Buying a car in the UK

soulglo79

Hi folks,

I'm looking at buying a family car and also a 2nd car for my wife. (A BMW 520d estate and a Mini clubman). With the sterling exchange rate being so favourable at the moment, I'm thinking about buying from the UK.
Can anyone advise me about the risks associated with purchasing from the UK. I heard that the likelihood of a car being clocked is quite high in the UK and it's difficult to detect. Then there's the obvious problem with after sale assistance.

Cheers.

Marcusm

soulglo79 wrote: »

Hi folks,

I'm looking at buying a family car and also a 2nd car for my wife. (A BMW 520d estate and a Mini clubman). With the sterling exchange rate being so favourable at the moment, I'm thinking about buying from the UK.
Can anyone advise me about the risks associated with purchasing from the UK. I heard that the likelihood of a car being clocked is quite high in the UK and it's difficult to detect. Then there's the obvious problem with after sale assistance.

Cheers.

Not sure why the likelihood of clocking in the UK is so high, based on personal experience. 3/4 cars in the UK are sold on PCP or similar financial ewhich require main dealer servicing which means recording of mileage at each service. Plus mileage recording at MOT and, for company cars, recording of the mileage for each service station usage if a fuel card is used.

For BMW/Mini, I would expect they were sold with a TLC or servicing pack. The UK and Ireland distributors are the same so these plus warranties are generally respected on transfer. For a used car, I would expect that yo be a BMW/Mini approved used warranty.

By way of experience, I moved back from London last year with a 3 year old Paceman which I have had serviced twice in Ireland on the original 5 year TLC pack.

bazz26

There are more information readily available on cars in the UK than there are here so this nonsense scaremongering in the media by vested interests about UK cars being clocked is just hysteria aimed at protecting the motor trade here. Do proper background checks on service history, mot, etc and buy from credible sellers rather than the cheapest available and you should have no problems.
Also many of the clocked cars that arrive here from the UK are clocked here by the chancers selling them here.

BTW if you're buying a BMW or MINI then the original 3 year manufacturer's warranty will be honoured by BMW/MINI dealers here.

Stallingrad

But from a main dealer for peace of mind, most manufacturers warranties are honoured here.

soulglo79

Thanks for the advice folks, have any of you ever gotten a dealer from here to source, purchase and import as car from the UK on your behalf? Any issues, pitfalls etc???

A friend of mine has recommended a local guy to do it for me ... just wondering what peoples experience is?

Stallingrad

soulglo79 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice folks, have any of you ever gotten a dealer from here to source, purchase and import as car from the UK on your behalf? Any issues, pitfalls etc???

A friend of mine has recommended a local guy to do it for me ... just wondering what peoples experience is?

I'm a firm believer that if you are going to the trouble to buy in the UK, you should do it yourself, but that assumes a certain understanding of what to look for and treading carefully. It's all about minimising risk and that requires a lot of homework.

bazz26

soulglo79 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice folks, have any of you ever gotten a dealer from here to source, purchase and import as car from the UK on your behalf? Any issues, pitfalls etc???

A friend of mine has recommended a local guy to do it for me ... just wondering what peoples experience is?

How much faith do you put in someone you don't know to buy the right car for you? What happens if the car arrives and it's not what you really want? Very few will bring in a car without having a significant deposit upfront to cover their loses in the event you change your mind when it arrives.

Me, I prefer to buy my own cars, go view it and test drive it to make sure it is exactly what I want before I hand over a penny.

Redsoxfan

Compared the price of what an import only dealer was charging price list vs UK prices recently and found mark up of 2-3k over UK asking price which I am sure dealer isn't paying.

Of course you have to factor in travel and transport costs as well as risk/uncertainty but there is money in doing it for yourself.

soulglo79

Given that I'm not overly clued into the ins and outs of purchasing a car from abroad , can someone advise what the steps are from start to finish? Do you identify a car online, call the dealer and do a deal over the phone contingent on the car looking ok when you physically see it? How does the process typically work?

soulglo79

And how do you mitigate risk of buying a car tgat has been clocked?

bazz26

Most of the information is still relevant:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=176389

acronym Chilli

soulglo79 wrote: »

And how do you mitigate risk of buying a car tgat has been clocked?

How is that risk any worse than buying a car in Ireland? Same mitigations: look at condition/wear, see if service history is completed. Don't know if there's an extra source via MOT

Redsoxfan

You can view MOT history online free of charge which is an excellent resource.

An Ard Ri

I bought a BMW in the UK last year. I bought from a Main dealer. it was out of manufacturers warrant but the car had a 1 year warranty from the garage, i think is was called an AUC warranty.

