Importing new from EU

Saucer

Saucer

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Rapido C86
Has anyone on here imported a MH from the EU since Brexit? My understanding is that VAT and import tax are payable on used vans, but only VAT on new. Also I believe that purchases in e.g. Belgium or Germany could benefit from VAT refunds from the country it was purchased in. I know that there are various hoops around satisfying UK registration standards, MPH on dash etc, but that doesn’t seem insurmountable. I’d be very interested in anyone who is considering it or (even better) done it since we left.
 
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dom_k said:
I can now report doing all the paperwork yourself is straight forward. I got my registration yesteray. It’s taken 5 weeks from landing in the UK to being fully complete and ready to go.
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Did you have to submit an IVA form - Individual Vehicle Approval.

I am wondering if the Certificate of Conformity covers this, meaning IVA not required.



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Yes you need to do an IVA - you send off copies of your CoC’s. You will have 2 or 3 depending on the van and they need all of them.
 
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After a long wait Carthago got their homologation certificates from the German authorities, we are collecting our new C Tourer 143 next week, can't wait to get it UK registered and start enjoying it. We've a few upgrades planned ready for some long trips at the end of the summer 😎



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Congratulations your obviously not on the Carthago black list then!

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Looks great Neil. I will take a closer look on Friday when I go get mine out of storage!
 
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What did I say? :LOL:

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I’m pretty certain that it’s possible to specify LED lamps, under visibility pack plus. I don’t know for sure, but getting EU lights changed to UK would outweigh specifying LED. I chose to go LED with the Merc cab.
 
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Bromleyxphil said:
Looking to go through this process.

Does the 2024 Ducato Mk9 I think?? Have LED headlights?

If not what is the process for LHD to RHD for these headlights?
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LEDs are an option our A Class has flat dipping head;amps, if a standard van front end I think you will need to change the headlamps.
Beam defectors are acceptable for an MOT but not for import.
 
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Bromleyxphil said:
Looking to go through this process.

Does the 2024 Ducato Mk9 I think?? Have LED headlights?

If not what is the process for LHD to RHD for these headlights?
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Yes LEDs. However I was told by Fiat Professional that they were still RHD. I’ve imported a few Ducato based motorhomes in the past and it’s quite expensive to buy/change the lights over. That was non LEDs. Our current RHD Ducato Adria has LED headlights.

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Bromleyxphil said:
I take I that the Fiat part of the vehicle is covered under Fiat Warranty but when it comes to the conversion you are pretty much on your own?
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Most German vans have a pan European warranty so in theory you can go to any dealer.
I've imported 3 Hymers had some work done in the UK but often it was easier to pop back over to Belgium as they could do it at a week or two notice.
 
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Hi I am in negotiations with a German dealer and it’s going well. He says he will have to register the vehicle to the dealership and then sell it to me on two invoices one net and one for the VAT. Does this sound correct?
 
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Bromleyxphil said:
Hi I am in negotiations with a German dealer and it’s going well. He says he will have to register the vehicle to the dealership and then sell it to me on two invoices one net and one for the VAT. Does this sound correct?
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No.
 
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Lenny HB said:
No.
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No in what respect, that he shouldn’t need to do it or that it will cause me a problem? In theory “and I am searching for a solution” I wouldn’t mind the vehicle being registered in Germany as long as I can get the VAT back.

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Dealer should sell it to you unregistered and either sell net of vat, or including vat that you will have to reclaim.
A lot of dealers hold the vat you pay them seperatly and when you have proved you have paid the UK vat they refund you.
 
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Lenny HB said:
Dealer should sell it to you unregistered and either sell net of vat, or including vat that you will have to reclaim.
A lot of dealers hold the vat you pay them seperatly and when you have proved you have paid the UK vat they refund you.
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Can they still refund the VAT on a pre registered vehicle? One that otherwise is brand new, I have a suspicion that they may have registered it already and advertised it as new. I have asked the question.
 
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Yes. It was registered at the local town registration office in my name and my uk home address.
 
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Bromleyxphil said:
Can they still refund the VAT on a pre registered vehicle? One that otherwise is brand new, I have a suspicion that they may have registered it already and advertised it as new. I have asked the question.
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If they are charging you VAT on the full price they should be able to refund.
I think Germany charges VAT on the full price where as in the UK vehicle sales only charge VAT on the difference between there buy price & sale price. Under EU VAT rules charging VAT on the difference was an option.

You need to check with the dealer, if they are only charging on the difference you will only get the VAT back on his profit..
 
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Got UK registration of Carthago C Tourer T 143 last Friday 21st, the whole process took 4 weeks, would have been a bit quicker apart from an input error on the IVA form.
I went through my car imports fast track of DVLA registration, cost an additional £250, but it meant I could get the van on UK insurance quicker.
Thanks to my friend DomK who pasted on his experience of the process and ABGS with conformity words.

Inspired by Lenny I’m looking at carrying out a few upgrades.

N
 
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PlymBob said:
I imported a new Summit Prime from a German dealer last year. It is my first experience of motorhoming altogether, so quite a steep learning curve. I think I may have come out slightly ahead financially but the main motivation was that my model was not then freely available in the UK. So, here’s a few things I learned along the way:

The VAT paid in Germany was refunded after proof of paying it in UK, AND of registering the vehicle in the UK.

Fiat Ducato has 2 rear foglights, a user defined “central” part of instruments that can display MPH, and I’m told that full LED headlights dip neutrally. So no problems with having to convert things, although I’ve added an Amazon GPS speedo for £30 so that I can display other things on the instruments.

I used Ship My Car to do the paperwork for me. That was a big mistake. See here: https://www.trustpilot.com/submitted/review?correlationid=e16e75d7-480b-409d-bc05-8238284fd320

Most of the info is available on the .gov website. Be VERY CAREFUL, and if in doubt keep asking questions until you are sure you understand fully. If there is a next time I will do it entirely myself. The people on MHF are mostly helpful, although there is sometimes an assumption of a base level of knowledge that you may not have reached yet. Then it can be quite frustrating as you still don’t understand because of the “buzz words” being used or the abbreviations.

The German dealer arranged for German Export number plates and basic insurance so driving it back to UK was no problem. I did arrange fully comprehensive UK insurance from Germany as well, based on the VIN number.

Hope that helps. Do ask if I’ve missed anything.
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Hi. I was just wondering how the dealer warranty works for motorhomes imported from Germany to UK? How have you found it? Thanks
 
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Trots55 said:
Hi. I was just wondering how the dealer warranty works for motorhomes imported from Germany to UK? How have you found it? Thanks
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No real problems with the German dealer, we had a water leak when in France. Not too serious and we were travelling back through Germany so we phoned them up and booked it in. In the UK we planned to get an AirCon unit fitted, so we booked it in with a Pilote dealer. They have carried out our hab check and we haven't had any warranty issues for them to do.

Our water leak I now know was caused by a UK campsite with ridiculous high water pressure. It split my hozelock extendable hose and I didn't realise it had also split my filler hose.

Still fixed by the Germans though on warranty.

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Trots55 said:
Hi. I was just wondering how the dealer warranty works for motorhomes imported from Germany to UK? How have you found it? Thanks
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No problem with the Fiat Professional part for the base vehicle as that seems to work anywhere in Europe. (though Fiat Professional are not particularly good in Plymouth).

The nearest Globecar dealer is not interested though, and I suspect that would apply to all UK Globecar/Possl dealers. Fortunately no problems that I couldn't fix myself so far, but I think I would have to take it back to Germany if there was a warranty issue with the conversion.
 
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