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

slave1

b.gud wrote: »

Did you have to wait long to get an appointment? I'm waiting to hear back from a dealer up north about a few questions I asked. If I'm happy with the answers I'd be hoping to put a deposit on it and arrange the inspection. Would love if I can get everything sorted by the weekend

Paid for it on a Thursday afternoon and appointment was on the Monday, received a call from engineer on the Monday around 5'ish and then received the detail report around 9AM Tuesday morning.
Good luck and make sure your deposit is subject to inspection in case it gets a poor report and you want to pull out.

b.gud

slave1 wrote: »

Paid for it on a Thursday afternoon and appointment was on the Monday, received a call from engineer on the Monday around 5'ish and then received the detail report around 9AM Tuesday morning.
Good luck and make sure your deposit is subject to inspection in case it gets a poor report and you want to pull out.

Thanks I actually just got off the phone from the RAC. The inspection is happening on Thursday, so I should have a call on Thursday evening and report on Friday morning.

Yeah I've already made sure that the deposit is refundable

Panthro

Folks,
Bought a car from a dealer up north at the weekend.
He didn't know anything about sending
off a part of the V5 (I think that is what it's called) to say the cars been exported. He thought it automatically becomes export when I VRT it.
Any ideas?

bazz26

Then just ask him to give you the V5 registration document with the car. You will need the V5c part when VRTing the car down here.

Panthro

bazz26 wrote: »

Then just ask him to give you the V5 registration document with the car. You will need the V5c part when VRTing the car down here.

Have that document alright, sound I'll do that so.
Cheers bazz!

ScouseMouse

For anyone interested, I brought in a Mondeo Titanium X and got charged about 900 euro more than the online quote. Had to pay the demand and appealed it to Rosslare. Got half of the extra back. Bit sore about it but could have been worse.

Two weeks ago, mother in law bought a small 2014 car from a guy in Dublin. Was still on english plates but it appears there is a daily fine if its here over 30 days or so. VRT online quote was 1080 euro so with fine, could have been 1300 euro. I pointed this out to the seller and we made an allowance for this in the selling price.

Presented it to the VRT inspection and couldn't believe it when they charged €1006 euro. Very good result. That was enought to pay for 12 months tax!

It appears the VRT is very random and while I got stung badly on one car, did quite ok on another car.

bazz26

Revenue's VRT calculator is a guide/estimate, it has never been a set in stone fixed calculation, prices can and do fluctuate all the time.

b.gud

What's the story with appealing the Vrt amount?

Are they usually successful?

How long does it take?

The_Conductor

b.gud wrote: »

What's the story with appealing the Vrt amount?

Are they usually successful?

How long does it take?

Depends really. I printed out a few pages from Carzone (and even from Adverts) showing similar vehicles at a significant discount to Revenue's price- and got a refund of just over 4k on an Audi A6.......

If you can get plenty of examples- of similar models of a similar age and mileage- you're sorted..........

b.gud

The_Conductor wrote: »

Depends really. I printed out a few pages from Carzone (and even from Adverts) showing similar vehicles at a significant discount to Revenue's price- and got a refund of just over 4k on an Audi A6.......

If you can get plenty of examples- of similar models of a similar age and mileage- you're sorted..........

Thanks for that.

Is there a form that you fill out or do you just contact then and say you want to appeal?

Peig Sayers

Never done this before. I'm looking at importing a 2015 Fiat 500X. This model is not showing up on the website, the closest would be the Fiat 500L.

Should I ring them? I don't want to get a nasty surprise when I go to register it. What happens when cars are not listed?

Harcrid

You can't ring them. When a car is not listed on the database, the only way to get the figure is to book your appointment to VRT it and they will tell you that they will need to go off and get a valuation. Of course by then you have already bought the car so its a bit of a gamble.

Peig Sayers

Harcrid wrote: »

You can't ring them. When a car is not listed on the database, the only way to get the figure is to book your appointment to VRT it and they will tell you that they will need to go off and get a valuation. Of course by then you have already bought the car so its a bit of a gamble.