The process was relatively painless. Paid the deposit, organised the money transfer, dealer picked me up from the airport, collected the car, and drove straight home. 12 hours door to door.

I had an issue with the car after 9 months, in that a few warning lights came on relating to an ABS pump, which is an expensive fix.

This was repaired under warranty in Dublin with no hassle.

My advice would be to buy from a main dealer in the UK. The extra main dealer cost is worth the peace of mind.

bazz26

BMW UK and BMW Ireland are the same distributer so that is why the warranty is valid here. It's not the same for other manufacturers though.

beauf

acronym Chilli wrote: »

How is that risk any worse than buying a car in Ireland? Same mitigations: look at condition/wear, see if service history is completed. Don't know if there's an extra source via MOT

Seems rampant in Ireland too.

murphthesmurf

I'm English, living here for just over 6 years. I don't know where this idea of clocked cars is coming from. If you buy from some rundown garage from Arthur Daley then expect trouble. But buy from a reputable or main dealer the risks are far less than buying here in Ireland in my opinion. In Britain they have been tightening regulations and closing loop holes around cars such as MOT, tax, insurance, write offs, clocking milage for years. Services like 'Carcheck' have been around for 20+ years. There are some huge car supermarkets I know of where all their cars come with full history. With a BMW main dealer you really can't go wrong. With so much competition over there having your companys name in the paper over milage fraud would be devastating for them. I'm from around the West Midlands area where there are endless main dealers and car supermarkets. Lots with 30 mins of Birmingham airport. Buy both cars at once and I'm sure you could get a nice discount.
I'd be very careful about buying an imported car, chances are it's going to be an old rep car thats covered the country several times. The car dealers in the UK buy and sell so many cars, if a dealer gets a good car in with full history and decent milage he's going to sell it himself for a decent mark up. Why would he sell it to an Irish importer for a good price? The car supermarkets will buy as many decent cars as the dealers can provide them with. For an Irish importer to make any decent money on his cars he has to buy them for fairly cheap as he then has the cost of importing them, paying the taxes on them etc. If he's buying them cheap there is a reason.

acronym Chilli

murphthesmurf wrote: »

I'm English, living here for just over 6 years. I don't know where this idea of clocked cars is coming from.

Good post!
RE the question above: mixture of

• it being convenient for vested interests here,
• some sort of prejuduice bias against heathen English
• general fear of unknown
• etc., etc.,

My brother always comments when he gets into a taxi that has a high level of spec "was this imported" , and taxi driver will say "yes, how'd you know", and when he says "because it's a nicely kitted car" the taxi driver is usually quite chuffed.
I'm sure he gets into some imports that aren't super nice, and never comments, but it really doesn't happen that he gets into a really nice car and is wrong in his call.

bazz26

murphthesmurf wrote: »

I'm English, living here for just over 6 years. I don't know where this idea of clocked cars is coming from. If you buy from some rundown garage from Arthur Daley then expect trouble. But buy from a reputable or main dealer the risks are far less than buying here in Ireland in my opinion. In Britain they have been tightening regulations and closing loop holes around cars such as MOT, tax, insurance, write offs, clocking milage for years. Services like 'Carcheck' have been around for 20+ years. There are some huge car supermarkets I know of where all their cars come with full history. With a BMW main dealer you really can't go wrong. With so much competition over there having your companys name in the paper over milage fraud would be devastating for them. I'm from around the West Midlands area where there are endless main dealers and car supermarkets. Lots with 30 mins of Birmingham airport. Buy both cars at once and I'm sure you could get a nice discount.
I'd be very careful about buying an imported car, chances are it's going to be an old rep car thats covered the country several times. The car dealers in the UK buy and sell so many cars, if a dealer gets a good car in with full history and decent milage he's going to sell it himself for a decent mark up. Why would he sell it to an Irish importer for a good price? The car supermarkets will buy as many decent cars as the dealers can provide them with. For an Irish importer to make any decent money on his cars he has to buy them for fairly cheap as he then has the cost of importing them, paying the taxes on them etc. If he's buying them cheap there is a reason.

It generally stemmed from a media campaign by a certain lobby group of motor traders with a vested interest in persuading people to buy here instead of importing. The ironic thing is that a lot of the members of that group sell imported used cars they source themselves from the UK these days because they realised that it's very profitable to do so.

Also there are a lot of clocked cars from the UK being sold here but they are bought cheap from UK auctions with their original mileage and then the miles mysteriously drop off after they arrive over here off the ferry. The reason for these cars having a lucrative market here is because there are still buyers out there who don't do proper vetting or due diligence on the car or the seller, they buy these cars from the likes of back street or supermarket carpark wheeler dealers because the Irish just love a bargain. The same people only get a mechanic to check their new car a week after buying it when it has an issue.

