Mr Monster

Hi, I may have to part with the love of my life due to the increase cost of home improvements and kids, this will be a very reluctant sale!

Any one got any ideas on the kind of price I could get for ...

Year 2000 DBM (Classic) Turbo, EU Imported (full UK spec)
1 Owner (with tears in his eyes of having to write this thread!)
Full Subaru History, 51K miles (mainly motorway & NO track days), Engine is standard, Body work has colour coded skirts, side protection strips and ex P1 gold alloys (same as MY00 but in gold). MOT till May 05, Tax till Nov 04.

Pioneer Head Unit with 6 CD changer & Clifford Concept 600 alarm with Cliffnet port.

Just had new tyres and front disc & pads changed.

I'm a non smoker, the car is clean and in very good condition, garaged over night and parked in an underground car park at work.

Ray_li

Uk MY2000 would be about 10k so I would expect a little less for an import

Aztec Performance Ltd

iTrader: (234)

Cant see why a UK spec import would be any less than a UK sourced one as they are identical.

Around £10k

AJT

I have a parallel import UK Spec MY00 with same mileage. I don't expect to get any less for it than a 'UK Dealer' sourced one when (if!) I sell it. I wouldn't part with less than 10K for mine (it's mint). But then again "it's only worth what someone's prepared to pay" as they say.

Depends if you are desparate to sell and you get no interest - you'll find yourself dropping the price to get the sale. If you can stick it out for the 'right' buyer then you can turn away the stupid offers and get the best price for it.

Good luck

Alex.

-=Buzz=-

it's worth less because :

1 insurance companies want more money from you because it's "an import". UK spec or not, it's still an import. Some companies don't mind, others won't touch it. If you don't declare it as an EU import your insurance will be void if you try to claim.

2 An MY00 will need servicing every six months, regardless of mileage, to keep the service book stamped, otherwise you do NOT have a FSH. I know this as I had an MY01 WRX from Holland and I looked into it thoroughly. It doesn't matter that your mate next door has the next car off the production line that he bopught from the UK and his book says yearly services - if your service book has 6 month or 6000km boxes and you don't get it done as per the book, your service history is incomplete. Subaru UK TOLD me over the phone "they are different cars" which I don't think anyone actually believes.... but there we go.

3 Subaru UK won't help you one bit if the engine falls out because the guy at the Subaru factory forget to put all the engine mounts in, even though the next car he built might have been brought here and sold by a UK dealer. Even if you had some sort of warranty with it it will be a third party one, and often they aren't worth the paper they are scribbled on. Some people don't like that, and will be put off buying it, reducing your potential customer numbers.

4 It is perceived that parts will be more difficult to get hold of. I don't know about everyone else but my local (now closed down) Subaru dealer wouldn't even discuss getting me parts once they heard I had an import, even though it was exactly the same car.

5 Last but not least the bloke who bought the UK car from new paid more for the pleasure of owning it than you did. Why SHOULDN'T his car be worth more when it comes to trade in/sell? Same car, same depreciations, so as a % of the new price yours will be worth less. The General Public KNOW imports are cheaper, thats why they are bought in the first place, so they EXPECT to pay less second hand.


Now whether you agree with any/all/none of the above, thats how Joe Public look at "imports".

Ray_li

Buzz

Thats an answer. I could only come up with one of them at the time. But I do remeber reading about the points made.

Ray

Mr Monster

Buzz, thanks for the comments … my pennyworth on Imports and experiences…

Insurance has never been a problem, reasonable companies class the car as an UK equivalent and price accordingly. I’ve found most seem more concerned with you having a Jap import and to be honest I've had more declines with it not having a tracker.

I'm not entirely sure on most of the warranty issues etc, but I was informed that as the car was from Holland (EU) then Subaru UK have to (by law) carry out the work. (I know some garages did kick up a stink about it.) However, any claim has to go back to the original dealer ... so I assume the way round this was for you to be hit with a hefty UK bill and then put in a claim - fortunately I never had to find out! As for servicing and parts I’ve had no problems, my local dealer are only too happy to help … why turn away custom?!

