wrxseeker

iTrader: (1)

I agree you can post on any subject for your 1st post - Welcome to Scoobynet BTW !

I apologise for not noticing in your 1st post that you bought a UK car.

You are perfectly entitled to air your views and I agree a forum is a place for open debate with a balance of views.

In the case of this particular thread I can basically see 2 views:

1. I own an EU import & I am worried about this and I feel it is unfair.

2. I support IM's actions

No one has slagged IM off, as I am aware but I cannot understand why anyone would support IM who didnt work for them, to be honest. I cant see what IM do for any UK customer but I do understand that they are a business are are trying to protect the profits from the "mark up" on UK cars.

I would support my local dealer who got me a test drive and has been very professional and helpful.

Unfortunately they couldnt match the price I paid for my EU import but they get all my service work and the profits from the many accessories/parts I buy, but if I have no warranty then I might as well get my car serviced at a specialist who is nearer to me and cheaper.

Finally, as has been stated Subaru Cyprus and Malta have agreed to honour the warranties so if a dealer wanted to carry out warranty work and liase directly with them I am sure they would get paid and it would be nothing to do with IM.

I find it strange that people are saying that you would have to take the car back to the supplying dealer in the country of origin as the cars do not have a UK warranty - they never did !!

gubby

I thought that nowadays you could take your car to any non-franchised garage to have servicing/repairs carried out as long as they used genuine manufacturers parts.

Carlos13

I don't think IM is acting to protect dealers (as has been opined) but to protect itself. If we have 3 agents - UK servicing dealer, IM and the supplying EU dealer, IM are the only ones not to make any money out of an imported car (since the servicing dealer gets servicing/warranty work). This is unless IM gets cash for supplying parts, not sure about this.

So the issue is the law - we have read earlier in the thread that a car imported by an "unauthorised distributor" is not covered by pan-European warranty. Yet the MD of Alliance says it is "confirmed by the EU" that it is covered. The crux of this matter is simply to sort this out. If the law states that a car supplied via an unauthorised dealer is covered, tough luck on IM. If not, then I am afraid Alliance are in a bit of trouble, as they will have (perhaps unwittingly) misleading customers.

HOWY

By IM acting to protect its dealers it is protecting itself, as one has to suppose that it gets a commision on every car it sells to its dealers.

More I think about this problem I wonder what would be the legality of say a cyprus dealer opening a branch in the UK surely this would still be an "authorised" dealer and it can just move its stock to the UK for sale to its uk customers problem solved?

DonnieDarko

pretty sure they'd lose their authorised status that day!

HOWY

Yes probably though that is more a Fujitsu Japan issue than an EU problem

Ironicaly if IM do cut down on the number of imports coming to the UK SUBARU itself will suffer as teh total number of sales will drop and this could also have a knock on effect with dealers and market share.

I will certainly be interested to hear what FHI have to say and what some authorised dealers too.

DonnieDarko

yeah, i really wouldn't have been able to stretch to a uk one. i didn't want a normal car loan, i wanted to get it out of mortgage equity (which was about 12k) so when i sold my bmw and put in me savings that gave me the £17500 i needed for the car, added insurance, GAP insurance (just in case) alarm & tracker + lifetime subs on the tracker. which ain't a bad deal

otherwise i would have had to buy a second hander probably a bug-eye (phew!)

firewire

Apology accepted no problem.
Firstly lets get one thing straight. I do not work for IM.
I do not particularly support them but you can see there point in a way. They are appointed as official distributors for the UK by Subaru Japan. They have to set up an infrastructure to support this. In the past I have done work for a car distributor (NOT IM) and the set up they have to provide goes something like, Office based technical and sales staff, field technical and sales staff, vehicle storage costs, promotions, marketing, PR departments, parts stocking, training schools, not to mention the property / land that all this occupies, (and I've only scratched the surface probably)

Then you get a distributor in another country Malta, Cyprus and so on who has none of these on costs. With very small overheads he can afford to sell the cars cheaper. Add to this (and I am guessing here) Cyprus probably buy the cars cheaper from Japan than IM can. I believe this happened several years ago in Belgium / Holland with another manufacturer where they subsidised the local distributor just to get a market presence.

As I say I do not particularly support IM but you can appreciate their stance. If you are in business and you could use a piece of legislation to stop unlawful imports (and it is my belief based on my limited knowledge that they are unlawful) then you would do it.
Show me a businessman who says he wouldn't and I'll show you a liar.

In closing can I say I hope you manage to sort out any concerns you have.

firewire

Gubby, you don't even have to use genuine manufacturers parts. As long as you stick to the service schedule and use parts of certified equivelent quality AND you keep invoices from a VAT registered garage (Franchised or otherwise) your warranty can not be refused. This is part of Block exemption regs.

jasonius

iTrader: (1)

So where does the european free market fit into all this..?

What about all the other UK businesses (farmers come to mind) that have to compete with not just EU imports but worldwide imports that undercut them in every way..?

You can really see our farmers getting away with something like this...!

SCOOBYBALL

you do need to use genuine part for the warrenty to be valid,but u dont need to take it to a subaru dealer to have the work done for a service,just as long as the garage you take it to is vat registered

gubby

Posted by firewire

Posted by SCOOBYBALL
Does anyone know which of these is correct. I do intend to use Subaru parts but don't want to unwittingly invalidate the warranty. Does matter if the car is a Parrallell import from Malta?

wrxseeker

iTrader: (1)

Anyone got any news on this yet ??


