sandycam

iTrader: (1)

Looking for the pro's and cons of the above and peoples past experiences. Cheers Scott.

DanTheMan

http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/threa...hreadid=151389

I think the general gist was:
If you have money to burn buy a UK car £21,995
If you would like the same car for £16,385 order the same car from Europe, its only £5,610 difference, the choice is yours.....

Unless there are UK dealers offering over 5 grand off MY03 cars...

pslewis

Think of your residuals and follow the UK brick road!!

No-one pays good money for an import these days - they KNOW you had it cheap and want it cheap second-hand!!

Just IMHO - as always

Pete

[Edited by pslewis - 11/19/2002 11:40:57 PM]

Styx

yeah go uk retail

then you can bitch about being ripped off, along with others who have found out he hard way, when they find out the uk retail is worth the same as the import in five years. ie nothing much

mutant_matt

As usual Pete (PS) has got it wrong (). Residuals for EU imports are actually stronger than they are for the UK models. Many people on this board have sold their EU imports for around £1000 less than the equivalent UK car come resale time. Having usually made a saving of somewhere between £4000-6000, they are still £3000-5000 up on the deal

I've imported my last two cars and will import in future also. The only real downside is that

a) you can't part exchange your existing car (usually)
b) it's a little more effort than buying from a uk dealer (though buying from an Import company like Litchfields/Motorpoint etc. takes a lot of the hassle out of it)
c) claiming on the warranty is not as straight forward

Other than that, it's all good, apart from the propaganda that UK buyers try to spread about how you've somehow bought an inferior product

If you do it, you won't regret it, as many people here will verify.

Matt

Ian E

iTrader: (1)

Definitely got for the import - no contest with the price difference. When I bought my MY00 EU import the only downside was a one year warranty - I believe you can now get them with a three year warranty. From my experience dealers aren't exactly falling over themselves to give good money for even uk supplied cars.

Up to you at the end of the day but if you do go the UK route don't moan about the bad depreciation (8k+?) in a couple of years.

Cheers,

Ian.

[Edited by Ian E - 11/20/2002 8:10:19 AM]

davyboy

I lost 2.5k on my Euro import MY01 after 12 and 20000 miles.

....edited to say AND it was white.

[Edited by davyboy - 11/20/2002 8:33:17 AM]

chiark

Well, I ain't gonna buck the trend of this thread, apart from to issue a small sigh of despair for Mr Lewis . Using most metrics, I'd say that the residuals are a lot stronger, as percentage-wise you're getting back more on an EU import than on a UK supplied car.

At the end of the day, barring alarm, warranty and locking wheel nuts, it's the same car.

Nick.

Fitz

Shame that the point was missed the UK initial negotiating price is now 3K less than stated. So all in all, taking residuals into account etc...etc... there is next to no difference between an
import and official UK supplied car.

Edited to say what a donut.... Just noticed the MY03 bit !!!
so ignore the 3K price reduction....

[Edited by Fitz - 11/20/2002 11:23:54 AM]

achad

Residuals aside for a sec. I wouldn't mind the hassle of going the import rote. My main concern as a fairly young diver is, 'Insurance' (spits on floor, jokingly...). I've read about JDM cars being more difficult to Insure (some companies refusing to even conceder an import) but is this the same with a parallel?

frisby

Achad,

EU imports are to UK specification and so your insurance company should not discriminate between EU sourced UK spec cars and UK supplied vehicles.

JDM cars are a different ball game regarding insurance.

regards

Stu

speedking

Is insurance expensive for divers?

DBT

Go for the import.. I would warn you that the servicing schedule is going to be different more than likely, but on the MY02, the schedule is possibly more sensible that the UK supplied model. Insisting on 6 month oil/filter change, which is surely a wise decision anyway !

Also I've found out since receiving my import that you cannot get PPP done in the UK, and keep your warrenty. It has to go back to country of origin, or at least a country covered by the same Subaru group, but certainly in Subaru Benelux case, it's £400 cheaper which pays for a nice day out, or weekend even. This also doesn't matter if you're going to leave it well alone !

DBT

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Another downside to euro cars are they do not come with a cat 1 alarm or tracker fitted, but with the 4K your saving you can afford to have one fitted.

Ted Maul

A UK car may retail at £21,995 but what would you realistically expect to pay? £20,000? £20,500?
If the import is 16,500 then thats 4k difference Various list discussions have indicated that say you sold after 2 years you would expect to sell the import for maybe 1,500 less than the UK so leaving you a difference of 2.5k saved. Take off the bits and bobs such as the alarm and you're left with 2k.
So for 2k you're buying the peace of mind about any warranty issues, significantly less involvement in the 'buying' of the car such as letters, documents etc, peace of mind about whethere the car will turn up with any defects (I think one guy had a rust issue) and less issues in the servicing. Not forgetting the waiting times for imports.

Now a lot of people who buy UK want to try to prove to others (and themselves) that it was worth it, and the same could be said of some import buyers who want to get people to think they've got a great deal (and are unlikely to admit they made a mistake if it didn't go smoothly). I reckon the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Nigel H

Well said Ted.

There is no right and wrong answer to this question. Get hold of all the facts and then assess them for yourself in light of your circumstances.

The joy of Scoobynet is that you can get the facts, and then make the choice, dealers are not going to be quite as open about it

lucky_strike

Just about to trade my 4Motion Golf in for a new 02 model WRX - very happy with the deal Beechdales have done, been able to get a good trade in for the Golf, PPP fitted and a few other bits and pieces (all within warranty) and still well under what was the previous list price and great service from the dealer. Didn't really seem worth looking into an import given the current discounts (when there were cars available - have they all gone now?) and the fact that this is a company car in effect so I could do without any warranty hassles if something does go wrong.

speedking

DBT: The euro service intervals are 7500 mile or 12 monthly whichever comes sooner. There is no mention of six month intervals in the service booklet. If you only do 7500 miles/year then you can get annual services and maintain warranty. (IMO of course)

My thought is that my first service was done at 1500 miles, I could get my next oil change at 9000 miles, but since my annual mileage will be >9000 it's not worth it.

If you do between 7500 and 15000 miles/year then you will need 2 services per year.