As the price of an early D4 is starting to get into the reach of the ordinary man and with the impending demise of the internal combustion engine I felt I had to make the decision to make the leap. Given my age, (rapidly approaching 70 !) this is probably going to be my last hurray with a vehicle like a Discovery or a Range Rover. So, for the last year and a half I have been searching for the right vehicle. Then, last Sunday evening, up pops just such a car. A 2011 D4 with only 175 kilometres on the clock AND only one owner from new.
I had never seen that before, I had to ring up and get to see it. I made arrangements with the seller to go and view it the very next day and ask for first refusal, which he very kindly agreed to.
For anyone who is not familiar with the Irish motor taxation system, this will give you some background.
There are two types of registration available for cars in Ireland.
Most are privately registered, but a large number (that have a big enough load capacity) are on a commercial plate. The private cars are put through an NCT (same as the UK’s MoT} every year after the first three years from new. The NCT stations are Government run and there are one or sometimes two NCT test stations in each County.
The commercially registered vehicles are tested at separate DoE test centres and they test all the commercial vans , lorries, coaches etc. and cars that have a large enough load space to qualify for commercial registration. The Discovery is one such vehicle and you can have it as a full commercial, with just the drivers and front passenger seats left in and the rear floor boarded through. Or you can take out the third row of seats put in a mesh bulkhead and register it as a crewcab. There are a few T’s & C’s to comply with, first you must have a business and or be VAT registered. The conversion must be done by a professional installer and have an engineers report completed.
The cost of conversion is around €500.00 but, once done, the road tax is €333.00 a year as opposed to a privately owned Discovery on which the road tax would be €2,450.00 !!
I am self employed, so I can run a vehicle for business use. So I either look for a Discovery that is already on a crewcab plate, or, I look for a good privately owned one and get the conversion and the re-registration done. Two problems arise with the Discovery that is already on a crewcab plate. If you buy form a dealer you will be charged 21% VAT and as I am not VAT registered that’s not an option for me. The other problem is crewcab Discovery’s that are a private sale can present with no VAT to be paid as the person selling it is also not VAT registered, but they are generally very high millage and tired by the time they are 10 years old and from what I have seen, would be an immediate money pit.
So, the best option is to look for a Discovery that has been privately owned and convert it to a crewcab. This is what I have found.
I had never seen that before, I had to ring up and get to see it. I made arrangements with the seller to go and view it the very next day and ask for first refusal, which he very kindly agreed to.
For anyone who is not familiar with the Irish motor taxation system, this will give you some background.
There are two types of registration available for cars in Ireland.
Most are privately registered, but a large number (that have a big enough load capacity) are on a commercial plate. The private cars are put through an NCT (same as the UK’s MoT} every year after the first three years from new. The NCT stations are Government run and there are one or sometimes two NCT test stations in each County.
The commercially registered vehicles are tested at separate DoE test centres and they test all the commercial vans , lorries, coaches etc. and cars that have a large enough load space to qualify for commercial registration. The Discovery is one such vehicle and you can have it as a full commercial, with just the drivers and front passenger seats left in and the rear floor boarded through. Or you can take out the third row of seats put in a mesh bulkhead and register it as a crewcab. There are a few T’s & C’s to comply with, first you must have a business and or be VAT registered. The conversion must be done by a professional installer and have an engineers report completed.
The cost of conversion is around €500.00 but, once done, the road tax is €333.00 a year as opposed to a privately owned Discovery on which the road tax would be €2,450.00 !!
I am self employed, so I can run a vehicle for business use. So I either look for a Discovery that is already on a crewcab plate, or, I look for a good privately owned one and get the conversion and the re-registration done. Two problems arise with the Discovery that is already on a crewcab plate. If you buy form a dealer you will be charged 21% VAT and as I am not VAT registered that’s not an option for me. The other problem is crewcab Discovery’s that are a private sale can present with no VAT to be paid as the person selling it is also not VAT registered, but they are generally very high millage and tired by the time they are 10 years old and from what I have seen, would be an immediate money pit.
So, the best option is to look for a Discovery that has been privately owned and convert it to a crewcab. This is what I have found.
