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

Atlantic Dawn

dinky earnshaw wrote: »

I'm looking to buy a Kia up north. There's a few available still within the 7 year warranty some from main dealers. Do you think I should still get an RAC check or would I being wasting money needlessly?

I'd run a car history check. Also you should contact Kia Ireland to see that the 7 year warranty will transfer here, it may not.

dinky earnshaw

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

I'd run a car history check. Also you should contact Kia Ireland to see that the 7 year warranty will transfer here, it may not.

Warranty is definitely transferable. As long as it's been serviced by Kia. I'll do a history check. Just wondering if a £200 car check is overkill.

MBIreland

I couldn't find anyone to do the car check in the north, neither the RAC or AA were able to help.

Certainly do a motor check though, saved me a lot of certain heartbreak with clocked cars for sure

bazz26

Just remember that Kia's warranty is 150,000km or 7 years, whichever comes first. It also requires an annual inspection by a Kia dealer.

Atlantic Dawn

dinky earnshaw wrote: »

Warranty is definitely transferable. As long as it's been serviced by Kia. I'll do a history check. Just wondering if a £200 car check is overkill.

Have you checked this? I know it's the case in ROI from one seller to another but from UK to ROI it may not be.

dinky earnshaw

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Have you checked this? I know it's the case in ROI from one seller to another but from UK to ROI it may not be.

Valid Eu wide. Should be ok as long as I buy before brexit ðŸ˜႒
http://www.kia.com/ie/specials/kia-7-year-warranty/?checkmobile=false

Green farmer

What would lads feel about buying a English import from an Irish garage ? Looking at a 3 year car that has low mileage of 7,000 miles. Garage in question is a main dealership for 3 mainstream brands ( but not for car I looking at) . I asked if the car has any service history, sales guy told me that he wasn't sure if it had or not, but they import them in from a reliable source, and would have a warranty ?

bazz26

Well if a dealer is selling it then surely it should be backed up by at least the dealer's warranty if the manufacturer's warranty has expired otherwise what's the point in buying from a dealer?

As regarding service history, ask the dealer to do some digging on that front to prove the low mileage rather than just lazily offering it for sale without even checking on it's history Do a background check on the UK reg yourself too in case the dealer is not very thorough.

dinky earnshaw

I'm heading up north in the morning to buy from a main dealer. From what I read on this thread all I need is the v5c minus the section which states the car has been permanently exported. Is this correct? Or am I missing something?

masit

dinky earnshaw wrote: »

I'm heading up north in the morning to buy from a main dealer. From what I read on this thread all I need is the v5c minus the section which states the car has been permanently exported. Is this correct? Or am I missing something?

Yeah, that's all you need. I'm sure they will give you an invoice too (to show VRT office the date you bought the car).

Green farmer

[QUOTE=bazz26;100111702 Do a background check on the UK reg yourself too in case the dealer is not very thorough.[/QUOTE]

What's the easiest way to do a background check on an English reg ? Is there a website etc ? If a car was 2-3 years old would it have gone through a m.o.t ? As we only do not when car is a few years old ?

bazz26

Cars from 3 years old onwards require a MOT. Any of the Irish car check companies here can give a report on UK cars. If you want more detailed facts then look up UK car history report companies.

You can also check the mileage on the UK MOT mileage verification site presuming the car has had a MOT.

hollee

Looking for advice on payment options. Anyone use Transfer Mate or Currency Fair? Are there any advantages to using one above the other? I have a flight booked and am looking to pay and collect a car early next week, so ideally want a transaction that will clear the same day to leave with the car.

Got a check done with Cartell and all seems good, do I need to run another check with a UK company? The car would not be due a MOT yet so mileage will have to be verified on inspection.

masit

hollee wrote: »

Looking for advice on payment options. Anyone use Transfer Mate or Currency Fair? Are there any advantages to using one above the other? I have a flight booked and am looking to pay and collect a car early next week, so ideally want a transaction that will clear the same day to leave with the car.

Got a check done with Cartell and all seems good, do I need to run another check with a UK company? The car would not be due a MOT yet so mileage will have to be verified on inspection.

Check out visa currency converter if you want to use a visa debit card. I find it a lot more handy than use the transfer companies. You get a better rate over a draft or cash and a lot better than carrying cash. I know with BOI the max fee they charge on any amount is €11 or €12.

The Black Oil

Ran a HPI check on a UK Yaris.

No descriptive data from DVLA is recorded for this licence plate. The most common reasons for this are; new registration for which information is not yet available, import and invalid VRM.

Will the information come in time, or..?

4motion

Hi i want to go to UK to buy a car around 12000£ How i could take money i got visa debit and credit card form aib i know some sellers charge extra if you bring cash?? I got brother in law in UK maybe transfer money too his account and then issue bank draft?

Thanks

Panthro

I've had a look at the RAC used cars site, if you were to buy one of those cars, the car should be in good working order, right?
Or would I need to get someone else to check it?
Also, what's the best way to get a car from uk to here? Haulage it over or drive it yourself? I'd imagine driving it yourself you'd need it taxed

zilog_jones

hollee wrote: »

Looking for advice on payment options. Anyone use Transfer Mate or Currency Fair? Are there any advantages to using one above the other? I have a flight booked and am looking to pay and collect a car early next week, so ideally want a transaction that will clear the same day to leave with the car.

