Anyone ordered a new car from Germany/Europe recently?

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clk208

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With the recent surge in prices for newish used cars, new list prices are also going up significantly and discounts through the likes of DTD and other brokers aren't as good. Cheapest UK E class estate through a broker is now £39,000 vs about £29,000 12 moths ago - crazy increase. Lease prices have also gone through the roof. So I thought I'd see what was going on over on the continent. There does seem to be a divergence in pricing on the German brands ie new list prices are shooting up far more here than in the fatherland.

I got my lightly used E220d estate about 6 months ago which I've been really pleased with but with two little ones I can't help wondering if I should have followed the herds and bought a VW California (I know, ban me now). Used prices are daft, we are talking a difference in asking prices on a 4 year old vehicle vs brand new being a few grand.

So I looked at the new Cali Beach (MPV style rather than full camper/kitchen model) which is now £58k list in the UK for a basic-ish model. £53k through a broker like DTD or autoebid. On the Germany configurator the price is EUR 55k which equates to £45k at todays exchange rate and includes all Germany sales taxes and fees.

ISTR someone on the forum was looking to order an E450 petrol from a dealer on the continent because the model wasn't sold in the UK. Anyone have any recent knowledge about buying new from the continent?
 
Don't you have to pay VAT and import duty to bring a car to the UK?
Yes, is my understanding.

But you also get a refund on the Germany VAT so might not be a significant cost. Or it may be - I've no idea how much the import duty (if any) would be.
 
Or the ID Buzz might fit the bill when it eventually comes out… (not long now, I understand).
 
Yes, is my understanding.

But you also get a refund on the Germany VAT so might not be a significant cost. Or it may be - I've no idea how much the import duty (if any) would be.

I'm reasonably sure the UK import duty is what makes cars so much more expensive in this country than others. I've looked into importing cars before now (fancied a Dodge Charger at one point) and it was quite expensive then, post-Brexit it might be even worse.
 
With the recent surge in prices for newish used cars, new list prices are also going up significantly and discounts through the likes of DTD and other brokers aren't as good. Cheapest UK E class estate through a broker is now £39,000 vs about £29,000 12 moths ago - crazy increase. Lease prices have also gone through the roof. So I thought I'd see what was going on over on the continent. There does seem to be a divergence in pricing on the German brands ie new list prices are shooting up far more here than in the fatherland.

I got my lightly used E220d estate about 6 months ago which I've been really pleased with but with two little ones I can't help wondering if I should have followed the herds and bought a VW California (I know, ban me now). Used prices are daft, we are talking a difference in asking prices on a 4 year old vehicle vs brand new being a few grand.

So I looked at the new Cali Beach (MPV style rather than full camper/kitchen model) which is now £58k list in the UK for a basic-ish model. £53k through a broker like DTD or autoebid. On the Germany configurator the price is EUR 55k which equates to £45k at todays exchange rate and includes all Germany sales taxes and fees.

ISTR someone on the forum was looking to order an E450 petrol from a dealer on the continent because the model wasn't sold in the UK. Anyone have any recent knowledge about buying new from the continent?
Remarkably, my first E Class estate, 1 year old that I bought in 1999 was £29,500...used. Prices seemed to have stood still until recently then?
 
Remarkably, my first E Class estate, 1 year old that I bought in 1999 was £29,500...used. Prices seemed to have stood still until recently then?
The new e220d estates that frequently used to be on DTD and autoebid for at or around £30k were unquestionably absolute bargains.

The £10k jump must be hard to swallow though for anyone who has been following the prices.
 
But you also get a refund on the Germany VAT so might not be a significant cost. Or it may be - I've no idea how much the import duty (if any) would be.

German VAT is a little lower than ours (19%, IIRC). Duty depends on the age and where it was built, but I think is around 10%. Pretty sure it's a fair bit more for commercial vehicles though (20% plus), so you'd need to check very carefully how something 'van based' would be treated ...

Note that shipping/delivery costs are added on before calculating the import VAT, then duty is applied on top of the whole lot (including the VAT).
 
Under the EU-UK Trade and Co-operation Agreement there should be no import duty but UK VAT is payable. You can get a refund or VAT free purchase for export but it's not always simple. Will the dealer even wish to sell and arrange temporary registration for you to drive home or to arrange shipment to the UK unregistered? Then you will need to arrange UK registration. Not particularly difficult but there is a bit of bureaucracy involved. Also, you will end up with a non-UK spec car. The spec may suit you but insurers can be difficult. I know from personal experience.
 
German VAT is a little lower than ours (19%, IIRC). Duty depends on the age and where it was built, but I think is around 10%. Pretty sure it's a fair bit more for commercial vehicles though (20% plus), so you'd need to check very carefully how something 'van based' would be treated ...

