sickboy

V reg MY99 Turbo, sonic blue, 4k miles (full UK spec Belgian import , leather, aircon, Cat 1 alarm, CD changer (decent one)- 3, yes 3 year warranty!). FYI I paid £18k.

Joker in the Subaru garage says he can only "offer" 12-13 grand. ha ha ha! Mr sheepish said he could not put my car on the forecourt at the same price as a 2nd hand UK one. No- really! But do Scoobies generally lose £6k in four months. I don't think so.

We had a lighthearted chat about car imports etc Basically he bleated about how hard done by the UK motor trade was, and he hoped that the government would stop personal imports (Free Trade eh!).

One has to laugh heartily at the bare faced cheek of them.

TFyus

im doing my university final year dissertation on the future of the UK car market. Im researching the import trade, the EU price agreements, fixed prices in the UK, pre-registered cars and so on.

I need as much information as possible and anyone with a good source or idea. I'd love to hear it.

Personally i think its about time the UK car prices came down. The people are waiting for it and are tired of being ripped off.

My girlfriend works in a car import company called CARSEEKERS and they can be found on

Neil Smalley

I dunno about that. It looks as though the car makers will hike the prices in Europe to match those in the UK. It's legal too.

sickboy

I agree- the dealers attitude was the UK will drop prices when hell freezes over.

According to him it's because eurpeans are caned by up to 40% tax on cars (as luxury goods).

We skip it and pay the VAT. A big Ahhhh everyone. Poor dealer- wheeler....

frisby

TFyus,

You could try the online databases that most uni's pay to have access to. I have used one called Mintel in the past and its full of all sorts of consumer reports etc.....and loads of stats, most of its good stuff.

laters

fris

TFyus

Thanks for that advise! I have seen some of these databases but the ones i tried had very little to do with the Motor Trade.

I like this bbs as there seems to be someone on-line permenantly!

...ps i chose the nickname to coincide with my mail address u can all just call me steven or stevenrw...tfyus is rude if you know what it stands for !

StevenRW

sickboy

Is that tfyus a bit like the Joe Pesci line about drive thru' takeaways

"They f**k you at the drivethru" in his whiny Bronx accent.

Or am I being very foul minded??

TFyus

It stands for "The f***ing YUS"

Yus is sort of YES in the genesis crew speak.

I Stancer

the high UK prices are largely as a result of the fleet market being so huge in the UK , thus the majority of cars are discounted by 30 - 40% ( i'm guessing ) and sent out on lease agreements with guaranteed resale prices , thus the big manufacturers are tied to high retail prices to keep residuals high otherwise they loose BIG TIME when the leases all expire . but of course the residuals are now slipping back anyway so tough tity

Ian