Just wondering if anyone else had been invited to test drive a P1 at Donington on Monday.

I recently enquired about the P1 a local dealer has in the showroom but didn't buy becuase it wasn't registered and so I couldn't have a decent length test drive.

Then last week I got an invite to Donington to drive a P1 round the track - apparently Subaru are keen to clear out the remaining ones.

I'll be there for the morning session - just wondering if anyone else from here was going along so I can say Hi.

 

Hmmm, thinks....
Would it be worth going just to thrash a P1 around Dono.?

 

Saw the details at Listers yesterday.

The barstewards won't invite me..... Just because I've already got one!!!!

I even offered to arrive in the wife's Yaris.

 

May be going. A chap up here who I know well will be doing some of the demo driving and believe me, he is very capable!

Cheers,

JM

 

can i come????

I am on holiday on monday and havent driven round dono for way too long now!!!!

I'll give them an unbiased honest report if they want one, honest!!!

 

Is it a case of arrive and drive or is it invite only?
Looking for a new toy! Could be convinced!

 

And me.... and me

Can I come play please... Pretty please.

Richard

 

"I am on holiday on monday and havent driven round dono for way too long now!!!!"

Short term memory loss?
Me too!
Informations arrived too late, meetings on Monday;(
If Listers take P111 again it will already know the fastest line

 

I was looking at getting one ( still am) was getting prices down to circa £27k for a new car from most dealers ( except those in the south east who seem to have lots of rich customers who will pay list.)

Certainly a great car, but is it worth that much more than a standard turbo??? - especially when ppp is only £2k and a lot less conspicuous.



[This message has been edited by EdwardH (edited 18 November 2000).]

 

hello all,
I have just spoken to my dealer about the Donnington trip, and he has explained that it, I would be taken to Donnington as their guest, to try out the P1.

It costs each dealer £150 per person, to partake in the proceedings, and obviously they will only consider taking you down, if you are serious about buying a car afterwards.

He would expect me to close the deal on our return.

He asked if I wanted to buy a P1, or was simply interested in driving one.
I explained that in all honesty, I was only really interested in driving one,as I couldn't justify spending upwards of + £12K and my car to change.

Cheers MTR

 

....and for the first time in months there is not a P1 in the window at my local dealer - I know that they have sold seven with much greater interest once the new model was seen.

Good on them - they are obviously getting cleared out now - although there was a pregistered car in Autocar this week for below £30k (29 from memory).

I'll be at Dono on Friday with my Japanese P1

R

 

Hey I bought a MYOO 1.6 Impreza in July and Prodrive didnt even bother to invite me over to test drive the P1????????????

 

Guess no-one else is going then

MTR is right - the dealer has to pay for me to go and we will be taking their P1 to Donno so will have plenty of time to discuss any possible deal on the way home!!

I was honest with them when looking at it originally: If I get a decent drive (and few can deny blasting round a circuit is that) and I _love_ the car and _must_ have it then I'll buy it - I'm just not sure its nearly 10 grand better than my PPP RB5!!

10 hours time and we'll see.... Full report tomorrow

PS Its because of this that some of my (more sensible) mates tried to persuade me NOT to drive it due to the severe genital damage my wife is likely to inflict should any purchase go ahead - the RB5 was exactly the same type of 'must have it' buy. Of course, some of my (more callous) mates have been goading me to buy it as they want the chance of a cheap RB5!!!

 

Well, I had a great day. I drove virtually all the way there and all the way back in the dealer's P1 which was really useful to compare to the RB5 which I drive up the Fosse Way quie a bit. P1 definitely quicker but not massively so.. (It does have a rear wash/wipe though!!)

I lost count of how many dealer 'demo' cars were there, but including the cars they had on track I think there must have been at least 15 P1s.

First off got taken round for some 'hot' laps by someone who knew what they were doing, despite the P1 we were in having a problem it was still bloody fast.

Many thanks to Mike Wood for the demo of how to induce lift off oversteer, catch it and then induce it the other way before blasting off again, all without warning, while doing significant speed through Park Chicane (After the questions on here recently, I stupidly asked about it while we were on track...) Not sure who won the 'who can powerslide around Redgate for longest' but the attempts were pretty impressive!!

