PottyM

I am fairly new to the Scooby World and have recently bought a 2000 WRX Import. The previous two owners had what seemed to be an insurance/warranty booklet that required an 'approved' service at regular intervals. My questions are this; Is the purpose of this warranty to enable the car to be re-sold? and do I need to continue it? or can I have the car serviced elsewhere? Does it matter to the re-sale value of the car?? Aaaargh too many questions....

knuckledragger

Is it a Euro or Jap import? Is the warranty a third party one?

PottyM

It's a Jap Import and the previous warranties have been through Hughes and Ralliart.

knuckledragger

Right, I'll try my best:
The service record is just what it says it is. A record of regular and recommended services performed on the car. That is always a sensible way to treat a car! Also, it will help support the resale value when you come to part company.
As for the warranty, It is insurance plain and simple. If something goes wrong with your motor then you hope the warranty covers it and you don't have to fork out to put it right.
Warranties normally stipulate that you have to get the car serviced at recommended intervals (the proof being the service record) to keep the warranty valid. As you have a Jap import then most Official Subaru (IM) dealers won't touch it. No problem there! Their loss (as has been discussed on other threads). You have dozens of other reputable (and equally valid) service locations. To find one, post your location on this site.
So, keep the warranty going as there are few cheap fixes for broken imprezas and the stamps in the service record look pretty!
good luck...

OllieC

On a similiar theme to this - I'm pretty new to the joy of Scooby and am considering buying a WRX from Trade-Sales over at Maidenhead. Theirs are from Cyprus - they claim they are parallel imports but I've heard a few horror stories and am worried it may be classed as Grey. Other than the warranty being for just a year, are there any other problems I should be aware of?
Is it worth the extra few thousand to go to a main dealer?

Apple

Ollie - without wanting to alarm you STEER WELL CLEAR OF CYPRUS SUPPLIED CARS (IMHO) If Cyprus isn't in the EU (can't remember but don't think so as per the current news reports), you probably won't get any warranty and the spec might be slighly different to UK - might be just cosmetic bits but different anyway.

If it's not in the EU, you can't get a Certificate of Conformity (CoC) and hence you can't prove it's a parallel import to UK spec - it would then be classed as a grey import and need whatever tests (SVA?) to ensure it complied with UK laws etc.

If it's grey import, I.M. (International Motors, AKA Subaru UK) won't recognise it and class you lower than a snake's belly (IMO). You won't be able to get it serviced / warranty work done at franchised UK dealers.

Grey imports can include some tasty machinery from Japan etc but generally people do this to get non-UK spec vehicles (older spec WRX / WRX STis etc). There's nothing wrong with this route as long as you're making informed choices - doubtful that it'd be worth importing a std my01+ WRX from Japan...

If it's a standard "modern" WRX you're after and can wait a bit, import from Belgium / Holland and save a packet (depending upon exchange rate etc) - I got mine through Keyring Cars - good service and deal at the time

If you have to use a car supermarket, either get everything in writing about it being a parallel import, eg. the CoC, supplying dealer invoices to trace the contry of origin (might be an idea to know where the chassis no.s are to cross reference with the paperwork, just in case), check on the warranty (AFAIK all cars after Oct 2002 have 3 yr manufacture warranty - any less than this for an MY03 and it might trigger alarm bells). At least if everything's in writing, you might have a comeback later on if needed...

Apple

PS flame suit at the ready for the grey import owners...