Effect of UK imports on Irish 2nd hand market - opinions?

bwardrop

I have been trying to sell my car recently so I could upgrade it - I would love an E60 estate (quit sniggering!!) and could afford one... if I import from the UK. We are all aware of the bargains to be had by using this route, but my question is this - what impact are the imports having on the used car market in Ireland now / down the line?

The numbers of new cars registered each year are commonly reported - is there any way to find out how many imported cars were registered? How big do you reckon this figure is? More and more people are doing it themselves now and there seem to be whole garages dedicated to selling on imports now...

I got thinking about this as my car (E46) seems to be one of the most common imports from the UK (along with A4's, which are then retrofitted with RS4 kits - is this annoying anyone else?!). My car was imported from the UK - I bought it nearly 3 years ago and saved a few quid when buying it. I wasn't aware then of the savings that I could have made had I imported it myself!!

I know the VRT changes and the current economic slow down will also contribute, but do you think the market is going to is / will become saturated with imports, making them so difficult to sell on that it will just devalue the whole 2nd hand market?

Hope you get what I'm talking about - I'll probably end up editing this a couple of times to clear it up!! Still, I'd like to hear your opinions...

Seth Brundle

Are you going for a new or used model? Petrol or diesel? This will dictate on whether you should import now or after July 1st. Diesel may be easier to sell on in the coming years though.
As for the effect on the market, allegedly the increasing number of imports are affecting sales here and the SIMI (IIRC) were on the wireless recently scaremongering about the fact that potentially they could all be dangerous write offs etc.

Tails142

Well, the current situation is that a car over here will be the same price, or at least SELLING for the same price, as a car over in the UK, whatever about advertised price.

The difference however is in the quality, you generally get much better extras on the UK cars and as a general rule they are better looked after. Though I have found them to be a bit rusted in the engine bay from the road salts, even if they have the special coating on the under carriage to protect from this.

So, if you bring in a well specced UK car I dont think you'll have any problems selling it down the line as you'll be selling it for the same price as an irish car but you'll have leather seats, electric mirrors and things like that which may get you extra attention. Not more money, just extra attention.

bwardrop

I was considering a used diesel - although may reconsider - a bit of saving could get me a new one here with the VRT changes. *Edit* - when it is specced up to the level I would want, the import will probably start to look attractive again!!

I caught the tail end of the SIMI on the radio, but missed most of it. I was thinking about the sheer numbers of cars being introduced to the 2nd hand market - a few should have negligible impact - but what happens when that number dramatically increases, as is happening?

WHITE_P

Just take a look at anything popular on carzone at the moment and you will get an idea what is happening.

It definitly looks like the volume of 2nd hand imports from NI and England are affecting 2nd hand values here, with many imports being sold as higher spec. than they actually are. Just look at the amount of imported current model Passats being sold as Highline (SEL in England) that are in fact SE's and are closer to Comfortline spec. here.

While England used to get higher spec. cars than the Irish models in the past, this seems to have changed in recent years.

Personally I wouldn't buy a 2nd hand import from any used dealer, when its so easy to source and buy quality used cars from NI and England yourself, particularly if you use the internet to locate a number of cars you are interested in.

Stevie Dakota

The Passat is an interesting case, they have only just started selling our Highline over there. Buyers need to be careful as White P says, specs are not always better there.

conor_mc

kbannon wrote: »

Are you going for a new or used model? Petrol or diesel? This will dictate on whether you should import now or after July 1st. Diesel may be easier to sell on in the coming years though.
As for the effect on the market, allegedly the increasing number of imports are affecting sales here and the SIMI (IIRC) were on the wireless recently scaremongering about the fact that potentially they could all be dangerous write offs etc.

Self-centred waffle from SIMI again - cartell.ie is up and running a year or two and is only getting recorded NCT mileages now, but the HPI check system in the UK is decades old and covers a categorised insurance claim system (Cat A-D, which we don't have), the National Mileage Register (which we don't have), Police reports, Finance reports, the lot.

The AA/RAC engineers checks are better established than their Irish counterparts, and therefore more trustworthy to the public in general (I don't mean to say that the smaller Irish check-out operations are hooky in any way, just they don't have the comfort-blanket of big-brand backing).

Frankly, I'd feel more comfortable buying a fully-checked out UK used car than an Irish used car.

tvr

The Central Stats have that info, I remember it saying there was in the region of 190,000 new cars registered and 65000 imports.

tvr

58,719 used in 2007.

Yeah heres the link:

http://www.cso.ie/statistics/motvehlicfirstime.htm

bwardrop

tvr wrote: »

The Central Stats have that info, I remember it saying there was in the region of 190,000 new cars registered and 65000 imports.

Cool - just looked it up:

2007 - new private cars registered: 180,754 (+4.3% on 2006)
2007 - newly registered 2nd hand cars:58,719 (+8.2% on 2006)

For '06 the figures were 173,273 and 54,244 respectively.

That is actually way more than I expected - I would have guessed about 15 - 20,000 imports...

(Think we both checked the figures at the same time!)

conor_mc

Alot of these second-hand new registrations are imported by backstreet dealers, not just private individuals though.

bwardrop

bwardrop wrote: »

is there any way to find out how many imported cars were registered? How big do you reckon this figure is? More and more people are doing it themselves now and there seem to be whole garages dedicated to selling on imports now...

conor_mc wrote: »

Alot of these second-hand new registrations are imported by backstreet dealers, not just private individuals though.

Yeah - this was part of my original query. If people are importing for themselves then I don't think there would be that much of a problem. However, garages full of cars imported to sell on immediately are saturating the market...