Unfortunately the Group N Impreza broke after the second outing so I didn't get a ride in that

After recovering from the passenger ride, I then did a 25 minute road drive with an Advanced Instructor in another P1 which convinced me I really will benefit from doing some advanced training. Again, I didn't notice a massive difference over the RB5 though the power delivery seemed smoother and went on for longer in gear, plus turn in on the corners was a bit better.

Then the main event: 5 laps of Donno in the P1 - absolutely awesome. I've not yet got round to taking the RB5 on track but that's now a priority (I'd love to take it to Donno to compare)

The P1 was agile, controllable and very, very fast What's more I was totally comfortable with by the second lap, not worrying about whether the car could cope with what I was throwing at it through the bends and I was even grabbing the curbs/rumble strips on the apex/exits.

The track drive has really made me consider the P1, though as I got stopped again yesterday, my wife isn't too keen to agree the financial outlay

Congratulations to Subaru/Prodrive for a very professional, well oragnised day (including dry weather!). I know from chatting to others there that it clinched a few definite sales and made a few more of us seriously consider it!

 

Congratulations to Subaru UK and Prodrive for what appeared to be an excellent day at Donnington. I hope that all the PROSPECTIVE purchasers enjoyed their drive as much as I continue to enjoy mine.

Also well done to all the dealers that attended - who, as has already been mentioned had to lay out £150.00 per guest (refundable, of course, when they sold the car to the guest!! ) and also for taking their own cars.

Now please don't call me bitter or twisted, but I do feel that for those of us that commited to buying the car (effectively unseen and certainly not having test driven one) back in Oct/Nov 1999 (!!), it would have been nice for Subaru to pull their little finger out (customer services and all that ) and provide a little corporate hospitality for us ?????

For me, I ordered "my" car 29th OCtober 1999 - and I then managed to see one in the flesh at the Scottish Motor Show - other than that it was a question of waiting, and waiting to see, sit in and drive the car...

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for what they have done on Monday...there are unsold cars that they NEED to sell sharpish, presumably before the year end and the new model etc etc etc.

I just feel a little P*$$ed off that, well, you know...you order the, allegedly, Flag Ship model, well in advance of delivery (initially March 2000??), effectively unseen, certainly not having test driven, and having agreed the list price (no discount here!), then wait until May (well that was mine...some, not mentioning any names, waited considerably longer!!) for delivery.

We had numerous excuses..."the delay is the result of difficulties experienced by Prodrive with tooling and other technical problems at the manufacturers of one of the special components", paint problems, spoiler problems etc etc....and what do we get offered.....diddly squat.

OK, so my dealer (and hats off to them - I can't fault them (R.N.Golden)), did give me a lovely new Rally Jacket (! !) for my troubles - but at the end of the day, what they offered was pretty well forced/heavily suggested by myself...and with the greatest of respect to the Prodrive guys and Subaru it still isn't the sort of Customer Service that you expect when buying "a supercar with class-blitzing 0-60 in 4.6 seconds and a top speed of 155mph" that "has been developed by the dream team collaboration of Subaru UK, Prodrive, Subaru Japan and Subaru Tecnica International"!!! (their words...not mine).

OK - I'll get off my high horse and go and get my coat ...as always I have rambled on for too long...

If you're listening Subaru Guys...I hope you get the message - there are STILL disgruntled P1 owners that STILL feel let down by long delays etc etc...the Donnington Day basically doesn't help matters - I understand the reasons for it - its just that, if this had been done in March (??), and if there had been a little more customer service/PR/marketing (to act in Subarus favour) then maybe all the cars REALLY would have been sold by now!!

Nough said...*putting on coat*

Tom

 

So how does one qualify to get on such an event ? I've been a customer of Subaru for more than 2 years, and was considering changing my MY98 within the next 6 months, so I think that makes me a prospective customer, but I never even got a sniff. Is this down to the dealers or Subaru UK ?

Customer Service, my ar$e! When are Subaru going to wake up to the fact that there are a lot of prospective customers out there (and in here!) that they are totally missing ?

As they say on Goodness Gracious Me - "Kiss my chuddies man - innit !"

 

Rum, I fully understand your point! Judging by the number of cars there that were 'cancelled orders' some people gave up waiting. Either that or some dealers 'created' orders, thinking they'd flog the car easily and have been caught out...

