Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Hi All

I'm considering having my car shipped from the from the UK to the TRNC. Certain companies advertise this to avoid costly car hire charges. I'm not sure if this is practical. We don't live here on a permanent basis but am considering a 3-4 month stay next year. The car I'm considering is my very reliable 12 year old Toyota yaris. I understand that I will have to pay 60% tax on the value and have insurance etc, etc. Would I be better off buying a 10-12 year old car in the TRNC. This all sounds very confusing or am I seeing too many obstacles bearing in mind that this is Northern Cyprus. Thanks in anticipation. George

george olly.
Your last statement is correct, buy your car here.
The first thing is that age of your car? buy your car here they are not cheap but if you deal with a company called Tiga Trading you get the aftersales service with out having to go through the import side. The value of your car will b decided by the customs and not what it is worth in the UK.

Shipping a car over costs in the region of £1000, and the paper work's a headache. I wouldn't bother if I were you ; hire or buy here.

karmels wrote:george olly.
Your last statement is correct, buy your car here.
The first thing is that age of your car? buy your car here they are not cheap but if you deal with a company called Tiga Trading you get the aftersales service with out having to go through the import side. The value of your car will b decided by the customs and not what it is worth in the UK.

Depending on the import is for a stay of under 6 months, I don't think the import tax is payable. i.e. you won't have to pay - but the costs of transporting here and back alone will make it a no-goer. I would buy a car here and sell it when you leave. As long as you buy right and it's not involved in a prang it will retain most of its value. There is always an expat leaving keen to sell so keep your eye on the for sale section.

Shipping costs (both ways) and the paperwork issues here versus car hire at £10-15 per day for 3-4 months, the maths is not hard, plus you would get a much newer car to use here.

If you want to buy/re-sell, some friends of ours are selling a very nice 2004 Mitsubishi Colt for £4k that you could easily sell on when leaving.
Colts are extremely economical and lowest road tax group.

A friend of mine shipped his car to the TRNC and frankly, shipping process, transportation, taxation, all went smoothly.
He heard all sorts of horror stories which all turned up to be false.

to start of, he investigated best value for shipping, and chose a good company and negotiated terms and conditions/ asked question. Car was shipped and container arrived within 6 weeks.

"Olly/ Olli" was the name of the company, they helped him through out the process and collection of the car, and advised him of the costs.

Quite often my friend says "bringing his car from the UK was the best decision he made and all the hairy fairy tales were totally misleading.

Hiring and or buying from the TRNC is not necessary best.

all the best
fatsam

Eight years ago, we shipped our car over after doing all the ''homework''.
The week before it had to be registered, they put the import tax and surcharge, (in dollars) up, and instead of paying £5,000, we had to pay near on £10,000.
If I'd known then, what I know now, I wouldn't have brought my car over.
The £1,000 is just the shipping charges.
Good luck,

Brought a car in for a year with euromed, cost £650. If you decide to bring one in, ask the shipping company what you would be expected to pay in taxes. They will be the ones most up to date on charges. Would not buy an old car here.

I was under the impression when car entered the country you were given 365 days as long as it had a years tax on entry and if you were holiday makers ie using your place about 25 days a year the car could stay for many years. I know of one case this is true but there are conditions only the importer and his wife could drive the car, they had to renew the paperwork every time they visited taking their in and outs to the customs office but the car stayed here 6 years and then it left the country and returned to the uk where the car after tests etc is back on the road, it was sorn during the time it was down here as they obviously could not MOT it etc. The neighbours loved reporting him as they thought the car was illegal, there are so many bored people!

flowerfairy wrote:......The week before it had to be registered, they put the import tax and surcharge, (in dollars) up, and instead of paying £5,000, we had to pay near on £10,000.

Ironically, some friends of ours brought their car over, and were told the tax amount.
On the day they went to pay, the chap in customs told them it must be their lucky day, a new Glasses Guide had arrived that day, which meant customs had to use that one to calculate the value of the car.
The tax was then reduce by some 3,500 euros.
A very honest customs official.

However, this means if you are unlucky, you may have your vehicle assessed from and old book and pay a lot more than you should, I doubt books are purchased monthly, probably annually.

Flowerfairy wrote The week before it had to be registered, they put the import tax and surcharge, (in dollars) up, and instead of paying £5,000, we had to pay near on £10,000.
If I'd known then, what I know now, I wouldn't have brought my car over

In my case it was the day after the tax went up I went to do mine!!

And if I'd known then what I know now I wouldn't have shipped myself over either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

george olly, I think you have your answer. Please take note of what these people have advised you, I drove a classic Merc. over 3 months ago, I have been lied to, in the normal Cypriot way. Everything I have tried to do as been difficult.

It was a costly mistake and really after living here several years I should have known better.

We imported our car in 2009 used euromed ro ro ferry (non passenger ) Harwich to Famagusta £650
They had a man who got the car out of customs in 45 minutes.Went through all the registration of the car and paying the tax and beat the tax rise did not know it was coming just lucky
The car was six years old we had had it from new 23000 miles on the clock at time of import the bill was about £1500
DO NOT import heavy cars diesels high cc cars
DO Import an older petrol 1300 cc family hatch type car and save money
look carefully at the age of cars /ownership rules

Took the car through its mot this year no problem now 33000 miles 11000in cyprus

I think, going back to the original post, the message is clear.

It can be beneficial to ship it car, or it can't be..

The rules one day may not be the rules another day.

If you do ship, you can be certain of one thing, what happens when the car gets here will be uncertain.

And we all know why, it's because 'this is Cyprus'

I'm considering driving my a car across Europe and Turkey, then taking the Ferry to Kyrenia or Famagusta.
The car will stay in the TRNC, so at what point do I have to pay the import duty and re-register it with local plates?

And once its re-registered - are there any countries where you are not allowed to drive using TRNC plates?

Not sure if the age of the car might be a problem. We were told that the car had to be seven years old max and that we had to have owned it from new.
However this is Cyprus and things might have changed.

You don't have to have owned the car from new as long as you have owned it for 5 years. I bought my 10 year old car over, which I had bought when it was 1 year old and it is now on TRNC plates. You get a month to register when it arrives at Famagusta by which time you have to go to the customs in Nicosia to extend for up to a year. The time allowed the country before registration depends on your "in-outs"' certificate, which you can obtain from the police station and which shows how many times you have visited over the last year and the overall duration - this is period is deducted from the year. However, I had flown into Ercan and out via Larnaca and visa versa a few times and this caused considerable confusion with the customs who reduced my allowable time from what should have been 11 months to 6 months!

Thanks Hawkeye.
I will have owned the car for 5 years by the time I take it to the TRNC, though I'm not the only owner as I bought it as an 'ex-demonstrator' aboiut 5 months after it was first registered in the UK.

Presumably I can drive it across from Turkey on either the Alanya-Kyrenia or Mersin-Famagusta Ferry?

The there are no car ferries from Alanya, they sail from Tasacu and Mersin.

Hi MoonageDaydream,

Take your time and enjoy your drive over. Although we shipped our car we have friends who made the journey by car, taking their time and making a holiday of it and really enjoyed it. One via Italy and ferry to Greece and then to Turkey and another via the Balkans. Although both enjoyed it, nowadays the first route would be my preference given current concerns regarding security.