JAMES BUSHELL

Hi..

Anyone on here live in South Africa..?

Only i've heard that you can get a Brand new M3 for about £27000 over there...? Now at that price you could sell it in 2 years and still make a few quid...!

anyone got any more info...

Thanks..

James

MarkO

By the time you've added on the cost of import, the duty, the VAT and all the other crap, you'd probably find it wasn't much cheaper than buying in the UK. Oh, and not to mention the fact that it's residual value would be massively depreciated 'cos people don't like buying imports for some daft reason.

TomM

Ha - I was talking about this on Monday to a SOuth African contractor where I work, the car can be bought in SA for £25450, we sat down and worked out that the total cost of the car onece tax and importing is sorted would be about £34k, thats £5k cheaper than the uk.

But......heres the problem, BMW will not honour the warranty on an SA car, European yes but not SA cars, if it were that easy to do then more people would do it. A car like that from new without a warranty......err...no thanks!!

106rallye

Always thought that the SA Land Rover Defender with the BM 2.8 engine would be a good import - went in one once and for a 4X4 it was fast much faster than my mates V8!

There are also Mk1 golf's that you can still get brand new (could a couple of years ago anyway!) CityGolf or somthing like that!

Bit off topic but never mind.

Cheers

Andy

WRX Baker

EK IS LIEF VIR JOU !!!!

Jacey Boy

Parents have a place in Cape Town, yes you can get an M3 cheap as they are made there, but dont forget they dont have catalitic converters as they have NO Unleaded fuel, they all run on 4*

CrisPDuk

I can remember in the specialist auctions during the eighties some very tasty E30 BM's coming through 330s with light weight ally panels & glass for instance because BMW SA during the eighties were an entirely separate entity due to the trading restrictions.

JAMES BUSHELL

Thanks.. some interesting info...

J

swan

'ello all,

Due to the strength of the Rand versus the GBP, You need roughly R16.30 to get BGP1 ie. GBP0.06 to buy R1. To put this in perspective a Big Bac with chips & a cold drink will cost you just under R20. What this means is that SA is really cheap if you earn pounds. If you earn rands then obviously things aren't that cheap... eg. a web developer will earn anything from R70000 pa to say R400000 pa for top of the range skills.

A new M3 will cost you around R450000 ie. GBP27607. Citi Golf (Golf 1) is indeed still available, prices range from R63000 for a 1.4l to R92000 for a 1.6i. Full range can be seen on http://www.vw.co.za.

WRX Baker - care to tell us exactly who you're in love with?

Jacey Boy - unleaded is available pretty much country wide and many of our cars do have cats, in Cape Town you get get upto 97 octane. Inland we're limited to 93 octane. Plenty demand from Scooby owners for octane boosters, not that many Scooby owners though. SA club is at http://www.subaruclub.co.za

Jacey Boy

Swan,

When I went over they told me there was no Unleaded, and I even enquired about brining an M3 to england and they told me they didnt have Cats, so you would need a complete zorst system + a new ECU to compensate for a Cat!!

JAMES BUSHELL

.. keep the info coming..

swan

Jacey Boy, must have been over a good couple of years ago. I think we've had ul for at least 6 years.

swan

Two local car sites : http://www.wheels24.co.za http://www.cartoday.com

springbok

Swan, cheers for posting the websites. I was born in Cape Town as parents moved out from England in the late 60's, we came back to England early 80's. Still have 2 sisters in CT and a brother in Namibia, who is desperate to get back to CT. One of my neices is over in London at the moment doing the touring Europe thing as most young South Africans seem to do. Are there many scoobs in CT?

Fat Boy

Swan,

Howzit bro

It's pantomime time. Oh no you haven't - give Caltex, Engen or BP etc a call. UL 2 years max ,and it's not great quality either (no SUL) despite the 2 different octanes for the high veldt/coast. Still why not depress everyone over here in Pom land and tell us what the lastest price is for a litre of gas?

BMW SA, in line with Merc and VW, intend building all their rhd market cars there eventually , but I'm pretty sure the M3's alone out of the 3 series in this country come from europe.

BMW was always part of the BMW group, the ownership was just fudged through Taiwan etc during the dark years. They did have and have a specialised car division where you can get all the interesting bits and colours etc. I've spent several happy hours in BMW SA's HQ in the MidRand and had the pleasure of being invited to spank their cars around Kyalami and the handling course, so have seen it up close.

All SN boys who haven't been there forget Florida and all that kak for your winter sun - head to the Cape and discover some of the most glorious driving roads you will ever come across,plus amazing food and a complete inability to spend your money as everything is so cheap.

FB

swan

Springbok - there are a few, only 6 or so belong to the Subaruclub though and as I don't live there I can't really comment.
Fat Boy - definitely more than 2 years, at one point (I remember the car I had 5 or 6 years ago) they were offering ul for less than leaded to encourage ul use. Yup, as I pointed out, only 93 or 95/97 on the coast. Fuel is now around R4.30 a litre (just went up so I'm not 100% sure.

CrisPDuk

Hmmm, the MkI Golf thing is interesting!

CrisPDuk

Just had a look at the VW site, is the Citi Golf only available as a 5 door?

swan

CrisPDuk - only version that was ever supplied locally (AFAIK).

106rallye

Cape Town and the Garden route (can't unfortunately speak for the rest as I have not been there) is IMHO a really good alternative to a trip to the US as Fat Boy says it is really cheap, the people are great and so is the food and drink!

It all starts before you even land with one of the most amazing views as you circle Table Mountain to land (providing its during the day )

I can't wait to be able to afford to go back!

Oh and I still want one of those 2.8 Defenders!!!

Cheers

Andy