I know that much has been said about Motorpoint's cars over recent times but I thought I'd go see their stock anyway.
(2 x STI 8's {WR Blue Mica and Silver} and a new WRX {red})

The windscreen price of the STI 8 is £21,669, which I thought was pretty damn good. But, the cars are Cypriot therefore have no warranty, however Motorpoint give you 1 years warranty, (in house) extendable to 3 if required.

At this point, the salesman says, "there are a few extras....."

Firstly, you buy the car for £21,669

You then have to pay o.t.r. costs of £270. (included in UK cars?)

A 3 year warranty is £700 (standard on UK cars)

A CAT 1 alarm/tracker is another £700. (standard on UK cars)

So lets see...

£21,669 suddenly becomes £23,339! :(

Whats more is that I got offered an insulting low price for my car so taking all this into account....

If I were to go to a Subaru dealer, I'm pretty sure there is plenty haggling to be done over the £24,995 list price?

I'm also confident that I'd get lots more on a trade in for mine.

The bottom line is, that I won't be buying from Motorpoint!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that the cars are pre-registered so you aren't even No.1 on the log book! Petty maybe, but if I'm spending £25k on a "new" car, I want to be the first keeper!

One more thing... they don't do test drives!

They tell you to go to the main dealer, test drive a car, and then buy it from Motorpoint!

I didn't ever think I'd say that the better deal is to be had from the main dealer! :D

Any other experiences/thoughts?

Yep, I went to the Derby Motorpoint to look at a Golf V6 4Motion a few years back, reading your post was like I was there yesterday.

If it`s a Cypriot car it probably has very little underseal, I`d be willing to say that underseal is required in Glasgow!

I too was offered a very poor PX on my Golf 1.8T, in the end the difference between buying from a VW dealer and Motorpoint was too narrow to make it a worthwhile experience for me. I didn`t even get a Golf V6 in the end. I only went to see what it was like.

To be honest, if I was after a cheap car (206, Clio etc) I might be willing to give them a go. For the more expensive stuff I`d give them a miss.

Oh, the guy who dealt with me was a total spiv too. He didn`t know much about the cars he was trying to sell, he could however advise me on finance!, When I told him I didn`t want finance, it`d be cash he lost all interest, and so did I.

Simon, are you trying to say it rains in Glasgow? ;)

You are dead right about underseal though, I never thought of that.

It was raining when I was there!

No mate, I think underseal is required in the UK as a general rule. Like I said, the difference was too small between Motorpoint and VW to make it worthwhile. The Derby VW place is not too far from Motorpoint, we called in on the way back and the guys in there said they get quite a lot of people in from Motorpoint trying to establish if their car really is worth what Motorpoint offered.

Talizman,

Regarding Haggling over the £24,995 price, you certainly can do that. I've just ordered my STI 8 from subaru and got under the total price you got to making the motorpoint car "UK" spec!

Really Foxmod, Cheaper than £23,339? Thats a cracking deal!

They obviously have large margins to work with in the new car's, but is it reflected in lesser trade in values?

oooooooooh!!!! spooky
think Ive got Deja vu as well:D:D.
We actually went as far as ordering a focus for the company secretary and they kept putting the delivery date back and never answered a straight question ever so we told them to go swivel got our deposit back and when straight to tc Harrison and got almost the same deal and the car within two weeks

Yeap, I reckon that they club and mug you when it comes to a trade in, but I'm lucky - I'm keepin' my baby until it falls to bits! well at least until I've paid off the finance.

By then I'll either of Sh!t myself with the performance of the car (it's my first scoob) or gone the the STI 10 or 11 or whatever......keep haggling.....

SO what dealer did you go to Foxmod, and what deal did the dealer deal ya? ;)

I went all over the place, (I've done this for 6 months!) one dealer offered me 5% straight away, so i thought there must be more to offer, in the end I settled on 7.5% off list, then went back to my local who matched it and I signed on the dotted line, even got a freebee. I just now need to wait the 10 weeks for it to be delivered....

You did better than me Fox, I got my STi at £24000 and that took a lot of haggling. They also offered a very low price for my EVO 5 claming imported cars are hard to sell (as every EVO 5 in the UK is an import that seemed strange), sold it privately for £5000 more though !

2 weeks and counting :)

When I bought the new STI recently I basically agreed the cost to change, i.e. the difference between the value of my car and the cost of the new car. When I came to pick up the new car I noticed that it had been sold to me for a couple of grand less than I was expecting, likewise my trade in value was a couple of grand less than I was expecting. The cost to change though was as agreed.

I can only assume this is to reduce the VAT liability as £2,000 works out to £350. Not a bad profit for giving you a £2,000 discount.

Dont forget that most insurance companies insist on a tracking device for STI's in the UK car its already fitted with the first years sub paid. Plus I dont think you get the nice big rear spoiler in Cyprus.
I wasnt able to get any discount off my STI (UK) I needed a car and I was only able to find one dealer with one in stock! Otherwise it was wait for about 6 weeks or so..... which I couldnt do.
Best of luck, just love mine.
STEVE................

[Edited by r32 - 8/21/2003 7:15:58 AM]

Foxmod, if you don't mind me asking was this from Beechdale?

Would not touch any of these guys. Not convinced that the Warranty trusts are setup as they should be. If the company goes bust U may be left with nothing, having had an no: 4 go on me before on a 2 yr old Scooby I was pleased that the warranty was intact.

..r

r32,

The Cypriot cars have the full size STI spoiler

What colour have you gone for Fox

Mine is black with black STi mudflaps, STi mats and the Momo gearknob

Saving for the PPP !

ScoobyDraven

Yeah it was Beechdale, great bunch of guys, matched my best price and gave me a the blue Prodrive WR gearknob for free. They were going to give me the matts but I like the gear knob better.

Gary C

Black looks the dogs, great choice, but with the mileage i'll be doing, 30+ K miles a year, I went for one of the easier colours to keep clean, Blue. I did consider silver but I just luv the blue.

The only option I got was the gearknob (budget reasons!), But I intend to add STI (Blue) Mad flaps, quickshift and prodrive spring kit. Once I've got use to the car and it's performance (do you ever get use to an STI's performance?) then it's the warrenty fiendly PPP.

Hmmmmm, I didn't get quite as good a deal from them in April but then I'm relatively crap at haggling, I did get mats though and I did get a good offer on my part ex. Was Mark your salesman?

ScoobyDraven

Yeah, it was Mark who did the final deal, but Ian was the guy who I contacted first. I think I must have got them at a slow time in the year, plus I'm in sales so I know when not to say anything and let them do the talking. TO be fair I could wait (I'm not taking delivery until November) wereas someone who wants the car now will have to pay the right money.

I have been looking for a scooby for a while, I took a test drive of the STI8 back in March, and just kept coming back and taking to them, then when I rang to say If you can match this I'll be in tomorrow to place my order they said yes.

Anyway is it as good as car to drive as the think it's going to be?? - Also I'm told the seats are abit painful after awhile is this true?

[Edited by Foxmod - 8/22/2003 10:24:43 PM]

I think the seats are brilliant, I`m an average sized bloke though

Good,

So am I, It's just i'll be in the car for upto 4 hours or 5 hours a day

The longest journey I`ve had is 3 hrs, not a problem. I did however find them hard to start with, but with time they become softer.

I noticed this when my first STI8 was written off with 3000miles on, when getting the new one the difference in the seats was noticable.