Moving from UK to Ireland....which car to bring

Mickiemcfist

I'm living in England (Carless) for the next 8 or so months. I was thinking about buying one over here, owning it for 6 months & then importing it without having to pay VRT as it's my own. What car would people think would A - Be nice & B - have a nice € return in Ireland once I sell it after a year. Budget would be probably up to £20k sterling, ideally less.

Cheers!

biko

Hard question to answer.
It needs to be a premium brand with highest spec possible and when you search for it here it is pretty rare.
Top spec Landrover, BMW etc are always popular.

Mind, if you buy an expensive car over there and expect to get cash for it here - people are pretty reluctant to hand over 20.000 in a private sale. They'd rather get the security you get from a dealer.

Also, check the regulations about selling a car you have brought over as a personal car. There may be a time restriction etc.

marathonic

Petrol models have higher emissions which translate to higher VRT rates and bigger savings for someone with a VRT exemption. However, higher emissions also translates to higher tax so you need to avoid the non-premium brands - people buying non-premium brands are least likely to be willing to pay the higher tax.

With the above in mind, you should think about premium, petrol and a reasonable trade-off between power and tax. 

Here's a well-specced 2014 BMW 3 SERIES 335i M Sport with 12,000 miles and an asking price of £22,995. It has emissions of 169g/km which put it into the €570 tax band - unreal for a 6-pot 3 litre petrol engine with such power.

Moving up to the €750 tax band, the Audi S5 came with a more efficient engine from 2012 onwards (bang on 190g/km). They start at £17,500 on Autotrader but, personally, I'd avoid the high milers to make it easier to sell on when that time comes. Here's a nice 2013 Audi S5 S Tronic Quattro with 49,000 miles and an asking price of £21,850.

Have a look at the VRT calculator and you'll see the savings to be made on either of the above - they're significant.

If you're more inclined to go for a diesel car, you won't go far wrong with a BMW 640D - which can be had for reasonable money these days. I'd stick to the M-Sport if going that route and select something like this 2012 BMW 6 SERIES 640d M Sport with 42,000 miles and an asking price of £19,940. The VRT savings here will also be significant and the Irish motor tax is only [font=montserratregular, sans-serif]€390.[/font]

marathonic

biko wrote: »

Also, check the regulations about selling a car you have brought over as a personal car. There may be a time restriction etc.

I think it's 6 months ownership in the UK followed by 12 months ownership in Ireland.

amcalester

biko wrote: »

Hard question to answer.
It needs to be a premium brand with highest spec possible and when you search for it here it is pretty rare.
Top spec Landrover, BMW etc are always popular.

Mind, if you buy an expensive car over there and expect to get cash for it here - people are pretty reluctant to hand over 20.000 in a private sale. They'd rather get the security you get from a dealer.

Also, check the regulations about selling a car you have brought over as a personal car. There may be a time restriction etc.

I think you need to keep the car for 12 months after importing it before you can sell it, otherwise there's a clawback of the VRT exemption.

marathonic

Or just triple the budget and buy this 510bhp beast, costing just [font=montserratregular, sans-serif]€750 per year to tax in Ireland [/font]
[font=montserratregular, sans-serif]Alfa Romeo Giulia V6 QUADRIFOGLIO[/font]

PhoenixParker

I'd get a family car\suv with a low emissions petrol engine. Everyone in Ireland has bought diesel for the last five years and many of them are starting to realise they don't do anything like the milage for diesel. Their journey profile us more suited to petrol. Ar a government level diesel is starting to fall out of favour too.

Bigger petrol cars from 2015 are few and far between but will be in demand.

Mickiemcfist

Cheers all, I had seen it was 6 months uk plus 1 year Irish ownership before I could sell, the 640d suggestion looks seriously tempting considering they're currently trading at about 37k in ireland, so £20k = c.€24k, could probably sell the 640 for c.29 after a year and a half depreciation so would possibly be a net gain after it

MarkN

Mickiemcfist wrote: »

Cheers all, I had seen it was 6 months uk plus 1 year Irish ownership before I could sell, the 640d suggestion looks seriously tempting considering they're currently trading at about 37k in ireland, so £20k = c.€24k, could probably sell the 640 for c.29 after a year and a half depreciation so would possibly be a net gain after it

Just bear in mind, your typical F13 6 series buyer is NOT going to want one that looks like the one linked in this thread. The wrong colour, interior and body kit will mean a 2012 will not be worth €29,000 in 18 months time. I wouldn't even think a well minded clean carbon black with oyster interior will be worth €29,000 in 18 months. €25,000 if you're very lucky. VRT on a 2012 is give or take €8,000 at the moment.

Del2005

Mickiemcfist wrote: »

I'm living in England (Carless) for the next 8 or so months. I was thinking about buying one over here, owning it for 6 months & then importing it without having to pay VRT as it's my own. What car would people think would A - Be nice & B - have a nice € return in Ireland once I sell it after a year. Budget would be probably up to £20k sterling, ideally less.

Cheers!

Are you sure that you will qualify for an exemption? 8 months might not qualify.


http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vrt/leaflets/tax-relief-transfer-residence.html