Bugger. I might wait a few more months so and see if they add that model. Not willing to take that chance!

bazz26

What make and model is it? If it's something rare or something with crazy VRT/tax that isn't really popular here then you could be waiting along time for it to appear on the Revenue VRT calculator.

Peig Sayers

bazz26 wrote: »

What make and model is it? If it's something rare or something with crazy VRT/tax that isn't really popular here then you could be waiting along time for it to appear on the Revenue VRT calculator.

Fiat 500X 2015

bazz26

I think your problem maybe that model is so new that nobody has imported one yet.

To give you an idea of what sort of vrt you will pay go onto carzone.ie and check the prices of a similar model. Then get the car's co2 figure, look up what VRT class it falls under and calculate that as a percentage of the most expensive similar one on carzone. That should give you a ballpark worst case figure, however you won't know for sure until you present the car in front of them for appraisal and they contact Revenue for a figure.

charleville

Can anyone tell me the story with importing a Land Rover discovery from the U.K. ?

I've been looking at a 2016 model, in ireland they are modified from factory to have 5 seats and classed as a crew cab for commercial reasons and I can claim my vat back too, however I'm searching the uk and have found some really good deals (saving approx 15k even after vrt) however they all seem to be either 2 seater commercial or else 7 seater private.

Was this 5 seater crew cab only for the Irish market ?
Can the 7 seaters be legally modified to meet Irish standard on importing if so how would the vrt work.
Has anyone done this or been through this process

Tks

Marcusm

charleville wrote: »

Can anyone tell me the story with importing a Land Rover discovery from the U.K. ?

I've been looking at a 2016 model, in ireland they are modified from factory to have 5 seats and classed as a crew cab for commercial reasons and I can claim my vat back too, however I'm searching the uk and have found some really good deals (saving approx 15k even after vrt) however they all seem to be either 2 seater commercial or else 7 seater private.

Was this 5 seater crew cab only for the Irish market ?
Can the 7 seaters be legally modified to meet Irish standard on importing if so how would the vrt work.
Has anyone done this or been through this process

Tks

I think the 5 seater fake commercial is an Irishism.

charleville

Is it possible to convert from a 7 seater to a 5 seater on importing ? Or does the vehicle have to come from factory as is...

Sterling is not bad now so there's definitely substantial savings to be had buying from the U.K.

The government will still get their piece of flesh from the vrt so I don't see the problem doing it this way if it can be done.

mark316

Has anyone ever bought a vat qualifying car?

Tomjim

Esel wrote: »

I have seen ads where they will drive it to the ferry for a fee per mile. Maybe ask the dealer about that?

Otherwise, there are transporters based here who will bring it over and deliver to your door. Last time I saw it mentioned here the cost was 350-400 ish.

are there any contact numbers available for a haulier who will bring car home from uk

mark316

What's the best way to pay for car in uk, going to be flying over and if happy with it pay for it then

Squip90

Hi Guys,

Have found an ideal car in the North. Private seller. I have thoroughly gone through the car and it seems very tight all round. A few small things aesthetically but on a mechanical side the car is in great condition.

Now a breakdown: The car is 2010 Audi A4 Allroad. White. 170,000 miles which I know is ALOT!

The car is not listed on the Revenues VRT Calculator and when I tried to contact them all I got by way of response was ''We won't know until you show up with the car on the day?'' which sounds absolutely absurd to me?

I tried the motorcheck.ie site which makes the OMSP out at around €20,000 with a VRT of €5,760.00.

Now it may be just me but the price seems absolutely scandalous to me. On the Revenue site it states that if the car is not listed on their site there is a way (A number of formulas) to establish OMSP etc. Now just by cross checking with a few sites Auto Trader etc in the UK the car seems to be on the market for between £9,999.00 and £14,500.00. Now bear in mind that the highest mileage on any of those cars in 120,000 miles.

I cannot find any Irish data. I cannot find any second hand A4 allroad for sale new or second hand. I found a valuation on Irish Car Guide as being approx. €44,000.00 new.

The whole thing is really going over my head. I am ready to buy the car but I honestly cannot afford that much on VRT. Does it seem a bit high to anyone?