Tony, this wasn't a customer jolly of any sort - it was a sales pitch at shifting the last of the P1s so 'maybe changing in 6 months' doesn't fit the criteria for the event.

It cost the _dealer_ for each person they brought along (though they do get the money back from Subaru if it results in a sale), so you really had to be in the 'got the cash now and _may_ want a P1' bracket to be invited, though I did meet a couple of people who had already decided to place the order, but their dealer took them along anyway.

As I understand it, the event nearly didn't happen due to Subaru initially insisting the dealers also cough up for insurance cover while on track. They only relented two weeks ago and then had to get it in quickly before half of Subaru Sales went off for a jolly in Rio today!

(Still trying to pursuade my wife I _need_ one...)

 

Kryten,

If the insurance is "one" of the issues with the other half....give me a ring and I'll try and sort a decent quote for you

I, unlike Subaru, am prepared to provide ALL my customers, with, what I would class as, EXCELLENT Customer Service from the initial quote throught to policy issue, mid term changes, claims handling, in many cases replacement vehicle sourcing (certain customers on the BBS will vouch for this). I value ALL my customers and as a result continue to receive numerous referrals due to the level of service and personal touch that they get...

I'm still not bitter or twisted ...well, not much !! *LOL*...

Rum
0113 250 0377
tom@schofieldinsurance.co.uk

P.S. It will be interesting to see whether any of the concerned parties pick up on whats been said and comment accordingly

 

I’m with Rum* on this one.

As he rightly says, the very least Subaru could have done is to have provided a bit of corporate hospitality
for us already owners of P1’s

Considering the fact that no form of compensation was offered to us owners that were kept in the dark.
(The mushroom effect springs to mind here)

I to ordered my P1 around November 99 and in January 00 was given a delivery date of mid to end of April 00.
Well April came and went with next to no communication from Subaru, until 2 weeks before the car was finally delivered Mid July 00 – 3 Months Late!

But I still had to pay full asking price, I still feel to this day that Subaru should have at least offered to furnish the car with either a set of Gas Discharge Driving lights or the Prodrive brake upgrade for late delivery / poor customer service would have gone a long way to help to restore a bit of faith.

I also feel sorry for the dealers as well as they were the ones on the front line getting all the hassle from the
customers and not having the answers they wanted to hear.

Lets hope Subaru have learnt a lesson from this.

That’s my 2 pence worth.

Rob
Happy with his P1, but no so happy with Subaru.

 

From what I remember after you quoted for me changing from the RB5 PPP to a Skyline, it wouldn't cost any more for a P1 either.

I'm sure I'll be in touch soon for track day cover as even if I don't get a P1 I'll just _have_ to take the RB5 on track after having so much fun in the P1.

As for changing to a P1: insurance isn't the issue - its the 10 grand or so extra for the car.... To be honest, having driven a couple of hundred miles in the P1 I don't think I can justify it for the difference on the road but I have to admit I'm still considering it because of such a wonderful performance on the track

As for the service - top notch and I did give your name to a couple of people at the track who had some very high quotes...

 

Rum.

Do you do insurance for cars other than Subarus????

If so would it be possible to phone you one day this week for a chat??

Thanks

 

longun,

Give me a call on 0113 250 0377

Cheers

Tom

 

Erm,

Can I just seek some glory for a second and tell you that it was me who organised the driving side of the day for SUK?

I tried to make it as good as I could, so thank you for saying you enjoyed it!

Now, if you are SO upset with Subaru, why are you ranting on here on the BBS when the REALLY important people at SUK don't even read it? Much better to do something a bit more consrtuctive if you really feel hard done to.

I am not about to suggest any way around this problem either so that no-one can accuse me of stirring things and creating problems for anyone.

You are all (hopefully) brainy people, sort it out for yourselves...

Rob.

 

RobMac,

Don't get me wrong I was not targeting you or anyone directly involved in the day.

I'm sure, as has been said, it was a great day, and extremely well organised. I wouldn't expect anything else *S*

What I posted this morning was what I felt, and it has all been said and written to Subaru in the past..

It was my little rant about something that I just feel they could have handled better...for example I was told on Thursday that this was happening...by my Dealer...it sort of just rubbed me up the wrong way.