Are these VRT estimates on a Transit Custom right?!

Hello,

I am looking to buy a family nine-seater like the Ford Tourneo Custom in NI. Unfortunately, Revenue's VRT calculator can't find anything from the years I've searched (2018, 2019, 2020), giving me a "No vehicle found for combination selected" error.

I tried vrt.ie, but it's giving me very high estimates. Could they be true?

For example, for a Feb 2019 Ford Tourneo Custom 2.0 EcoBlue 130hp Titanium, asking price £20,000, it came out at €16,493.48 CO₂ (WTLP CO₂ emissions: 215.867g/km, which seems crazy?) and €2,625 NOx charge.

For another specimen, a Jan 2020 Ford Tourneo 2.0 EcoBlue 130hp Titanium, they came at €8,979.6 CO₂ (WTLP CO₂ emissions: 164g/km) and €2,625 NOx.

Are these estimations even realistic? NOx is most certainly not right, but even the CO₂ part seems excessive. But it's my first rodeo, so I really don't know! I would be very grateful for any clues.

Slawek (Lucan)

Apr 2025 Filed under: VRT

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Expert answer

Hi Slawek,

We've found Revenue's VRT estimator to be lacking in a lot of ways and it certainly doesn't list all makes and models for all years.

Let's break down the figures.

First up, the NOx levy quoted by vrt.ie (€2,650) is actually the maximum possible charged for a vehicle with a diesel engine. Neither of the examples you provided will emit enough NOx to warrant that, though you will need to have proof of their official figure to avoid paying the maximum. We'd estimate that a NOx levy of about €250 is more realistic in this case.

Be careful with the CO₂ figures. The 164g/km rating quoted for the second vehicle appears to be the old NEDC figure and Revenue will actually apply an “uplift” formula (see our Guide to Importing Cars from the UK feature for that) to bring it up to an equivalent WLTP rating. It comes out as 204g/km, meaning VRT at 41 per cent.

In your first example, this appears to have been done already, resulting in the 215g/km rating.

In both cases, that would mean VRT at 41 per cent of the OMSP, the Open Market Selling Price.

Now this is where things become less clear. The OMSP is not the asking price of the car, or even the price you pay for it, but the value Revenue places on it as a vehicle registered in Ireland and on sale here. It's not easy to estimate for relatively rare vehicles. For the purposes of our calculation, let's say €45,000. At 41 per cent, the VRT on that would be €18,450.

Obviously that could go up or down depending on how much Revenue believes the vehicle is worth, but we're certain of the 41 per cent VRT rate, unfortunately.

Shane O' Donoghue - Complete Car Advisor