A4 Extras standard in UK

forumdedum

I am hoping to buy a new Audi A4 S Line. I configured the car i would like on the UK website. The audi UK website shows prices on the configurator, the Irish site does not.

Firstly the S Line A4 is 25,350 sterling in UK (€32,074)
In Ireland they call it the S model and charge €3,200 on top of the new basic post July 08 price of €37,500. The ACTUAL S line costs €5,431 extra in Ireland.

a) When the car is purchased in Ireland options that are standard in the UK are very costly extras in Ireland. Here are a few examples

Alarm STANDARD in UK, €767 in Ireland
Split Folding Rear Seats STANDARD in UK, €494 in Ireland
Headlight Washers STANDARD in UK, €451 in Ireland
Aluminium Inlays STANDARD in UK, €357 in Ireland

b) Extras are twice or three times as expensive in Ireland. For example:

Leather Seats costs 3055 euro in Ireland. Identical seats 850 pounds sterling (that is 1075 euro)
Metallic Paint 550 sterling (€696) - €1312 in Ireland
Cruise Control 190 sterling (€240) - €451 in Ireland

Please comment
Also can a dealer on the forum please Explain??

I am aware that in July i would have to pay 16% VRT on this particular model.

Do i have to pay 21% Irish VAT on top of the UK 17.5% VAT if i import from Northern Ireland or the UK

An A4 would represent a lot of money for me.

Thank You for all comments.

NewApproach

I am aware that in July i would have to pay 16% VRT on this particular model.

Do i have to pay 21% Irish VAT on top of the UK 17.5% VAT if i import from Northern Ireland or the UK

An A4 would represent a lot of money for me.

Thank You for all comments.

Yes I think you have to pay 21% VAT in addition to VRT, if the car is less than 6 months old/less than 6000 kms.

However, you should be able to reclaim the 17.5% UK VAT if you are exporting it as new.

mikedragon32

Because of the current VRT regeime a lot of manufacturers trim back on the extras to try keep the cost of a new car down. When I bought my A3 a few years ago, ESP was an optional extra here.

Basically, if all the stuff that's standard on a UK car was standard on a car bought here, it would be a hell of a lot more than it currently is.

The irony of that situation is that when you're buying a new car and you add on your "optional" extras you get charged VRT on those too, which is madness imho.

Someone else can answer your import questions.

r3nu4l

A3 buyers should also watch out.

The newly facelifted A3 has some lovely new engines and the price has come down. That sounds great but it turns out that many things that were standard in the UK are now optional. Some things that were optional are now standard but overall, the new A3 is of a lower spec and as with the OP, I'm sure that the spec in Ireland will be even lower.

-Chris-

Historically it's been rare enough for Irish and UK specs to match up, UK has always been higher (and I have pretty decent experience with that).

BMW only standardised spec when BMW Germany took over here.

The glib answer is that it's a different market - the "paddy specials" you see mentioned here (1.6 Avensises etc.) are very popular here, but not so much anywhere else. Irish people seem to be more interested in the size and badge on the car rather than the spec. The importers spec the car with that in mind, I guess.

In terms of the A4, the S Model (if you mean the A4 Sport) has nothing to do with S-Line, and some of the options in the Sport will contradict with the S-Line (alloys, sports seats, sports steering wheel) and therefore you can't spec both on the same car.

I don't know why the optional extras pricing is higher - possibly because the RRP of the car itself is lower (afaik). Again, historically the pre-tax prices of cars in Ireland have been lower than the prices in other EU countries due to our VRT regime.

Ice_Box

Its another reason people are importing. No wonder dealers are finding it tough.

-Chris-

It's always been a reason that people import, same way our lower pre-tax prices were the reason so many cars were exported to the UK earlier this decade (I guess the exchange rate made it more attractive back then).