Importing Second Hand from Europe

gjrc

gjrc

gjrc

Soldato
Joined
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London
hi all,

i was watching a program on tv the other day about the financial collapse of Greece. it pointed out that one of the reasons for this crash was the profilgacy of the Greek people in their spending and there was no better example of this than the number of German cars purchased since 2002, especially the Porsche Cayenne.

obviously with the collapse these are now flooding the second hand market out there making them very cheap to buy.

so i was wondering how hard it would be to import one of these cars, and if its not too difficult would the savings be worth the left hand drive and costs and hassle of doing it?

thanks
 
[TW]Fox;21933075 said:
We already have one of the cheapest used car markets in the world.
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is that right? can I not win on exchange rates as well?

the prices do seem low out there.
 
not as low as the UK.
There might be the odd exception here and there but overall cars are incredibly cheap in the UK compared to continental Europe.
 
gjrc said:
is that right? can I not win on exchange rates as well?

the prices do seem low out there.
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It means you're going to end up with a left hand drive car.

Do you really want to be driving a left hand drive car, I think it would annoy me a bit after a while.

You also might find differences in spec make parts and insurance an issue.

A guy I know broke down in France, his van was stuck there for about a month because the part needed was different on RHD vehicles.

What sort of car are you looking at?
 
If your average Greek used car is similar to the average Spanish used car, they can keep them!
 
OP you have got it the wrong way round.

You can earn lots of money exporting uk cars to europe Infact a few blokes I know even convert motors to LHD and still make a mint. Problem is, lots and lots and lots of people have cottoned on to this, mainly Poles due to the polish currency and second hand market. Good thinking but too slow ;)
 
gjrc said:
there was no better example of this than the number of German cars purchased since 2002, especially the Porsche Cayenne.
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I'd take that programme with a pinch of salt;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17702226

One of the many eye-catching claims made about Greece was about the number of Porsche Cayennes.

"A couple of years ago, there were more Cayennes circulating in Greece than individuals who declared and paid taxes on an annual income of more than 50,000 euros, a figure only slightly above the vehicle's list price" is a quote widely reported in mainstream media and on blogs worldwide.

It came from Prof Herakles Polemarchakis, a former economics adviser to the prime minister of Greece, and now a lecturer at Warwick University in the UK.

But when asked, Prof Polemarchakis said his remark was casual, based on what had been circulating in policy circles in Greece a few years back.

He said the only hard fact he was aware of was "the per capita number of Cayennes in [the Greek city of] Larissa was twice that of Cayennes in the OECD countries".

So what are the facts?

In 2010, there were 311,428 people with declared incomes of more than 50,000 euros (£41,260) paying tax in Greece.

It was a figure that made a spokesman at Porsche laugh. Lukas Kunze says the story is "ridiculous". In total, they had only sold around 1,500 Porsche Cayennes in Greece since the launch of the luxury car nine years ago.
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The only cars worth importing to the UK are rare japanese cars as they are already RHD and require little to get them UK road legal.

Certain American cars too but LHD could be an arse to drive in the UK, I wouldn't know however.
 
If you cant afford to buy one here you can't afford to run one here, purchase price is not the barrier to entry for a car like this. They are crazy cheap.
 
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