Hello, this is my first post here. I came across this wonderful site while feverishly seeking information on another vehicle. On four separate occasions there has been a yellow, LHD, 1998 non-turbo fiat coupe for sale on eBay, the owner of which resides somewhere in Devon. I had gathered enough information on the car the first time it was listed, but was unable to view it before the end of the auction, so I did not bid. I joined the bidding on the second occasion after receiving additional (piecemeal) details, but stopped after being outbid and cancelled the scheduled trip to view (I live far away) due to a number of peculiarities. The first thing was that the car still had Polish registration plates, despite the fact that the owner has lived in the UK for three years. How does one check out the history of such a car? It is/was a goodlooking car, but the car in the photographs seemed to have two different shades of yellow in some areas. I believe that the reserve was set quite high and this may have scared off bidders. But this time, (round 4) no-one bid on the car during the entire time it was listed. I suspect that it may be listed again if the seller is persistent and not completely frustrated, and I am really interested. Has anyone on this forum ever come across the vehicle, perhaps viewed it? Can anyone offer any advice as to how to register such a vehicle in the UK? If you are wondering why I would like a LHD car, I live in Sweden, but travel to the UK from time to time. I would hate to purchase a car only to discover that I can neither register it in the UK or in Sweden. The car in question can be viewed here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...A%3AIT&rd=1
Thanks in advance for your assistance!

Annika.

Hmm, long shot but perhaps give Mariusz on here a PM, he is pretty big in the Polish Coupe club and runs his own Coupe accessories business. Given the body kit and mods on this Coupe, he may know it/have seen it at a Polish meet.

There are others on here who know more about registering an import in the UK, but you would need some sort of official import documentation, the original Polish registration docs etc. Look at our DVLA site perhaps if you want to get it registered in the UK. As it hasn't been registered in the UK, I don't think there is any way you can check it's history in terms of accidents etc. officially apart from going from the paperwork with the car (I would think that is what may have scared off UK Ebayers as well as the high reserves in previous auctions which means buyers can buy an equivalent official UK car for the same or less money) when 3 years is a long time for it still to be on foreign plates, has it been driven at all during that time, or sat off the road?

Look at the colour match between the skirts and bodywork, or lack of colour match

The other thing is see if any other member might be more local to have look at it for you

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. The thing is that Coupe prices are sky high in Sweden. It was the same with me, at first I thought that it was my computer, but that first picture clearly shows that there are two different shades of yellow on the car. I read somewhere on this site that there aren't many coupes with certain trimmings such as a sunroof, etc. So the extras on this one made it interesting. I shall search the house and see if I can locate the papers that were sent or descriptions that I received earlier this year.

Wont import tax to sweden be sky high?

There is no import tax to Sweden on cars with more than 6000 km (or is it 600 km?) on the meter. I believe it's the same rule throughout the entire EU.

Try Germany, the prices are fairly low and there are over 200 on this website:

Link

And they are all LHD.

Thank you Kevin. I did start my search in Germany (and then Belgium). However, I quickly discovered that the coupes in Germany do not have as high a standard or similarly high specs as one would find on a coupe in say, the UK. For example, very few have leather seats and many do not have air conditioning. There is also the issue of super-high mileage, even though most of these cars are well-maintained. The other incentive was that the prices are lower in the UK, particularly if the car is LHD. Cars in Germany are cheaper than in Sweden, but cars in the UK are even cheaper!

Annika. That car has been listed on Ebay 3 times in the last 2 months. Each time the reserve price was met and yet he is still offering it for sale.
He also sells other items on his site, like bodykit for the Coupe. Never seems to be any takers
Also look at his feedback. Not exactly trustworthy by the comments made

Do yourself a favour and take Kevins advice. Stay well clear of this one

There should be no import duty if importing within EU. However most countries impose a car registration tax and there is no limit to what that tax may be so it is very high in some countries.

Just flew in yesterday evening and resumed my search for a coupe. Noticed that the LHD in question is once again up for sale on eBay. I shall take the kind advice given here and (try to) forget about it... mainly because of the 2-colour thing (how much would it cost to respray an entire car in the UK?). But can't help but wonder whether anyone on this forum lives in that area and could thus view it on my behalf, if only to completely rule it out? I shall try to post this query in the appropriate section. Thanks again!

Annika.

The only forum member I can recall living in north Devon was RobLE, but he sold up a while back. There are some other members in Devon who might be persuaded to take a nice trip up there though

As long as you didn't paint that bodykit Maurisz