VRT charged on CO2 or CC?

I am thinking off importing a used car from either Northern Ireland or the UK.

I am just a little confused about the VRT system however.

The car I am looking at was first registered in 2004,the question is whether the VRT is charged on the cars engine size(old VRT system) or CO2 emissions(new VRT system)?
I thought I read somewhere that if a car was registered before July 2008 when the CO2 based VRT system first came in,that the VRT would be charged on engine size not CO2 emissions.

I have tried to look this up on the revenue website but I cant seem to find what I'm looking for.

Thanks in advance for any help..

Old VRT system, this question has been asked and answered many times before on the site, including links to the relevant Revenue postings.

On CO2

I know that the motortax is either based on CO2 or engine size,depending which is smaller.

Thats what I thought Frank,if the car is registered before July '08 the VRT is still based on CO2 not engine size..

For a 04 car the motortax is based on engine CC. The VRT will be based on C02. Only cars first registered between 1st Jan 08 and 30th June 08 will have the motor tax based on either CC or C02 depending on which is smaller.

The VRT is based on CO2 emissions. The VRT calculator makes this clear - I've just tried my 2003 car on it.

SSE

all cars imported into ireland now, doesnt matter what year, what month what size WILL pay VRT on CO2.

road tax will then be determined by the first date of registration.
xxxx-2007 - road tax on engine cc
jan 2008 -june 2008 - road tax on co2 or engine sixe, whatever is smaller.
june 2008 - xxxx - road tax on co2 end of.