Buying a car in the UK

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Ed054

Registered User
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I am looking at buying a 2006 Audi A4 2.0TDI S-Line Avant from the UK.
The standard specification is higher then the Irish spec i.e. Sports Suspension Electric adjustable Sports Seats and a few other bits and pieces.
The price including rate of exchange and VRT is very competitive compared to the price quoted by garages here.
My concern is will I be charged extra for the higher standard spec or will I be charged based on the Revenue calculated value of the car?
 
check with the revenue website, i brough ina red i SE spec a few years ago, go online and get your quote, revenu.ie
 
Ed054 said:
I am looking at buying a 2006 Audi A4 2.0TDI S-Line Avant from the UK.
The standard specification is higher then the Irish spec i.e. Sports Suspension Electric adjustable Sports Seats and a few other bits and pieces.
The price including rate of exchange and VRT is very competitive compared to the price quoted by garages here.
My concern is will I be charged extra for the higher standard spec or will I be charged based on the Revenue calculated value of the car?
Click to expand...

You can get a quote from the Revenue Web site before you do anything.

Two things to keep in mind:

- they probably won't even look at the car, and even if they do they're more interested in confirming the car's identity than going through the spec
- extras, even expensive ones, loose most of their value, so worst case it'll make almost no difference to the amount payable anyway.

Having gone through this a couple of times now, I'd recommend buying from a reputable source in the UK (not privately), haggle like crazy as you're a cash buyer and remember the choice is huge: you can always walk away and find another one.

With the use of the Internet this last point is important; shopping for a 2nd hand car is almost like getting a new one: you can probably find the exact spec and colour you want, and still making a saving on prices here.
 
Thanks,
I am looking to buy from an Audi main dealer as I am aware that clocking is rife in the UK and I will be looking to get the ususal checks carried out HPI etc.
Is there anything else I should do?
 
Just in case yiou're not aware and the 2006 Audfi is less than 6 months old/6000 kilometers, this from the revenue site.....

"In the case of a new means of transport i.e. land vehicles (excluding agricultural tractors) that were supplied six months or less after the date of first entry into service or have travelled 6,000 Kilometres or less, VAT is chargeable and normally payable at the time of registration in the State, even where there is evidence, e.g. an invoice, that VAT was paid in the country of purchase."
 
Ed054 said:
Thanks,
I am looking to buy from an Audi main dealer as I am aware that clocking is rife in the UK and I will be looking to get the ususal checks carried out HPI etc.
Is there anything else I should do?
Click to expand...

Main dealers are ideal for something like this, as they have the best cars (though you pay a premium for this). I'd check first with the dealer: a lot of main dealer "approved 2nd hand" car packages include HPI (ask to see it though!), so it may already have been done.

I'm not sure of the Revenue rules, but I'd make sure it's at least 6 months old, as I believe there are some rules that kick in if it isn't.

If the car is less han two years (or whatever standard warrenty is) make sure the manufacturer's warrenty can be used here (it should be). Also, if the dealer is offering some other warrenty, use it to negotiate even harder on the price: it's probably useless to you, so look for a discount instead.

My own inclination is to use direct import to get a much better car that's exactly what you want at a small reduction in price (e.g. getting the better low mileage/one owner cars from main dealers at the cost of buying privately here). You can get much bigger savings, but the risk and hasstle factors go up accordingly.

You should be able to locate two or three suitable cars on the net first: ring first to get a feel for them and how much they're willing to negotiate on price. Then go see the most likely/convenient one and haggle like crazy, making sure they know you're there to buy, but are prepared to walk out again.

The actual import process is very straigtforward: you just need the one UK document (I forget the name) and go along to the VRT office with it (and the car!). There's a very painful moment when you write the govt. a cheque, but apart from that it's all very simple.

One final thing is that you might want to check the car's VIN against the documentation. Buying from a main dealer will make it unlikely there's anything dodgy, but mistakes can be made, and it's the one thing that will cause you problems when you come to register here and they don't match.
 
Thanks all,
I am going to a dealer even though I will pay more but at least their is some comeback.
The cars I am looking at are all over 6 months old but thanks for that tip as I did not know that.
Great site this!
 
Ed054 said:
Thanks all,
I am going to a dealer even though I will pay more but at least their is some comeback.
The cars I am looking at are all over 6 months old but thanks for that tip as I did not know that.
Great site this!
Click to expand...

Your better off going to a maindealer but make sure to bargain him down. You will get a bigger discount in the UK than here. As for extras, I imported a car from the UK last year, went to the VRT office to pay up and they didn't even look at the car or check mileage so any extras need not be mentioned.
 
