corradoboy

Still trying to decide whether to buy an EU import or UK (fooking strong Euro, grrr) but spoke to main dealer in Otley and he said they won't service any imports at all. Is he talking bull trying to disuade me ?

Savings are smaller now but still there, WRX for around £18k, Emporer can even supply with PPP. Sorely tempted by Motorpoints STi8 @ £21.5k.

dan4

Adams of Aylesbury service mine. Make sure you tell him it is a parallel european import.

boultsy

c-boy

who at the "main dealer in Otley" told you that "they won't service any imports at all"


The service manager or the sales guy? me thinks the later.

boultsy

chiark

the "Main dealer in Otley" will quite happily take your money for servicing providing it's a full UK spec car.

They knew all about my MY00 from EU, and serviced it quite happily when I took it to them.

There are cheaper options for servicing within the Subaru franchised empire.

Boss Hogg

To confirm - any Subaru dealer will service a UK spec EU import car - they cannot refuse to do so.

EvilBevel

Can you guys please stop using phrases like "full UK spec car" please !

Is that like a full spec car without the fire extinguisher/first aid kit or a serious alarm ? (do your own research)

Oh, and BTW, you can sue that dealer before a European court of law

Can you guys finally wake up ?

Feckinell ! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Theo

chiark

Theo,

Calm down on the caffeine mate! You're preaching to the converted here.

Dealers are by and large willing to take anyone's money for servicing. International Motors forbids franchised dealers from servicing non-EU sourced cars. Full stop. "Do it and you lose your franchise" would be the threat.

Many many cars at car supermarkets are sourced from eg Malta, Cyprus which are outside the EU currently. Yes, it's the same feckin' car, yes it has a CoC but because it was suppled by someone outside of the EU then it's treated as a grey import by IM. EU spec cars out of Japan are officially treated the same way.

Strictly speaking according to IM, these cars will not be serviced by dealers. Certainly warranty work will be troublesome.

Sueing the dealer in the european court of law is akin to attacking a prison with a wet halibut: pointless, frustrating and at the end of it something smells. Dealers can refuse to provide service to you for whatever reason they desire. The EU competition rules come into play when the manufacturer tries to impose unfair trade rules, which IM are not doing.

I've owned a parallel import MY00, I bought it myself from Holland and know the troubles that I had getting servicing: none. I have seen many discussions about cars sourced from outside the EU, and these are causing some people a lot of heartache despite the fact that they're the same feckin car as one parked next to it that just happened to have been supplied by a Belgian dealer for example.

Things get slightly confused with the MY03. The EU spec WRX comes with sports bucket seats. The UK spec WRX gets the optional airbag seats on all models, so turn up with a WRX without side airbags and the dealer gets all moody, turning you away saying "that's not a UK spec car". They shouldn't do that, but it's already happened to a colleague. Solution? Use a different dealer.

Someone asked a question, and a lot of good information has been put up here with first hand practical experience.

We want to wake up, hell I even chose the red pill and went the import route, but there's shysters out there selling cars that are unequivocally EU spec but are not sourced from the EU that can and do bite the unwary.

IM will do everything in their power to protect their market, and they are at liberty to do so. Come the end of block exemption, this will change rather radically IMHO.

Gone off on one haven't I?

Nick

Edward

I have my EU import MY02 WRX serviced at K T Greens in Otley with no problem.

E.

corradoboy

Thanks everyone, thought it was salesman B/S as I am aware of the legal situation, but when it comes from the lions mouth you 1/2 believe it. About time they got over the sour grapes over peoples initiative in saving considerable amounts of money, it's gone on long enough.

Here's a good idea, how about petitioning Brussels for an EU wide RRP set in Euros. Then praying for a stronger pound or introduction of the Euro hear.

Ian E

iTrader: (1)

Try FR Pulleyn (York) instead. Had last few services done there - cheaper as well.

Cheers,

Ian.

EvilBevel

Nick (cutting down on cafeine already )

I know you have the T-shirt, and some others as well. It's just this... would you like me to talk all day long about a "Belgian spec car" ? Wouldn't make sense would it ?

One small thing: you could just use a UK court to fight these things, and funnily enough, they will judge according to the law in most cases. And unless the law changed since last night, it is illegal to try to "protect" economy in the EU, and yes, the UK is part of the EU ()

I know it's not very practical to actually do so, but just mentioning it to a dealer might change his mind quickly.

JDM spec cars are something else altogether, I agree, and *hopefully* that anomaly will disappear soon as well.

I just hope the protectionist stance will dissappear soon, and I hope it takes all dealers with it that don't understand that business is business and genuine customers are genuine customers.

(can I have my coffee now ? )

Theo

chiark

Go for the coffee, mate - I'm just doing the same

How about "EU spec car supplied by an EU member country"? That sorta sums it up. No service should be refused at any
garage in the EU with a car that meets those criteria.

Good point about the legal thing. This is just one of the "small trifles" that the EU constitution that our lovely Mr Blair is slipping through without mentioning. It will actually give EU law priority over UK law... Still, I wouldn't like to fight it

Been making any more music recently? Still love that nothing else matters cover on the nurburgring video... I bought the black album a few days after

Cheers,
Nick.

jusb

when does an eu uk spec 03 model need its first service 1000 miles or 3000 miles????????

chrisp

If you do things properly i.e. contact IM when you first import the car from the EU then, you, your cars reg and chassis number will be on their computer. Just ask the dealer to check their computer as how can a non EU car be on their computer ?

chrisp

Does this mean I go out one morning and my car has vanished

[Edited by chrisp - 19/06/2003 23:09:34]

Boss Hogg

Not sure what this problem is over the term 'UK spec cars' - it's widely used and understood. It's simple - a UK spec car is a car supplied by Subaru to a country within the EU that is to the same specification as one supplied to the UK by the manufacturer directly.

However, as some parts like alarms are retro-fitted by the official importer/distributor (IM in our case) on 'official' UK cars, the car built to UK spc by Subaru, delivered to Belgium and then imported into the UK won't have them either, and so we have to sort it.

I've imported 3 new cars (2 from Holland and 1 from Belgium) and have never had a problem getting any of them serviced at official dealers. I have also had 2 warranty claims cleared without probs on an EU imported car (toyota celica).

So wherein lies the problem?