Has Ireland the cheapest used cars in the world??

lalababa

Was on autoscout messing around and noticed cars what some Irish would consider scrapping actually having a nice little price tag.
Did a random search example. 2007 1.6 D Volvo S40 average price was 5,000.
Did a done deal search average price was 1500.
Also I believe they are a little less haggle conscious on the continent.
So what's the story here...less rust...numberplate fixation....dubious service tradition..??

bazz26

It's a 13 year old car, maybe 5k is just too expensive for one.

djan

It all comes down to the extortionate cost of insurance and motor tax in Ireland. With insurance, once you go over 10+ years it becomes increasingly difficult to get a decent quote. Pre 07 tax based on engine size will also hurt older upper end cars as engines at that time tended to rely on capacity more so than turbos nowadays.

If we drove on the other side of the road, people would have a field day exporting them to the rest of europe!

lalababa

Did a search on a 2012 S40 and they seem right in line with ours 7,500.

djan

lalababa wrote: »

Did a search on a 2012 S40 and they seem right in line with ours 7,500.

Newer cars wouldn't have such discrepancies but still in majority of cases for the same price you'll get better spec. Look at pre 07 and the differences are pretty huge in 2L+ engines.

Heres Johnny

Some large engined cars here on old tax rate are definitely cheaper here than most countries. Plus we have a reg chasing culture. I was in a wealthy German city recently and there were lots of e46 and e39 era bmws on the road and the equivalent mercs and audis. Don't see them here much any more. They'd command a few quid in Germany still.
Also funnily I was in France a good bit and you still see plenty of cars from when Renault used numbers to designate their cars, the stuff my dad had in the 80s. Renault 4, 5 and 18 I saw over there, people happily driving away in them.
Loads of 2000 era cars too, which we just don't see here either.

djan

I wish Irish regs didn't give away the age of the car as much. Ends up with people chasing the reg while driving a Irish spec shoebox with wheels...