VRT & LHD Vehicles

Berty

I have done some googling on the subject and after visting the ROS and the VRT website I still have the following question and hope somebody can answer it.

If I bring in a car from Germany, Latvia, Cyprus, USA etc where the cars are LHD.

Do the authorities here demand proof the the headlights have been realinged?

I cannot find evidence to say they require this to be done.

drunkmonkey

wouldn't that only come into play when you try and NCT it?

Sandwich

From the titles I thought another question was being asked which occured to me in the past:
Is the VRT substantially lower (or nil?) if you bring in a LHD car. Presumably its value would be far lower than the equivalent RHD version in the 2nd hand market in Ireland, which would be reflected in the VRT. But is it?

Berty

drunkmonkey wrote: »

wouldn't that only come into play when you try and NCT it?

If I buy a new car in Europe and try to bring it into Ireland, does it need to be NCT'd as it would be only 1 day old and not 4 years therefore not needing an NCT?

peasant

off on a tangent and leaving legailities aside ...

It is in your own interest to change the headlamps to RHD as soon as possible.
Otherwise the first dark, rainy night down a country road and lots of oncoming traffic will see you totally blind and in a ditch before you know it.

CharlieCroker

Cyprus is right hand drive. Guy where I work imported a car from there.

Eoin

peasant wrote: »

It is in your own interest to change the headlamps to RHD as soon as possible.
Otherwise the first dark, rainy night down a country road and lots of oncoming traffic will see you totally blind and in a ditch before you know it.

Would you not be blinding oncoming traffic?

Gary ITR

eoin wrote: »

Would you not be blinding oncoming traffic?

I think he means that the oncoming traffic will be constantly flashing

peasant

Yes, "wrong" dipped lights blinding oncoming traffic is one issue ...the other is that they only light up a very short stretch of the edge of the road in front of you. Now ad rain and glare from oncoming traffic and the edge of the road dissapears in front of your eyes and you haven't a clue as to where you are on the road and where you're going.

Del2005

Berty wrote: »

I have done some googling on the subject and after visting the ROS and the VRT website I still have the following question and hope somebody can answer it.

If I bring in a car from Germany, Latvia, Cyprus, USA etc where the cars are LHD.

Do the authorities here demand proof the the headlights have been realinged?

I cannot find evidence to say they require this to be done.

Berty wrote: »

If I buy a new car in Europe and try to bring it into Ireland, does it need to be NCT'd as it would be only 1 day old and not 4 years therefore not needing an NCT?

If you are buying new, why don't you specify RHD lights on the car? If buying 2nd hand try and get them as part of the deal.

But AFAIK no-one will check the lights when you go to pay the VRT. When/If they bring in the NCT for all 2nd hand imports then you will be forced to do it.

But that doesn't mean you should drive with LHD lights as they are potentially dangerous for you and other road users.

galwaytt

I've bought loads of bikes in from Germany, and I always got the dealer to put in proper RHD lights as part of the deal........

...but the Revenue don't know/care, but yes, the NCT people will.