Ok, seen a used sports hatch, year old and its been owned by a soldier in Germany, its UK supplied and mileage is a little high for a year old but its resonably priced. Serviced in Germany I believe.
Is it risky buying ex-armed forces? I believe they have to sell it within a year to save the VAT, could it have been used as part of their duty? Or would it have MOD listed on the V5 document?
Would like to hear from anyone who has brought from an Independant that sources their cars from Armed Forces abroad. Always brought from dealers and they've been ex-lease cars.
Cheers.
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Not recent experience at all: we lived abroad and had UK cars and imported a RHD drive car bought in Germany. No issues whatsoever.
Very unlikely that the car has been used for the soldier's work. Going off my family's experience, the car was used for home to work and pleasure only. MOD vehicles were used for operations and base to base travel.
This was over 20 years though.
If the car is the soldier's property, it will his name on the V5. Sounds no more risky than buying a car from the other end of the country to me.
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I've just bought a used Focus that was originally bought by a soldier, that's what the seller told me and I've no reason to doubt him, the car has stickers on the number plates for a dealership called Griffin which apparently sell tax free vehicles to the armed forces.
I wouldn't be worried about it being bought by a soldier, the car is unlikely to have been used as part of his work as it is actually his personal property, people in the forces are entitled to these discounts so naturally they use them and get to run around in much cheaper models, doesn't mean they have to use them for work though.
Incidentally, as I wasn't sure if it was UK or not I checked the VIN number with Ford customer services who confirmed my car's pedigree as being a UK supplied model.
Mare - Thanks for that by the way, it's just explained why my car was sold on by it's original owner within about 6 months of him having bought it!
Blue
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These cars are quite legally bought, tax free and sometimes with a discount; they wre either UK supplied and delivered and then taken abroad or collected aborad. They had to be kept 6 months and do a minimum of 4,000 miles to then be imported to UK free of any taxation or VAT. When I was abroad the savings were amazing although I think this has reduced now as UK prices are so competitive. When I was in Germany Fiat/Alfa were tax free and then a 25% discount. I bought an Alfa spider for under £12,000. Mercs were tax free and 15% off. I bought 4 and made enough money to buy a modest 3 bedroomed semi in rural England. This was at a time when there was a waiting list for some larger models and they were being sold new at a premium, days now long gone except for a very few models (AMG etc)
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done this some years ago only problem you might encounter is if the vehicle is registered to the forces and not private if it is forces registered you will have to return the plates to british forces germany which is in bremmen ? i think. they will send you confirmation of receipt and you can then register with dvla.(this can take several weeks ). although some staff within dvla dont seem to know this and will register without this requirement. ...cheers...keo.
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I could be wrong, but if the car was bought privately by a soldier then I don't think it will have armed forces plates. Certainly my car has never had a plate change and it was new at first registration.
Blue
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Private cars used by the military in Germany used to have disctinctive 'BFG' plates, which made them recognisable, to anyone who knew the system, and was thus a terrorist risk, cars being booby trapped etc. The system then changed to ordinary UK type plates and numbers and the BFG licencing office issued UK tax discs as well, which had a variety of issuing offices stamps, based on real UK licencing offices locations. The plates did have to be removed from the cars, on import to UK, and returned to the BFG office which used to be in Rheindahlen but has probably now moved, perhaps to Bremen as someone else has suggested. I never had any hassle with the re-registration in UK as I sold my cars to a dealer and it was his problem! If it involves DVLA I can imagine that there might be the odd obstacle!
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From what I remember from dealings in the distance past I am agreeing with AS.
Site here that may give information to help
tinyurl.com/cvktu
dvd
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Hi, thanks for all the info and replies, lots of info and feedback so really big thanks to all of you.
The car (so I am told) is UK supplied, so I will check with the manufacture once I have the details. Is it worth me finding out the supplying detail for further info? Not sure if it was serviced in UK or Germany, would this affect warranty at all?
Cheers again for all the help.
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BFG were and may still be using german registrations which were block issued but random german plates so as they could not be associated to brit forces by terrorists. the plate i had was PDB-988 this was a padderboun? spelling registration but was an allocated BFG plate and they wanted it back. ...cheers...keo.
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BFG were and may still be using german registrations which were block issued but random german plates so as they could not be associated to brit forces by terrorists. the plate i had was PDB-988 this was a padderboun? spelling registration but was an allocated BFG plate and they wanted it back. ...cheers...keo.
Not so - a RHD(as most were) car on German Plates might be just as big an identiying mark as the old BFG plates.
Armitage S above has got it right. Not that UK plates did a great deal in the way of secrecy - cars parked outside in the married quarters patch or going in out of barracks might just be Forces cars.
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Not so - a RHD(as most were) car on German Plates might be just as big an identiying mark as the old BFG plates. Armitage S above has got it right. Not that UK plates did a great deal in the way of secrecy - cars parked outside in the married quarters patch or going in out of barracks might just be Forces cars.
possibly, i am only speaking from my personal experience and as it was explained to me by MoD as i had to contact them as DVLA would not accept that the car i had purchased was a Ford Cortina MK V i actually had to prove it was. and it had to be official documents stating that it was what i was saying it was . it got quite silly and was an experience which i learned an awfull lot from especially about DVLA incompetence...cheers...keo. oh and it was lefthand drive and about 13 years ago.
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possibly, i am only speaking from my personal experience and as it was explained to me by MoD as i had to contact them as DVLA would not accept that the car i had purchased was a Ford Cortina MK V i actually had to prove it was. and it had to be official documents stating that it was what i was saying it was . it got quite silly and was an experience which i learned an awfull lot from especially about DVLA incompetence...cheers...keo. oh and it was lefthand drive and about 13 years ago.
Did DVLA think it was a Taunus? Were there LHD Cortinas?
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Did DVLA think it was a Taunus? Were there LHD Cortinas?
no it was a cortina and ford themselves helped me out greatly with identifying it as such it was ordered in uk and supplied direct to MoD in Germany it was a black 2.3 v6 but apparentlly started life as a 1.6 but was converted presumably by military. i eventually got it registered on a Q plate Q981REU in it's day it was a nice car and quite quick but extremely thirsty...cheers...keo.
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Private cars used by the military in Germany used to have disctinctive 'BFG' plates, which made them recognisable, to anyone who knew the system, and was thus a terrorist risk, cars being booby trapped etc.
Or in fact, lest we forget, being indiscrimately shot dead at traffic lights for the crime of being in the forces. This was the constant fear we had. Our car had Belgian transit plates white on red rather than red on white, but being RHD still stood out. For a while we never stopped at red lights in Zeebrugge at night.
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I imagine it was the same feeling I had being near an Army base in Scotland a few years ago in my car!
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Adam
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