap is largely a figment of the imaginations of people who prop up bar counters. There's a difference is spec, but posts like the above are bollyx.

r3nu4l

Red Kev wrote: »

Bull****.


OP: The "Poverty Paddy Spec" crap is largely a figment of the imaginations of people who prop up bar counters. There's a difference is spec, but posts like the above are bollyx.

True for the most part but there are differences in spec for some Irish models and it would be great to have a site documenting Irish spec. It would make buying so much easier, especially because even dealers can't seem to put the full spec of their used cars on websites.

ThisRegard

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Basically take the spec of the English version of the car and delete every option for the Irish version, ie no alloys, no air con, no spoiler, no sat nav, no Bluetooth, etc etc

Not true, some Irish versions come better spec'd than the UK equivalent.

Red Kev

r3nu4l wrote: »

True for the most part but there are differences in spec for some Irish models and it would be great to have a site documenting Irish spec. It would make buying so much easier, especially because even dealers can't seem to put the full spec of their used cars on websites.

I'm not being smart, but the easiest way is to set such a site up yourself. It would take a bit of groundwork at the beginning, but once you make contacts with the main dealers it should flow along nicely.

There's plenty of scope there as well...prices..finance options....new car reviews ...advertising..used cars from dealers...real time economy .. etc. etc. etc.

Put in a few links to other sites and you might have a nice little earner to quote the Godfather of used cars himself, Arthur Daley.

irisheddie85

Suppose I'll just have to stick to using the English sites and reading old boards threads.

If anyone wants to build an Irish site that lists every car sold in Ireland in the last 20 years I promise to turn off ad block when I visit and click through on a few of the ads ðŸ˜

bear1

ThisRegard wrote: »

Not true, some Irish versions come better spec'd than the UK equivalent.

Passat being one of them.

r3nu4l

Red Kev wrote: »

I'm not being smart, but the easiest way is to set such a site up yourself. It would take a bit of groundwork at the beginning, but once you make contacts with the main dealers it should flow along nicely.

There's plenty of scope there as well...prices..finance options....new car reviews ...advertising..used cars from dealers...real time economy .. etc. etc. etc.

Put in a few links to other sites and you might have a nice little earner to quote the Godfather of used cars himself, Arthur Daley.

Don't think i didn't think that myself when I was posting If i had a bit more time I would look into it and I have thought of it before. Her indoors would never allow me put in the time though Terry, know what I mean my son?

Jack the Stripper

Neighbour bought new caddy van with manual windows. Paddy spec is still alive.

almostover

bear1 wrote: »

ThisRegard wrote: »

Not true, some Irish versions come better spec'd than the UK equivalent.

Passat being one of them.

Bought myself a '09 pisshat highline 1.5 years ago and took me a long time to find an original Irish car. The seats are so much nicer in the Paddy spec highline.

Eric Cartman

ThisRegard wrote: »

Not true, some Irish versions come better spec'd than the UK equivalent.

true, dealers have started doing this of late as if they didn't when it comes trade in time they're selling a car into the used market with nothing on it, people in the UK will spec options, a lot of irish buyers just want whatevers on the forecourt so they're better off putting 500 quid worth of extras on to it to make it more attractive when it comes back.

Mycroft H

Jack the Stripper wrote: »

Neighbour bought new caddy van with manual windows. Paddy spec is still alive.

Sure why wouldn't you? Less to go wrong and you get to keep fit when winding them down.

Red Kev

Jack the Stripper wrote: »

Neighbour bought new caddy van with manual windows. Paddy spec is still alive.

And there's 4 Renault Masters in the company that I'm in one day a week (2005-2009 models). Two brand new Irish, one NI import, one in from England.

Irish Master's came with metallic paint, central locking, nice seat covers, electric windows and a decent CD player as well as an upgraded security package.

UK ones have manual windows, no security upgrade, plain white paint, plasticy seats, no armrest for the driver and a **** radio/CD with 2 speakers.

Seriously, there are hundreds, if not thousands of car and van combinations out there, they're not all the same.

bear1

almostover wrote: »

Bought myself a '09 pisshat highline 1.5 years ago and took me a long time to find an original Irish car. The seats are so much nicer in the Paddy spec highline.

I've got a 07 highline, tanned leather but very nice and supportive.
Uk ones mostly seem to have cloth.

Leonard Hofstadter

Jack the Stripper wrote: »

Neighbour bought new caddy van with manual windows. Paddy spec is still alive.

