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

colm_mcm

travist wrote: »

Is there any problem to import from UK if the car was previously a Japanese, or say Isle of Man, import to GB?

You’d want to be sure that the nox and Co2 are in the V5

travist

colm_mcm wrote: »

You’d want to be sure that the nox and Co2 are in the V5

thanks.. I note in the VRT site, the first question is whether car was first registered in Japan, so in the case of importing a UK car that was imported originally from Japan, then that seems to have an impact on VRT.

brimeh

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

yup I was happy enough paying what I paid, was about €2000 cheaper than similarly specced cars in the UK and about €7000 cheaper than similarly specced cars in N.I. and the kicker, similarly specced car is about €43-45k in Ireland, after everything I'll land this for approximately €37k.

How did you go about finding one in the UK? As in did you just find one you liked online and put a deposit on it, travelled over and picked it up/paid?

I'm looking at getting a BMW M140i so only looking over in England/Scotland but just worry about going over and it not being in the same condition as pics etc. or other issues.

Atlantic Dawn

travist wrote: »

Anyone buy a car in UK, but try to sell the plate (if worth anything) before export ?

Time would be against you and it's highly unlikely any seller will leave it on the car if it's worth anything.

colm_mcm

travist wrote: »

thanks.. I note in the VRT site, the first question is whether car was first registered in Japan, so in the case of importing a UK car that was imported originally from Japan, then that seems to have an impact on VRT.

It would probably not fall into one of the exact model spec/Co2 figure combinations, so you might be looking at a fresh appraisal rather than a precalculated ROS.ie valuation.

If the nox isn’t available, say for a JDM car, and no COC is available, you’re paying top rate.

Peatys

Export only price means no vat?
If that's the case, where would i get charged for vat? When vrt'ing it?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202002247654462?atmobcid=soc3

Cheers

Creamy Goodness

brimeh wrote: »

How did you go about finding one in the UK? As in did you just find one you liked online and put a deposit on it, travelled over and picked it up/paid?

I'm looking at getting a BMW M140i so only looking over in England/Scotland but just worry about going over and it not being in the same condition as pics etc. or other issues.

Started looking at Audi.co.uk pre-owned section - I assume bmw has the same - I then looked at them the same as any car website and when I found one Audi allowed me to request a video where someone walked around the car pointing out anything I had asked them to point out in the video.

I then placed a £500 refundable deposit upon telling them I was coming over on a certain date, this allowed them to take the car offline and I could test drive and inspect the car. After the test drive I filled out some paperwork, transferred my insurance and paid for the card using Revolut and I was on the road to Holyhead by 10:30am.

If you’re worried you can get the car inspected by the RAC/AA and others that have been mentioned on this thread. I didn’t cause the car is 13 months old, had 18k kilometres, a 144 point Audi inspection and 2 year manufacture warranty.

LillySV

brimeh wrote: »

How did you go about finding one in the UK? As in did you just find one you liked online and put a deposit on it, travelled over and picked it up/paid?

I'm looking at getting a BMW M140i so only looking over in England/Scotland but just worry about going over and it not being in the same condition as pics etc. or other issues.

I can advise you of my experience a week or two ago... I went over to Manchester/Leeds/Doncaster/chesterfield area of Uk for afew days and went hunting for cars and discovered it a total waste of time .... all the cars are on autotrader ... they won’t discount them cause they say they’re at best price out there in that area ...and that’s cause the same crowd stratstone own all the relevant dealerships and supermarkets in the country ... you can find out the details of the cars from the comfort of your sitting room here in Ireland and put a deposit on em and go over and see em then... that’s what I’ll be doing... as regards scratches etc I think they have all that fairly touched up but u could ask about that when putting on deposit


If you look at autotrader you will see loads of cars marked as reserved ... and I came across afew potential buys while in uk but they were reserved... hence why I will reserve from my armchair in future 😊

L-M

Peatys wrote: »

Export only price means no vat?
If that's the case, where would i get charged for vat? When vrt'ing it?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202002247654462?atmobcid=soc3

Cheers

They would have to charge you VAT (20percent) on sale in the UK as you are not VAT registered.

