Importing a car from the UK

Panic Stations

As the title suggests I'm looking to import a car from the UK in the next couple of months.

I'm looking at purchasing a BMW 420i. I'd love to be able to buy a 420i off an Irish selling but they seem to be very difficult to find and also out of my budget.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with importing a car from the UK regarding the following;

1) How did you know the car was worthy of the price? Obviously I can't inspect it but am planning on hiring a third party to check it over before purchasing. Did people do this and if so how did you find it not having a warranty to fall back on?

2) What's the best way to get the car into Ireland and how much would that cost? (ball park) Would I be better off paying a shipping company or flying over myself and bringing it back on the Ferry.

3) Not sure how the VRT works on it. Do they take into account the actual purchase price of the car or do they determine it based on the Irish market?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Atlantic Dawn

1 - Compare against similar aged cars for sale there. I'd try to keep to either a main dealer or dealer specialising in that brand or perhaps a car supermarket. Also do a car history check on it no matter who you are buying it from.

2 - Book the ferry either Stena Line or Irish Ferries, could be €150-300 depending on time of year. Depending on how far you are travelling to meet the ferry and if you think there could be delays it's worth spending extra for a flexible ticket (+20% or so) you can change the time on same day should you run in to any problems.

3 - VRT doesn't take in to account purchase price of the car, they have their own calculation as to what they car should be worth here and you pay based on that amount. Make sure you have correct details of car when doing VRT calculations.

bazz26

If your looking at the 420i then you might as well look at a similar 428i/430i depending on the year and your budget. They are all 2.0 litre with the 428i/430i being more powerful versions.

There is also a big importing from the UK thread at the top of this forum with lots of information in it.

spacepigeon

How did you get on @Panic Stations?

I am looking at doing something similar but haven't bought a car before and don't really know where to start. How did you figure out if it's worth importing vs buying in Ireland?

Panic Stations

spacepigeon wrote: »

How did you get on @Panic Stations?

I am looking at doing something similar but haven't bought a car before and don't really know where to start. How did you figure out if it's worth importing vs buying in Ireland?

I ended up buying in Ireland after a number of factors.

To bring a 420i into Ireland from UK was working out at about 6k VRT and then add on transport and everything else with it I decided it was too much.

Started looking into the 330e model instead as it was much cheaper with VRT (Around 1.2k I think) and it was also more powerful as well and cheaper to run than a 420i.

I didn't like the thought of buying a second hand car without some form of warranty on it and also not being able to see the car and drive it first didn't help.

Ended up buying a 330e from a garage here in Dublin at a really good price and have a 2 year warranty with the car too. Was also able to trade in my old car against it which wouldn't of been possible had I bought it from the UK.

phill106

Panic Stations wrote: »

I ended up buying in Ireland after a number of factors.

To bring a 420i into Ireland from UK was working out at about 6k VRT and then add on transport and everything else with it I decided it was too much.

Started looking into the 330e model instead as it was much cheaper with VRT (Around 1.2k I think) and it was also more powerful as well and cheaper to run than a 420i.

I didn't like the thought of buying a second hand car without some form of warranty on it and also not being able to see the car and drive it first didn't help.

Ended up buying a 330e from a garage here in Dublin at a really good price and have a 2 year warranty with the car too. Was also able to trade in my old car against it which wouldn't of been possible had I bought it from the UK.

Nice, what kind of 330e did you get?
Been looking at similar in uk myself, irish prices seem a tad high.

Panic Stations

phill106 wrote: »

Nice, what kind of 330e did you get?
Been looking at similar in uk myself, irish prices seem a tad high.

Ended up getting a 2017 330e. Very happy with it. Msport model with all the extras which is exactly what I was looking for. 252 BHP too which is much faster than a 420i (182 BHP).

Plus it's also incredibly cheap to run. I filled it up at the start of the month and haven't gone near a petrol station once. I've only used about half a tank as most of my driving is done in electric mode.

biko

Just a headsup - since we already have a established stickied thread on UK imports I advise people to use that for further queries that aren't directed at OP, thanks
I'll leave this open to run its course.
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058056834