Moving to UK. Best course of action for car. Sell vs export?

johnk123

Hi All,



I've recently accepted a job in the UK and will be moving to start in late September. I am trying to seek advice on what to do with the car situation. I'm trying to decide if I should bring it over and re-reg, or just try and get rid of it before moving. I'm struggling to find info on what charges would be applicable to get registered in the UK.



Facts: Car is a 141 VW Golf 1.6 tdi, Bluemotion Comfortline with 131k km. I own it outright, has just recently been serviced, NCT'd and had it's 4 new hooves. From the revenue VRT export calculator, I would be due €1,682 after the €100 admin fee. As for just selling it, well I worry that I won't have the time to wait it out on donedeal etc for a buyer.



My thoughts? Well, plan would ideally be to change it for an A4/A6 estate or allroad within 12/18 months. I'd love to sell it now, and buy one of these when I move, but I do need a car to move and also don't want to be without a car on the otherside as the missus needs hers for work as it is. I did the deal (with trade in etc) for €20,000 when I bought it in 2016. Obviously the depreciation starts to level out on it now, so that is something to consider, particularly when considering that the next car I would hope to keep for 3 yrs plus as family etc etc will all (hopefully) be kicking in around then! :eek::eek::eek:



Option A, keep it, leave it on irish plates for a few months and think about it when I get settled. (I know there are legality issues surrounding this so need to be careful not to go over any of the time limits etc)



Option B: Just move it over to UK plates, keep it and use it to trade in UK when time is right in a couple of month. Potentially €1,600 back from revenue... but how much to get it registered in UK? Anyone got any experience of this? Is it worth the effort? I'm happy to run the car for another year as like I said, i've no debt on it, it's cheap to run and has just been sorted for another year.



Option C: talk to the dealer I bought it from as he brings in a lot of mercs, BMW, RR etc (E class, S class, 3/5/6/X5's...) from UK.. maybe a deal could be done with the golf going against something I fancy across the water? I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of anyone in the know on this... trade in value in the UK vs here?



Lastly, If I want to sell it for cash to buy something on the otherside, where do I go about this? I'm literally working 12hour days at the moment to wrap up before the move so not sure I have the time (or energy!) for all the 'what will you take' texts from donedeal....



As I said, time is ticking closer to the moving date so I need to decide sooner rather than later and would appreciate any comments on this!

Heres Johnny

Bear in mind your clocks are all in kms and in UK they are in miles so it might be awkward to sell over there.

Mezcita

Option Keep it and have a handy set of wheels to escape the zombie apocalypse once the UK Brexits at the end of March with no deal.

Can you give me a lift?

James Bond Junior

Option B seems like a good idea to me if you are planning on changing up soon anyway.

colm_mcm

Trade in value in the U.K. even after the rebate won’t be as much as you’d get for it here. Why not sell now, get new car back from U.K. in a few weeks and then bring that to the U.K. with you when you’re leaving?

zilog_jones

Heres Johnny wrote: »

Bear in mind your clocks are all in kms and in UK they are in miles so it might be awkward to sell over there.

I know for Japanese imports under 10 years old that they require speedometers in MPH in order to pass IVA inspection when imported into the UK. The solution for this is often just stickers over the speedo. But I think you might be OK if your car has EU type approval? Not 100% sure.

bisounours

I brought mine over in May - if you do re-register it in the UK you need an HMRC Gateway account which can take up to 2 weeks for them send you your password by post. I think you have 14 or 30 days to declare the “import”. I would suggest not dragging your heels too long as they take photos of vehicles as they come off the ferry...and if they spot them on UK roads within whatever time frame (some say 3 months, some say 6) you may get stopped and asked why the car isn’t registered on UK plates. Mine was an original UK import so I didn’t need a Certificate of Conformity (IVA if you don’t have one). Speedometer must have miles.
You’ll need to sort out the MOT before you register with the DVLA- they require you send them the MOT when applying for the UK registration. This is easy as most garages are registered for MOT. A fellow Boardsie Kayser also moved to the UK earlier this year and brought his/her Irish car and might be able to provide more details on the conformity or IVA process.

Ps. MOT costs 55 pounds, DVLA registration 55 pounds and plates 30. At the same time you send in your V55 you’ll have to send a cheque for the 55 pounds plus 6 months’ or 1 years’ worth of road tax.

Leonard Hofstadter

Heres Johnny wrote: »

Bear in mind your clocks are all in kms and in UK they are in miles so it might be awkward to sell over there.