Peatys

L-M wrote: »

They would have to charge you VAT (20percent) on sale in the UK as you are not VAT registered.

So what do you make of the term, export only price

L-M

Peatys wrote: »

So what do you make of the term, export only price

A load of bollox.

Edit what it really means is the car is probably VAT qualifying there can be purchased for export ex VAT, if you can claim it. Which as a private individual, you can’t.

Same way business advertised commercial vehicles ex VAT here.

Peatys

L-M wrote: »

A load of bollox.

Edit what it really means is the car is probably VAT qualifying there can be purchased for export ex VAT, if you can claim it. Which as a private individual, you can’t.

Same way business advertised commercial vehicles ex VAT here.

If my company brought it in, I'd be nailed on bik.
Whatever i end up going for will be brought in privately.

Cheers

Marcusm

Peatys wrote: »

Export only price means no vat?
If that's the case, where would i get charged for vat? When vrt'ing it?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202002247654462?atmobcid=soc3

Cheers

Usually when ad says export only it means ex-EU as the car is not EU type approved or available for sale (eg designed for South Africa market). Doesn’t seem to be the case here though.

colm_mcm

Or it can’t be driven on uk roads because of write off category.

L-M

Peatys wrote: »

If my company brought it in, I'd be nailed on bik.
Whatever i end up going for will be brought in privately.

Cheers

The company would still have to pay Irish VAT on it which is actually higher than the UK VAT so it would be more expensive for the company to import it.

brimeh

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Started looking at Audi.co.uk pre-owned section - I assume bmw has the same - I then looked at them the same as any car website and when I found one Audi allowed me to request a video where someone walked around the car pointing out anything I had asked them to point out in the video.

I then placed a £500 refundable deposit upon telling them I was coming over on a certain date, this allowed them to take the car offline and I could test drive and inspect the car. After the test drive I filled out some paperwork, transferred my insurance and paid for the card using Revolut and I was on the road to Holyhead by 10:30am.

If you’re worried you can get the car inspected by the RAC/AA and others that have been mentioned on this thread. I didn’t cause the car is 13 months old, had 18k kilometres, a 144 point Audi inspection and 2 year manufacture warranty.

Thanks for that info! I still have to sell my current car here so have just been browsing and trying to figure out how I might do it - hadn't thought of the video so that's very helpful!

Have also been looking into Revolut - that's fairly instant then I take it?

Not massively worried on the inspection side of things now, hoping to get one similar to you with a warranty from BMW.

LillySV wrote: »

I can advise you of my experience a week or two ago... I went over to Manchester/Leeds/Doncaster/chesterfield area of Uk for afew days and went hunting for cars and discovered it a total waste of time .... all the cars are on autotrader ... they won’t discount them cause they say they’re at best price out there in that area ...and that’s cause the same crowd stratstone own all the relevant dealerships and supermarkets in the country ... you can find out the details of the cars from the comfort of your sitting room here in Ireland and put a deposit on em and go over and see em then... that’s what I’ll be doing... as regards scratches etc I think they have all that fairly touched up but u could ask about that when putting on deposit


If you look at autotrader you will see loads of cars marked as reserved ... and I came across afew potential buys while in uk but they were reserved... hence why I will reserve from my armchair in future ��

That's very good to know, thanks! My original plan was to do exactly what you did and spend a few days over. Will definitely stick to browsing online until I find the exact one I want. Thanks!

deezell

Peatys wrote: »

If my company brought it in, I'd be nailed on bik.
Whatever i end up going for will be brought in privately.

Cheers

With 20% UK VAT the asking price is £40,800, About average. What you should be asking is why is it export only? And why has it had both left side doors replaced. It was probably creamed in a side impact crash. Avoid.

Creamy Goodness

brimeh wrote: »

Have also been looking into Revolut - that's fairly instant then I take it?

Once you have the money in Revolut the payment is instant. Getting (transferring) money to Revolut can be a bit of a pain depending on your Irish bank. My bank - kbc - only allows max daily transfer of €15000 per day and max single transaction of €5000. So it took me two days to get the money to Revolut.

A handy tip is to look at Revolut vaults. They’re like a savings account with a specific goal and amount. I used one of these so that the money wasn’t sitting in my Revolut main account and couldn’t be touched until I was ready to pay for the car, I then withdrew from the vault (savings account) to the main account and then did the transaction on the card.

