Haci

Hello all,
We bought a lovely Kia Sedona in England a few months ago and we now have it with us in Turkey where we'll stay for a few years. We decided we want to buy a new car (right hand drive) here, hence the plan to sell our Kia in Cyprus - is anyone interested or has anyone advice on how to go about it or even got contact points? I would really appreciate any tips!!!

Sue

Hi Haci,

Welcome to BE

I came across this the other day, don't know if it is the type of thing you are looking for: http://www.cyprus-trader.com/automotive.aspx

Haci

Thank you!

Max786

Here is our experience.

We bought a car from the uk by road to selifika in southern turkey. Ferry from there to Girne. On disembarking you have to deal with 2 departments at the port. You will get paperwork issued for the car after paying for the insurance and police will check the car and it's contents. You then have 90 days to use the car and then must take it out of TRNC.

If you want to register it and keep it there you have to get a mot, get the car valued and pay the import duty - which is based on the price of the car in Parkers guide - there are another 2 smaller charges you have to pay. Pay the road tax. Then pay for the new number plates you will have to organise.

The process is not too difficult and takes about a week to complete.
The duty charges are exccessive. We bought the car here in the uk for £3250 but the duty we paid was another £3995. Add that to cost of the ferry, the mot, insurance, road tax and petrol from the uk to cyprus we could have bought a similair car in TRNC for £1000 less than it cost us.

If you really must bring the car then do so but i would consider selling it and buying in TRNC.

Barandis

Hi, it might be worth checking that one condition for bringing a car into Cyprus was that you had to have owned the car for at least 6 months, it may have changed but worth checking
Regards
Barry

Haci

Thanks everyone! It turned out it is at least an equal amount of paperwork to sell in Cyprus as it is trying to keep the car in Turkey longer than 6 month. It is indeed the only way and cheapest way to simply buy a car in the respective country, rather than import. We ended up giving up our British car to the Turkish customs recently as shippping it back was too expensive and driving back was impossible due to the weather conditions. :-( but thanks again everyone for the ideas!

RetireePam

We looked at the cost of second hand cars in Cyprus and they were a lot more expensive than in UK. As we are retiring to Cyprus permanently later this year we bought a C4 Grand Picassco last year so we owned it for at least 6 months before moving. You have to be aware of the engines over 1.6 litre attract huge import duites so we bought a 1.562 cc.

You can ship it on it's own on a roll on/roll off (with nothing inside it) for about £600 plus VAT and import duties etc. If you ship a full container load it costs over £2,000 plus VAT. As we had a few bits to ship we are going to share a container and fill up our car plus a pallet of boxes for about £1,400 plus VAT. We estimate the import duty on our 08 registered car with around 45,000 miles (which effects the price) to be around £300-£400. We have decided to pay the import duty as (even though we don't have to as we've owned it for 6 months etc) because you have to pay it when selling in Cyprus later on.

For us it was cheaper to buy in UK and ship it across.
Pam

Worldlywanderer

I realise things change quickly but the above psts do not fit with what I have seen elsewhere. My understanding is that bringing a car with UK plates into the occupied areas is simple and it is posible to obtain a temporary import certificate for up to twelve months. It is also possible to cross the green line with the car as a visitor and stay for up to six months.

Provided one has not outstayed the 12 month limit in the occupied area it is presumably possible to cross again and leave by ferry.

Importing a car to the RoC is, of course a completely different ball game in which the only winner appears to be Grimaldi.

zygiman

If you import a car into the Republic of Cyprus, you have to complete certain procedures. Once completed, you will have to check your insurance policy to see if you are covered for driving in the Occupied Areas.

Worldlywanderer

I would be very interested to learn of any insurance company which includes the occupied areas. The usual form is that European insurance covers the territory of member states for compulsory insurance. Certain other states e.g. Russia and Turkey can be covered by the issue of an International Certificate of Motor Insurance (Green Card). These states have motor insurance bureaux which are members of the international association which doed not admit into membership states which are not recognized by the states whose bureaux are members. Since TRNC is not recognised by any state other than Turkey it cannot have a bureau which is part of the club.

Purely as an academic comment I must admit confusion, however, since the EU, all of whose members are members of the club recognises Cyprus as a single entity and it does not meet the description of war zone. Since Cyprus is a member of the EU club and the green card club, how therefore do insurance companies restrict their policies to exclude the occupied territories?

zygiman

This is a political move, and works. The Occupied Areas of Cyprus are not government controlled, and not recognized by the international community, except for Turkey.

You are taking a big risk entering the Occupied Areas without checking if your car hire insurance, or normal car insurance is covered in these areas.

Medical insurance, EHIC cards, mobile telephone connections blocked, travel insurance etc are all matters you should address before entering into these areas.