I know alot of my answers are probably back along the thread somewhere but there is so many pages to trawl through. I am based in Cork where can I go to get a face to face and get handed a physical VRT quote?

Any advice would be great guys I'd really appreciate. I can see the car being sold soon and dont want to let it go.

The_Conductor

Mileage seems remarkably high (thats 275k kilometers).
If you're happy that belts (incl. timing belt) have been done, the gear box isn't knackered etc- and you can get it at a reasonable price- fine- but honestly- I'd run a mile given the mileage- unless I had a cast iron guarantee and warranty of some nature- which you're simply not going to get from a private seller.

Its a step too far really- given the mileage........

Mileage alone would tend to dictate the VRT on this- I honestly think 5k is probably too much- if you could get a similar model/age/mileage here- you'd probably be looking at 12-14k max (?) (the low price is because of how high the mileage is)

Bargain_Hound

Squip90 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

Have found an ideal car in the North. Private seller. I have thoroughly gone through the car and it seems very tight all round. A few small things aesthetically but on a mechanical side the car is in great condition.

Now a breakdown: The car is 2010 Audi A4 Allroad. White. 170,000 miles which I know is ALOT!

The car is not listed on the Revenues VRT Calculator and when I tried to contact them all I got by way of response was ''We won't know until you show up with the car on the day?'' which sounds absolutely absurd to me?

I tried the motorcheck.ie site which makes the OMSP out at around €20,000 with a VRT of €5,760.00.

Now it may be just me but the price seems absolutely scandalous to me. On the Revenue site it states that if the car is not listed on their site there is a way (A number of formulas) to establish OMSP etc. Now just by cross checking with a few sites Auto Trader etc in the UK the car seems to be on the market for between £9,999.00 and £14,500.00. Now bear in mind that the highest mileage on any of those cars in 120,000 miles.

I cannot find any Irish data. I cannot find any second hand A4 allroad for sale new or second hand. I found a valuation on Irish Car Guide as being approx. €44,000.00 new.

The whole thing is really going over my head. I am ready to buy the car but I honestly cannot afford that much on VRT. Does it seem a bit high to anyone?

I know alot of my answers are probably back along the thread somewhere but there is so many pages to trawl through. I am based in Cork where can I go to get a face to face and get handed a physical VRT quote?

Any advice would be great guys I'd really appreciate. I can see the car being sold soon and dont want to let it go.

Millage aside, I would run a mile based on the above highlighted and look at something you can afford. You're not going to escape paying the normal VRT amount because it has higher than average millage.

Squip90

Mileage is high. But guy seems sound and has been honest with everything. Timing belt, Gear box all seem sound. He has a good service history all receipts of all work completed. I may get an RAC Inspection just to be 100% safe. I'm not overly turned off from the mileage given what I have clocked up in cars myself previously and they were all in very good order.

Maybe it would be best to walk away from this one

R.O.R

Stat Code 43487683 is an A4 Allroad 2.0Tdi 177ps Auto and there are a couple of manual models listed too.

Squip90

Yep. Think this one is officially out of my head then. Seems very high. I know its an allroad but nothing that special about it spec wise.

Thanks for all your help guys.

bazz26

Just a note regarding the OMSP. Revenue do not care what similar cars are asking or selling for in other countries. They will calculate it on what they think it's market value is here. If you think their valuation of the OMSP here is too high then the only way is to appeal it after you first pay their VRT valuation but you need to show them examples of cheaper models being sold here, not NI or the UK.

darragh o meara

The_Conductor wrote: »

Mileage seems remarkably high (thats 275k kilometers).
If you're happy that belts (incl. timing belt) have been done, the gear box isn't knackered etc- and you can get it at a reasonable price- fine- but honestly- I'd run a mile given the mileage- unless I had a cast iron guarantee and warranty of some nature- which you're simply not going to get from a private seller.

That mileage whereas is high wouldn't be much on a well looked after car. I've seen those engines with well over 200k miles and were still running fine. In fact I drove a 2011 A6 recently with 240k on the clock and you really wouldn't know it if it wasn't displayed in front of you.

The VRT crowd should take the higher mileage into account but I wouldnt bet on getting a huge discount though.