Are cars imported from the UK worth less?
Hello,
Are cars that have been imported from the UK and have been VRT paid and registered here and are now for sale privately here worth less than their original Irish equivalent? If this is true what are the reasons for this?
Patrick Ryan (Tipperary)Mar 2012 Filed under: importing
Expert answer
Hi Patrick,
We put this question to the official vehicle records experts, Cartell.ie. Jeff Ahern, Cartell's Director, responded in detail:
"Until the arrival of Cartell.ie in 2006 and subsequent car history checking companies in 2007/8, it was extremely difficult to get the history of a vehicle both in Ireland and the UK. Moreover, the fact that a car was imported was hidden from the Irish consumer. Now that is not the case. It is easy to trace the history of a vehicle within Ireland and the UK. That said, a study was carried out into the number of UK vehicles hitting Irish roads that were written off and clocked. The figures were quite startling in that up to 1 in 10 vehicles imported from the UK were written off and 11% had a mileage discrepancy. This affected a large number of people who had bought these vehicles before the advent of car history checking and therefore a stigma still persists with UK vehicles."
"Furthermore the above issue was compounded by the data on the Vehicle Registration Certificate (VRC) in that it only shows the number of Irish owners and not any additional owners from the UK, which allowed some dealers to manipulate or gloss over the additional history."
"However, vehicles are now being advertised for at least the same price as their Irish counterparts. The UK car will often have a higher specification. But let's not forget that most Irish people know that whoever brought a car in from the UK should have paid less for it anyway and therefore they are inclined to want a similar discount when you are selling it on. And as a car ages, the extras become more of a selling tool than an earner as the depreciation had reduced their value."
"So in summary, a UK car can have a higher specification and should be worth more than a similar Irish model of same year and mileage, but in practice - and due to the above - it will be worth the same or less. Don't forget too that a person could easily check an Irish car with a full service history by contacting the dealer who could be in their local area rather than having to ring the UK, which isn't an issue nowadays with the internet, but perception and ease are everything. "
Hope that all helps
Shane O' Donoghue - Complete Car Adviser@Shane_O_D