Indeed it is, Skoda, Toyota and Ford are among the manufacturers who do not fit air conditioning as standard to the Octavia, Auris and Focus respectively in Ireland, but that most basic of features has been standard for at least the past 10 years in the UK (in the case of Toyota, 13 years ago). Superminis still have atrocious levels of spec in Ireland compared to the UK and Irish people still buy cars with the worst possible engine variant, look at how many 316ds BMW sell for instance and there's a fair few 318is, with their miserable little 1.5 litre engine (with just three cylinders) being sold as well.

Vic_08

Red Kev wrote: »

Bull****.


OP: The "Poverty Paddy Spec" crap is largely a figment of the imaginations of people who prop up bar counters. There's a difference is spec, but posts like the above are bollyx.

The main difference is that Irish cars seem far more likely to have been bought with the lowest spec available. The manufacturer might not spec the different lines differently but the high spec models just don't get sold here as much.

Trying to find decent spec second hand cars here is a complete headwreck, there are so many bottom level yokes around.

It is getting a bit better largely as cars are now not being sold in the zero spec models that used to be widely available, it is not that long ago when Golf/Avensis size cars with no a/c, and wind up windows were common.

endacl

ThisRegard wrote: »

Not true, some Irish versions come better spec'd than the UK equivalent.

R.O.R

Op - anything in particular you are looking at? I've amassed quite a bit of info on new car specs over the past 9 years.

Unless its a small car or something weird or exotic, I've probably got the original spec on my work pc somewhere.

landmarkjohn

If you have the VIN number for a BMW there are VIN decoders on line that will pull up the factory spec build for that car.

https://www.bmwvin.com/

twin_beacon

Paddy spec is very much alive and well, however, its mainly used to advertise the lowest possible price of the car, and very few are actually bought. Also, garages would obviously prefer if you walk out with a more expensive car.

my dad has a '12 Octavia, and its probably the lowest spec car I have seen for a modern car. No center arm rest, non colour coded mirrors, manual windows in the back, lack of bluetooth, lack of aux in. Lots of smaller things too. If you look on carzone, there are very few octavias with that levels of spec, if anything there are more full spec cars than ultra low spec.

bear1

Let's be honest though, the Government have such ridiculous taxes on cars with good options which makes our cars more expensive than our UK counterparts that in some circumstances I can see why the Irish motorist would rather keep as much of their money as possible when it comes to spec'ing up a car.
In Italy the general equipment on entry level cars are usually very good and don't leave much of a point in spec'ing it up even more.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Red Kev wrote: »

Bull****.


OP: The "Poverty Paddy Spec" crap is largely a figment of the imaginations of people who prop up bar counters. There's a difference is spec, but posts like the above are bollyx.

It was supposed to be a joke.

Sorry I didn't realise that the motoring forum is largely made up of people with no sense of humour.

cml387

"Paddy spec" is thrown around by people who believe that we Irish suffer as no one else does in the whole world from high tax on cars.

It's rather as if the assembly line in Wolfsbug is stopped every Wednesday at 2pm so that "Ve can built ze Irish version". One can imagine this is accompanied by some fiddle music and a man in a leprechaun suit throwing a switch (after removing all the optional extras from the line).

Ask a Danish guy about the 180% vrt he pays.

323

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Basically take the spec of the English version of the car and delete every option for the Irish version, ie no alloys, no air con, no spoiler, no sat nav, no Bluetooth, etc etc

In my experience, spot on no matter what anyone says.

I imported my last 3 cars at around 1 year old. and will continue to do so , depending on what happens wiht Brexit.
eg. Last one was Le Mans A6 with £6K in extras in UK (Black pack etc), checked with Audi here, to get same spec here would have has to order a standard S-Line and added €44K in extras. (For sale atm).
Present one recently imported, Jaguar XF R-Sport, they are not near as bad but still a much better speck than could find here and still cheaper even considering the rip off VRT.

irisheddie85

R.O.R wrote: »

Op - anything in particular you are looking at? I've amassed quite a bit of info on new car specs over the past 9 years.

Unless its a small car or something weird or exotic, I've probably got the original spec on my work pc somewhere.

Not looking for anything at the minute. Bought a bangernomics car about a month ago and it was just a bit of a minefield reading ads and looking at pictures to see if everything was kosher with cars.
Just simple things like if an alarm was factory or aftermarket.

I always keep an eye out for your and colms posts about buying cars already. Ye have given great advice over the years

bear1

irisheddie85 wrote: »

Not looking for anything at the minute. Bought a bangernomics car about a month ago and it was just a bit of a minefield reading ads and looking at pictures to see if everything was kosher with cars.
Just simple things like if an alarm was factory or aftermarket.

I always keep an eye out for your and colms posts about buying cars already. Ye have given great advice over the years

Sure Colm's posts are usually to buy a C'eed :pac: