Cyprus-Forum.com

[richard knight]

I;m thinking about bringing my car from uk to cyprus, Do i have to registar it when there or can i use it like i was driving it in the uk?
ANY one got ideas about what to do please.

[cyprusgrump]

http://www.cyprus-forum.com/viewtopic.p ... =importing

[AQ]

I;m thinking about bringing my car from uk to cyprus, Do i have to registar it when there or can i use it like i was driving it in the uk?
ANY one got ideas about what to do please.

Richard

Don't do it!

I did so in March 2006, thinking that I understood the rules. It cost around
£500 to ship over in the container and £150 to clear in the docks at Limassol. The CD player/radio (about £500 worth) was stolen on route.

My underststanding (wrongly) was that I was allowed to use the car in Cyprus for six months in any year, (bit like a tax resident). What I did not appreciate was that for the other six months the car had to be kept in a customs warehouse. I left the car on my drive when I was in the UK. I kept a log of all my visits to Cyprus to ensure that I kept under the six months limit.

Coming back to Cyprus in March 2007, I opened my mailbox to several letters from the Cypriot customs threatening to impound my car. I took advice from a local lady specialising in Cypriot red tape.She took me straight round to the customs office in Paphos where I was fined CY£500
in cash on the spot and the car impounded for a year. I was told that to re-register the car in Cyprus would cost in excess of CY£11000!

I was able to take the car out of the bond in March 2008. This cost me 700 Euros for the year. The tyres had deteriorated due to not moving during this year. I had to have all 4 replaced (980 euro) The soft top mechanism had jammed and the roof stayed half closed/open (660 euro)
The windscreen had a hairline crack which gradulaly worsened and had to replaced (250 euro)

Now everyone time I travel back and forth I have to visit the bond office and customs to book the car in and take it out again. (time consuming and expensive on taxis, I live 20 miles away)

I could go on but my experience has been a horror story. Sell the car in the UK and use the proceeds to buy a car in Cyprus You have been warned!

[richard knight]

Hi there,
Many thanks for that information, i will take it on board, i wonder why so much expense..so i will but a car out there..again thank you very much for answering my advert..all the best richard

[CBBB]

AQ's horror story is not the norm.

I have shipped over 2 cars from the UK (one for me and one for the mrs).

They both arrived whole and with the things I had filled them up with.

Getting them out of customs at Limassol I did by myself, spent the whole morning and about CYP40.

Went through all the procedures with customs in Nicosia and got them registered in Cyprus. There was no duty, but registration was about CYP500 for a 1 year old 2 litre Hond Accord and around CYP80 for a 6 year old Renault Megane 1.4 litre. Ok, this process took a few months and I needed loads of old and new utility bills, tax statements, etc. However it was not a major hassle if you are used to the "Cyprus way" of doing things.

My opinion is that if you are going to buy a new car, get it here. If you have a reasonably new car already, bring it over. If it is a pile of old sh*t, dump it, there are plenty like that here already.

[cyprusgrump]

AQ's horror story is not the norm.

I have shipped over 2 cars from the UK (one for me and one for the mrs).

They both arrived whole and with the things I had filled them up with.

Getting them out of customs at Limassol I did by myself, spent the whole morning and about CYP40.

Went through all the procedures with customs in Nicosia and got them registered in Cyprus. There was no duty, but registration was about CYP500 for a 1 year old 2 litre Hond Accord and around CYP80 for a 6 year old Renault Megane 1.4 litre. Ok, this process took a few months and I needed loads of old and new utility bills, tax statements, etc. However it was not a major hassle if you are used to the "Cyprus way" of doing things.

My opinion is that if you are going to buy a new car, get it here. If you have a reasonably new car already, bring it over. If it is a pile of old sh*t, dump it, there are plenty like that here already.

The problem is that for every ‘success’ story like your own there is a horror story like that above. It is a bizarre lottery.

Unless your car is very special in some way I always advise people not to bring it over. After all, do you want to risk spending your first six months in the country trying to extricate your car from customs?

[Bill]

AQ's horror story is not the norm.

I have shipped over 2 cars from the UK (one for me and one for the mrs).

They both arrived whole and with the things I had filled them up with.

Getting them out of customs at Limassol I did by myself, spent the whole morning and about CYP40.

Went through all the procedures with customs in Nicosia and got them registered in Cyprus. There was no duty, but registration was about CYP500 for a 1 year old 2 litre Hond Accord and around CYP80 for a 6 year old Renault Megane 1.4 litre. Ok, this process took a few months and I needed loads of old and new utility bills, tax statements, etc. However it was not a major hassle if you are used to the "Cyprus way" of doing things.
My opinion is that if you are going to buy a new car, get it here. If you have a reasonably new car already, bring it over. If it is a pile of old sh*t, dump it, there are plenty like that here already.

By the amount of information you had to provide I guess you have retired here it's a different ball game if you are not a retiree.

If your car is 1.6 ltr or less the actual cost of registering it here is low ~ especially if it's a couple of years old.

Once you go over 1.6 the cost rises ~ if it's a really big engined car then it costs an arm and a leg and really isn't worth it.

Ironically you can buy a 1.4 or 1.6 brand new Japanese car here for less than you would pay in the UK.

I thought about buying a new car in the UK 12 months before I moved and bringing it over but I realised it was cheaper to buy in Cyprus and I actually saved over £2,000 on UK prices.

As grumps said it's a lottery although it's not as bad as it was a few years ago .

Personally I would buy in Cyprus and if you can afford it buy new .

Bill

[CBBB]

I am not a retiree and I never spent more than half an hour on any one visit to the customs.

Also if it is cheaper to buy here, why are so many Cypriots buying one or two year old cars from the UK, bringing them over and getting them registered? I don't mean just the nicked ones.

A colleague got an under one year old Mercedes E Class for about CYP13000 less than a new one from the UK last week. You would have no chance of getting a second hand one anywhere near that price if it had been regisitered new in Cyprus.

Apart from all that, I think you will find things are even easier now at the customs than when I did it 2 years ago.

[Bill]

I am not a retiree and I never spent more than half an hour on any one visit to the customs.

So why did you need all the bits of paper you mentioned.

Also if it is cheaper to buy here, why are so many Cypriots buying one or two year old cars from the UK, bringing them over and getting them registered? I don't mean just the nicked ones.

Because secondhand larger motors are much cheaper in the UK.

A colleague got an under one year old Mercedes E Class for about CYP13000 less than a new one from the UK last week. You would have no chance of getting a second hand one anywhere near that price if it had been regisitered new in Cyprus.

As I said second hand luxury cars are much cheaper in the UK ~ in my post I was pointing out that you can buy a new Japanese or for that matter most other cars under 1.6 ltr in Cyprus for less than you would pay in the UK ~ I saved about GB£2,500 on the new Mazda I bought last June by buying in Cyprus and not the UK plus I saved on the shipping costs and the registration fee.

Apart from all that, I think you will find things are even easier now at the customs than when I did it 2 years ago.

Yes they certainly are ~ it's not so many years ago that every extra on a imported car had it's own individual tax which made it very expensive to import motors into Cyprus.

Never mind we may eventually get the idea of free movement of goods across the EU applying to Cyprus

Bill

[CBBB]

Regarding new vehicles, I agreed with you. On nearly new I didn't.

The first car I imported to Cyprus in 1975 was even more of a hassle. Even after I paid the duty and kept it for 7 years, I had problems transferring it to someone else!