iain ross

i am on the eve of ordering a car with iain litchfield at litchfield imports and upon agreeing to a price with iain i have also spoke to dealers in the uk.the uk dealers quote the following problems with eu cars.

1. service intervals may be different
2. warrenty difficulties
3. under body sealing

has anyone imported a my03 and do these problems exsist, any help in this very late stage for me would be greatly recieved.just to let you know the difference in price is £1500

many thanks
iain ross

chiark

Service intervals aren't different - they're all 10k now. That only affected very early MY01s

Underseal is "different" - but all that happens is that the UK gets an extra layer of gunk applied by the distributor. They are undersealed out of the factory

Warranty can be a hassle, but it depends on the helpfulness of your local dealer. It shouldn't be a hassle, but it can be if people want to be bloody minded.

For a 1500 quid I would not import. Add on 3 years road side assistance at 100 quid a year, and you're down to 1200 quid. Barter hard at a uk dealership and you can get that off the price of the car.

Cheers,
Nick.

Dave-Battle

I believe that any car supplied by Litchfield comes with a 3 year warranty and is fully undersealed. Any EU imports are already undersealed anyway, it's only the Japanese imports that aren't. I don't know what the service intervals are on a Spec C but I understand it's the same on any other model.

I had a Turbo which I imported from Holland and the only 'issues' were that it didn't come with a Cat 1 alarm, the logbook was in Dutch and some insurers won't cover imports (try A Plan). Other than that it was exactly the same as a UK supplied car. Mind you, at that time, the savings were much bigger.

Dave

Pro Boy

ALSO BELIEVE THAT NO LOCKING WHEEL NUTS, ONLY 2 AIRBAGS, NO CAT ONE ALARM, HASSLE REGISTERING IT WITH SUBARU UK, UNABLE TO GET PPP FITTED IN UK, 1000 QUID LESS AT TIME OF NEXT PX

GOT TO BE A UK CAR

Jza

Must admit - i would only consider a nice Spec C via the import route - for the extra's you get.

Ref Warrenty..

Are you planning on modding the car (Decat and ECUtek for example).. if so the warrenty is void if you do anything other than a PPP anyway....

Save the ££££'s and spend on Mods!!

Agree that if you plan to keep standard - an import is "more of a pain"

Jza

Rog Ford

Don't forget no free 1000 mile service - that's up to 150 quid.
I assume your deal comes with the alarm? Does it include fitting the alarm buttons to the keys? That's another 45 quid per key that wasn't mentioned to me - unless you want to carry an extra alarm fob and have useless buttons on the key itself.

And some insurance companies won't quote - or will load extra - for an EU car. And I don't know about Lichfield, but I had quite a few extra costs for currency conversion, number plates and the like.

Not being able to fit PPP in the UK is the biggest pain.

For 1500 quid I really can't see it's worth it. I saved 2000 on mine (it was 3500 when I ordered, but currency moved against me) but wish I'd gone the official route.

TVR Gary

I think the biggie is the PPP problem on a standard wrx or STi. You may not want it now but in a few months when you are used to the power you will crave more. PPP Is a way to get this but you cant do it on imports.

By the way I am going to see Iain on Monday to discuss a spec C. He does seem professional, I will just have to wait and see what his prices are like.

iain ross

some great tips here thank you. doesnt relly seem a point to importing for a difference of £1500 which could possibly work out more like £1250 which currency exchange etc. also 1000 mile service brings it down to £1100. peace of mind great dealer back up and option of ppp has to be worth that doesnt it???

chiark

Iain, it was worth it for me!

I imported my MY00 direct from a small garage in Holland and recommended the route to all and sundry - the savings were excellent. We actually started a mailing list and had around 300 people on it...

I never had any hassle with the car at all, I had a little warranty work done and it was always serviced without question by Subaru dealers.

I sold it quickly earlier this year as I was able to price it with what I thought was a very fair price.

When it came to buying an MY03, a few things had happened. The car price in the UK has dropped significantly. The price in continental EU has risen. The exchange rate is knackered compared to what it was. Lead time in the UK was immediate, and still was 5 months in Holland. There was uncertainty and silliness about the airbag seat situation. The price premium for a wagon in the EU was a lot more than the premium in the UK...

all in all, it meant that the financial difference over three years was the best part of bugger all.

hence, despite being a massive advocate of importing from EU, I bought from a UK dealer.

