I imported a 1.7 Puma in Oct 2000 from Belgium. I am now looking to sell the car, but am not sure what it is worth because it is an import. It is exactly the same spec as the UK car.

The book price for a UK car is about £11,000.

Should it be the same as this, or less?

Do I have to tell the buyer it is an import? i seem to remember something about having to hand over the tax certificate.

Anyone had any experience with selling an import, who can give me some advice.

Cheers,

Brammers

Unfortunately the money you save on the import is cancelled out by the loss on the resale value.
I've just sold my Jan 2000 Puma for £8000 and had to haggle to get that. Another dealer offered me £5500 ! (LMAO)
You don't have to tell them it's an import, just that they will find out one way or another before the deal is done and I believe there is some comeback if you fail to reveal this fact.
This is assuming that you are selling to a dealer. If selling privately the decision to tell is between you and your conscience plus whether they are on the ball enough to ask where you bought it from !
You are however required to keep all the Customs and Excise documents with the car for 3 years so technically these should be given to the new owner.
I would have said the book price was quite generous.You are probably looking at nearer £9500 - £10000 either way if it's a fully loaded version.

Good luck with selling it.

Mark

Thanks for the info. And here was me looking at buying another import! Maybe it is not such a good deal after all. Looks like I will definitely have to sell it privately.

Cheers,

Paul.

There's just the small point that it's a legal requirement to pass on the evidence that you've paid the VAT if you sell the car within 6 years. That will have been pointed out on the receipt that you got from HM C&E.

If someone asks you "is it an import" and you say "no", you can be done for fraud.

Do import resale values differ between cars? I have been told that with the Subaru, for example, the difference between resale values of UK cars and imports is marginal. Is it because it's a Puma that the resale value is so poor?

The difference between EU and UK supplied cars secondhand should be minimal - at the end of the day they are the same car built on the same production line.

However, you can buy new Pumas for around £11000 ish from the Trade Supermarkets so I'd have thought yours would be worth around £8000-£9000?

A mate has just sold a Scoob Turbo MY00 'X' Reg Import privately for £14250 :)

Cheers,

Ian.