After a years ownership of the Bug Eye I have decided that the car does not give me the same sort of thrills my old MY97 did. Wanting a change I decided to see what the score is with the offical EVO 7. Well after the sales manager gave it a thrashing to ensure it wasn't a lemon. He then decided to tell me that it would be difficult to shift as it was a specialist car, and especially as mine is an Import (UK spec from Holland). He then left me in the showroom for half an hour to speak to his network of other dealers and came back with a best offer of £13k.

The Car is a March 2001 with PPP, Morrettes and WRX plate. With a loss of over 5k (7K if you include PPP, Plate etc) seems a bit OTT to me. I mean would a UK car now only be worth (£16,750) assuming the same 5k loss.

Just to make matters worse he couldn't tell me anything about the car apart from its £31.5, which I corrected him on (£29,995!), but he could get me one within 3 months if I signed on the dotted today!

Has anyone else had the same sort of offer on their MY01?

Sounds about right althings considered...

My '01 WRX would only be worth 17K trade in or 18.5-19K private, and thats based on about 25K spent total on the car.

Rgds, Alex

That sounds about right mate.
I bought an MY01 (March 2001) last September. A UK car.
Immaculate condition in WR Blue.
I paid £16900 for it :D
This kinda reflects the 13K trade-in you've been offered on an import.
Paul

I'd try elsewhere for a new mitsi - sounds a right twerp.
Resale on the WRX unfortunately is poor - mitsi will only be worse.

Sounds fair to me - you only paid £1:99 for it in Holland didnt you?? ;)

I can never quite get these people that travel to the Eurozone, Import a car at a huge saving, then moan like hell when it gets marked-down come resale time!!! talk about wanting a cake and eating it too!! ;)

The UK cars at 1 year old have lost £5k too - why should an unloved (on the second-hand market) import lose less??

Pete

CAP (Black Book) have said publicly that a Euro Import car (to UK spec) is worth the same money as a UK car. Whether that rings true for a specialist car like the WRX though is anyones guess.

Some people have sour grapes about paying £4-5000 for the same car as we buy from Europe! IM must love you. And then they laugh at your warrenty claims!

Steve

Nah, sorry, place a UK car next to an Import and the UK will get the money ........... I'm not saying its fair, correct, terrible, unjust - I am just saying it as it IS.

Dont give a tits what the 'book' says - the dealers KNOW what they are talking about - and they value an Import at LESS than a UK car because the public are VERY wary of an Import.

All the amount of saying they are the same isnt going to change the publics mind one bit. Its an Import so worth less as its not as saleable.

Pete

Still seems a crap offer. There are MY00s on this board going for that, and Dutch MY00 imports for 11k. Surely the 'new shape' should be worth more, particularly with PPP?

The New Shape is also the Ugly Shape Too, remember.

Attach an ugly car to an import tag and you are looking at the value dropping faster than a whores knickers

Just because YOU think its pretty and YOU know its the SAME as a UK car DOES NOT mean anyone else does!!

Pete

Hey, I think it's ugly but that's not the point. Invariably a 'new model' will fetch more than an 'old model' regardless of the new model's merits.

PLUS Scoob dealers won't touch an Import. They'd have iton the forecourt at a couple of grand less than the UK car and they'd have to explain why the identical car cost less than the other one (assuming over 3 year old so warrenty isn't a factor).

Steve

PS You may have guessed I have an Import!! :D

Thanks for the comments. I think I will hang on to it for the moment and see what happens with Euro imports on the Evo 7, or the mythical re-styled Impreza!

Hey, I think it's ugly but that's not the point. Invariably a 'new model' will fetch more than an 'old model' regardless of the new model's merits.
------------------------------------------------------------------

WRONG! there are countless examples of the 'old' version of a car being more desirable (read, Worth More!) - an old MR2 has a big following, the Celica too, and it will be the same with the IMPREZA MY00's will be worth more than an Ugly MY01

Pete

Must try to resist....... oh no too late......

