Irish Member

[Merc--Ire]

Hi All

Thank you so much for all the welcomes and I was pleasantly surprised to see so many Irish members here and also so many replies in Irish too .
I am not sure how many of you actually live in Ireland, but I myself live in County Meath . I have not actually got the car yet but I hope to have it next week as it has to be reregistered as its a Uk car .

So I look forward to being on here and will be very grateful for any help and advice that I may need .

 

[Kev555]

Its a lovely county you live in Merc-Ire, I'm from the North

 

[sonic]

Welcome, we changed our SLK200K for a SLC250d six months ago. We are very pleased, 45mpg running about & 60mpg on long runs. Lots of goodies we didn't have on the SLK like lane assist, Apple Play, panoramic roof, & much better seats.

 

[Merc--Ire]

Hi Sonic

Thank you for your reply and it will be interesting to see my impressions of the car as l am like you in that I had a SLK 250 D before this car so it will be interesting to see the comparison with this car when I get it .
I like the power of the diesel engine and also cheaper running costs as there is quite a big difference in the price of diesel and petrol here in Ireland with diesel being approximately fifty pence a gallon cheaper than petrol .

I did consider an Audi TT Roadster but the reduced security of the fabric roof put me off as at least with the SLC you don't have to worry where you park it .
I will let you know my impressions when I get the car which hopefully should be sometime next week .

 

[Kev555]

I see the VRT also got a rise in the budget Merc-Ire, will it affect your new registration? Looks like Dublin government pushing hard for changeover to more economical and EV,s with fuel & tax up a bit as well. I see some SUV models will rise by as much as 7000 Euro for VRT

 

[Jim2]

I see the VRT also got a rise in the budget Merc-Ire, will it affect your new registration? Looks like Dublin government pushing hard for changeover to more economical and EV,s with fuel & tax up a bit as well. I see some SUV models will rise by as much as 7000 Euro for VRT

Yes, there are changes in the budget..and the price of new car's will increase anything from €1-€10'000 . So waiting to see how exactly this is going to work out, as so far its a bit complicated. Normally anyone who was thinking of changing their car's this late in the year would hold out until the new regs in 2021. But this year the trend is being bucked...the buying spree ( such as it is under the circumstances ) is in full swing now, and no doubt this will translate into fewer 2021 sales of new cars and imports too, I'd say. As for the motor tax and fuel increases, these are historically the old reliables ( especially fuel, but not forgetting another old and even more reliable Cigarettes and Tobacco tax ) Will have to wait a few months and see how it settles down. But for sure, things, and especially motoring, is not going to get cheaper.

 

[Merc--Ire]

Hi Kev

My registration fee did not change as fortunately I managed to get it registered a few days before the budget as I felt that there might be changes with the VRT system .You are right in that the government here are encouraging people to buy hybrid and electric cars .
Petrol and diesel prices increased at midnight on the night of the budget but the increase is only around 2 to 3 cent per litre so that is not too bad .
The Vrt changes and the changes in the tax rates will have a major impact on people that have large petrol engines cars and even now in some cases and dependent on the emissions they could be paying up to 2350 Euro per year in road tax .
Just to give you an example of Government thinking if I had bought a SLC 200 Petrol , the same year , and mileage etc as the car I did buy the Vrt charge would have more that doubled thus adding another 5000 Euro to the price of the car so clearly that was something I did not consider .