RogerFord

My 03 WRX is now with the dealer in Belgium, but he's having problems getting hold of the PPP which he was supposed to fit before delivery.

The dealer CLAIMS that the PPP must be fitted in the country of origin of the car, otherwise it invalidates the warranty. IE if I bring it over here and get the PPP fitted later, my warranty won't be valid.

Doesn't sound right to me - can anyone confirm or deny this for me?

Thanks.

Roger

pbee

Some chaps from prodrive posted information on this in another thread, in short if you have a eu import and fit ppp here your warranty is invalid.

do a search for more detail

integrale

'scuse my french (or dutch or flemish !?) but this is b#llocks....whats going on with fair trading, etc. I've been round the block with this whole issue a couple of times now and can't quite grasp what i'm hearing.....basically you can buy an eu car (ie dutch import) and its covered with the full 3 yr warranty in the uk but if you want to get a UK dealer to fit your UK warranty'ed car with a PPP kit then it invalidates the warranty ?! whats that all about. This whole thing sounds like sour grapes from Subaru UK about people saving themselves a few thousand pounds importing there UK spec motors from Holland. Not that you wont have guessed it already but i've also bought a Uk spec WRX from Holland and am trying to sort this out. Big problem i've got is that if you ring up a dutch Subaru dealer and ask about prodrive or PPP they dont have a clue what you're going on about, let alone prices, etc.
Oddly enough a couple of UK dealers have told me they would be happy to PPP my car and put down a different chassis number etc so that as far as subaru uk or prodrive are concerned my dutch is standard and would therefore not invalidate the warranty. Not really a route i want to go down but i may be left with no other options if Prodrive dont educate and release the PPP kit to EU dealers (or just those in Holland !).
Anyone else help with this ? I reckon there must be quite a few owners with imported WRX's that are gonna come up against this problem.

integrale

forgot to ask...Roger what price in Euro's did your dealer in belgium quote to PPP your car ?
It's be great to know so that I can push my dutch dealers to sort this out.

roc

I've been looking at putting a PPP on my MY02 import. Got in touch with my local dealer and after consulting the powers above him he came back and said that only the dealer which sold you your car can put the PPP on....... From other threads even Prodrive apparently won't fit them.

Oh well, that's £1600 Subaru and their agents won't get from me.

On the positive side that can be used to pay for some other mods. If these are restricted to exhaust system then my understanding would be that just the warranty on your exhaust would be affected.

RogerFord

Hmm... thanks for that. Sound like he's right. What a pain ... one more reason I wish I'd gone for a UK car, given the current exchange rate.

RogerFord

Price for PPP from Garage Troch in Belgium is 2100 Euros, which is just under £1500, but that's before VAT. So that's £1762 in total, rather more than the UK price.

integrale

cough, cough.......roger what price did your belgium dealer quote you in euro's for the PPP ?

pbee

is there no way of not paying the vat afterall you are buying and having the item fitted to the car and driving it back yourself ??. do you just pay the belgium vat ??

As for subaru Uk it isnt their doing, it is subaru benelux imposing the ppp original dealer restriction.

RogerFord

You can only avoid VAT if you export something right out of the EU.

The PPP is being fitted to the car before delivery, so I'm assuming that VAT will charged on that from the UK the same way as it is for the rest of the car.

But perhaps I'm wrong, maybe it does include Belgian VAT - I'll check.

If you drove to Belgium, had it fitted, and drove back, you'd have to pay Begian VAT, which is 21%.

integrale

2100 euro's isnt too bad. could you pls let me know when you've got the car done as i'll then contact subaru benelux and find out when the dutch dealers are getting the ppp kit.
cheers

integrale

sh#t just realised that dutch vat is 40% (i think!)....this could be REALLY expensive, nightmare.

RogerFord

No - 19%

http://www.booksellers.org.uk/newlibrary/document_view.cfm?document_id=467

Brendan Hughes

Guys

1. Prodrive are regulars on this board, so clearly writing things about putting down the wrong chassis number is not exactly being secretive.

2. Spend half an hour or an hour using the BBS Search facility above and see what has been written before. You might save yourselves a stomach ulcer.

3. If you change the exhaust, the warranty isn't just invalidated for the exhaust, but for any fault caused by changing the exhaust. Which might include your engine going pop also - something scoob engines have been known to do on the odd occasion. The choice is yours, depends how much spare cash you have knocking round for a new engine if necessary.

Good luck, hope you get things sorted.

Sennadog 93

I went down the same route and got totally stonewalled by the Benelux Importer.

They will approve the PPP if fitted by the supplying dealer but they won't include any Prodrive suspension modifications or other work.

As for the warranty, International Motors in the UK become the "custodian" of the warranty and won't in actual fact authorise and work without first consulting and getting approval from the Benelux Importer - in other words they administer the warranty.

I got so cheesed off with the Importer's attitude that I decided to rely on the Scoob's good reliability record and fit my own PPP to the car that is at least as good, if not better than the Prodrive version with the added bonus of not having to fork out £2k in one go and go down the modular route. So far, I'm not disappointed and the car seems fine.

At the end of the day, I'm not sure how good these warranties are, apart from the peace of mind aspects, as they seem to be heavily biased in favour of the manufacturer.

