Should I buy a Freelander in UK or Ireland?

Hello,

I am a German living in Scotland and would like to buy a Land Rover Freelander 2 because I had a little windfall. The thing is that the money is in a German account, in Euros and I don't want to lose money due to currency conversion. That's when I got the idea to buy in Ireland, where the steering wheel is also on the right but the currency is Euros.

Do you see a problem with that? Can I bring a car over to the UK and register it? Am I really saving money or is it cheaper to buy in Scotland?

Maike Neuhaus (Edinburgh)

Mar 2016 Filed under: importing

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Expert answer

Hi Maike,

The process of importing a car into the UK is a lot easier and cheaper than it is in Ireland. If the car is quite old you probably won't have to pay any import fees on it in fact, you'll just have to get it MOT'ed and pay a small fee for the new registration.

But, buying the car in Ireland will represent much worse value than buying in the UK. Not only will you find fewer cars to choose from (the Freelander was always a much bigger seller in the UK than in Ireland),  but the Irish cars will probably be more expensive. I think you would be better off transferring your money to Sterling (using a low-cost service such as Transferwise) and shopping in the UK.

Neil Briscoe - Complete Car Advisor
@neilmbriscoe