Buying a Northern Ireland Car

joehandyman

Hi there

I am thinking of buying a car from Northern Ireland or maybe England and perhaps taking it across to the border to the South. Heard that there are huge savings to be made by doing this.

Just checking if anyone has done this before and is it worth the time and hassle with all the VRT issues etc??

allthedoyles

We bought a 03 Peugeot in NI for 2,200stg and paid vrt 1050e - last sept.

It worked out at total cost of 3900 euro .

Yes , was worthwhile , as the same car here was trading at 7,000e .

And car has some extras as standard , that you wont get on same type models down here .

Tipsy Mac

Yes it's worth the time and hassle for certain cars. I'd compare the same car here before you purchase one in the north as some cars will be not worthwhile importing. You should check the VRT cost on www.revenue.ie for the particular car your looking at getting.

BABYDOLL

there is am import duty (VRT) Calculator on www.ros.ie

hot4teacher

You should buy a car thats over 6 months old and has more then 6000km on it or you will be liable for VAT also.
Check how much VRT you need to pay on the revenue web site as this can add up to quite a lot.
The actual importing is easy enough - I bought an 07 Mazda RX8 last year and imported it with no hassle at all

Richard

Out of interest, do they insist that the speedometer and odometer are changed?

Soarer

Richard wrote: »

Out of interest, do they insist that the speedometer and odometer are changed?

Nope.

smartassname101

I`ve brought a few cars across the border and never had a problem but lately the Revenue "open market selling price" is way over the norm and thus the VRT calculation is higher. Has anyone else found this? Is there any room for negotiating like you can on the trim etc?

funnygal

Yes it is worth the hassle. recently brought down a bmw from the north and saved nearly 5000 instead of buying it down here.if you are buying a relatively cheap car around 2 or 3000 euro then maybe it is not worth the hassle of bringing it down and paying vrt but for cars around 5000 or more then it is. the more expesive kind of car then the more your likely to save.

ormike

Lots of good deals down south. I know a few people who bought up North and had problems with A/C etc and then had to go north for repairs. I checked it all out and bought here. Find car you want up north and then check price down here. Make offer, you might be surprised. Make sure you get guarantee. Lots of northern cars are imported from mainland UK specifically to offload on southern market!!!

eden_my_ass

ormike wrote: »

Lots of good deals down south. I know a few people who bought up North and had problems with A/C etc and then had to go north for repairs. I checked it all out and bought here. Find car you want up north and then check price down here. Make offer, you might be surprised. Make sure you get guarantee. Lots of northern cars are imported from mainland UK specifically to offload on southern market!!!

Why would you "have" to go up North for repairs, A/C isn't that exotic a thing to fix, a car can break, your local mechanic/dealer can fix it...nothing to do with importing per se. As for matching price down here to what you can get in the UK, you'll often find that you can't match the spec to start with, even on basic cars, what we have gotten here over the years has often been a stripped down version of what they got.

ormike

eden_my_ass wrote: »

Why would you "have" to go up North for repairs, A/C isn't that exotic a thing to fix, a car can break, your local mechanic/dealer can fix it...nothing to do with importing per se. As for matching price down here to what you can get in the UK, you'll often find that you can't match the spec to start with, even on basic cars, what we have gotten here over the years has often been a stripped down version of what they got.

I'm talking about a warranty repair. Try getting that done down here

colrow

I'm in a strange position, my homes in Kerry and I'm a engineer and i work as a contrator, I hire an Irish umbrella company, and pay Irish paye and prsi, I've been working in Scotland for a year and spent loads of money hiring cars, so i thought I'd buy one and take it back when I finish in another years time, I thought I'd be able to get an exemption because I will have owned it over 6 months, but according to the vrt people I'll have to bring it back then see what happens, which I read as it'll be very hard to do. I bought a Mercedes C180 Avantguard 03 reg which cost me £7,000.00 from a merc dealer, I thought if the worst comes to the worst the vrt would be roughly a third say 2,500 at most, (converted to the euro equivalent of course.

The vrt website has given me figues of 11,000 14,000 and the last one was 17,000 with vrt of 6,000. So I'm going to sell it before I come back home and get a pickup which has only 50 vrt.

eden_my_ass

ormike wrote: »

I'm talking about a warranty repair. Try getting that done down here

Seeing as the OP has included England as a possible source, discussing warranties really shouldn't apply. You don't buy used from another country and pay a premium to have a warranty thats no use to you where you live. The vast majority of advice on importing from the UK will state that you should argue for a discount on the very basis that the warranty is worthless to you, the key is full and proper inspection of the car to identify problems before buying.

So OP, if warranties matter above all else to you, don't import. If higher spec, larger selection and better value (although sterling adjustments and the desperate irish sales market situation has reduced the price difference) matter, import.

Edit: And just to respond more directly to your question, yes it can be worth it, and believe it or not the vrt process can be absolutely painless for most run of the mill imports.

Gryzor

I brought in an Accord last year from the UK, no hassle, big savings made

On the warranty issue, the accord had an issue where the headlamps let in moisture and misted up during use. Honda extended the warranty for this issue. I had the warranty work done here by a local dealer on the imported car without any trouble

Macca3000

This time last year I was all for the patriotic buying Irish thing. Amd well things have changed alot in 12 months. After getting harrangued into a shopping trip to Newry my eyes were opend to the price differences. So when it came to buying a new car last month I did a bit of research in Northern car dealerships. Got a new model 08 Focus Zetec , 1.6 diesel, 9500miles, communications pack(bluetooth/iPod) Sports trim(alloys, body kit, tinted glass) Even after vrt I still saved 5300 on the nearest model I could find to it do south. And the Ford warranty is 3 years because its an english car and that stands in the Republic as well.

AmandaMc

Hi Macca 3000- what dealership did you buy from and can you recommend any others based on your experience/research?

Macca3000

This is where I found my car: http://www.adamherwin.co.uk

Absolutely fine, no problems with it, and no problem recommending them. Lindsay motors is good as well and Saltmarine cars I looked at but didn't actually visit. Just google northern car dealerships and check out the classifieds in the back of the papers. Alot of Northern ones are advertising there.