I have to admit to agreeing with Pete on this one. There is another factor that hasn't been mentioned yet and it's insurance. The MY01's are 2 groups higher than MY00's so it costs more as I've just found out on a ring round of brokers.

Slower, ugly and more expensive to insure - work it out.

F;)

What the dealer has done is phoned round to get the car underwritten. If he doesn't fancy selling it himself the other dealers will pay a price to him for the car. It sounds like he has underwritten the car and told you the price he got offered. The 13,000 he talked about on that basis seems fair, as anyone buying the car for cash would have to add their margin for profit when they come to sell the car, say 2-2,500 quid. Gives them chance to offer cash discounts or over bid on any trade in offered. An import on sale for 15,500 quid sounds fair right?

If you are dead set on getting an EVO VII, go back and ask him to get the car underwritten again, or simply haggle hard on the purchase price for the EVO as you are going to pay full price for the car. Dealers have to have margin in their selling price so get some of it back. Or try ringing round dealers yourself, ask for the used car buyer, give them the details and see what they'll bid you. But be prepared, some are going to bid you prices that feel like a kick in the teeth, its not personal, its just business.

Whatever you decide there should be some negotiation to be done for the EVO, or just take your business elsewhere.

Have you had a look at the imported EVO 7 prices from an import dealer who deal with imported imprezas as well i.e someone who sells them. Have you tried some like Litchfield imports. EVOs can be serviced by main dealers whether they are grey, blue, pink or orange imports ;).

You are gonna get screwed part ex doesnt matter what you have there is bound to be something wrong. Just remember seeing a cartoon years ago of a shop the left window there a sign says "old junk brought" on the right window "high quality antiques for sale" ;)

Agreed - www.litimports.co.uk are advertising 'em for £27000
and might beat the P/ex price you've been offered?

turbo, Iam not right in thinking that if you've got the PPP then the warranty has been invalidated, that may also have bearing on the price offered. Although this is changing and PPP will be available on euro imports it's currently still an issue when it comes to the warranty.

Just a thought and another one would be to sell it private, £13k for a euro or 16k for a UK MY01 WRX takes the p1ss. Surely dealers are shooting themselves in the foot. At the end of the day they command the re-sale price of the car which reflects the trade in price and if people loose this much then they're going to start moving away from buying a new impreza and get something else. Bugeye or the new beautiful prodrive version that everyone is going to fall in love with;) they aint gonna buy it, are they? Like I said just a thought.

The MY01 is coming in for all sorts of abuse especially imported ones. I imported mine and I'm amazed anyone buys a new car from the UK now. As regards it being ugly who cares, I've always thought it a bit odd when the main buying point of a car is its looks.

As far a joe public goes I don't think anyone give a monkey whether the car is an import or not as long as they know it's to UK spec and comes with the usual manufacturer warranty, and most Japanese makes have a pan-european 3 yr warranty inc Subaru. So add an alarm and who's to tell the difference? (Unless it's a Cyprus car) I sold my imported Celica VVTI a while ago for exactly the same price as the UK model ones were advertised in Autotrader. People who buy UK cars try to justify the higher price when they sell, but outside the protected dealer network this just doesn't wash anymore.

I'd be quite happy to import ever car again, only if it meant I didn't have to buy a car from UK dealers who know nothing about customer service.

Try Anthony Betts Subaru in Milton Keynes - they were happy to offer me virtually list price on my MY00 EU import when I tested the water against one of their P1s... (i.e. £13k, car with aircon and PPP but 2 1/2yrs old and from Holland).

Richard

£13k trade is probably about right - a UK one wouldn't be worth that much more. The extras add very little to the value of the car.

A mate has just sold a standard 11000 mile 'X' plate MY00 EU Import privately for £14250 and had a lot of interest via the Auto Trader website.

If I were you I'd keep it another year - the Evo 7 will cost far more to run than your Scoob in any case.

Cheers,

Ian.

[Edited by Ian E - 3/7/2002 8:10:00 PM]