I used TransferMate but it didn't really work out that well - you need to transfer the money to them first so you're at the mercy of your bank to do that in time before they can do any transfer. In reality it took over a day for me on both occasions I used them, so wasn't really much better than just doing the payment though the bank entirely.

brophy

zilog_jones wrote: »

hollee wrote: »

Looking for advice on payment options. Anyone use Transfer Mate or Currency Fair? Are there any advantages to using one above the other? I have a flight booked and am looking to pay and collect a car early next week, so ideally want a transaction that will clear the same day to leave with the car.

I used TransferMate but it didn't really work out that well - you need to transfer the money to them first so you're at the mercy of your bank to do that in time before they can do any transfer. In reality it took over a day for me on both occasions I used them, so wasn't really much better than just doing the payment though the bank entirely.

It took little over a day with me had the money with them before lunch and was in the English bank by close of business that day.

The thing is if you transferring thousands you will save a few hundreds just on the exchange rates as its better than the banks.

Both are the same really Transfermate and Currency Fair - set up accounts with both and on the day ring them and see what rate they are giving....

Kace

That's strange Transfermate worked perfectly for me. I travelled to London, saw and agreed the car then called Transfermate at about 10.30am to deliver the funds to the dealer. I was in the car about 90 mins later driving back to the ferry.

Panthro

Kace wrote: »

That's strange Transfermate worked perfectly for me. I travelled to London, saw and agreed the car then called Transfermate at about 10.30am to deliver the funds to the dealer. I was in the car about 90 mins later driving back to the ferry.

Slightly off topic,
Did you tax the car for driving from London to the port?
If so, how'd you go about it?

bazz26

Panthro wrote: »

Slightly off topic,
Did you tax the car for driving from London to the port?
If so, how'd you go about it?

Only a UK resident can tax a UK car.

Panthro

bazz26 wrote: »

Only a UK resident can tax a UK car.

So say I bought a car over there and wanted to drive it to a ferry, I'd be taking a chance on driving an untaxed car, am I right?

bazz26

Apparently that's what a lot of people do.

The Black Oil

I've put down a deposit on a car in the UK. Haven't booked the flight or ferry yet. Have gotten insurance sorted, just waiting on paperwork.

The bit I'm unsure about is car tax in Ireland, not the VRT, that's clear enough. When I do I pay car tax - once the reg has been changed over? Is it points 16-18 outlined in the OP? It was first registered in the UK in Sept 2012, so will I be looking at an NCT this Autumn, or more or less straight away when I bring it here?

I need to hang on to some V5C documentation from the UK dealer too, yeah?

bazz26

It should be covered in this thread but... you cannot tax the car here until it is on Irish plates. Once you do the VRT inspection and pay the VRT they will issue you with an Irish registration number. It takes about 24 to 48 hours for the motor tax system to be updated with this information. Once it is updated you can go ahead and tax the car online using the registration number and last 6 digits of the car's VIN as the PIN, otherwise just request a new PIN from the site. They will email a new one to you via email within minutes. You will receive your tax disc in the post a few days later.

One thing to note is that you will only received the Irish registration cert (logbook) after you tax the car for the first time. It normally arrives about a week after the tax disc.

And you do need the V5C document to VRT the car here.

DuckSlice

mcminolta wrote: »

Don't know if this helps me or anyone else but I rang Swansea this morning about road tax after buying a car for export directly to Ireland.

Anyway the person in the Road tax office reckons that legally I should tax the vehicle online using the "I have the V5C/2 new keeper supplement (green slip)" for 6 months and pick the direct debit option which will give me a week or two to cancel the DD once I'm out of the UK.

I stated I only had an address in Ireland and he seemed to think this would not be an issue. I do have a UK bank account though so this "might” actually work for me although I wouldn't fancy my chances of setting this up using an irish bank account.

That’s the plan – I’ll see what happens although I suspect it isn’t going to be that easy!

how did you get on with this? thinking of going over soon, but worried that getting the car taxed will be a pain in the a**. im in a similar situation to you that i have a uk bank account also.

stek

Was thinking of buying a car on motorpoint.co.uk and the guy told me 'management made a decision 2 weeks ago to Not sell cars for export, therefore I cannot but the car'!..
Is this to be the case for all UK dealers?

Kotek Besar

stek wrote: »

Was thinking of buying a car on motorpoint.co.uk and the guy told me 'management made a decision 2 weeks ago to Not sell cars for export, therefore I cannot but the car'!..
Is this to be the case for all UK dealers?

That's a bit odd. Obviously they don't need to sell cars. Anyway, no biggy, just give them a UK address, wait for the log book to come, have it forwarded to you in Ireland, proceed with import.

Kotek Besar

stek wrote: »

Was thinking of buying a car on motorpoint.co.uk and the guy told me 'management made a decision 2 weeks ago to Not sell cars for export, therefore I cannot but the car'!..
Is this to be the case for all UK dealers?

That's a bit odd. Obviously they don't need to sell cars. Anyway, no biggy, just give them a UK address, wait for the log book to come, have it forwarded to you in Ireland, proceed with import.