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

funnyname

Looking at a car that is currently out of tax and SORN. Can I drive it off the lot once I switch over my insurance until I get the vrt all sorted or should I also get it taxed in the UK?

Isambard

funnyname wrote: »

Looking at a car that is currently out of tax and SORN. Can I drive it off the lot once I switch over my insurance until I get the vrt all sorted or should I also get it taxed in the UK?

legally it needs tax and MoT if applicable. If they catch without they'll take it off you. It's no good just switching over your insurance, you'll need hard copy proof

funnyname

Car is due mot yet as it's not at it's 3 year anniversary. Car tax only seems to be £20 so I'll try to get them to bring it up to date.

Also would anyone be put off by the company selling the car having their status within the companies house as having "notice for compulsory strike off". However this action has now been suspended.

bazz26

Sounds a bit dodgy, could have cash flow or debt problems. I'd be concerned about paying them for the car before you head over to collect it. They might leg it with your money and no more company and car when you get there.

funnyname

They are based in the North so I'm going to meet them in Sligo, I have the money on my Revolut card so if all is ok then I will do a direct transfer to their account. There's 3 months manufacture's warranty left on the car so I think I'll be ok as long as the inspection I've arranged comes back ok. I'm using click mechanic, anyone got any experience of them?

Beadyeye

michellie wrote: »

A letter from the DVLA with all the vehicle details on it if you can't get the v5.

Hi, after hours of scratching my head about a predicament I'm in, was wondering could you elaborate on this please? Have you had personal experience? And is the letter as good as a certificate of permanent export? Thanks

Isambard

no it's not imo. No V5C = walk away

Beadyeye

Has anyone had any experience with getting a replacement v5 sent by the DVLA to a parcel motel address? Thanks

Isambard

they will only send them to UK addresses and I think it has to be the address of the registered owner

bazz26

DVLA will not post registration documents to a PO box or post forwarding address afaik.

melon_collie

kennypowers wrote: »

I was in a similar position early December.Dealer posted off full v5c form to dvla despite my insistence. Quoted data protection.I called up dvla in Swansea explained my story .very helpful .got my v5c form in the post following week.Did you call them?

Called them alright. Multiple times. Very unhelpful. They pretty much told me that the only thing is be getting is a letter stating that I won't get V5c or cert of export. I have that letter now. Went to NCT today to try vrt but they wouldn't. Rang dealer last week and they admitted the mistake. They have applied to DVLA to register car in our name at dealership address. Really hoping that'll work.

I was disappointed that the NCT wouldn't give me an extension of time to get paperwork together. I don't want to incur fees. I'm genuinely trying to sort this

bazz26

The NCT don't make the rules, they just follow Revenue's VRT rules. Your gripe really is with the dealer who fupped up mightily because they didn't check the proper procedure for selling a car to a non UK resident.

wassie

melon_collie wrote: »

Rang dealer last week and they admitted the mistake. They have applied to DVLA to register car in our name at dealership address. Really hoping that'll work.

It is a very nervous waiting period, but experience tells me don't be losing at sleep over this. As long as the address is checks out, DVLA will simply process and issue V5C. Afterall, they probably do 1000's of these a week!

melon_collie

wassie wrote: »

It is a very nervous waiting period, but experience tells me don't be losing at sleep over this. As long as the address is checks out, DVLA will simply process and issue V5C. Afterall, they probably do 1000's of these a week!

I hope that's true. What's your experience do you me mind me asking?? Should I contact revenue and ask for a couple of weeks grace?? I really am doing my best to sort it out.

Heart Break Kid

kceire wrote: »

Yes. It was for me last month.
Brought car in on 4th and couldn’t get a booking h til the 21st.

Couldn’t book online either so had to call.

Was wondering how this would technically work.

If i import before the brexit deadline and register my VRT inspection within 7 days to have it inspected within 30 days, will I be covered? or is there a risk to VAT?

michellie

melon_collie wrote: »

I hope that's true. What's your experience do you me mind me asking?? Should I contact revenue and ask for a couple of weeks grace?? I really am doing my best to sort it out.