IdHidden

I applied for a VRT refund on 28th January. I live in Dublin but the revenue website said to post the appeal to Wexford. I haven't had any response at all yet and when I ring they don't answer the phone. Any ideas?

User1998

The VRT Appeals office is in Wexford. Just give it another couple of weeks, it takes a while

IdHidden

User1998 wrote: »

The VRT Appeals office is in Wexford. Just give it another couple of weeks, it takes a while

Thanks, didn't realise it would take so long.

brimeh

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Once you have the money in Revolut the payment is instant. Getting (transferring) money to Revolut can be a bit of a pain depending on your Irish bank. My bank - kbc - only allows max daily transfer of €15000 per day and max single transaction of €5000. So it took me two days to get the money to Revolut.

A handy tip is to look at Revolut vaults. They’re like a savings account with a specific goal and amount. I used one of these so that the money wasn’t sitting in my Revolut main account and couldn’t be touched until I was ready to pay for the car, I then withdrew from the vault (savings account) to the main account and then did the transaction on the card.

All very good to know, thank you! At what point is the currency exchange done for Revolut? Do you have Euros in your account and they do the currency exchange when paying for the car or do you ask your bank to do the exchange and put Sterling into your Revolut account?

deezell

colm_mcm wrote: »

Or it can’t be driven on uk roads because of write off category.

brimeh wrote: »

All very good to know, thank you! At what point is the currency exchange done for Revolut? Do you have Euros in your account and they do the currency exchange when paying for the car or do you ask your bank to do the exchange and put Sterling into your Revolut account?

Never get your bank to put sterling in your Revolut ac, they'll cream you with their exchange rate. Just put in €, change it to £ in advance in the app if the rate looks good, (not at weekend), if you leave it in € and transact in £ it will be exchanged on the fly by Revolut at the current rate at the moment of the transaction.. £1000 is costing about €1146 on Revolut this minute, a bit of an improvement.

crystalbrite

Original sticky pages are after disappearing so I can't remember the answer.

I'm am getting a car shipped over without seeing it. It's being collected by a shipping company.
The dealer is going to give them the V5C form.
Does the UK dealer need to fill out anything in the V5C before handing it over?

Thanks!

Debub

crystalbrite wrote: »

Original sticky pages are after disappearing so I can't remember the answer.

I'm am getting a car shipped over without seeing it. It's being collected by a shipping company.
The dealer is going to give them the V5C form.
Does the UK dealer need to fill out anything in the V5C before handing it over?

Thanks!

No - they don't, but make sure that they DO GIVE the V5C, lots of pain otherwise as we have seen here a few times. Maybe get the driver to send a pic of it just to be sure that he has it

monseiur

Can someone on here confirm the following - The brother plans to import a 2018 VW Transporter Van (front seats only) from UK, am I right in advising him that all vans are charged a standard €200.00 VRT ? Also are vans subject to NoX charges ?

Thanks

deezell

monseiur wrote: »

Can someone on here confirm the following - The brother plans to import a 2018 VW Transporter Van (front seats only) from UK, am I right in advising him that all vans are charged a standard €200.00 VRT ? Also are vans subject to NoX charges ?

Thanks

Yes VRT, No Nox, provided he is vat registered, or signed off by employer as trade use, Otherwise it's private, nox charge, and the worst part, road tax calculated on cc, not emissions.

SilverMan101

Recently brought a car over from the UK . A family member is giving me the car so the ownership is just being transferred over to me . Have it booked in for the VRT inspection this week . Is it still the VRTVP2D form I fill out and a deceleration of transfer from the other owner ?

Thanks

User1998

No. Don’t transfer the car into your name. Just vrt the car as is. The car doesn’t have to be in your name

Atlantic Dawn

SilverMan101 wrote: »

Recently brought a car over from the UK . A family member is giving me the car so the ownership is just being transferred over to me . Have it booked in for the VRT inspection this week . Is it still the VRTVP2D form I fill out and a deceleration of transfer from the other owner ?

Thanks

No, don't transfer the ownership, you need the full V5 form.