think it's been said before, but quentin's comment of "I'm going to pretend to be a dodgy car dealer" has to rate as understatement of the year, only thing in the whole programme that made me laugh. Seem to recall he got done for being a bit dodgy a while back

About 3-5 years ago at the NEC motorshow Top Gear had a stand and a question and answer session.

A friend of mine asked Q if it was true he got done for clocking cars! http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif

Jeremy & Tiff thought it was great! http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif

InsBro

Anyone ever been daft enough to buy a stolen car?????????????

I have and it wasn't pleasant, fortunately I managed to get my cheque stopped, so I got the cash and the car went to the pound.

What I'm driving at is this is not strictly an import problem. With the number of Scoobs being stolen at present, I should imagine the risk of buying a second hand Uk ringer is at least as high.

So, learn from my mistake, and make sure you take every possible precaution before you buy your car weather it's UK or Import.

Dave

p.s. will we ever get a thread that doesn't have this endless tittle tattle, its worse than my 7 and 8 year old kids. The Subaru is a great car PERIOD.

Didn't people mainly buy Japanese scoobs because they wanted a WRX/STi?

The "gloating" importers who are claiming to have saved 6 grand are those buying brand new UK cars and having them routed through Holland and Belgium to take advantage of the different ex-tax pricing strategy. I bought an EU import by the way, so I count myself (a) in this group and (b) as a genuine member of a wonderfully mixed community.

Haven't seen too many posts from people saying, "na na, bought a brand new STi VI and it only cost me 6 grand more than a UK scoob." because they are different cars altoghether.

Personally I would be concerned if I'd bought a second hand Jap import either privately or through a dealer. If it was bought privately I'm not sure I'd want to take it to Subaru to pay for the priviledge of them possibly taking it off me. If the police did stop me, several months down the road, and the car was listed as stolen, I could have had a few more months driving in ignorance and then the police would save me the 25 quid too.

Gary, as a moderator i cant believe you posted and standy by some of your comments above.

How can you compare people saying :-
my uk cars got 3 years warranty etc,
my eu import was 5k cheaper etc,
my jap is quicker etc,

to -
please can we have the keys to your car sir as its on the stolen register and we'd like to take it away to auction to recompense the Japanese insurance co.

I'm sorry but that is way beyond being 'just deserts' to paraphrase your comments.
as for 'Don't now starting whigning as you are getting your own medicine It is cruel to mock someones misfortune - but do as you would be done to' you can poke that where the sun doesnt shine m8.

Having seen several versions of i'm alright jack being shown on this bbs, if i thought i could get away with it and found the car may be dodgy i will quite happily write it off and laugh gleefully as your insurance premiums rocket.

Perahps any that do get caught on the registery can get out of it by doing exactly that, then laughing when you have to sell your car as the insurance is too high due to payouts on a sudden spree of crashing jap imports in a huge destruction derby http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif

Has anyone wondered what will happen if this problem is as big as reported and people start doing the above similar to the late 80's when lots of XR3I's and the like were being supposedly 'stolen' and appearing burnt out all over the countryside?

**The above is not meant to be taken seriously, but for a 'community' of subaru owners with a vested interest, there seems a growing interest in revelling in others possible misfortunes which is really p***ing me off**

[This message has been edited by ptholt (edited 26 July 2001).]

PTHolt, let it slide for a while... no reason to be disappointed in the Scoobynet community.

I don't exactly want to start a number thread about how many UK car owners really sympathise, but I'm sure it would be a very large thread.

Cynical as I am, the first car that really gets repossesed might be a UK car that was stolen somewhere ...

I personally have never understood the "P1 versus STi versus UK versus whatever" sentiments to crop up from time to time.

Never mind the way the program was made, it was bad news, and I really don't think that anyone with one ounce of common sense would actually gloat (in the real world) about the worry this has caused.

The debate about "yes but I had 3 years warrenty ner nerner" is the *last* think people need on here.

Let's try to stick to giving the best advice possible to worried owners.

Or I'm gonna be really mad.

Theo ["UK Car" owner]

HI

I can see where you are coming from and I DO NOT want to upset anybody but if you can buy a 2001 model on the road with no wait for £17 - 18000 compaired to the dealer price of £21000 with a six month wait then yes I do think the import market is causing a problem. I havent looked in an auto trader for a few months admitidly but weather it be a UK or a Import the second hand price of a car is about the same. If there was no imports then people would have to wait in line which would keep the demand greater than what can be supplied thus keeping the resale value high. You dont see german cars loosing £3 - 4000 in the first 18 months this is because they will not allow the market to get flooded with imports.