Note that shipping/delivery costs are added on before calculating the import VAT, then duty is applied on top of the whole lot (including the VAT).
I'm not saying you're wrong...becasue I don't know. But...when people used to import from RoI the VAT paid was not on the whole price including VAT in RoI.
 
A member on the otherside imported an E Class estate last year because he couldn't get the spec. he wanted from UK.
 
Thanks folks. Might not be as much of a pipe dream as I thought then. I'll email a couple over dealerships on the continent in due course to see how the land lies and post back.

Expect bureaucracy and red tape to be a big hurdle though - otherwise everyone would be doing it I guess.

Must track down that thread on the other side about the recent E estate purchase abroad to see how that went.

I should also check out the MB V220d and Marco Polo prices in the fatherland also - by all accounts a far better drive than the VW equiv.
 
Or the ID Buzz might fit the bill when it eventually comes out… (not long now, I understand).

Yes this actually is an excellent point.

With the current electric car BIK regime they may actually be good value to lease also.

Example for you - the Mercedes EQV (basically a fully electric V220d) lists around £75,000 for the mid spec model. My workplace (large multinational) offer these on lease for approx £500pcm including insurance, tyres, servicing and everything with £0 deposit. Stupidly good value for such an expensive car. Only downside it it's only offered in XLWB (a foot longer than an S class LWB) otherwise I think I'd have one. Blame MBUK for this. Everywhere else you can get a normal sized one.
 
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To import a car in the EU days required you to drive it in and the complete a NOVA declaration. C&I then decide if you need to pay tax etc and then clear it for you to get an MoT (if appropriate) and then pay the £55 for a V55/5 to apply for a V5 and register it. However, with the joy of Brexit you will likely now have to pay import tax and potentially (unless the EU CoC is recognised still?) you might need SVA as per importing a car from the USA.

Also note vehicle specs are poverty in Germany compared to UK. When i bought my e-class in Oct 18 the UK list for my car was £55K (yes alot of options), the German car to that spec was €96K (about £85k at the time), of which €18K were just to get it to UK spec. Do not assume you VW (or any car for that matter) will be the same spec for any given trim level compared to UK.

Finally German cars (generally and i know this applies to MB) only have 2 years warranty.
 
Thanks folks. Might not be as much of a pipe dream as I thought then. I'll email a couple over dealerships on the continent in due course to see how the land lies and post back.

Expect bureaucracy and red tape to be a big hurdle though - otherwise everyone would be doing it I guess.

Must track down that thread on the other side about the recent E estate purchase abroad to see how that went.

I should also check out the MB V220d and Marco Polo prices in the fatherland also - by all accounts a far better drive than the VW equiv.
The member was kotecki...he comes and goes. He was on here for a long long time...glojo.
 
To import a car in the EU days required you to drive it in and the complete a NOVA declaration. C&I then decide if you need to pay tax etc and then clear it for you to get an MoT (if appropriate) and then pay the £55 for a V55/5 to apply for a V5 and register it. However, with the joy of Brexit you will likely now have to pay import tax and potentially (unless the EU CoC is recognised still?) you might need SVA as per importing a car from the USA.

Also note vehicle specs are poverty in Germany compared to UK. When i bought my e-class in Oct 18 the UK list for my car was £55K (yes alot of options), the German car to that spec was €96K (about £85k at the time), of which €18K were just to get it to UK spec. Do not assume you VW (or any car for that matter) will be the same spec for any given trim level compared to UK.

Finally German cars (generally and i know this applies to MB) only have 2 years warranty.

Excellent info thank you.

The spec point is a very good one and something I hadn't even thought of - assumed the poverty-ish spec model would be the same but actually looking at it on the UK site does have quite a few bits and pieces. I'll see what's missing on the Germany car.
 
Well on the E class (MY 19 at the time) it didn't even have parking sensors or sat nav! Also options for some things were 3 times the price (met paint about £650, or €1800 in Germany, towbar was the same). Maybe not applicable now, but i could also get about 20% via some online forums such as CARWOW, so this exacerbated the case even more for a UK car.
 
Under the EU-UK Trade and Co-operation Agreement there should be no import duty but UK VAT is payable. You can get a refund or VAT free purchase for export but it's not always simple. Will the dealer even wish to sell and arrange temporary registration for you to drive home or to arrange shipment to the UK unregistered? Then you will need to arrange UK registration. Not particularly difficult but there is a bit of bureaucracy involved. Also, you will end up with a non-UK spec car. The spec may suit you but insurers can be difficult. I know from personal experience.
This is quite common when importing Motorhomes - I note that one of the bigger Hymer dealers in Germany now has a dedicated export department and will sell with out charging German vat and deliver the vehicle to Rotterdam port for onwards journey to the UK. You then register and pay the vat UK side. Not sure how it will work now we don't recognise the EU CoC.
 

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