Why buy a car in Ireland if you can import from the UK and save thousands?

I looked at buying a BMW 3 series 2002/3 and can buy for around £4000 to £4500 in the UK. All in, this would cost about €6500 approx with VRT paid. If I was to buy in Ireland the same car would cost roughly €10,000 to €12000. Does this mean Irish dealers have huge margins?

In answer to the thread title, typically the main reasons why people buy in ireland are:

- UK companies may not take Irish cars as a trade in, so you may have to sell privately
- if you need to sort out a problem or use your warranty, you may have to go back over to the UK (although manufacturer warranties can be claimed anywhere I think)
- cheaper purchase price of UK cars will be reflected in cheaper selling price in a few years time, so don't expect to get value through arbitrage

I did a search on carzone and there are 28 2002/2003 BMW 3 series for under €7k in ireland, albeit some with high enough mileage, so you might even find something you like over here.

Good luck with your search.

Id say your figures are out, the VRT on a 2003 318SE with 65K miles is just over 3K Euro. At todays exchange rate 4500 = over 5000 Euro, so your looking at over 8K euro to import. I sold a 320 recently for 6.5K euro.

X.