Question about buying a UK reg car from an Irish garage

daveg

I'm about to buy a UK reg Audi from an Irish garage. My mechanic checked it out last night and said she is fine. However I'm just wondering should I get a HPI check done? Is there any point as I'm informed the garage would be responsible if there was any outstanding finance. Any advice would be much appreciated.

The car plates indicate it was from a leasing company so it was obviously a company car.

IrishRover

Don't know the answer to your question, but when the car is registered in Ireland, they send on something to the DVLA in Swansea to have it certified as having been exported. I'm guessing that if there's outstanding finance on the car that it would be flagged at that time anyway.

Is that a picture of the car? It looks like it has an Irish reg.
If it's still UK registered, why haven't the garage registered it in Ireland yet?
If they haven't, why not just import one from the UK yourself?

IrishRover

Ah, sorry - I've just realised that pic is of your current Audi that you are selling. So that clears that up for me, but I do wonder why you would be keen on buying a car with UK plates from a garage. You'll be the one who has to pay VRT when you go to register it in Ireland. Why hasn't the garage done this already? If you went to the UK yourself you'd have a lot more choice of vehicles. Are you buying from the garage for convenience? All you have to do is find the car you want, fly over and get the ferry back with it.

nxbyveromdwjpg

daveg wrote:

The car plates indicate it was from a leasing company so it was obviously a company car.

It was commercial - is the VAT paid??

CCOVICH

Any danger the car is stolen?

drdre

make sure u are buying from a proper garage,and that if you have a problem that someone willlisten to you.:D

daveg

Yep car in pic is my current Audi.

Car will be registered in my name - VRT paid by Garage (my name will be the first on the log book hence why he has not cleared it yet).

I'm not importing one myself as I'm getting this one for €20.200 including trade in on mine. Don't think I could import one for as good a price.

Garage is a proper garage (albiet a small operation). He asked for the Bank draft to be made out to the garage name so I presume he is all above board.

bazz26

What year is the new motor? Post a few photos when you get it.

Gatster

You should get the new V5 with the car or a log book of some sort. This has a section called 'certificate of permanent export'. The dealer should have the V5, if not ask why?

Gurgle

daveg wrote:

I'm about to buy a UK reg Audi from an Irish garage.

The phrases that spring to mind are:
'dodgy as hell'
and
'avoid like the plague'

I'm not sure why but it sounds like the garage are avoiding the car's papers.

IrishRover

daveg wrote:

Car will be registered in my name - VRT paid by Garage (my name will be the first on the log book hence why he has not cleared it yet).

I thought garages could register cars without having to have their name down on the log book as an owner.

I'm not importing one myself as I'm getting this one for €20.200 including trade in on mine. Don't think I could import one for as good a price.

Are you really sure? You might as well check. I've just had a look on autotrader.co.uk and there's lots of A4s for low prices, and that's only autotrader. I think you could probably save a lot by doing a little searching.

What year, engine type/size, miles and spec is the A4 you want to get from this garage?

bazz26

Should this not be the same process as buying a used Jap import here. I have seen lots of UK imports for sale here.

Like this one:

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=247891

It still has NI plates. I presume the price includes VRT which is paid by the new owner and hence a registration number and vehicle registration cert are issued.

daveg

bazz26 wrote:

What year is the new motor? Post a few photos when you get it.

Audi A4 SE 2002 1.9 TDI 110BPH. I'll post some pics when I get her.

Gatster wrote:

You should get the new V5 with the car or a log book of some sort

Yep dealer showed me this. Looks fine and mechanic checked it out too.

Gurgle wrote:

The phrases that spring to mind are:
'dodgy as hell'
and
'avoid like the plague'
I'm not sure why but it sounds like the garage are avoiding the car's papers.

Why do you think that? I've seen the V5 cert. Also he tells me that he has an account with customs as he brings in loads of cars. His name is technically on the logbook at the moment until the car is actually cleared. I think I've got that right.

IrishRover wrote:

I thought garages could register cars without having to have their name down on the log book as an owner.

Exactly - as per my post above.

IrishRover wrote:

I've just had a look on autotrader.co.uk and there's lots of A4s for low prices, and that's only autotrader

Through the autotrader your talking about £9K stg. I wouldn't go over on spec unless through the autotrader as I know little about cars. £9K is approx €13K. VRT on the car is about €5,500 so thats €18,500 before any travel expenses (say about €1K) so thats about €19,500. With the car I'm buying I'm getting a good trade in and 3 months warentee.

