Buying? a car in Jersey.

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Tue 4 Nov 2003 22:22
Buying? a car in Jersey. - henry k
Situation is as follows.
Offspring has a six months posting to Jersey from February.
Assuming some personal transport is needed while there.
Existing heap has been delayed in going to the scrapyard by Dads TLC.

First thoughts are to fly or float there.
Buy a secondhand fairly recent car.
Insure it. A 25year old professional has never insured in own right but driven several years intermittently on my insurance.
Use car for six months.
Import it to UK?
Or sell it?

Has anyone any experience, tips, pros and cons of the above.
Cost of insurance?
I understand that ex hire cars are re- registered in the UK. How does an individual contact such sellers in Jersey?
How is a used car valued for VAT if importing into the UK?
What paperwork is required?
Cost of a one way ferry for car or sell it to a dealer?

Initial Google searches show virtually no hits on secondhand car sales.
Anyone know any recommended dealers or franchises?

Lots of questions but thanks in advance of your replies.

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Tue 4 Nov 2003 22:56
Buying? a car in Jersey. - carayzee
I'd just buy a moped/scooter (or a large trail bike in my case as I have a full licence :o) if I was in that position. It's a 40 mph limit throughout the island.
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Wed 5 Nov 2003 07:07
Buying? a car in Jersey. - Honestjohn
The way cars were laundered via Jersey and Guernsey was they were originally purchased in Jersey VAT free and went on a rental fleet. Once they had done 6 months and 1,000 - 2,000 miles there was an exemption which allowed them to be re-sold in mainland UK without VAT having to be paid. But I haven't seen this recently so guess it stopped at the same time VAT qualifying was introduced.

HJ
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Wed 5 Nov 2003 11:00
Buying? a car in Jersey. - T Lucas
Can be very cheap to rent longer term for a Jersey resident.If you buy in Jersey and import to UK you will have to pay 10% import duty and 17.5%VAT on the value of the vehicle +1st registration tax and VED.
Also have to be careful about type approval some registration offices can make you jump thru some hoops.
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Wed 5 Nov 2003 18:51
Buying? a car in Jersey. - r_welfare
I believe Jersey has the same tax laws (broadly speaking) as we have here in Guernsey. If you buy a car here more than six months before you export it back to the mainland, and keep it for more than 12 months the other side, you do not have to pay either the import duty or the VAT.

Hence why I bought a relatively decent car a few weeks ago - my contract here ends on the 1st of May! By the way, this is quite a
popular thing for most professionals on short-term contracts. One-way Condor ferry to choice of Portsmouth/Poole/Weymouth should be around £120-£180, depending on season etc.

Insurance is much cheaper here, given that the speed limits are max. 35mph (Guernsey) or 40mph (Jersey), so high speed shunts are rare.

If offspring is buying new, there's no VAT so list prices are cheaper by 17.5% for a start. However, there's only one dealer per franchise per island so big discounts are (probably) rare, and secondhand you are limited as there is again not a huge choice of cars.

Rentals are another choice, usually decent rates if out of holiday season (most rental durations are 6 months, if you have a longer one you will get a replacement car after this amount of time as they generally turn the fleets over twice a year), however I've heard lots of horror stories about ridiculous charges for "damage" when the car is returned.

Personally, I went out and bought a £500 banger when I arrived here and didn't worry about it too much, however it was only thoughts of an MOT on importing it back into the UK that prompted me to get something a bit newer.
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Wed 5 Nov 2003 18:59
Buying? a car in Jersey. - r_welfare
Sorry - also forgot to answer these parts:

Valuation for VAT purposes - I believe done on car value as noted, but best to keep the dealer receipt.

Also, parking in Jersey is a pain, especially in St Helier. If offspring has a parking space attached to accomodation, so much the better. Otherwise it's on the street, and the Channel Islands have strange parking laws. You get a card disc with a clock on it that you display in your windscreen, showing when you arrived in the space. On-street spaces have signs next to them telling you how long you can park. Most here in Guernsey are 1-2 hours in the centre of town, rising to 10 hours outside (only enforceable from 8am-6pm). And yes, you can get done if you just leave the car but change the clock at regular intervals...!
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Wed 5 Nov 2003 19:54
Buying? a car in Jersey. - Vansboy
& the people that deal in ex hire cars, there, are www.ci-direct.com

They arrange all the formalities, too, but never seen what I would consider a 'bargain', from them!

VB
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Fri 7 Nov 2003 01:04
Buying? a car in Jersey. - henry k
r_welfare

Many thanks for all your info.
I will now make some enquiries prices and dealers.
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Fri 7 Nov 2003 04:12
Buying? a car in Jersey. - BaseRSXmanual
Just buy one of the new Ford GT40s. You will be a bad ass while you are here and can export it and return to Britain a hero!!

LOL
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Mon 10 Nov 2003 18:57
Buying? a car in Jersey. - r_welfare
Henry_k: Some more info that you may find useful. A South African colleague is in much the same situation as your offspring, although he is already here in Guernsey, but is only on a six-month contract.

He has looked at several late 2000/early 2001 Ford Fiesta 1.25 Zetec 5 door hatchbacks. All have been mint, with metallic paint, air conditioning and alloys, have logged between 13k and 15k miles, and have been offered (some at the local Ford dealer, others at other franchises or independents) at between £4,250 and £4,750 on the forecourts. From a quick browse on Autotrader, this seemed to correlate with UK cars with between 30k-40k miles.

However, he found that none of the banks were interested in finance as he will only be here for another six months - they wanted to see a contract of over a year in length. The dealers came back with offers of finance at 7% - almost twice what they would normally do.

Also, insurers will only issue a policy for a year's duration, and if you cancel part way through, you will only get refunded at 50% of the balance.

So it's all stuff to think about, although Jersey may do things slightly differently. It's not all doom and gloom though, that's just one example. My personal car is a Feb 1999 Honda Accord 2.0iLS auto, bought from the local Honda franchise with 17,500 miles and a full history, which cost me £5,250 a month ago - or about £3,000 less than my dad paid for a similar car (although a year newer) from a Honda dealer in the UK!

BaseRSXManual - are you getting confused with New Jersey? :)

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Sat 23 Apr 2011 17:42
Buying? a car in Jersey. - money

Hello

Personal contract purchase: This is a bit like a hire purchase agreement, but the monthly payments tend to be lower, which means you can afford a flasher car than you might have thought possible. However, at the end of the repayment period – often three years – you face a choice: either hand back the car and get nothing or pay a lump sum and own the car outright. The scheme often include servicing and maintenance in the price. Often people swap to have another personal contract purchase scheme to keep on the road.

...............................................................

Money Collector

www.motorhomeinsurance.org

Edited by money on 23/04/2011 at 17:53

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