Hopefully, the car will remain reliable and the smile will remain in place on my face.

integrale

point taken sennadog, hope your car uns smoothly for as long as possible.
Brendan - I didnt say thati was going along with advice of the dealers, moreover was just highlighting how totally stoopid this whole thing is when Subaru are on one hand saying the cars gotta be taken over to a dutch dealer for fitment to keep the waranty valid and then on the other hand they're (or at least there representative UK dealers) are saying that they'll fit it and lie on the paperwork about chassis numbers, etc. My point is that it's contradictory at best and totally pathetic at worst. I sincerely hope Mike or anyone else at prodrive does read this thread.
As for the search engine, i've been there and done that but dont seem any the wiser. Thanks for your help all the same though.

BlueSimon

Regarding the fitting of PPP before the car is run in.

On speaking to subaru UK customer support regarding my issues with my lemon - Whoops i mean WRX 03. They were 'Shocked' that a dealer had fitted the PPP from new and not after 1000 miles (i presume thay have given instructions to only fit after 1000)

This is just to warn you, if ultimately fitting PPP at new becomes an issue.

Simon

PS mines UK Supplied

DBY

I had PPP fitted to new WRX03 from new, dealer did say waite till 1,000 mile first service but i am the customer and i wanted it fitted straight away and its also a free country.

John

integrale

as we all seem to be talking about my03 wrx's any of you guys bothered getting the sills colour coded ? if so what have you been quoted ? also i'm thinking of having a really light window tint fitted, NOT pimp style but just to filter some of the light.

Boss Hogg

3. If you change the exhaust, the warranty isn't just invalidated for the exhaust, but for any fault caused by changing the exhaust. Which might include your engine going pop also - something scoob engines have been known to do on the odd occasion. The choice is yours, depends how much spare cash you have knocking round for a new engine if necessary.

Really? Examples?

Or just scare-mongering?

Nick Wadeson

Dear All

If you are experiencing problems getting the details of the PPP's from your Benelux dealers, please contact the relevant After Sales Departments on the below numbers.

Netherlands - +31 297 330 100
Belgium - +32 225 475 11

03MY PPP will be officially available at the end of May, though if you ask nicely, you may be able to speed this up a little

To keep your warranty, the PPP must be fitted by the Subaru importer you purchased the car from.

Simon - We have no problems with the PPP being fitted at zero miles (except that it is even harder for you guys to stop using the loud pedal before the 1000 mile service )

roc - You engine warranty IS affected by the fitting of a non-approved exhaust.

Thanks, Nick.

RogerFord

Hey - someone's trying to hijack my thread!

Got a call from the importer/agent today, and they say that both Subaru Belgium and Subaru Japan have agreed they will honour the warranty if the PPP is fitted in the UK. They're waiting to get it in writing now. Don't know if this is a general change in policy, or a special case because Subaru Belgium can't get the PPP kits at the moment.

Will update when I have more info.

BlueSimon

Nick Thanks for the clarification,

Mine wasnt fitted at 0 miles anyway, it was 6

Do you have facilities to check 'normal' customers cars out (for a small fee) as some dealers only seem to have 'Waxing' skills

Simon

integrale

stranger and stranger...i've just rang (about 20mins ago)Subaru benelux and they are unsure as to the exact situation right now. They did say that up until recently the PPP had to be fitted in the country of origin the car came from but this is "under review"....fingers crossed all this red tape crap will be sorted out and Subaru UK/Benelux/Prodrive do the decent thing and get together. I'll even pay for the cost of the conference call.
Surely it's not too much to ask for a normal, less convuleted process. The current process defies all logic.

integrale

Roger - don't suppose you've got that letter through yet ??

i'm keener than ever now to get the ppp fitted by a uk dealer after finding out the dutch price, 3000 Euro's = £2200..ouch !

just a thought and maybe one Nick could kindly help me out on, what about buying the kit from a UK dealer and getting it fitted by a dutch dealer ?? bizarre i know but at least then i wouldnt invalidate my warranty and would be paying the dutch price for the parts (and better still the dutch labour rates are less than uk subaru labour rates), is this feasible.......? the other plus point is that at least the Uk dealers have the PPP kit in stock right now rather than having to wait till end of May/June.

RogerFord

No, still waiting for written confirmation.

Steve777

iTrader: (8)

So where is the approved exhaust list ?

As your Prodrive exhaust is a Scorpion, does this mean any exhaust Scorpion make for a Subaru is approved ? After all I'm sure Scorpion make an identival BB to the Prodrive version but with a Scorpion badge on it

Please enlighten me ? How can an aftermarket BB affect the engine ? Surely it is down to removing exhaust restrictions like full decat ? and not silence baffles ?

scooby_blue

I have been trying to get PPP for my MY03 WRX for the last 6 weeks from my dealer in Holland, have just called him today & I should get it fitted next week. It is a lot more expensive than PPP in the UK, I have not confirmed price, but was originally quoted 2,995 Eur. Considerably more than the UK price!

Nick, is there any reason for the difference? (I assume a PPP fitted in Europe is the same as the UK one?) Or is the pricing down to Subaru Benelux?

Chelspeed

> So where is the approved exhaust list ?

Here: 1 Standard exhaust. 2 Prodrive PPP exhaust.

integrale

Scooby_blue - do us all a favour and put the price you paid for your PPP on the board when you get it done next week. I'm definately getting it done so would love to know just how much grief to expect from the missus when she finds out how much i paid!

cheers.