Once again I do not want to upset anyone and I am not wanting to cause aggression.

Mark.

A bit in an evil mood today, so I'll reply...

It's got nothing to do with WRX's or import or sales value... most people wanted a real friggin WRX or STi (or STi WRX even http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif ), that's why most probably bought the car they own.

Last night's program suddenly made it all look pear shaped, and we could have the friggin decency to feel for them instead of gloating.

Maybe I'm way to involved in this BBS, and loosing perspective. How many threads do you guys read ? Would you still gloat if Michelle's car - after all the misfortune she had, and the joy when it all was solved - would turn out to be "dodgy" ? Would you really ??? (just using her as an example, there are so many more).

Wait, lemme see... would you really want to see Webbie's car impounded because it turned out dodgy ? (insert thousand other names of real people on this bbs)

I'm starting to get really mad, so I'll shut up.

Stop the BS about "resale values" and start being a f*cking human.

Theo

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by ptholt:
<B>Gary, as a moderator i cant believe you posted and standy by some of your comments above.

How can you compare people saying :-
my uk cars got 3 years warranty etc,
my eu import was 5k cheaper etc,
my jap is quicker etc,

to -
please can we have the keys to your car sir as its on the stolen register and we'd like to take it away to auction to recompense the Japanese insurance co.

I'm sorry but that is way beyond being 'just deserts' to paraphrase your comments.
as for 'Don't now starting whigning as you are getting your own medicine It is cruel to mock someones misfortune - but do as you would be done to' you can poke that where the sun doesnt shine m8.

Having seen several versions of i'm alright jack being shown on this bbs, if i thought i could get away with it and found the car may be dodgy i will quite happily write it off and laugh gleefully as your insurance premiums rocket.

Perahps any that do get caught on the registery can get out of it by doing exactly that, then laughing when you have to sell your car as the insurance is too high due to payouts on a sudden spree of crashing jap imports in a huge destruction derby http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/smile.gif

Has anyone wondered what will happen if this problem is as big as reported and people start doing the above similar to the late 80's when lots of XR3I's and the like were being supposedly 'stolen' and appearing burnt out all over the countryside?

**The above is not meant to be taken seriously, but for a 'community' of subaru owners with a vested interest, there seems a growing interest in revelling in others possible misfortunes which is really p***ing me off**

[This message has been edited by ptholt (edited 26 July 2001).][/quote]


Peter you misunderstand me. The 'Medicine' and 'Do unto others' comments are about the the return of gloating - not the issue of losing car/money - no-one deserves that http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/frown.gif

I was referring to the attitude of 'import' drivers being upset by getting gloating back at them having been dishing it out for years. Their 'just deserts' are the comments they are getting, nothing else, and certainly not the worrying issue of losing their car etc!

Merely - people in glass houses..... http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif


Oh and being a moderator doesn't mean I don't have an opinion http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif

Sorry Gary, i'll sit down and take a chill pill for a while, was getting a tad wound up there.

Shouldn't it be us v them not us v us
i.e. we're all scoob owners
i.e. we're all scoobynetters
i.e. we're all car nuts
?

I want to know where these stockpiles of cars are??? I tried to find out as I know a couple of manufactures that would love to trash a Skyline etc around their test track if they could get one http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif ( W9 GTR http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif ) I rang Southampton Police last week and spoke to the guy in charge he said that all of the cars had already been sold through auction and they were NOT actively removing cars from people????.
The program seemed a little late as the UK customs have tight up some time ago (as it should have).
Whilst I thought it is about time the public were aware of this problem I find it had to listen to a guy that was way OTT and who is hardly whiter than white.

+ Surely this is a chance for Subaru to win back many of the 'Grey' customers that they have alienated, but no they are charging them for this service http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/frown.gif I have gone to our local dealer with my friend's STI 5 which I know its FULL history http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif should be interesting to see how they treat us, they already tried to sell us the "lovely" P1 ONLY £30K http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/biggrin.gif

Iain
Snowed under by mail http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/frown.gif

Anyone see page 36 of the Daily Mail today? Full page advert from Mitsubishi, saying that if you have bought your car from a franchised dealer then it is genuine etc etc - just as I was saying earlier on - there is a danger of ALL jap cars being tarred with the same brush..

Chris