Irish cars
 

I've seen a car for sale at quite a good price. When I asked the salesman about it he said the car was originally supplied in Ireland, hence the lower price:confused:

Are there any problems or issues with buying cars originally supplied in Ireland - imports, specs, insurance, etc?

Was the car sold brand new or imported into Ireland from the Middle/far east. I remember a programme a while back that showed that a large number of cars that were stolen in Japan, were ringed in the middle east and then entered Europe via Ireland. If it is an import from Japan make sure you receive the de-registration document from Japan and if this is not available you risk having the car seized by the police.

Salesman? Where was the salesman, I take it - it's not a dealer!? :) Did you ask to look at the documents.. As long as it's registered within the EU you and has a full dealer history should be ok, if it was like imported from else where to Ireland, then here then just stear clear so to speak. The more countries it's been imported through the harder it is to trace it's history. The last thing you want is one that's been in a crash, had things done to it, refurbished engines etc or worse the above mentioned scam.

If it's a back street garage, don't believe a word the salesman says, in my experience and the experience of most people I know, 95% are little bugg&rs, blaggers or out right crooks.

I've had real problems once, nearly resulting in legal action, since then I would advise doing as much research as possible before handing over any money, you need to track the cars history when it was registered in this country, where it was originally registered etc. If you do go for it, make sure you find out what servicing should of been done when cam belts changed for example, and check it's been done, reciepts for work and the like, if there is no history or patchy history, don't touch it. Finally if it's of a fairly large value, and you're in any doubt get the AA to do a check then you'll really know the condition etc. It's buyer beware if you buy a heap with problems and dodgey history, you could get stuck with it...

If it has been imported from the Repulic of Ireland you may well have problems insuring the car as there will be differences in the spec of the vehicle. Howevere if it has been brought in from Northern Ireland and there are no issues on HPI it is a standard UK vehicle.
Would'nt buy one from Southern Ireland myself even if cheap too much hassle.

As brendy says it is important to note that there are two parts to Ireland and Northern Ireland is part of the UK, so an NI car is no different from a Scottish or Welsh car except for a slightly odd registration.

The Republic of Ireland is part of the EU but it is likely that an RoI car will be considered as an import for insurance purposes and spec etc. is sometimes different from a UK car.

The other thing to watch out for is that Ireland is a hive of activity for car crime. For some time the thing to do was steal cars in the north, take them south to get a new identity and then ship them across to England/Wales and sell them on, this may still be happening. A friend had his car taken just south of Belfast, about a year ago, and it turned up somewhere in England quite a few months later. As a lot of this is run by gypos or our little terrorist/political organisations it can be quite sophisticated and is probably well connected to organised crime in England and Wales.

So, a legit NI car on NI plates etc. should present no problems as it is a UK car. A legit RoI car will be treated as an import and that may, or may not, present problems for you. Any Irish car of which you are not sure of the history or which doesn't quite add up is probably best avoided. For some reason the most popular cars to steal and "export" seemed to be diesel VWs, though I suppose it is happening to all makes and models.

Back in 98/99 I tried to import a Brand new turbo from Republic of Ireland as it would have saved me about £4000 (ASAIK the spec is the same as UK). I tried 4 or 5 Subaru dealerships but none wanted to know as they implied the paperwork required to release the vehicle from ROI tax duties etc had to go through the importer (or at least notification of such did). As said importer also is the importer for the UK the dealerships thought that they would be risking their dealerships with such a move (something to do with a quota of imports from Japan)

On a totally different tack an awful lot of imports from Japan (ie used cars) go through ROI. Nothing wrong with the most of these.

In summary find out if the car was supposedly new in ROI or used ex Japan. If you do not get a lot of documented backup (and make sure it is genuine) don't walk away RUN like hell.

Pat

Cheers for the comments. The car is a Citroen VTR that was supplied new in ROI and shipped to the UK. I haven't gone to see the car yet but the dealer reckons he has full doc history and all paperwork - assuming it's genuine:rolleyes:

It also looks like the saving on the equivalent UK car may well be swallowed up by the extra insurance cost so doesn't look like it's worth the hassle!