Has anyone out there got any experience (good or bad) of the various car importers and supermarkets you see advertised in the motoring press (and on this site) ? The deals often look very good but are they and does the service live up to expectations ?
Anyone got any recommendations or vice versa ?
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Anyway, for my impartial advice here it is. The pound is trading quite weak against the Euro, about 1.55 is as good as you\'ll get from any currency trader. This means savings on imports are down to around £2000 - £2500 for an average car from Holland or Belgium.
You can better this, upto around £4000 - £4500 if you go for a highly spec\'d,say, BMW 3 series diesel or coupe. You can forget virtually any saving on Mercs because they make importing difficult at the best of times.
If you want to import, do your home work and select a \'quality\' car and have plenty of extras on it such as body kit, sports suspension, sports seats, cd autochanger etc to increase your savings but note, leather doesn\'t come cheaper on an import. Then, wait for the pound euro exchange rate to rise to 1.60 or better and secure a forward contract for 3 to 4 months ahead ie usual import lead time to delivery.
Car supermarkets are very dodgy imho. Generally they import \'euro\' spec cars that do not match UK spec. Cars are often brought in from Ireland where they often do not have air con or alloys etc.
You also have to buy what they have there and then as it may be sold if yougo away to think about it. You cannot look for a car that matches your exact requirements because there wont be one ie you\'ll have to compromise.
The person selling the car will generally only be interested in that ie selling the car. Don\'t expect much model knowledge Things such as spare keys may be missing and service books, manuals etc may not be in English.
More often than not, the cars are pre registered which means you are the second owner. That may not bother you but when you come to sell, the next buyer will be the third and that MAY put them off. Also, if pre registered, the warranty clock will have already started \'ticking.\'
I\'ve heard one or two stories of people buying from supermarkets but when picking up the car have found it damaged. When querying this, the supermarket staff have said tough.
In short you pays your money and makes your choice. Hope this info helps.
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Thanks for the feedback guys ! Watcher, I sympathise with you - it does seem silly to stop you mentioning your own business on this site when you could easily get friends to do it for you. I seem to remember reading a post from somebody on the 'warranties' thread who mentioned the name of their company and how good their service was. Why wasn't that disallowed ?
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This thread has been edited to remove a pointless and increasingly immature discussion between The Watcher and myself.
However, to state the relevant points...
Specific business offers, including touting, advertising, offers, or anything which may be considered as obtaining a business advantage for yourself or your business is not permitted in the Backroom without Martyn or HJ's specific permission.
This is their business, their revenue stream (such as it is) and therefore solely their domain. Normal and reasonable business practices would suggest that any advantage should not be one way.
There is clearly a line between the casual mentioning of one's own business or company and the specific making of offers. That line is interpreted by me as best as I can.
If you wish to put more in, and you may well be welcome, you first need to agree boundaries and terms with Martyn and/or HJ.
There are no exceptions.
Mark (RLBS)
Moderator at Work
mailto:mark_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk
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www.excaliber-imports.co.uk/
Personal friendly service, excellent savings,trustworthy and a pleasure to do business with.
I would definitely buy another car off Geoff Futcher [the owner].
So if it's a Volvo or a Chrysler you want, he's your man.
john
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B3gon
When you buy from Excalibur does the documentation show it as an "import" - doesn't this effect the second hand value?
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dogbreath,
If by documentation you mean the vehicle logbook the answer is no - there is no difference between an import and a UK sourced car.
The service book is in Dutch so I suppose that could be a clue - although the manual is in English, however as the car was made in Toluca, Mexico and the tyres were made in Germany, shipped to Mexico and then shipped back with the car that makes it fairly international.
I don't know if the car being an import will affect the resale price - I've had it for a year and expect to keep it for the next three, so I guess I will find out then.
I saved nearly 4 grand on the UK price and I got a far better spec than was being offered in the UK, so I can't complain - plus it has been an excellent car.
Servicing - the car is treated no differently from the cars the main dealer sells.
I know it takes a leap of faith to go for an import but when you talk to people by email and on the phone you can form an impression of their forthrightness/honesty to some extent, plus surfing the net and taking other peoples advice on board can help a lot - there is plenty of help out there if you look for it.
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A few misconceptions here.
A car bought new and imported from the EU to the UK will be declared new at first registration provided it has
an EU certificate of conformity
has not done more than 3000 miles
is registered within 14 days of importation to the UK (This can be extended to the month before the reg plate change months).
Any car registered in accordance withthese conditions will have 'new at first registration' on the V5 document.
As for selling on the car you need to bear some facts in mind. Consistent independent research (car price check etc) shows private buyers do not care where the car came from so long as it matches UK spec.
Indeed Glass' Guide states if an EU import matches the UK spec, its value at trade in should be the same as a UK sourced car. It is the franchised dealer network who are ignoring this.
If your import does NOT match UK spec, then you can expect a lower trade invalue.
As for the discount place mentioned, I think they were just pulling a fast one since independent outlets generally give a better trade in price than the franchise for the model being traded.
Many UK franchised dealers are now selling imported stock of another manufacturer on their forecourts. One Ford dealer is actually selling 30 imports compared to 1 UK car through this very method.
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You need to be a little bit carefull. I tried a car discount company when I wanted to change my Volvo. Unfortunately they offered about £6000 less for my trade in than the Volvo dealer was offering, so although the discount price was about £2k cheaper than the Volvo dealer, taking into account the trade in made the overall deal cheaper through the Volvo dealer. If you see what I mean.
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What is the warranty position on these personal imports and supermarket specials ?
