Your Need to Know Guide to Buying Importing a car into Ireland

So, you are thinking of buying an importing a car into Ireland, it’s an idea that a lot of Irish customers have had over the years because of Euro/sterling fluctuations due to Brexit concerns. This exchange rate has benefited Irish customers as the Euro has increased its value against the pound and this gives Irish customers better purchasing power.

Although there is an advantage in value for money, Irish customers need to have their homework done before purchasing directly from the UK. Importing a car is a long and complicated process of getting the vehicle from the UK supplier to your front door. There are almost 20 steps involved in the process of ending up with your fully registered car back here in Ireland.

There are a lot of risks involved and extra costs and considerations that need to be taken into account. You have to consider transport costs to/from UK, calculating the local VRT payable to get the Irish registration number. A car history check is vital to establish if a car has finance owing, is stolen, written off or clocked. These history checks also show if a car has been previously written off, cars with unverifiable mileage and stolen cars.

The Answer

To bypass a lot of stress for yourself, you could do what a lot of people opt for which is to go through a good local dealer here in Ireland. They can source the vehicle you wish to purchase through their network of trade sellers, UK auction houses or main dealers. They purchase the vehicle for you while keeping an eye on the ever-changing exchange rate to benefit you. The dealers here would have already established contacts and relationships with the UK dealers and can do all the negotiating on your behalf so you can just sit back and relax while they do all the work for you.

Going through the process this way, buying through a local dealer also gives you more legal protection and warranty on the vehicle and the security you wouldn’t get going to the UK dealer. Now, having said that your dealer will do all the work for you, you should double check that everything that needs to be in place, is in place. This includes:

• Car history check to verify mileage and check if it has been crashed
• Service history needs to be checked

For example, a popular Irish website you can use is Cartell for both UK & Irish car history searches.

How We Can Help

Vendor Finance operates with a wide range of independent dealers throughout the country who can source UK vehicles for you which will provide you with peace of mind. Irish Finance Companies are generally unable to finance UK imports for consumers purchased directly from UK supplier as:

• The vehicles generally have no warranty and it is a cross border sale
• The VRT payable cannot be financed and needs to be paid by the consumer directly through their local NCT centre
• The vehicle would have to be paid for prior to delivery from UK to Ireland which can bring its own risks

Vendor Finance can arrange finance for your locally source vehicle through several different finance companies.

You can apply directly through our website