We all know someone who has gone to Northern Ireland on a shopping trip, whether it was to Newry for booze or to Belfast for some bigger shopping. But how many people go to ‘Norn Iron’ or indeed England to buy a new or second hand car?
Irish dealers are well aware of what’s going on out there and last year when sterling was very poor against the euro BMW Ireland decided to import some of their models from the UK, a move which they called the Sterling Collection.
The cars had all been registered in 2009 by BMW in the UK. The purchase process for the customer was similar to buying a new car - the dealer took care of delivery and all necessary VAT and VRT paperwork associated with importing a vehicle from the UK.
The cars were sold through BMW’s Irish dealers. Purchasers enjoyed the same range of benefits in terms of trade-in, two-year warranty cover and three years emergency breakdown service cover, as they would when purchasing any new BMW or Mini.
That all happened a few months back. Now BMW say that the Sterling Collection promotion was only a short term solution and that they that can now offer even better value in new cars imported directly from their factory in Germany.
My six-gear diesel test model was the BMW 520d, which is one of the top premium mid-size saloons around. I drove a black model which really oozed class and was very frugal. At the front you get a double grille and the front lights are very attractive with double headlamps on either side, rounded off by an amber curve when the parking lights are on.
The interior was really bright as nearly everything was cream. Cream leather seats and cream colouring on the inside of the doors. All complimented by a dark poplar wood trim around the dash and sides. It was all so comfortable and relaxing, but no doubt it might be difficult to keep the cream-coloured seats clean if you were carrying young and maybe not so young children. 
You should have no difficulty finding a comfortable driving position as the driver and front passenger seats can be adjusted in so many ways. At the back there is ample room for three well-built adults. Everybody who travelled in the car was impressed with the colouring and comfort.
I really liked the radio controls that were a bit similar to the Audis I drove recently.
The boot is massive and while there is room for a spare wheel, none is provided. Thanks to their ‘run flat tyres’ you can continue to drive a BMW if you get a puncture and it doesn’t do any damage to the tyre. So, you could use the space allocated for the spare wheel to hide valuable items away from prying eyes. Not really recommended, but it is a very useful hiding place unless somebody breaks open the boot.
The problem with the Sterling Collection was that prices were set by individual garages. Now prices for BMW and Mini for 2010 have really dropped. The entry level price for the model I drove is e41,230, but lots of extras in the Business Edition brought the price of the car as tested to e44,031. Road tax is only e156.