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Robbo
it varies but more due to manufacturers than importers or supermarkets.
On 2nd hand you usually get the balance of manufacturers warranty assuming conditions to keep it valid have been met, for example 1yr old car with 2yr ticket = 1yr left and then you can usually extend if manufacturer or manufacturers agent plays ball.
With imports some start the clock ticking when they are PDId abroad so if say 1yr warranty and PDI 2 months ago then 10 months left, (VW do this) though other may not.
If I recall correctly otherwise most new imports have at least 2yrs pan europe warranty (though I am sure watcher will correct me if I am wrong.)just check how long clock has been ticking since PDI.
as ever
Mark
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Mark,
I get the impression that "they" are making it difficult to compare eggs with eggs with regard to the UK market. It seems to me that if you buy a brand new car here, "they" will trumpet a 3-year warranty, but if you look closely, only the first year is a true manufacturers warranty, the remaining 2 years are dealer warranty. Are imported cars warranted the same way, and if so is a UK main dealer going to honour a dealer warranty for a car purchased from outside of the UK ?
Robbo
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Robbo, happy to set youstraight re imports and warranties.
Some cars imported from Europe ie Nissan, Toyota Honda and Subarus, come with the same 3 year pan European warranty as youget off a UK dealer.
Some manufacturers give their a 2 year pan Euro warranty ie Merc and BMW etc while some still only give a 1 year warranty.
In all these cases, you can increase the warranty on an import to match the UK warranty with few exceptions ie Saab wont let you buy an extended warranty off them neither will Mercedes. However, you can still buy excellent after market warranties from such as Care Care warranties who actually back the second and third year warranty provided by your UK dealer.
I have NEVER yet come across a UK dealer who wont carry out warranty repairs. In fact THAT is illegal. If your car has a warranty and needs repairs, the dealer MUST undertake them free of charge in accordance with EU law and the manufacturer's instructions.
I have heard that some Nissan dealers are charging around £50 to register a Nissan import on their warranty database. I think this is illegal since the car is covered by a Europe wide warranty and would get the £50 back via the small claim court.
My 'Opel' Zafira has twice had minor warranty work carried out FOC by the local Vauxhall dealer without hassle. I expect the same service when I collect my imported BMW this Saturday.
Hope this helps.
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>>when I collect my imported BMW this Saturday.
Just out of interest, how did you get insurance for the continental leg of the journey home? I thought UK insurance cos. were not allowed to insure a non-UK registered car abroad due to some obscure EC law.
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There's two answers to your question.
First, Im no longer going to Germany to collect the car myself as DFDS have now decided they will only accept the car as "cargo" because it has no transit plates and, the dealer was going to deliver it on a truck to me at the dockside. Taking some 'old' registration plates over there wasn't an option as DFDS wanted a registration on the vehicle before it arrived at their terminal.
I could have had transit plates fitted but this would have negated any potential saving in going over myself and bringing it back.
Secondly, when you buy the transit plates, you can also buy insurance with them although this is generally only 3rd party. You can buy fully comp on transit plates for the country you are importing from but this is quite expensive for the time used.
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Time was that Norwich Union would insure a car on its VIN No rather than a reg plate. I used this a lot a few years ago; it was so useful some jobsworth has probably stopped them doing it!
If you think motoring is expensive don't try divorce!
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Actually, you can still register the car on the VIN then drive home from the UK port with no registration plates and it is totally legal. I'll be doing that on Saturday (but will resist the temptation to exceed the speed limit where there are scameras!)
Two EU directives dating from around 1996 and 1998 were found which stops an insurer in, say the UK, insuring a vehicle registered in another EU country, albeit temporarily.
A UK insurer could get around this by opening an insurance office in Holland, germany or France etc but none have done so probably because it isnt worth it.
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Watcher, I guess that is what NU did; they had agencies all over Germany to offer insurance services to the military which is where I picked up on this one. They certainly would insure on a VIN but maybe they don't anymore.
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NU are or were prepared to extend existing customer's cover to include European coverage for 90 days on either the VIN or transit plates.
Or they were last year when I brought my wife's Zafira back from Holland!
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Thanks for the info, Watcher. In reply to other comments, all cos. will insure on the VIN(you can't register the car without this) but usually for use in the UK only. NU seems to be the exception. My Dutch dealer helpfully sent me all the docs even though I hadn't paid for the car (I paid by draft on collection) and so I was able to register the car before I went to collect it. Took No. plates, tax disc, insurance certificate with me.
However, I wouldn't recommend this method as, with hindsight, I may have been totally uninsured in Europe as the ins co. was not aware of what I was doing. Fortunately, I didn't have to put it to the test. From memory, this insurance issue arose about 2 years ago when the industry came across the EU law, which had been in force for years. It's a big problem for people who want to make maximum savings by dealing directly with foreign dealers (as opposed to using the likes of Virgin, Jam Jar, Oneswoop etc who deliver the car but halve the savings, if you're lucky)
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If you check www.carimportguide.com, or buy a copy of their magazine, they should have the name of possibly the only insurance company who offer the type of temporary insurance you need for driving your import home. Can't remember the name of the company right now though! I got my import delivered by transporter to the front door, as I couldn't take the time off work. I live in N. Ireland, so driving home would've been more hassle for me. The car was covered by the dealer's insurance while in Holland and the transport company's insurance once underway. In hindsight the latter may not have been adequate and I might have regretted it!
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The company is A Plan and they are VERY expensive. One of their conditions is that you cannot cancel the policy for 6 months which means you cannot just use them for the import period.
By expensive I mean double the usual quote.
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