Hi,

I was just wondering how many of you out there had or thought of buying your next RR Sport from another country to the one your in?

What has been your experience or what would you like to know Kahn Design
European Development
Tel; 0044 1274 715709
Mob; 0044 7960 311333

Email; mike@kahndesign.com

Not sure with the current market and currency rates, but the goverments have pretty much got it all covered and any advantage is soon swallowed up by taxes.

Could be wrong but convererting LHD cars is now not possible as well due to new regulations.

I bought a car in Guernsey, which theorectically is VAT free. Fact is you can buy the same car in the UK cheaper new and secondhand.

I avoided taxes when I transfered it to the UK as I had had the car for more than 6 months, but I you are not allowed to dispose of it within 12 months or you have to pay taxes.

Without transporting costs, mot,cert of conformity,new reg etc costs were around £1,000.

7-8 years ago importing the double cab pick ups from Thailand was cost effective and meant that with the baht so weak that it would cost with shipping, taxes, heating system and converting the nessercary lighting you could stand to save around £4 -5k, however the baht has strengtened and it now works out more costly.

Have also been a few threads on here re people wanting to take their RRS abroad and once again red tape and costs ruled this out.

In europe their not even allowed to move hire cars from one country to another to meet peaks and troughs in their business which means they have much higher costs that are passed on to joe public.

Hi lespes,

I understand totally what you are saying however I feel that I have to correct you on a couple of points.

Converting a LHD Range Rover or any other car is totally legal and there is no issues with doing it.

It is cheaper buying in GBP opposed to € and buying a Tax Free vehicle means you only pay the local tax and registration costs in the country it is ending up in.

What I would say to everyone is that if you are buying a LHD then get the vehicle built to your country's specification so a Swiss car is a Swiss car, a Slovakian car is a Slovakian spec etc.

2 reasons for this... take it for a service and the L/R Dealer will put the reg into the computer and straight away it will come up as a Import and they'll say... well we don't know what is on this car as standard!

When you come to sell you will get more money for the car because it is a 'Swiss, French .... car etc and not a UK inport into Belgium...

You understand what I'm saying don't you  Kahn Design
European Development
Tel; 0044 1274 715709
Mob; 0044 7960 311333

Email; mike@kahndesign.com

So buy from the UK and export to your country as the pound is weak?? which would have to be an EU member

Eh?

LHD to RHD?

Thinking you can hide the origin?

in 1998 i imported 2 mitsubishi l2oo's from cyprus,& didn't have to change to rhd as they are already rhd. when importing you pay 10% duty on purchase price then v.a.t on the total,if your vat registered you can claim that back but the duty you cannot.
you can even ask for a uk spec,then when you import back to uk it is the same spec as over here & you are covered with what they call pan european warranty so you can take it to any dealer for work doing to it & the warranty is 3 years same as here

andy. Gone,,TDV8 arctic frost,black leather,colour coded handles,rear entertainment,sunroof.
1980 Rolls Royce,shadow 2 in white.
Gone 07/57 TDV8 santorino,black leather.chrome handle's/mirror's.
Gone 02/52 FFRR vogue.

lespes wrote:

I bought a car in Guernsey, which theorectically is VAT free. Fact is you can buy the same car in the UK cheaper new and secondhand.

I avoided taxes when I transfered it to the UK as I had had the car for more than 6 months, but I you are not allowed to dispose of it within 12 months or you have to pay taxes

When I got my almost new TDV8 HST in Dec08 for £40k I had the chance of getting hold of new TDV8 HSE cars for £39k that were destined for Cyprus.

The car was in the uk and had to go on a ferry to Cyprus and back to recieve the massive discount, the one I wanted even had a few extras fitted like a sunroof and better sound system.

The dealer was somehere in the Midlands (Northampton way I think) and normally specialised in Overfinch cars.

They did all the hard work and you still got a massive discount over new, I came very close to buying one but fell in love with the HST looks so it never came off in the end.

Can't remember if the dealer advertised on ebay as well as the web site but it might be worth looking.

Daz 2017 4.4 Autobiography FFRR - love this car
Gone - VW T5 Transporter
Long gone - 2009 Disco
Long gone but never out of my thoughts - 2008 TDV8 HST

Quote:

So in theory I could sell a car in UK, transfer ownership with Guernsey DVLA to new UK owner and they could avoid UK taxes and then register with UK DVLA after 12 months?

Mike Brodie wrote:

Hi,

I was just wondering how many of you out there had or thought of buying your next RR Sport from another country to the one your in?

What has been your experience or what would you like to know

Lookers Park Royal wrote:

Eh?

LHD to RHD?

Thinking you can hide the origin?

If I knew a car had been converted from LHD to RHD I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole...  

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I live in Spain and in August 09 I purchased from the UK a brand new LHD TDV8 HSE with really all the extras for 46K GBP. Price in Spain for the equivalent spec would be at least 85K Euro (but thats list without haggling). Assuming you could get a 20% discount it was still a saving. Its on UK plates but thats not a problem as long as the car is not used in Spain for more than 6 months in a year. That also avoids a large 'green tax' which for the TDV8 is 14.75%. If the car is used in Spain more than 6 months then formally it should be put on Spanish plates and the green tax paid. Thats a pretty simple exercise as long as the car you bought is original LHD and is EU spec with necessary documentation showing conformity. I will do that when the car is three years old. Then the green tax for importation will be based on a 3 year old second hand value and it will avoid trips to the UK when the need for MOTs starts.