Who buys the secondhand LHD cars in the UK ?

[rswift]

Just a bit of idle speculation, but whilst looking at Ebay or Autotrader, anything LHD seems to attract a lot of attention or bids, and sells very quickly.

I am not talking about LHD only or US imports, or other specialist cars, but the everyday stuff.

Where are they all going. I know that the UK is probably a bit cheaper than France/Spain/Germany etc .... but on a £3k car, I would have thought the saving is quickly lost by the time transport and local registration has taken place.

I have had a few LHD cars in the UK, but I seem to remember years ago they were the cheap alternative to the RHD, e.g. 20 years ago I had a LHD 924, it was about 25% cheaper than any comparable RHD car at the time.

What has changed that I have missed ?

[NWMark]

At a guess, A much higher eastern european population in the UK.

[POORCARDEALER]

And people with second homes in countries where cars are much more expensive

[kambites]

Eastern Europeans looking to return to Eastern Europe. When we had net immigration from Poland, used LHD car prices were half that of RHD (lots of LHD cars brought here, then sold to be replaced by RHD ones); since we've had net emigration, they seem to have roughly quadrupled.

Even at twice the price of RHD ones, LHD cars in the UK are still cheaper than they are in Eastern Europe.

[daemonoid]

In the Netherlands (and I think Germany) you pay massive amounts of tax when buying a second hand car. On certain segments of the market it can be much cheaper to pay the import duty, especially if the purchase price is lower than it would be over here.

There was a thread a while back about a crashed high end BMW that had a ridiculously high sticker price. Because it was a write off it would've dodged the BPM tax making it quite a reasonable deal to a Dutchie.

[redgriff500]

A mate used to specialise in selling LHD cars.

At the time (5+ yrs ago) all he wanted was small cars with AC.

He was selling to UK owners who wanted a car to leave at their European pad.

His buyers were concerned about buying abroad and also most small European cars are battered to hell after a few years which English buyers won't accept.

[TVR1]

Agreed, Europe. Amongst other things, with my previous employer, I looked after LHD/export sales. Sales to expats etc but also a large number to staff (national and international) it was a 'French' company and the cost for the same car in France was probably 30% higher. Belgium was even more of a saving. even though department taxes added another couple of % to the invoice cost, it was a no brainer for a new car. In addition, used cars in many Euro countries hold their value, a consequence of the very high initial purchase cost... And don't forget, VAT paid in one Euro country means that you can't be charged again if the car goes to another EEC.