Buying a car now registered in Ireland that was originally a UK import...

Andrewf20

Hey folks,

Im waiting / watching for a car to come up for sale here in Ireland which is hard to find for sale (06-08 Z4, 3.0si hardtop). Historically it seems, some tend to originate from the UK but at this stage have had the VRT payed, paperwork done and are now on Irish plates.

What are the things to check in this case / what extra documents should I get if I buy a car like this? I saw the UK website where you can do history / MOT checks but is there anything else?

I dont think id have the patience to start the whole process from scratch getting it transferred to irish plates, getting it VRT'ed, NCTed etc.

Thanks.

User1998

No different to any other car, just do a history check and check the old MOT’s if you like. Most used cars here are from the UK anyway.

You could also get an engineer or mechanic to check the car. Sometimes rust can be an issue with UK cars but this is rare.

Dave_D_Rave

Any vehicle from the UK check for rust on chassis and frame salf is used a lot on UK cars and they can be suseptable to rust.

Mileage and clocking is another thing to check for,

Generall try to get something with a service history and purchase the vehicle check to try and piece together as much as you can.

Andrewf20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120888176#Comment_120888176

Cheers. Should there there be any documentation from the UK with the car or is it just the irish vehicle registration cert as if it was an irish car all along?

Hard to get info on the web this - all the websites assume you want to import from scratch.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120888312#Comment_120888312

Nope, UK logbook gets handed in when the car gets VRT’d.

bazz26

Get the old UK reg and do a comprehensive UK history check on it. Might shed some light on something that the Irish history checks may have not been privy too.

Atlantic Dawn

An additional thing to check is if the car came here with VRT exemption (owner was UK resident and moved here) it can't be sold to another owner for 12 months from the registration date without the full VRT being paid. A VRT receipt would clear this up or if it's over a year on Irish plates it won't apply.