Importing from the UK - definitive guide (Q and A)

hey, a little off topic but does anyone know of a site dedicated for VAT qualifying cars for sale in the UK?

Just looking some cars up north. A few with mainland UK reg’s. If you go to the DVLA website and input the reg, it’ll give tax, mot details and so on. But down the bottom it will also tell you the last date the V5 was issued. Now, it’s not 100% as I’m sure dealers don’t have to put the car into there name, but if you were looking at a private sale, it might help.

Any experience on warranties - are kia / hyundai x year warranties valid when importing from NI?

I bought a Kia in Northern Ireland and a warning light came on days after I bought it. I contacted the garage I bought it from and they arranged for me to go to my nearest Kia dealer. They told me in the Kia garage I am fully covered with the Kia warranty and to bring the car to them if there are any more issues.

Hyundai confirmed a NI warranty is valid here

You should look at the T&Cs in your warranty book for the car. Look for wording similar to this (from Hyundai UKs published Warranty T&Cs as of May 2024).

Making a claim
….If a defect in manufacture should arise, any Authorised Hyundai Retailer or Repairer in the UK or in Europe can put it right even if you did not buy the vehicle from that Retailer.

Maybe technically they are correct, your warranty is with Hyundai UK (HUK) and is not transferable to Hyundai Europe, so any claims need to be directed back through to HUK.

But its kind of irrelevant if any 'Authorised Hyundai Retailer or Repairer' in Europe can potentially sort you as they will handle the claim on your behalf.

When dealers do warranty work, they charge the cost back to head office (so to speak). So an if Irish Hyundai dealer can readily perform warranty work and charge the costs back to HUK then they will probably be fairly obliging, especially if it means getting repeat business from you. Same goes for recalls.

So if you knew someone living up north you could in theory go to mainland uk and make a purchase under their name and get ferry back to NI, and then transfer to your name 3 months later and then you avoid both vat and customs?

yip - or at least know someone well enough to agree to such an arrangement. Plenty of obstacles to doing it too I’m sure, insuring the car for the 3 months etc.

Still, for what I’m looking for even after a short search I could easily save about 8k or 20%+ and the choice in Ireland and up north is pretty dismal at the moment.

Hello

Does anyone know How I can get evidence of the emissions with Japanese cars? I have export certificate

thank you

Could you potentially just rent a room up north for 3 months, use that address for "import" from GB to NI and insurance etc, then 3 months later register it here with neither you or the car having never set foot in NI?

Smart thing to do if they want more EVs in the republic is give grants on imports equivalent to the VAT and Customs

I was thinking the same but do you think registering it on your own name would throw up red flags with revenue and customs. While registering with a friend would not.

Say you go to register the car with the v5. But the owner on it is you with an address up north and now you are registering down south to another address. But you are not claiming the residency exemption. I don't know maybe over thinking it 😂😅

If a NI vehicle in the previous 3 months was registered to a business, but previous to that was registered to NI private individuals, would that qualify as no VAT/customs?