Expert answer

Hi Michael,

You’ll need to go and talk to your local motor tax office to get it re-registered, and you’ll almost certainly end up paying more motor tax, as you’ll be taxed on the capacity of the engine. You’ll still have to put it through the Commercial Vehicles Test (CVT) every year, and don’t forget to advise your insurer of the change of use.

Expert answer

Hi Aime,

As ever, welcome to the wonderful world of Irish car insurance… You’re totally within your rights to be able to use a van as a private car, and actually you’re doing the right thing by registering it for private use, and informing your insurer. Many people just break the law by driving a commercial for private use without ever paying the extra tax or informing their insurer. If you’re struggling to find cover, I would track down a good local broker — they’re usually much more clued into the market than the call-centre staff of insurance firms, and can often find deals that we mere mortals can’t.

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Hi Abdul,

Stop-start systems can stop working for a variety of reasons, usually to do with battery condition or load. We get so many questions about them that we've put together this feature that you may find of interest:

Why won't my car's stop-start system work?

Expert answer

Hi Michael,

It depends on the vehicle, and what Revenue reckons the Open Market Selling Price in Ireland is. There’s a €5,000 VRT rebate on any electric car when you import it so unless the car is so expensive that it incurs VRT of more than €5,000 you won’t pay a penny.

Expert answer

Hi Jacinta,

Yes, you can. Anyone can buy a commercial vehicle and take advantage of the lower rates of VRT — that’s fine. The only tricky part comes, as you rightly point out, when it comes to taxing them. Then you have to tax the vehicle as a private car, and that means (for some bizarre reason) reverting to the old  by-engine-capacity tax, which obviously is going to be a bit pricey for a 3.0 Hilux. Maybe consider a 2.0-litre turbo VW Amarok, as that will bring down your annual motor tax bill considerably. 

Read this for more: Buying a commercial vehicle for private use

Expert answer

Hi Maria,

Basically the same rules apply irrespective of the vehicle itself. If it’s currently registered and taxed as a commercial, then you can indeed tax it as a private vehicle. To do that, you revert to the old by-engine-capacity tax system, which might be bad news depending on which version of the Ibiza we’re talking about. If it has a 1.2-litre engine, you’re fine — you’ll actually pay the same €330 rate as if it were a commercial. If it’s a 1.4, though, then you’ll have to pay €385.

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Hi Raymond,

Sadly, it’ll be €994. For some arcane reason (which no-one has been able to explain to us in a way that actually makes any sense), if you register a commercial vehicle as a private car, you have to go back onto the old by-engine-capacity tax system.

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Hi Brendan,

We do love a bit of car-related man-maths around the CompleteCar.ie office. Yes, in theory, you could save that €425 per week travelling cost with a Tesla Model 3, once we make a couple of assumptions, and bearing in mind that a Model 3 is not free — a basic Standard Range Plus model is quoted at €625 per month in repayments on Tesla’s Irish website. With a claimed one-charge range of 409km, your theoretical Model 3 should be able to get from Dublin to Monaghan and back in one charge, with a little left over for safety (assuming it’s around 135km door-to-door). If you can charge at home and charge in Monaghan, then each full charge will cost you around €8-10, depending on your electricity tariff and how low the battery gets before you plug it in. That should put a significant dent in your travelling costs. It would also be helpful if you could charge up at work, but that’s more for ensuring you have a full charge in case you need it — the shorter intra-Dublin commute wouldn’t put much strain on your battery.

So, that’s all good. Buying in the UK, though? Not worth it. We ran the maths on this a while back and working off the base model prices — £38,500 in the UK and €48,900 here, a quick conversion at today’s rates shows that the equivalent Euro price of a new Tesla Model 3 would be €45,069. A saving? No — although the VRT would cost you nothing at the point of import (thanks to the €5,000 rebate), you would have to pay VAT on entry, as it’s a new car, and so the price would go up by €10,350. You’re better off buying local in this instance.

Expert answer

Hi Joe,

It’s actually €710, the rate for cars with engines sized between 1,901cc and 2,000cc (the Amarok 2.0 is actually 1,968cc). As we’ve said before, for some bizarre reason, if you’re taxing a commercial vehicle as a private car, you go back onto the old by-engine-capacity system.

Read this for more: Buying a commercial vehicle for private use

Expert answer

Hi David,

If you are using the Navara strictly for business work, and not for social, domestic or pleasure use, then you can tax it as a commercial vehicle for €333 a year. If you are using it for any personal driving, then you have to transfer it back to the old by-engine-capacity tax system and, with a 2.3-litre engine, that’s going to work out at a hefty €994 a year, I’m afraid.