How to drive a Brexit bargain... and guarantee you’re not taken for a ride

With British cars becoming cheaper by the week, shop overseas and save thousands

Canny car buyers were quick off the starting grid to snap up Brexit bargains. So many second-hand cars are being shipped across the border and the Irish Sea that new car sales have plummeted, despite a booming economy.

Last month only 20,775 vehicles were registered – compared to 29,792 in July 2016.

This is the lowest number of newly registered cars since 2014.

The U-turn in car registrations coincides with Brexit and the resulting fall of sterling, which has made British-bought cars a compelling 20% cheaper.

And this week, they became cheaper still as the Euro broached the 90p barrier against the British currency – its highest point in nearly a year.

Used cars imported from the UK and elsewhere, are up almost 40%, with more than 53,000 shipped here since the start of 2017.

According to Gareth Edwards of motorcheck.ie, these cars are not only cheaper but have a much higher ‘spec’, with features such as sun roofs, leather seats and airconditioning – usually regarded as costly add-ons here – much more common in British cars.

The influx of these cars might also spell the end of what Mr Edwards calls ‘Paddy spec’ – a costcutting tactic car manufacturers have of shipping lower-spec cars to Ireland, knowing that drivers here are less demanding.

Also, with such easy access across the border, Northern Ireland prices tend to be bumped up due to demand from the Republic. Car dealers are busy doing most of the importing activity and these tend to go to Britain rather than Northern Ireland as the selection and prices are better.

But there’s no reason why you can’t nab a second-hand bargain yourself. There’s an easy-to-follow guide to the paperwork involved in importing a UK vehicle on the Automobile Association’s Irish website – theaa.ie (go to the blog section and look up ‘importing’).

You fill out a form to export the car from the UK, and another to import it here and pay Vehicle Registration Tax.

This is based on the import value of the car and can amount to over 30% of the second-hand value.

However, with UK cars already much cheaper than here due to