Cheap cars in UK but expensive in the rest of Europe

[Lordbenny]

Just visiting various classified sites whilst here in Brussels and saw this:

http://auto.vlan.be/nl/tweedehands-auto/Caterham/K...

That's around 27,000 for a car that would fetch between £12 - £15 over here.

[Jazoli]

All run of the mill cars are cheap in the UK, I was amazed how much cars were when I moved to Spain for a while, you needed €2000 to buy a knackered old banger.

take this for example 2004 Focus diesel, price in the UK would be £1500 at most,



€4750 or £4k!!!

http://www.coches.net/ford-focus-18-tdci-ghia-100c...

That is admittedly a pricey one but they still command over £3k on average

Edited by Jazoli on Sunday 5th January 19:54

[Justayellowbadge]

Met a chap who buys 1500 quid or so MGFs and sells them in to France for double and more.

[deltashad]

Romania is full of UK registered cars. They're sent over by the truck load.

[ModernAndy]

Tax and LHD are 2 very big reasons for the high price compared to the UK. Unlike RHD cars, you can sell LHD cars virtually anywhere in Europe vs. UK cars which can only be sold in the UK or Ireland so residuals remain high for decent cars. Many cars are more expensive in the first place in several EU countries because of higher tax too.

[scrwright]

Sold my last 2 4l Cherokees to a chap from Poland, thought it was a scam as the chap bid high but turned up with the money as arranged. He was selling them in Poland for double what he paid me as they are sought after over there for some reason.

[Turtle head]

deltashad said:

Romania is full of UK registered cars. They're sent over by the truck load.

Reminds me of topgear when they went to Albania lots of UK reg'd cars... Stolen so they said.

[mizx]

http://www.coches.net/mazda-rx8---4p-gasolina-2005... just one example, £4500

The cheapest one on there is north of £3k, any 60k-ish car that age here seems to be £1000 less minimum.

Never looked at prices around Europe before, not too suprised knowing how much more they are worth in the states when I frequented a US forum when I was thinking about one. Any real reason for it?

[Geekman]

I was queuing for the Woolwich ferry once and some Romanian guys came over and started talking to me about my car (2003 Jaguar XJ6, worth around £4500). They agreed that it would go for the equivalent of over £9000 in Romania, although how accurate that is I have no idea.

[cure]

You Brits have no idea how lucky you are for cars.

[Jazoli]

mizx said:

http://www.coches.net/mazda-rx8---4p-gasolina-2005... just one example, £4500

The cheapest one on there is north of £3k, any 60k-ish car that age here seems to be £1000 less minimum.

Never looked at prices around Europe before, not too suprised knowing how much more they are worth in the states when I frequented a US forum when I was thinking about one. Any real reason for it?

ModernAndy said:

Tax and LHD are 2 very big reasons for the high price compared to the UK. Unlike RHD cars, you can sell LHD cars virtually anywhere in Europe vs. UK cars which can only be sold in the UK or Ireland so residuals remain high for decent cars. Many cars are more expensive in the first place in several EU countries because of higher tax too.

This mainly, plus a lot of folk seem happy to run around in perfectly serviceable older cars abroad and seem less interested in keeping up with the Joneses.

[whp1983]

It's our disposable society, combined with over financed cars and muppets that think a car is dead after 3 years.

Look at Norway car prices if you want to see how lucky we are!

[TooMany2cvs]

Turtle head said:

Reminds me of topgear when they went to Albania lots of UK reg'd cars... Stolen so they said.

Don't remember seeing many at all in our month in Romania in 2012. Albania, yes, definitely. Not necessarily all nicked (although there were several distinctly iffy UK-plate M6s, AMG S-classes and the like cruising round Blocku in Tirana of a Friday night) - there were quite a few RHD minibuses and the like. Largely, it's just because they're so cheap compared to LHD.

Basically, it's because RHD is such a non-portable market compared to LHD. Go to Spain or southern Italy, and there's plenty of used car dealers either advertising "Fresh-from-Germany stock" or just leaving the D export plates on on the forecourt. Go to Eastern Europe, and they're largely brought home from wherever the expats have been working.

[Barchettaman]

I buy and reregister RHD from the Uk here in Frankfurt, for our private family cars.
Bizarrely enough, once they have TuV they're worth more over here than in the UK, so one wins on both sides of the equation, although they do take a while to shift (well, my last one did).
Mrs B grew up in Australia so is happy(ish) driving on the 'wrong side'.

The reregistering is a bit of a faff, so I tend to get Vauxhall as the equivalent Opel headlights are cheap on eBay.de second hand, and I've become a bit of an expert at rewiring foglights too.

[Finlandia]

When I bought my car in UK, the same model was sold at five times the money in Sweden.

[jaymzfc]

Big business here in malta, we drive on the same side so prob even bigger than other eu countries, truck loads every week arrive from premium to classics, there are even dealers just selling ex uk. And we have a import tax on every vehicle which you would cry if you saw how expensive. I myself bought a clio williams over in 2010, payed 2k gbp for it and 1.5 k euro to reg it when it arrived + the drive or shipping of it, together with a road tax of 541 euro a year just to give you an idea. You are very very lucky in the uk when it comes to the price of cars.

Edited by jaymzfc on Sunday 5th January 20:59

[PomBstard]

cure said:

You Brits have no idea how lucky you are for cars.

What he said! Check www.carsales.com.au for comparison with Australian prices

[arguti]

scrwright said:

Sold my last 2 4l Cherokees to a chap from Poland, thought it was a scam as the chap bid high but turned up with the money as arranged. He was selling them in Poland for double what he paid me as they are sought after over there for some reason.

We're these LHD or RHd as I have heard you cannot register RHD vehicles in Poland - not sure if this is true?

[T16OLE]

Agreed, my old man was living in southern spain for a while.

And was after a smart car, it was significantly cheaper to fly to the UK buy one a and drive it back with all associated costs

[matthias73]

In Canada my 1991 525i with 270k on the clock and not in great condition cost 900 pounds.
In the UK, my 1999 520i with 160k on the clock cost 650 pounds.

Both cheap, but one is actually decent