CeilingFly

Be careful of 5series touring - a good few issues with the air suspension and engine failure light appearing.

I'd only take it if suspension issue has been sorted on the one you are looking at and if warranty applies to Ireland.

Main issue is with 2011-2013 builds.

Feckin expensive to repair

Sparky85

I bought a 132 ford car from NI earlier this year. The dealer I got it from in Omagh goes to the UK and buys cars at auction every 3 weeks or so and brings them to NI.

I found cars I liked online and called dealers to get some info. Did HPI check online on those I was planning on driving up to test drive. Found a couple had Finance still attached or mileage from last MOT didn't add up so they were crossed off the list.

Drove up to Omagh with a mechanic friend to view a car that came back clean on HPI. Mechanic gave it a good once over and test drive and was happy with it.

I put a deposit down and collected it the following week after transferring insurance. Insurance company wouldn't issue a disk until it was vrt and on an Irish reg but cover was in place.
I did a electronic bank transfer to the dealer on the day before I was due to collect as it was cheaper to transfer in sterling from my account than pay in euros. You need to go into your bank and fill out a form etc.

You have 30 days to VRT from the day the car is brought into the state. Appointment is booked online and carried out at certain NCT centres.

I saved myself over €3k even after paying €2,260 in vrt. You can check the cost of vrt online before you buy to do your sums.

I've since put the car through its first NCT with no issues. Highly recommend going through the whole process yourself as there's no hassle to it really.

Nash Bridges

I presume the speedometer shows miles rather than kilometers. Does this matter for NCT? Can it be changed to km per hour by swapping a piece of the dash face ?

bazz26

It has no bearing on the NCT and we drove for donkey years here with mph/kph speedos upto 2005. It takes about 5 mins to readapt. On modern cars some have a digital speed readout as well as analogue that can be switched from mph to kph.

LordSutch

Sparky85 wrote: »

I bought a 132 ford car from NI earlier this year. The dealer I got it from in Omagh goes to the UK and buys cars at auction every 3 weeks or so and brings them to NI.

Oh dear!

Just to stop anymore confusion ... If you buy a car in NI you are buying a car in the UK, and if the Omagh dealer obtains a car from Britain he is transferring the car from one part of the UK to another part of the UK, namely Northern Ireland. The dealer can't travel from Omagh to the UK because he is already in the UK, all good so far .... Now, if you then buy the car in Omagh and bring it South, you are importing the car from the UK into the ROI, then you have 30 days to VRT the car from the day it is imported into the state.

and breathe

Sparky85

No confusion, that's exactly what happened.
Dealer transported car from mainland U.K. to NI

I imported car from NI to south. Booked VRT appointment & paid vrt to revenue in ROI myself

LordSutch

I just wanted to clarify the 1st two sentences from post 21.

NI is overlooked by so many people down here, I got a real bargain in Co Down a few years ago.

maidhc

bazz26 wrote: »

BMW UK and BMW Ireland are the same distributer so that is why the warranty is valid here. It's not the same for other manufacturers though.

EU rules would preclude manufacturers from not honouring warranties throughout the community.

bazz26

maidhc wrote: »

EU rules would preclude manufacturers from not honouring warranties throughout the community.

In BMW's case it's not the manufacturer that's honouring it, it's the distributer for BMW in UK/Ireland.

California Dreamer

soulglo79 wrote: »

can someone advise what the steps are from start to finish??

I look at this and I'm slightly annoyed. You have seen somewhere that cars in the U.K. Are cheaper and people have been bringing them in for years buuuuut you really don't want to go to the effort of researching cars, transport costs, import duties, insurance yourself lest you have to do a bit of work!

These days it's just as easy to ask someone to tell you what do do for free.

soulglo79

California Dreamer wrote: »

I look at this and I'm slightly annoyed. You have seen somewhere that cars in the U.K. Are cheaper and people have been bringing them in for years buuuuut you really don't want to go to the effort of researching cars, transport costs, import duties, insurance yourself lest you have to do a bit of work!

These days it's just as easy to ask someone to tell you what do do for free.

I dont think you should be annoyed. In fairness its inevitible that I'm going to have to research the cars myself and all the other bits and bobs, I'm merely trying to get a flavour of other people's experience and learn from it. Is that not what boards.ie is for?

CeilingFly

bazz26 wrote: »

In BMW's case it's not the manufacturer that's honouring it, it's the distributer for BMW in UK/Ireland.

Bmw AG own Bmw automotive Ireland ltd, so its one of the same.

The bonus value may go out of the imports with some commentators saying Stg/eur is heading back to €1.20

But some of them are the same that were saying €1/£1 a few weeks ago!