Business idea...taking LHD cars to Europe.

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ph001

Veteran
 N. Yorkshire.
Hey all, been thinking about this for a while now. We all know how much more cars seem to cost in other EU countries such as Germany. We also know that lhd cars in the Uk sell for significantly less than there rhd counterparts.

So what about buying premium lhd cars in the uk (i’m thinking Porsche, Ferrari etc), driving them over to the continent and selling??

Obviously brexit could change things but what are the catches here? I’m guessing there are duties etc to pay, but anybody know how much and what the registration process is in Germany?
 
Do they sell for less in the UK? When my Dad was retiring out to Spain, he looked into buying a LHD car to take out with him, and they were horrendously expensive - precisely because there is a market for what he was trying to do. Admittedly, these were used cars he was looking at and not new imports. I have known someone who did something similar in reverse - ordered a RHD Golf GTI through VW in Denmark and made a tidy saving on importing it into the UK. I believe the manufacturers got wise to this practice though and stopped dealers placing orders for non-local market cars.
 
Yeh, certainly the high premium models tend to be 20% less when lhd over here. Kind of the ideal petrolhead job!!

I’m just struggling to understand the paperwork and duties involved. I guess no import duty as it’s EU but will be there be vat?? How does registering a car in Germany work? Insuring and taxing needs some thought too. The guess you would take it across on trade plates.
 
LHD dealers in the UK sell the UK registered LHD cars as UK tax paid, when you take a LHD back to Holland fx they also have duties/taxes to be paid in their respective EU countries. Millions have tried this in various ways thinking there is nothing else to pay. Good luck,,

Stan
 
And while I remember, most indy dealers abroad are pretty much like here, they have always checked out the prices in all the other countries,,, inside and outside the EU.
 
Sure...it’s obviously not just something you run into blindly. Lots of numbers to be worked out, the difficulty is finding out exactly what those numbers are!
 
ph001 said:
Sure...it’s obviously not just something you run into blindly. Lots of numbers to be worked out, the difficulty is finding out exactly what those numbers are!
Click to expand...

Start high,,,, Denmark, registration tax from 182% and vat @ 25% on new cars.
As a private person in DK you can do it yourself on used cars, not worth the effort on new, all sewn up by the main importers.
There is various threads on this forum re LHD from UK to other EU countries. Some forum members live outside the UK.
You are looking at importing a used car to Germany fx and they will usually look at the car and check it is what you are declaring even if they give you a pre estimate on import cost. They have listings EU wide on every car that is made for Europe, so they know it"s original spec and value including the US and South African factories.
Older cars vary but they have tariffs for them too. The only way I have made it worthwhile is/was importing to the uk and as mentioned above Denmark was the place to buy cheapest because they have highest import cost they had the best deals on bare pre tax cost. Have you tried to google it ??? Happy hunting, Stan
 
Been all over Google. Nothing. Denmark is crazy so not a great example. Guess I need to contact somebody in the know in 🇩🇪
 
Do you have an example of a LHD car now for sale in the UK thats significantly cheaper than in say germany?
I cant imagine that this is the case on a reglatory basis. There are multiple importers that even get rhd cars from the UK to sell in europe (far below lhd price of course) and still make money. If LHD cars are available they'll be snapped up in an instant of course, unless you get lucky.

Target cars (NL) is for instance one of those importers that sometimes sells rhd models on the mainland under lhd price.

In NL there is indeed a tax to be payed when importing, but the older the car gets the lower it gets. Lowest is about 8% of original value, so if the car is indeed much cheaper that wont be a problem.
Here older exclusive cars are imported in large numbers from say germany belgium italy etc because such cars are not sold here in big numbers because of the high new sales price, which is about 25-60% higher than surrounding countries due to co2 tax.
 
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