Just to clarify the cost of the car covers VRT. The dealer will clear the car in my name so I'm first on the log book. Afaik this is standard practice with garages importing uk reg cars.

ondafly

I can't believe you are even considering not doing a HPI check on the car. Piece of mind on a car is priceless imho. The simple fact you are posting on here, shows you are not 100% sure about the car.

Gurgle

daveg wrote:

Why do you think that? I've seen the V5 cert. Also he tells me that he has an account with customs as he brings in loads of cars. His name is technically on the logbook at the moment until the car is actually cleared. I think I've got that right.

OK, sounds like he just didn't want to pay the import duty until it was sold.

From your first post, I thought he wanted you to take it away for cash & sort it out yourself leaving no paperwork pointing to him.

Just be sure that you get a receipt (or something) with the car's registration and the garage name on it.

Plus, if you're leaving €20k with the man, fgs get a 12 month parts & labour warrantee.

kdevitt

There nothing unusual about the car being on UK plates when you go to buy it - other garages who do it normally remove the plates though so you're not aware its on yellow plates. Lambe & O'Connor's used to import loads of BMW's from the UK and sell them on.

Its not on Irish plates yet so that the garage don't have to fork out the VRT straight away, which is also above board as the car is being stored on their premises and not driven. (This is whats done with every single Jap import) It also means theres a chance you could save money on it - if they had the car in stock for three months the VRT could have gone down in price.

This all sounds perfectly normal, if they're SIMI then don't bother with the HPI check - they can't reimburse you if it all goes wrong for a purchase made outside the UK (the sale contract is with your dealer) , if it isn't an SIMI garage, then get some check done to make sure theres no credit owed. If you have the reg number, you can go onto ebay - go to sell a car, and enter the reg plate - it'll bring up the cars details for you and you can see if its the car its meant to be.

ambro25

I'd HPI just for peace of mind. If you're forking €20k, an HPI check over the phone isn't gonna break the bank, is it?

And I wouldn't mind you posting (or pm me ?) the garage details, just for interest, as every other garage I've approached to buy smthing on IE plates with trading in my Scoob (on yellow plates) just didn't want to know.

And that was on a selection of IS200s, and even though all my paperwork is A-OK and transparent as a factory-fresh pane of glass, with everything they'd want: previous owners' V5s/old MOTs/old Insurance certs/SH & bills/Alarm & Immob bills, fitting and category certs/HPI check sheet/RAC check sheet - the works.

yop

Best of luck with it Dave.

How would a man go about doing a HPI, also would it be worth Daves time getting an AA test done on the motor, what you talking 100 euros or so? Just to be sure to be sure?

ambro25

Assuming it's still got it's UK plates on - lookup HPI's UK tel no. on Interweb, grab your credit card and your mobile, go to garage, call HPI with reg no. & details. That's it. Good thing is that they may also confirm futher specifics (colour, model, owner, etc.) & idea of mileage, if database up-to-date (it was for my UK Scoob ).

AA test despends on garage - relatively 'young & small' garage (one-man band set up a year ago) or established business that will provide a garantee. Depends also on mileage. Under 50k, don't bother(-ish) - Over 50k, well... it really depends on how much more 'safe' you'd want to feel about your purchase

daveg

OK I've sent HPI an email to see how long it would take to get the report by email. I'm picking up the car on Wednesday so I'll get the check done if it'll come through by wednesday.

Yop - I got my own Mechanic to check out the car. He was happy.

ambro25 - PM sent.

daveg

I rang HPI in the UK with the reg of the car. They cannot find any record of the car :eek: I have to check back with the Vin Chassis number. I'll let you know how I get on..

ambro25

daveg wrote:

I rang HPI in the UK with the reg of the car. They cannot find any record of the car :eek: I have to check back with the Vin Chassis number. I'll let you know how I get on..

hmm... I'd go get the VIN from the car myself, if I were you, and not just rely on a number over the phone

EDIT - sorry, not calling you names or anything, but... you did give them the right reg, yeah?

daveg

ambro25 wrote:

EDIT - sorry, not calling you names or anything, but... you did give them the right reg, yeah?

Rang the dealer back... I had taken the reg down wrong so call away with the names

Car checks out fine with HPI. Wheew...