Hi all, I'm looking at an approved used Skoda Superb at a UK main dealer.

It's currently displaying an Irish registration but on the UK type number plates.

Speaking to the Skoda dealer they assure me it is a UK car that was taken across to Ireland and then brought back over.

Mileage is low, 13K on a 2011 (11 plate).

Any cause for concern here?

Do you mean Irish plates or UK (Northern Irish) plates?

Clue to the number?

Im guessing it will be a northern irish reg i.e 3 letters & 4 numbers? my dad lives in southern ireland & their numbers are very different to uk regs. Its rare to take a english reg car to southern ireland & register it over there as the tax you have to pay makes any savings not worth it.

Erm, I'm thinking Northen Ireland?

Erm, I'm thinking Northen Ireland?

Looks nice Silver,

Yeah,thats a northern irish reg.

Looks nice Silver,

Looks grey to me :lol: nice though

I'll get me coat

Slightly related but we were once offered stupidly low px prices against our old Civic at a couple of main dealers who said it was an import despite my strong denials it wasn't. Did a bit of digging after 2 Honda dealers said the same and turns out it'd been bought by someone in the armed forces and had been shipped out to Germany for a year and brought back again. As a result of this it was being flagged as an import (even though the original dealer was a UK one).

May be worth considering for resale value etc if something similar got flagged in future?

Oh, and in the end we px'd it for the price we felt the Honda dealers should have been offering at an independent garage so not all bad...

Looks nice Silver,

Thanks!

I was so very tempted with this vRS, almost every options box ticked...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-60-SKODA-OCTAVIA-VRS-2-0TDI-DSG-/321123477953?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item4ac47369c1

But resisted, a little bit over my budget and I fancied a change. Still not brave enough to leave the Skoda stable just yet

If this looks as good in the flesh as it does in the pictures I'll probably give it a bash...

Oh, and in the end we px'd it for the price we felt the Honda dealers should have been offering at an independent garage so not all bad...

Good advice, I'll be using this as my final bargaining card in an effort to secure my target price. The dealer already let slip that they've recently reduced the price.

I'm not too concerned about resale value as I plan to run it until it dies.

I'll be putting my private plate on it too.

I like that octavia,very nice spec & looks nice in that colour,id rather have that than the superb.

I love DSG, if I only kept my cars for 3 or 4 years I'd go for it but I cover 30,000 miles a year and so I'm a little nervous about long term durability.

I've also been recently bitten by a vRS, or more so a dodgy dealer, so time for a change!

I will miss the xenon's though!

Any ideas why someone would by a car in the UK and take it over to Ireland?

With it having an Irish registration number I'm assuming the car was first registered in Ireland?

If so how did they drive it to Ireland if it wasn't registered?

Why not just buy it in Ireland?

I suspect that it was a northern irish car & has been imported over here,i got my sis a northern irish pug 206 that was imported by a squaddie,car was fine,only issue was a weird logbook but it was easily registered & lasted well until my brother in law wrote it off.

Well here in NI you can change the reg for free from English to northern Irish. So they would have re registered it once they brought it home and that's how it's stayed.

I went to the mainland for my car and brought it back but chose to keep my English reg

Edited 21 May, 201313 yr by wilsy7

Well here in NI you can change the reg for free from English to northern Irish. So they would have re registered it once they brought it home and that's how it's stayed.

I went to the mainland for my car and brought it back but chose to keep my English reg

They didn't always allow you to keep a 'mainland' plate IIRC?

If it's an RoI car that could create issues (especially as they often have different specs). However, this is clearly an NI car, so absolutely no worries.

It's amazing how many people (not in this Fred) talk about 'import' in relation to an NI car - buying a car first registered in Belfast is no different to buying one first registered in Birmingham.

Any ideas why someone would by a car in the UK and take it over to Ireland?

With it having an Irish registration number I'm assuming the car was first registered in Ireland?

If so how did they drive it to Ireland if it wasn't registered?

Why not just buy it in Ireland?

Basically you're asking why would someone buy a car from a dealer that's not local. Erm,,.... A better deal? Plenty of people I've seen on here have found deals down south and have jumped on a plane and driven back. Or maybe the owner lived on the mainland and then moved to NI. Plenty reasons

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There is no problem in buying a car with an NI plate on it, its registered at the DVLA just like any other. The plates have the same requirements for font / spacing etc. as the rest of the UK.

Jason (devonutopia) is quiet happily owns a Porsche 924 on NI plates.

Just because its on NI plates also does not mean its been anywhere near NI, online websites sell NI plates as dateless registrations and its quiet common for us this side of the pond to buy them and transfer them to our cars.

just check chassis number and hpi it and any number plate that has been on car cause its been known for people to purchase cars in uk (written off) take them to Ireland register them over there and they are then not recorded and then when brought back to uk it takes 3mths for our systems to be updated stating that its been written off

Edited 22 May, 201313 yr by steveopc1

I suspect that it was a northern irish car & has been imported over here,i got my sis a northern irish pug 206 that was imported by a squaddie,car was fine,only issue was a weird logbook but it was easily registered & lasted well until my brother in law wrote it off.

Quite possibly bought at auction by the dealer. Dad's company once bought a load of Fords from either Jersey or Guernsey (with the J **** plate) and sold them in the UK. It will still be classed as a UK specification car and by the time you've put your private plate on it you and everyone else won't know any different.

Perhaps the previous owner was in NI and it was bought or the owner was UK based and simply wanted to put on a ageless plate.

just check chassis number and hpi it and any number plate that has been on car cause its been known for people to purchase cars in uk (written off) take them to Ireland register them over there and they are then not recorded and then when brought back to uk it takes 3mths for our systems to be updated stating that its been written off

If were talking NI then its registered to the same dvla as here.

Do you know for sure it's irish? Not someone who has just bought a none date related plate? Used to be able to pick them up for about £99 from Reg Transferes.

Disregard the above, just re read you original post.