The OP will have to get the clocks changed to show mph in order to be approved for use over there.

johnk123

bisounours wrote: »

I brought mine over in May - if you do re-register it in the UK you need an HMRC Gateway account which can take up to 2 weeks for them send you your password by post. I think you have 14 or 30 days to declare the “import”. I would suggest not dragging your heels too long as they take photos of vehicles as they come off the ferry...and if they spot them on UK roads within whatever time frame (some say 3 months, some say 6) you may get stopped and asked why the car isn’t registered on UK plates. Mine was an original UK import so I didn’t need a Certificate of Conformity (IVA if you don’t have one). Speedometer must have miles.
You’ll need to sort out the MOT before you register with the DVLA- they require you send them the MOT when applying for the UK registration. This is easy as most garages are registered for MOT. A fellow Boardsie Kayser also moved to the UK earlier this year and brought his/her Irish car and might be able to provide more details on the conformity or IVA process.

Ps. MOT costs 55 pounds, DVLA registration 55 pounds and plates 30. At the same time you send in your V55 you’ll have to send a cheque for the 55 pounds plus 6 months’ or 1 years’ worth of road tax.

Thanks for this, very helpful! I would intend to get it all sorted as soon as I move over. Am I right in saying that there will be no liability due to HMRC when registering? It is a VRT refund we are getting, as opposed to a VAT refund..... On that note, how did you find the reclaim process from Revenue?


As for the dials.... Is it just a case of swapping these out? http://www.lockwoodinternational.co.uk/dials/mph/volkswagen/f-p/golf/mk7/petrol/golf-mk7-petrol-160mph-revs-red-line-6000-8000-for-imported-vehicle-part-no-c1095.html

bisounours

Well, now...my banger is nowhere as nice as yours and is barely worth the limit of the VRT rebate and over 10 years old so I didn’t bother. The little bit of research I did (quick call to the DVLA, they were extremely helpful) was limited to “oh, it’s an ex UK car, don’t worry about it, it’ll be very easy and you won’t need all those things listed on the website” It helped that I had the old licence plate number and my speedometer had miles and km on it already similar to your link (not as high end, obviously!) Odometer was only in miles though and NCT kept on documenting it as KM and I didn’t bother to get it corrected as the plan is to drive her until she falls apart or give her away to family as a learner car. As she’s over 10 years old, I didn’t have to pay any duties to “import” either.

johnk123

Just a couple of follow ups for anyone still interested. I've decided to stick it on UK plates and hold off on another purchase. (New audi's this year should hopefully save a few squids on the models I'm looking at)

Does anyone know if I can just swap the dials myself? Or is some kind of verified installer certificate required by DVLA? Reason I ask is I have been quoted €250 to have the dials 'converted' here in Dublin. Obviously if I need some sort of documentation to hand over to MOT garage/DVLA there is no way around this. €250 seems high, especially considering I would be more than confident to do this myself and the price of the actual part it very cheap!!

I have the pre-export inspection booked for end of this month, and will be on the ferry mid September! I'll be sure to update this thread at the end of the process in the hope that it helps anyone else make a decision in the same situation.

zilog_jones

I believe if it's an EU type-approved vehicle (which it is), then you don't need to change the speedometer - not 100% sure on this. But if you need to do the IVA, then you will have to change them - but some cheap stickers appear to be acceptable.

If anyone tells you that you need MPH clocks for the MOT then they're talking out their árse.

johnk123

Update. Booked appointment at NCT location and had test done early Sunday morning. All good and a very easy process, however his quote showed the 1770 refund, less 100 admin fee, and less a mysterious 687.

A few calls to Revenue later and it turns out that my Golf was originally a leased vehicle (by Europcar car hire) and that a deduction of 687 had already been claimed on the car when first registered.

Bit disheartening obviously, but I guess something is better than nothing!

It'll have over 6months of road tax to get back too so that should be another small bonus.

Sgt Pepper 64

johnk123 wrote: »

Update. Booked appointment at NCT location and had test done early Sunday morning. All good and a very easy process, however his quote showed the 1770 refund, less 100 admin fee, and less a mysterious 687.

A few calls to Revenue later and it turns out that my Golf was originally a leased vehicle (by Europcar car hire) and that a deduction of 687 had already been claimed on the car when first registered.

Bit disheartening obviously, but I guess something is better than nothing!

It'll have over 6months of road tax to get back too so that should be another small bonus.

A few calls to Revenue later and it turns out that my Golf was originally a leased vehicle (by Europcar car hire) and that a deduction of 687 had already been claimed on the car when first registered.


hmm thats interesting...anyway to check this when buying? very sneaky whoever sold it to you!

zilog_jones

Surely those history reports will tell you if it's been a hire car?

johnk123

zilog_jones wrote: »

Surely those history reports will tell you if it's been a hire car?

You are probably right. I guess it's my own fault for not doing the check. I was dealing with a reputable dealer of another marque but you are right, my initial reaction was that I was being hard done by when I got the above information. Considering that when negotiating the trade in and the price of the car I was buying, there was very little movement on price, I now feel hard done by for my 687 quid!!!!