Car from UK

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
I am looking at buying a car in the UK and bringing her to CH and then eventually returning to Ireland after 6-9 months

The UK has a free trade agreement with Switzerland right ? So the custom duties do not apply

Has anyone experience of bringing a UK car in and registering it and changing the headlights, I would guess it is mandatory to change? I would be buying a fairly new car so perhaps than just be down using the software of the car

2
If it's less than a year, don't both re-registering it. It would cost you a bomb...

3
No, expect the car to be a 2019/2020 car

4
He means, if you keep it less than a year. If longer you need to officially import the car and have it checked.

5

Have fun being on the wrong side of the car when entering/exiting car parks.

6
Thats the point I was making, I intend to keep it, not for selling and would fully import it to Switzerland and then eventually return to Ireland with it.

Just wondering did others fully import their cars from the UK and do they have experiences they can share

7
Yes agreed, a small sacrifice for a short time

8
If you keep it in Switzerland for less than a year, you do not need to officially import it.

If you officially import it, expect to pay a substantial sum in getting it approved (equivalent to type approval in the UK), as it's unlikely a LHD was approved by the dealer in Switzerland.

Then when you move back to Ireland, you would need to import it again, and pay taxes again...

Overall you would likely spend more than the value of the car... the free trade agreement would not apply here. The question is how long have you owned the car (> 6 months?) in the UK, and what permit are you coming on (if you get a B or C permit, import the car in the first 12 months after you get the permit... and owned for more than 6 months before you got the permit you can avoid most import duties.... but you will still need a CoC, which for a LHD car may be a challenge)

9
It would need to be imported in order to return to Ireland with it

What additions would be needed to get it approved? Headlights should be the only issue. Apart from that it is exact same car as anywhere else

The whole reason keeping it here in Switzerland for more than 6 months is that it can brought back to Ireland free of tax, the car will be in my wifes name who is Swiss

10

You need to get a certificate of conformity; this is done when that model is first imported into Switzerland by the dealer.

If the model was not officially imported (which will be the case for a RHD car), you will need to get the test done yourself for the CoC. Good news, is that once done - you can sell photocopies of the CoC to people in future who want to import that model.

Next you need a CoO (certificate of origin), as the UK is no longer EU.

Add 4% car tax, and 7.7% VAT to the car value/purchase price as well for importing.

Duty is 12chf/100kg, so I would assume adding ~200chf, so this one is low.

There's a few more small things to add, so assume adding another ~500chf for the odds and ends (CO2, inspection, emissions test, etc)