The Irish Mitsubishi FTO Owners Club

If you were ever to import a car from the UK would you considerg buying privately? Do you think a comprehensive RAC car check would suffice to ensure the car was in good condition and not stolen? Or would you just take the hit and buy from a garage but still have an RAC check?

If buying in the UK you'd want an AA/RAC check also you should of course do a HPI check to see if there is anything nasty in the history. While buying from a dealer may cost more, if you can get it here landed for less than an equivalent Irish car, then you are on a winner straight away, even if you are lining the pockets of the dealer.
On the flip side -if something (serious) goes wrong with the car, are you going to bring it back to the UK for repair? Unless you can designate the repair centre (in Ireland) I'm not sure that a warranty from a UK based dealer is going to be of much use.

In the case of a car with a warranty imported from the UK, it depends on what is covered. My wife brought her car from the UK and the garage in Kilkenny fully honoured the warranty under it's Irish terms, (servicing and parts). Some warranties in the UK are for 5 years on new cars but you would not get that here in the Republic. Her car was two years old and had three years left on the warranty in the UK but they would only honour in the Republic for another year. Needless to say we took the car back to the UK to be sold when it was due it's first MOT.

Mustang wrote:If buying in the UK you'd want an AA/RAC check also you should of course do a HPI check to see if there is anything nasty in the history.

This is what I was thinking and it should minimise the risks so I can't see how it would be any more risky than buying private over here....

On the flip side -if something (serious) goes wrong with the car, are you going to bring it back to the UK for repair?

I wouldn't bother with a warranty to be honest - if an RAC/AA check came up clear and the HPI was clear I'd buy and try to negotiate money off for not taking the warranty.