Cheers,
Nick.

MrShades

Iain - I bought a UK spec MY03 STi from Iain Litchfield, and have a few comments that I can make off-list.

In summary - go with Litchfield Imports.

I'll email you the detail as per your profile....

Shades

Boss Hogg

Iain - there are a lot of misinformed comments on here.

1/ Eu cars are undersealed

2/ It is easy to register an EU car with IM for warranty purposes. You need the CofC, and original supplying dealer (ie Belgium subaru etc) invoice.

3/ Insurance companies will quote for UK spec EU cars and will not load for it if it has a cat 1 alarm/immob. That only applies to JDM cars.

4/UK cars with buckets only have 2 airbags, so no difference. Only 4 airbags with sport seats.

Downsides:

PPP is a prob, and is soemthing that I hope Subaru will resolve becasue it's utterly petty and stupid.

£1500 isn't really that much of a saving nowdays when you could get 4/5k off 2 years ago. You may negotiate a discount on a UK car.

Don't get Subaru assist.

pbee

I can 2nd Boss Hoggs comments I imported my my03 wrx from Belgium through keyring cars. he is right in all respects.

When I ordered the car back in october last year all in it came to £16,300 (+ Alarm, plates wheel nut locks ect). At the time the bugeye was £22,595 with metalic paint. Over 6k more than the import price.

I placed the deposit and 2 things happened, The euro gained on the pound (considerbly) and the Uk list price went down.

In the end I paid £17,300 and would of been a lot worse had i not transferred the rest of the money into my euro account in Febuary as the pound kep sinking further.

I was considering cancelling the order and buying a UK car if the difference would of been much less. For £1500 ring around the UK dealers I got 1k off without trying to hard so more haggling could prove your best bet.

I dont regret buying EU I still saved 3k off list I was able to spend the rest of the cash on good security and a nice stereo,

On the PPP front it depends how **** your local garage is, The dealer I use for servicing wouldnt have a problem with fitting it and would help with any warranty issues too, I suppose it would only get messy if the engine went bang and subaru UK sent someone to inspect it.

But ive decided to put the money towards my next car instead of chucking any more money at this one.

minister of speed

I have a WRX My02 wagon form LItchfield Imports -no regrets.

The pro's far outway the cons,

I saved over £ 5000 even when I added on a few extras.

Iain Litchfield is the Man to deal with,

dont believe all the Subaru dealer crap,

they'll give it to you regardless of your car being an import or UK.

In fact, Subaru dealers generally are the pants,

go to an expert who will care for your car

and dont believe the "horror" stories from all the goonies !

iain ross

the replys youve given me have been great and really informative, and i suppose intially im looking for a good deal and peace of mind over the first 3 years i own the car.things like no hassle as regard to servicing or any small problems that i might have etc.i aim to add the ppp after a year or so giving me the extra bhp after i get used to the car.this will be my first wrx and although a lot of you guys know the places to go to tune up etc im just getting started and 225bhp (265bhp ppp)is enough for the first 2/3 years anyway, after that i can add a few things as it wont effect the warranty. if my local dealer can get within a reasonable quote of iain litchfields ie £300/£750 is this the deal to go for??????

SW Scooby

Bought my new WRX 8 weeks ago and went through the same process. Main issue was the PPP pack and second hand sell-on price. You can have alarm fitted and most offer 3 year warranty. Understand that PPP has to be fitted in country of origin and having had mine fitted at 1,000 mile service and now at 1000 miles later, I would suggest it is essential. It completely changes the characteristics of the car - makes it much more driveable and totally improves performance. I also managed to haggle the price down to levels you are talking about anyway. Tell them you will have the PPP fitted at the 1000 mile service and you will do all your servicing with them and they start to move on price.

Blue_Boy

I'd not go back to Scoob dealers after tasting Jap Imports now. There may be convenience, but there's more power out of the Jap Spec ones as standard and as soon as you tune it, there's more saved the Jap route as well.

The PPP is very over priced for what and if you are after the power hike (like me normally), you'll get bored of the power very quickly IMO! As for roadside assistance, well the best present I could have got off my Dad many years ago now for my 21st - lifetime membership to the AA, never a better investment was made!