VRT, VAT and Duty on sub £2,000 UK car

Yep, that looks about right. Brutal situation.

Have you considered sourcing one in Japan instead? Much kinder taxes and duties that way.

VRT is theft. Any other charges I'll face do you know,? car in UK is about 6000 sterling

No proof of NoX emissions? The €600 charge is the maximum for a petrol car where you can't prove it. I imported a 00 Golf a year or two back and was able to get the COC from VW to prove the value.

I dont think you can massage the purchase price too much.

AFAIK they value the car themselves at the open market selling price

Not really, its called under invoicing and you could be asked for proof of payment or screenshots of the car add. Its standard to provide these things for Japanese imports but not so much for UK imports.

Of course you could, but you previously said yourself that you've never supplied proof of payment - which I generally supply anyway when clearing a car. And if anyone was that way inclined its not exactly a massive ordeal to split a payment in two for the seller and provide a receipt for one of the payments as proof. A car advertised at 2k is very easily a 1k car if a buyer spots a few issues. Either way, its illegal and revenue will not like it if they catch you - not exactly a huge saving at this price point either.

Ouch. Was that for an imported car or something else?