Despite my problems with the customer service provided, I am still determined to finally purchase my Subaru Impreza WRX but I'm not sure where from.

Can anyone enlighten me on what is the difference between an imported car from a Litchfield or Alliance Importers and one that is purchased from a main dealer? At present I could import a car from Alliance for 16.5k and have an alarm and tracker fitted to make the final cost 17.3k against a main dealer car of 20+

Are imported cars more difficult to sell second or trade when you come to swap vehicles?

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Iain Litchfield's cars are euro imports, you will save some money with him but your best buys are the JDM cars which are much better
If you go for a euro spec car, you will still get the 3 year pan euro warranty, a same spec car but you may not be allowed (probably not) to add the PPP without invalidating the warranty from the country of origin, but if your not bothered about that, then Litimports is possably one of the best places to buy from

Tony

 

Is a pan euro warranty any different from a warranty you would get from a main dealer?

Why is that when you trade in an imported car in, you get less than if it was a main dealer supplied car if it is the same spec?

 

Look at www.whatcar.co.uk should be lots of stuff about all this.

Oh and www.topgear.com

 

What is the general feeling about where to buy from?

 

Buy from were you are happy with then you will have peace of mind,only you know what you want

 

That's the problem, I can't make my mind up. Obviously I want to get the best deal ie the cheapest car which would be through an importer but if I have any problems with it then I don't want to have to take it to a main dealer to get it sorted and them to turn round and say "it's an import, not my problem!" or "it's an import so it's going to cost you silly money"

 

I bought from Alliance after a long chat with my local dealers (3 in the area). They all said they were unable to offer much of a discount on a new WRX and all offered me so little for my trade in that I knew I'd be selling it privately anyway. I wanted a standard WRX and don't plan any mods until after the warranty is expired - maybe longer - so looked online for the best price. Car came from Cyprus, is full UK spec with English handbook/service book etc. etc.. I'm the first registered keeper and the V5 doesn't mention imports or anything different to what it would say for a UK car. Saved a few quid off 4 grand on it compared with list (metallic paint) and got double for my trade in privately than the main dealers were offering (2 grand Audi A4). It's the same car with the same crap stereo and too big steering wheel and I'm over the moon with it.

I know it will be worth less when I sell it on but I'd asked around and was given the opinion from a few main dealers (Scooby and other) that Euro imports were worth approx 10-15% less than a UK supplied car. So selling in 3-5 years should mean I sell it for about 2k less than the UK car, give or take...

Alarm cost me £270 for the Toad one I wanted and I'm happier with it than the UK car's Sigma after reading many of the threads on here.

 

i was in the same boat as you m8.

i blew my last one up after 11 days and it cost me a fortune to get it right. so this time what do i buy? a uk car with warranty or a euro import with 3 year pan euro warranty or a jdm with a 12 month warranty (thats probably not worth the paper its printed on).

that right i played safe and bought the jdm one. it was a far better car and by the time i had finished modding a uk one the warranty would be u.s anyway.

so i am now a proud owner of a 04 jdm sti

 

Would you reccommend using Alliance? Have you taken your car to the main dealer to be serviced yet? If so, did you have any problems? Were they ok dealing with an import?

 

It's only done 800 miles so far so not been to a dealer with it yet. One of the things that helped my decision was the main dealer service department telling me (anonymous phone call) that they would happily service my euro import and carry out warranty work etc. etc. as if it was a UK car - I said I'd already bought it and just moved into the area - they wanted the service business as they make more money on this than selling the cars.

Alliance were great to deal with. Pay deposit on credit card, arrange insurance and send in cover note, they register it in your name and you jump on the train to Accrington, give them the balance and drive the car home. Service and handbook come out later from the dealer - mine should be another few weeks from what they said.

The only negative thing I can think of is that I could have had an MY05 instead of my MY04 if I'd waited a week or two and knew to ask for one from them - found scoobynet after placing my order....

 

One of the advantages of buying from Alliance for me is that they advertise in their security section a tracking system which is what I want fitting so hopefully they can do this and provide me with relevant documents for my insurance company before I pick the car up. This would make life easier with the insurance company.