I'm most certainly in agreement with your comments in point 5. If I knew a car was imported (with an initial saving) then yes I'd certainly expect to pay a lower value to that of a UK car. If I threw away the service book and the VAT receipt then someone would have to do some digging to find out it was an import, the log book does not state anything. That's not me as I'm honest but I dare say they are a few out there that have done this to get max price. Would someone feel it is acceptable to do this trading an import versus a private sale? I’d be sure at some point in an import’s life of ownership it will without doubt lose its import label. At the end of the day who knows what they are driving when the buy second hand?

How do you price an EU Import fairly, if you go through a company to import you save X but doing it yourself you save Y. So is it fair that in that instance X & Y are priced differently at resale time? There are no rules; I think you have to be fair and honest to yourself and the buyer.

P1Fanatic

Only prob with EU Imports is that a lot didnt come with aircons (mine included). So if you havent got one then its a bad time of year to be thinking about selling.

When peeps buy a £10k car they usually want an aircon for that price.

Simon.

Aztec Performance Ltd

iTrader: (234)

I didnt know that mine was an import until I was shown a VAT receipt. Was taken aback at first but still purchased it as it was a nice example.

Again just repeating what Mr monster said...no probs with warranty...no probs with servicing (the same as UK sourced)...no probs with insurance...no probs with parts etc...

they're all unitelligent myths....maybe apply to JDM cars but not EU. The car is the same as a UK car...just didnt come from a UK dealer.

Bob

micared

Agree with BOB'5, these days, like it or not, there is, in general, little difference in perceived value between, for instance, the private sale of a Dutch MY00 and the equivilant U.K. car with similar condition, mileage, spec and history...speaking from experience of searching for mine anyway.
On a MY00, you'll be unlikely to find one, regardless of origin, with any meaningful amount of warranty left. I've found insurance to be the same, or slightly dearer, depending on who you approach, servicing the same, parts, no problem....as BOB'5 says, no real reason why an E.U. car should be cheaper, it's all but indistinguishable from a U.K. dealer supplied car.

talizman

iTrader: (1)

Regardless of origin (EU or UK), a MY00 classic Impreza requires to be serviced every 6 months or 7,500 miles, whichever comes sooner, so I fail to see your point.
Who suggested his service history will be incomplete or different intervals?


Firstly, is it not fair to say that mechanical failure of components on a 4 year old car will probably be down to age and wear & tear as opposed to faulty construction?
Any niggles should be well ironed out after 4 years, meaning that any problems which arise would probably nit be warranty issues anyway.
Plus, not many classics have any warranty left on them anyway, so warranty isn't an argument against imports (of this age anyway)


Like I said, even if it were a UK car, it still wouldn't have any warranty.


Only by those who think that Subaru dealers are the "be all and end all" of Scooby maintenance.
Have a look at the specialists who have banner ads on ScoobyNet.....
Scooby Clinic etc.
I know whose stamp I'd rather have in my service history!



I do agree with you on this point.
A new WRX can be bought for £16.5k (import)
Main dealer almost £5k more

Its conceivable that the import owner could run his car for a year and sell it at a profit????

Not at my expense thank you!

EddScott

As far as insurance is concerned or a Subaru dealership theres no difference between a UK car and an EU import.

An insurance company cannot charge more for an EU import as thats against EU regulation.

A 4 year old car will be out of standard warranty period anyway so thats no longer an issue.

Parts are the same and Subaru shouldn't really mess you about if you need them. My car is from Dublin and from the book has been serviced at 3 dealerships without problem and has FSSH. The dealers I go to now are absolutely fine with my car and comment on it due to it being Sonic Blue (which you couldn't get here normally).

My car hasn't got A/C but thats no bother to me but is down to personal opinion.

So UK/EU car shouldn't really be any different in price if both looked after and properly stamped.

-=Buzz=-

I didn't say that I agreed with the points I made, they are as stated by someone else largely not true to a greater or lesser extent - but it's still what lots of people not "in the know" actually believe because they've been fed all this crap by UK dealers over the years. Things are changing now I grant you, with the personal import market widening every day - just look on autotrader or e-bay at the number of companies who'll bring you a JDM of nearly any sort.

I didn't know ALL UK my00 turbos had 6 month servicing - the reason I made that point was because my EU MY01 was 6 months but a UK car exactly the the same was 12 months - so it cost me twice as much to service as a UK model, for no good reason that I could discover other than "that's what's in the book". I am more than happy to be corrected on that one

Nowucme

Just sold mine for £9,300 (45k miles, TSL downpipe and backbox, 10 disc changer, clear indicators)........