Or answers to these:

1. Has anyone who recived a letter confiming their warranty & subsequently had one saying its no longer valid ?? Or is it just anyone that is trying to register from now on - if so has the law changed in any way ??

2. Has anyone had warranty work refused after getting the letter from IM saying their warranty is valid ??

3. What type of market do Subaru (Fuji) class the Uk as ?? Exclusive or Selective ??

fenman

Selective distribution under Block Exemption Regs.

Don't know about Q 1 or 2 but would also like to know.......especially Q1.

Q2........wouldn't be at discretion of Subaru UK......definitely up to country of origin to decide whether work is done under warranty, and maybe even Fuji ultimately.

wrxseeker

iTrader: (1)

Other side to question 2 - Has anyone successfully had any warranty work carried out on an EU import at a UK main dealer in the last 2 weeks ??

fenman

....bound to be because there must also be hundreds of EU imports from legitimate Subaru main distributors in Holland, Belgium etc as opposed to the type of seller involved with the owners discussed on this thread e.g. Motorpoint, Alliance etc......who aren't distributors, hence the problem as far as i understand it.

carnutter

now have my second wrx from motorpoint this was even cheaper than the first one I have my cars serviced religiously and up to now have not had any problems that needed warranty work doing if it wasnt for motorpoint or other importers I would still be driving 3 year old cars with no warranty on anyway quite simply I would not be able to afford a Subaru from a UK dealer.Motorpoint did offer the sell me a warranty but what a waste of money as these things are bullet proof

urban

iTrader: (1)

Why do you think they are bullet proof?

Presumably you've never had a problem then, is this a WRX or and STI you're referring to?

Shaun

carnutter

I have a wrx my mate has a 51 plate sti no problems there either

Pars

Get a facking Jap one mate

Yorkie

LOL

GC8

I cant be arsed to read all six pages, but has anyone considered that IM are suggesting that the supplier (Motorpoint or whoever) are n ot official dealers? The supplying dealer in Malta or whichever state the car has come from will be an official Subaru dealer surely. Mototrpoint (or whoever) will only have acted as your agent, not as a dealer re-selling. I think that someone at IM is trying to be clever.....


Simon

carnutter

I think you are quite right by the post's and sound of everything Motorpoint or however else people have purchased there scoobie from have saved loads of money and hat has pi$$ed IM off at the end of the day a subaru is a subaru and no matter who you have purchased it through the warranty should be honoured.Maybe main dealers should contenplate being competetivly priced and not just ripp off merchants

ZippyLane

Right then.. I too have purchased a WRX from Motorpoint with a stated 3 year manufacturers warranty.. it cost me 5000 less than a UK model.. Why is this wrong..? Are we being slated by some on here because we thought we were getting a good deal..? With a national company such as Motorpoint would you expect that nothing was going to be above board..? Well I didn't..! You can call me stupid or whatever but with the prices UK dealers charge for their cars, this choice seemed a good one too me.. I knew you wouldn't get the servicing package and Subaru assist etc etc, but the car came with an Thatcham Alarm, Tracker and the Insurance shortfall cover for a good price..
Whatever the ins and outs of this matter, the bloody car has a SUBARU certificate with it and came off their production lines, so in my eyes whether the car comes from the UK, Malta or even F'ing Timbuktoo it was built to their quality standards and they should honour the Warranty.. Simplistic view of the matter.. Probably.. But one very p1ssed off owner - YES.. I'm awaiting my letter from Motorpoint at the moment.. Some one will pay for this if it goes **** up.. believe me..

Jonty

I'm jumping into this thread very late on, but I agree totally. Unfortunately it's not how a lot of companies work though, given geography and the individual companies that exist, i.e. Subaru UK, Subaru Japan, and so on.

We have a similar problem at work -- if a laptop comes in for repair but wasn't issued/sold within the UK, it can't be fixed unless someone from the UK is prepared to cough up the cash. When you're a multi-national company, it's daft when red tape gets in the way of just getting the job done... but is often the way it is.

Good luck to all those with warranty issues. I hope everyone gets the answer(s) they're looking for and can get back to just enjoying their motoring.

Jonts.

scooblover

Just spoke to my local authorised dealer and service centre and they said that there is no problems with warranty work on the Euro imports???? How bizzare.

dumpvalve.com

what do you expect ???? you go into the subaru dealers all smug saying nah i can get one from motorpoint with this and that 5k cheaper and then you dont get a warr your buying a specialist car buy it from the people who know what there talking about not from the people who just woory where ther next sale is coming from and dont give a stuff about the customers. i got one from uk dealer and nothing to complain about.

Vipa

Just been doing some more Block Exemption reading and from what I gather the following applies (my interpretation only)

As of Oct 1st 2005 ANY dealer from ANY member state can open a sales outlet in ANY other member state....... so if Liacos (Malta?) wanted to open a sales outlet here they could without restriction. If Fuji try to stop them then they are obstructing EU law and the whole distribution channel becomes exclusive opening the way for anyone to import in bulk.

If the above happened (which it probably will now that this whole can of worms has been opened up by IM) then the consumer will still be able to save thousands and there will be no interpretation of regulations to get in the way.

dumpvalve.com

The way I understand it is that IM have the import rights to Subaru in this country. If Liacos malta want to open a dealership they would still have to bring the cars from Malta and its back to square one.

Vipa

Yes that's right but there's nothing stopping them doing it and asking the same money for the cars as the current supermarkets are doing.