I am thinking about buying a car form Northern Ireland as the prices there are considerably less than those on the Mainland. I understand that I would have to get the car re-registered (especailly if I want to sell it on). Does anyone know how much this cost or if there are any other pit-falls to avoid. A friend said that insurance may be higher but I dont see why if the car has full UK specs.
Thanks....
OK
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why does it have to be re-registered NI is part of the UK and many people use olderNI plates as dateless "cherished" registrations. ...cheers...keo.
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|I think there is still some perception that cars are more at risk in NI than the UK mainland, hangover from IRA stuff. Look the number of TV insurance adverts which say in small print at the bottom "Not available in NI".
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I would have thought that your postcode would be the important factor for any insurance company rather than the fact that the vehicle comes from NI.
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PS
Why not go online and get a few quotes from insurers such as Directline, Churchill etc and see if any problems arise as a result of the registration?
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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No need to re-register it, no more than I would have to if I brought a GB car over here. Different kettle of fish if you bring one in from the ROI though.
Are you buying new or used? I was a bit surprised by the comment that cars here in NI are cheaper - I had always thought the opposite to be the case, at least with the used cars I'd be interested in.
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andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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No idea if this applies in general, but if you do a national search on AutoTrader, very often the cheapest cars in the UK by quite a margin are in Northern Ireland. This is especially so if you exclude the 'distressed' cars - i.e., those with comedy mileage, a snapped cambelt, ex-taxis/police, etc.
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Thanks for all the prompt replies, yes the car I am planning to buy is used and was advertised in autotrader. It is working out to be around at least £750 cheaper than similarly advertised models. I just wanted to make sure there was no catch before I bought it.
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In that case it might do no harm to double check that it wasn't originally an import from south of the border. If so, this shouldn't be an issue so long as it's to the same spec as UK cars, but if it's lower spec (which can often happen with imports, eg no alloys or aircon as standard) you want to be sure that the price reflects this.
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andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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Thanks for all the prompt replies, yes the car I am planning to buy is used and was advertised in autotrader. It is working out to be around at least £750 cheaper than similarly advertised models. I just wanted to make sure there was no catch before I bought it.
Are you positive it is cheaper? Someone from NI bought a car from me last year - his reason for coming all the way from NI to East Midlands was that cars are a lot cheaper in England.
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I brought a car from NI to England a few years ago. I don't remember all the exact details, but you don't need to get a new registration number. However you do need to get a V5 (or whatever it's called now) - NI has a different system. I don't recall this being a big problem, but when you get the English V5, the old owner history is lost - the V5 owner history starts at the point you get it, which might look a bit suspect to a potential buyer when it comes to resale.
Have you priced the ferries? Used to cost around £200 to bring a car over.
You won't have any hassle with insurance. You don't even need to tell them - it's a UK car after all. (Unless it's a ROI import, of course).
One other thing is that NI MOTs start at four years, not three. So if it's 3.5 years old, you might need to get an MOT straight away.
All this info is several years out of date, so things might have changed, but if things are still the same then I think you'd need a very substantial discount to make it worthwhile. £750 sounds borderline. Don't think I'd bother for that.
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Swings and roundabouts. A friend of mine takes something like a 98 Mondeo (around £800 here in NI) and brings it over to the mainland (about £100 return) and sells it for about £1500 then buys something like a Transit and brings it back for another profit. Our roads are not as good, few motorways and because there is less company ownership cars are serviced less. On the other hand mileages are lower and cars are usually kept claena nd tidy. The import thing has blown over and since 2000 few cars have come in from the Republic. The reason why some pathetic insurance companies exclude N Ireland has something to do with personal injury claims being higher here. It is also wworth nothing that a high proportion of nearly new dealer stock comes from the mainland. Our local Vauxhall dealer has loads of Astras and Vectras (and Saabs!) with less than 5000 miles on English 05 plates. Once taxed here you can opt to reregister on NI plates (AIG****). If a car is then brought back to the mainland after a few years it can go back on the original 05 plate and vice versa. Diesel cars are more popular here (diesel cost about 76p/litre 5 miles from here in the Republic of Ireland) and there is zero demand for big petrol cars - big engine Fords BMWs or Mercs are unsellable. A 2002 VW Passat 2.0s with 50000 miles is worth nearly half of its diesel equivalent. Hope this helps!
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I just made my first visit to NI , to see my daughter , who has moved there.
Her insurance ( she's 27 , no accidents, Peugeot 205) is nearly £1200 pa, compared to about £350 on mainland
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No words of warning on the red tape front - its just like you buying a car in the mainland - except the ferry trip!
Just one word of caution about buying cars from across here. We have a lot of 'dodgy' diesel in circulation - perhaps more than the mainland would see. If your proposed car is diesel you may want to bear this in mind although not entirely sure how as a non-local you mitigate this risk.
Just bear in mind too that you don't always get the full picture in Auto trader. The last car I looked at from autotrader had a cracking writeup - ticked all the right boxes, except the owner was a heavy smoker and he smoked in the car. Not detectable from the ad i'm afraid.
To save a wasted trip - if you post the details some of the local chaps may have a quick look over it for you if its nearby just to validate the ad.
Cheers,
Leon
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The NI dealers send quite a few used BMW's over to the UK. I once got my hands on one and it was in poor shape for the age & mileage - it had been by the coast (Carrickfergus) and had quite a bit of rust, also the suspension was not in great shape because the roads over there are a bit rough.
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The car in question is a diesel but has had an RAC check done on it and apparently has FSH as well. I am thinking of asking the dealer to fax the RAC report to me before I go over, I don't think that this is too much to ask. Also checked the ferry prices and it cost around £80 one way. So I could in theory fly across from the mainland for approx £50 and then ferry back to mainland and then drive back south from there. I have the Reg number now so I will do an insurance search now.
Thanks.....
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