Wont work. You'll have to pay any penalties then make an appeal to revenue

trellheim

Going to the UK to a lexus main dealer to have a look at a 2nd hand car. What level of haggle is there with this, or is it just take it or leave it mate usually ? No tradein of course so is that not discountable ... just wanted to not look like a tool

TIA
T

Samson1

trellheim wrote: »

Going to the UK to a lexus main dealer to have a look at a 2nd hand car. What level of haggle is there with this, or is it just take it or leave it mate usually ? No tradein of course so is that not discountable ... just wanted to not look like a tool

TIA
T

I did that in October with a Lexus main dealer. We agreed a £500 discount on the asking price - before I ever went over. It was based on that fact 'No trade-in' - and there was no further leeway.


UK dealers seem to treat their asking price a lot more serious than here, so I felt I did very well on that.


By the way - really delighted with the car !

darragh o meara

trellheim wrote: »

Going to the UK to a lexus main dealer to have a look at a 2nd hand car. What level of haggle is there with this, or is it just take it or leave it mate usually ? No tradein of course so is that not discountable ... just wanted to not look like a tool

TIA
T

Always try them for a discount. Let them know your exporting it so warranty really isn’t going to be needed unless they supply a warranty that is applicable over here ( most are not ) and the fact that’s it’s a straight sale. Usually dealers will have a margin included to take trade ins into account and warranty costs them a few quid too. The end of the month is always a good time to get a discount too with salesmen wanting to hit sales targets.

Don’t expect it to be like buying here though, UK dealers don’t have as much wiggle room.

hesker

Have flight booked for the 8th Mar.

Been looking at lots of cars online over the last few weeks and know what I want.

Rang a main dealer last Friday. We were back and over a bit on price but in the end I didn't bite. He was willing to take a fully refundable deposit and hold the car until I came over.

Rang another main dealer today and he's not willing to hold the car at all for more than 4 or 5 days. Not even until I get an inspection sorted which I'm guessing could take that at least. He wanted full payment up front. Not planning on going there.

So what's people's experiences with dealers holding cars for them. What's a reasonable amount of time.

Skippy along

Handy DVLA link for checking complete MOT history of second hand UK cars just enter the reg number and and then scroll down to check MOT history.

https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/

trellheim

trellheim wrote: »

What level of haggle is there with this, or is it just take it or leave it mate usually?

A traveller* once told me "shy girls don't get no sweets".... You might as well ask and see what they say, because if you don't ask you'll get nothing. If he says no, he says no. You might get enough of a discount to cover the cost of the petrol and taxing the car though, so give it a shot.

*I'd just said no to him, when he had asked me if I was dumping my bike out with the rest of the big rubbish that was out for the council collection. While I was standing there holding it. With a hi-viz on. Wearing a helmet. And cycling shoes.

bonkers67

Deleted User wrote: »

A traveller* once told me "shy girls don't get no sweets".... You might as well ask and see what they say, because if you don't ask you'll get nothing. If he says no, he says no. You might get enough of a discount to cover the cost of the petrol and taxing the car though, so give it a shot.

*I'd just said no to him, when he had asked me if I was dumping my bike out with the rest of the big rubbish that was out for the council collection. While I was standing there holding it. With a hi-viz on. Wearing a helmet. And cycling shoes.

I got £450 off mine. If you catch them at the right time they’ll negotiate. Car sales aren’t going too well over there at the moment.

Horse1920

Bigger Diesels like 2.0L -3.0L are not selling in UK -I Bought off a main dealer in UK - they said it was very slow on the bigger Diesels that's the only bracket that they have to discount - they can discount to £500 -600 but that's It -- I had a comparison vehicle on autotrader that I was using for a discount. They said to make an official offer through the website - Then its up to the car group itself to accept or deny it - they then can supplement the dealership ( if its company owned rather than a dealer franchise ) to sell the car . This is usually in lieu of talking a new vehicle.

That's the way they explained it to me - Worked anyway - found all the main dealers very straight to deal with - but there is a lot less BS involved than here - the window price usually is more hundreds than thousands negotiable.