They are no fools in revenue when it comes to extra specifications. They know what to look out for, and your kind of car, where you have not been resident in the UK for more than six months, and therefore not VRT exempt, will be looked at for any extras.
 
no-one I know (including me, twice) has ever had the extras checked on registering an import.
 
rob30 said:
They are no fools in revenue when it comes to extra specifications. They know what to look out for, and your kind of car, where you have not been resident in the UK for more than six months, and therefore not VRT exempt, will be looked at for any extras.
Click to expand...

Not true. I've done this three times now over the years. First two times they took a (very) quick look at the car, not even looking inside (it was mainly to check the reg plate, though on first occasion they checked the VIN as well). The last time I did this (last year, at the VRT office in Tallaght) they didn't even look at the car.

Note that I'm NOT saying they never check for extras, just that in my experience they're not that interested and possibly won't even look at the car.
 
It probably depends on where you go and how busy they are at the time? Remember many are ex-Customs and know their stuff, not revenue pen-pushers. The revenue site says they MAY examine the car, I think, not they WILL
 
Welfarite said:
It probably depends on where you go and how busy they are at the time? Remember many are ex-Customs and know their stuff, not revenue pen-pushers. The revenue site says they MAY examine the car, I think, not they WILL
Click to expand...

I'm sure this is the correct position: they may (or may not) examine the car, and presumably may or may not know exactly what they're looking for in terms of extras. In fact if memory serves me, I think I was asked about the alloys on one car years ago, but I just said they were standard on the model - which they were - and nothing more was said.
 
Pique318 said:
no-one I know (including me, twice) has ever had the extras checked on registering an import.
Click to expand...

I thought that nowadays Revenue had access to information on every individual car and the days of manual inspection were gone?
 
gally74 said:
any V5 documnet will detail if the car is an SE, sport etc.
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Exactly - they go by what's on the document. I'd assumed the OP meant anything over and above the standard spec (as in optional extras), or if there were differences between UK and Irish spec level for a particular model (which there usually are). In my (limited) experience both of these are effectively ignored. Even if the car is inspected, it seems to be mostly just to check does the car match the documentation. I've never heard of anyone being charged over and above the original quote because of extras. I'd be interested to hear of anyone with a different experience.
 
I really don't want to bore people with a complete listing of the difference between the standard spec of the Irish market car v the UK market car but it is quite big.
My main concern was being penalised for this rather then "normal" extras such as leather seats e.t.c.
 
Your best option is to get a quote now before you start. If the make/model is on the Web site https://www.ros.ie/VRTEnquiryServlet/ShowVRT go by that (it can involve playing around with options before you get the correct list of models to select from). If it's not there, send them an e-mail and ask for a quote: specify make, model, manual/auto, age and mileage (they make come back with more specific questions). Once you have the quote, that's what you'll have to pay (assuming the car and more particularly the documentation matches the quote).

I've no idea on whether or not they go by the Irish or UK spec when they give out a quote, but it really doesn't matter. On some esoteric cars I've looked for quotes on, they seem to pull the values out the air in any case, but that's another story.

Bottom line: if your concern is that they'll sudenly charge a whole lot more once they see the car because it doesn't match the Irish spec, then I really wouldn't worry. Just make sure you get the quote first, so you won't be surprised.
 
This was discussed recently, but for my own personal experience, i recently brought in a fully loaded BMW 320 touring sport with all the extra's and i got stung for every extra, 30% of the leather, blue tooth, heated seats, metallic paint etc, etc. They did'nt come out to look at the car, they don't need to. They just input the chassis number into the UK database and up comes my exact car listing all the extra's. No discussion, thats the price take it or leave it! I took it but still saved a packet. Went through a main dealer by the way.
 
tufty1 said:
This was discussed recently, but for my own personal experience, i recently brought in a fully loaded BMW 320 touring sport with all the extra's and i got stung for every extra, 30% of the leather, blue tooth, heated seats, metallic paint etc, etc. They did'nt come out to look at the car, they don't need to. They just input the chassis number into the UK database and up comes my exact car listing all the extra's. No discussion, thats the price take it or leave it! I took it but still saved a packet. Went through a main dealer by the way.
Click to expand...

Interesting! I'd never heard of anything like that. When you say "they" I assume you mean Revenue? I'm surprised there is such a database (of all cars, that is: I can well believe each manufacturer has one).

Was the car new (or less than 6 months old) by any chance? when you say 30% of options, what value did they use? optional extras loose most if not all of their value as soon as the car is 2nd hand, and VRT is supposed to be based on the "open-market selling price" rathar than the new price or a depreciated versions of it.

Also, did you do the import yourself, or was someone else involved?
 
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