Buying a car from Belfast

[sunnyb13]

looking to buy a car from belfast. any import duties need paying or anything?

[Niguy]

Im from Belfast.

Not sure why you'd be looking to buy a car here where the prices are generally inflated due to the lack of supply.

Most car buyers here looking for a bargain generally make the journey the opposite way but no there are no import taxes or registration differences, save for the cost of your flight, ferry and fuel

[fflump]

sunnyb13 said:

looking to buy a car from belfast. any import duties need paying or anything?

It depends where you live ;-)

[cheesejunkie]

None if you’re in the uk.

GB pricing is usually cheaper as NIguy mentions so I’m assuming it’s something a bit rarer.

Enjoy taking it on the ferry and the drive home.

[maz8062]

I’ve seen a car in Belfast too, that is as working out how to get it to London. Ferry to Liverpool and then drive south is the best I found.

[georgeyboy12345]

I'm normally put off buying cars from NI due to the lack of MOT history

[Niguy]

georgeyboy12345 said:

I'm normally put off buying cars from NI due to the lack of MOT history

Believe it or not our MOT tests are a lot more stringent than the mainland UK, insofar as you can't just take your pride and joy to an approved garage for an MOT rather you have to go to a dedicated 'MOT centre' funded by the government. To that end there are no vested interests which may be the case for a private garage (there was the 'cash for pass' scandal a few years ago but the less said about that the better, Google it)

As such, there are a limited number of test centres in NI.

And BTW - MOT Test history is available for NI cars now but only goes back to 2018.

[vikingaero]

I've looked at NI cars for the reason of specialty/availability. For example, 99% of Copens in the UK are manual. There are often a couple of automatics in NI. Add on ferry and a road trip and it's a done deal!

[MitchT]

Niguy said:

Im from Belfast.

Not sure why you'd be looking to buy a car here where the prices are generally inflated due to the lack of supply.

Most car buyers here looking for a bargain generally make the journey the opposite way but no there are no import taxes or registration differences, save for the cost of your flight, ferry and fuel

I've been scouring the web for a BMW 440i, about four years old and a particular spec. One came up on the BMW Approved Used search in NI and it was actually a bit cheaper than the ones in England. It wasn't in Belfast though, it was at a BMW main dealer in Coleraine right up north. I didn't pursue it as I figured the logistics of getting in home to Yorkshire would have eaten up any saving on the price, and maybe more.

[Pebbles167]

Easy to get it back over. Plenty of ferry routes depending where you are. I usually go from Belfast to Cairnryan and drive home to SW England.

[xstian]

I bought a Peugeot 205 from NI. I had no problems, it's was originally a British car which had gone to NI. I got delivered to Norfolk for a lot less than it would have cost me to collect. Of course I had to buy it unseen which had mixed issues and there is the problem of payment too.

[Niguy]

MitchT said:

Niguy said:

Im from Belfast.

Not sure why you'd be looking to buy a car here where the prices are generally inflated due to the lack of supply.

Most car buyers here looking for a bargain generally make the journey the opposite way but no there are no import taxes or registration differences, save for the cost of your flight, ferry and fuel

I've been scouring the web for a BMW 440i, about four years old and a particular spec. One came up on the BMW Approved Used search in NI and it was actually a bit cheaper than the ones in England. It wasn't in Belfast though, it was at a BMW main dealer in Coleraine right up north. I didn't pursue it as I figured the logistics of getting in home to Yorkshire would have eaten up any saving on the price, and maybe more.

You can view it two ways - a pain in the arse or an adventure, perhaps making a weekend of it. Here's a nice thread from our local forum on the matter;

https://rmsmotoring.com/forum/threads/just-in-from...

If the car was in Belfast I'd offer to go and have a look around it for you but Coleraine is a bit out of the way.

[MitchT]

Niguy said:

You can view it two ways - a pain in the arse or an adventure, perhaps making a weekend of it. Here's a nice thread from our local forum on the matter;

https://rmsmotoring.com/forum/threads/just-in-from...

If the car was in Belfast I'd offer to go and have a look around it for you but Coleraine is a bit out of the way.

It was probably more that I'd want to make a trip to see it before I commit - get a gut feeling about it - so that's two trips with all the associated cost. The car's long gone now anyway - it sold pretty fast. Anyway, thanks for the link - should make for interesting reading

[samoht]

I went to NI and bought a car, write up here https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Not really any different to buying from any other part of the UK, you just drive the car onto the ferry at Larne.

[vikingaero]

MitchT said:

Niguy said:

You can view it two ways - a pain in the arse or an adventure, perhaps making a weekend of it. Here's a nice thread from our local forum on the matter;

https://rmsmotoring.com/forum/threads/just-in-from...

If the car was in Belfast I'd offer to go and have a look around it for you but Coleraine is a bit out of the way.

It was probably more that I'd want to make a trip to see it before I commit - get a gut feeling about it - so that's two trips with all the associated cost. The car's long gone now anyway - it sold pretty fast. Anyway, thanks for the link - should make for interesting reading

There's certainly more cost with Eire/NI because of having to take a car on a ferry. I've bought cars from places and discarded the return train or plane ticket. And some long distances can be surprisingly cheap for travel - I paid c.£10 for a National Express coach to the airport, £56 for a return flight to Glasgow, discarded the return trip and drove the car home.