As the others say though your basically buying with very little comeback to them so they will move a little. ( except for Cargiant - the number is the number there unless you can find a fault)


Good Luck

bonkers67

Horse1920 wrote: »

Bigger Diesels like 2.0L -3.0L are not selling in UK -I Bought off a main dealer in UK - they said it was very slow on the bigger Diesels that's the only bracket that they have to discount - they can discount to £500 -600 but that's It -- I had a comparison vehicle on autotrader that I was using for a discount. They said to make an official offer through the website - Then its up to the car group itself to accept or deny it - they then can supplement the dealership ( if its company owned rather than a dealer franchise ) to sell the car . This is usually in lieu of talking a new vehicle.

That's the way they explained it to me - Worked anyway - found all the main dealers very straight to deal with - but there is a lot less BS involved than here - the window price usually is more hundreds than thousands negotiable.

As the others say though your basically buying with very little comeback to them so they will move a little. ( except for Cargiant - the number is the number there unless you can find a fault)


Good Luck

Mine is a petrol.

ando

hesker wrote: »

Have flight booked for the 8th Mar.

Been looking at lots of cars online over the last few weeks and know what I want.

Rang a main dealer last Friday. We were back and over a bit on price but in the end I didn't bite. He was willing to take a fully refundable deposit and hold the car until I came over.

Rang another main dealer today and he's not willing to hold the car at all for more than 4 or 5 days. Not even until I get an inspection sorted which I'm guessing could take that at least. He wanted full payment up front. Not planning on going there.

So what's people's experiences with dealers holding cars for them. What's a reasonable amount of time.

The two occasions I went over, I didn't give any money until the inspection was done (which took 2/3 days to organise), then a deposit was given £500 and car held for another 3/4 days. Brought around 80% of the remaining price of the car in a bank draft and the rest in cash for negotiations

homerjk

Strange one here, be grateful for any advice or even someone to tell me I'm sh*t out of luck.

I imported a car from the UK on the 24th of Jan (have ferry ticket etc). I ran the VRT calculator that day and the VRT due was €3,200. I tried to book in a VRT appointment as soon as there was one free but physically couldn't do it. All the VRT centres in Dublin were showing no next available dates at all. I had to check it multiple times a day for 3 days in a row for it to show you a day which eventually was for this Friday night, the 22nd.

In preparation for Friday I just ran it through the VRT calculator to see if had gone down (how I wish) only to find out that the VRT had now gone up to €4,600 as they had increased the OSMP by nearly €4k!!! I nearly got sick.

I see this has happened to some people and they've had to pay up and did not win an appeal but I would I have any chance due to the fact that I wanted to VRT the fecking thing and couldn't because nothing was available?

(I have print outs of the original quote)

YamineB

Hi guys,

I am in urgent need of advice, I importedmy car from the UK and completed the registration process yesterday. Paid VRT and got my registration certificate. Only thing is I am in desperate need of money due to a family incident and therefore can not afford to pay for irish insurance (whose prices are ridiculous, got quoted at 5k a year for 2007 car worth less than 2k) and motor tax. So i was thinking of just taking my car back to england since i did not feel the notification of permanent export yet and the car still shows in the DVLA databases and sell it there.

Do you guys know if I am allowed to do so firstly and if so, what procedure to I have to go through.

Thanks for any help that will be given.

Regards

Isambard

there is no problem doing that , there's a procedure laid down for it, I think you have to MoT it. You'll regain the old number and you can get a refund of VRT

Mc Love

homerjk wrote: »

Strange one here, be grateful for any advice or even someone to tell me I'm sh*t out of luck.

I imported a car from the UK on the 24th of Jan (have ferry ticket etc). I ran the VRT calculator that day and the VRT due was €3,200. I tried to book in a VRT appointment as soon as there was one free but physically couldn't do it. All the VRT centres in Dublin were showing no next available dates at all. I had to check it multiple times a day for 3 days in a row for it to show you a day which eventually was for this Friday night, the 22nd.

In preparation for Friday I just ran it through the VRT calculator to see if had gone down (how I wish) only to find out that the VRT had now gone up to €4,600 as they had increased the OSMP by nearly €4k!!! I nearly got sick.

I see this has happened to some people and they've had to pay up and did not win an appeal but I would I have any chance due to the fact that I wanted to VRT the fecking thing and couldn't because nothing was available?

(I have print outs of the original quote)

Probably not, the vrt calculator is only an estimate. And you could have gone to any vrt center