fallwood

Bought an 01 wrx on friday from well lane (going back tomorrow to be fixed), asked all the usual questions is it a uk car, how many owners any mods etc, I was told yes its a uk car with 2 owners and completely standard. Finally looked through the paperwork properly today and what did I find tucked away in the bottom of the pouch, a sale invoice for the car from belgium, it shows the amount in euros and the invoice is stamped by the dvla as re-registered in uk on 17/6/01. Now to my mind this is not a uk car but a euro import. Should I be overly concerned about this (apart from the fact that they lied to me, not a good start) and are their any major downsides to it being a euro import.

kbsub

if it was me i would be asking for a refund , and report em to trade descriptions , didnt like the sound of em when i rang them other week

fallwood

Only problem is I traded in my 98 itr against the scoob and I think they have sold it already. I first went to look at a uk (ha!!) 03 plate wrx but liked the 01 wrx better as it was in black with morreti headlights and 17" gold wheels (still a boy racer at 35) and it was 4K cheaper, I didnt actually ask if the 01 wrx was a uk car but when I initially asked about the 03 wrx he said "yes its a uk car all our cars are uk cars" so naturally I assumed the 01 was uk as well. I love the car to bits (when they finally stop the engine management light coming on) and its exactly what I wanted, I would be happy with some financial recompense as opposed to a refund . I paid 12K for the car and its absolutely mint and only 30k on the clock, what do you think a fair amount would be to ask from them.

kbsub

at least go back to them and see what the response is when you show em the evidence that the car is a euro import , they might have even missed it

fallwood

Its going back tomorrow anyway cos the fault light came on saturday afternoon and its been running like a bag of sh**e ever since, so I was well p***ed off before I found out it was a euro import. Im just gonna lay the facts on the table and see how they respond , for their sake I hope its a good response. I cant believe that they would miss such a thing I think they are just trying it on.b Will let everyone know how it goes.

kbsub

they do deal with imports , cos i rang about suppling a new STI which is advertised on the website
he said .............

" na mate euro's gone **** , stopped doing em "



was the response i got

corradoboy

Did they say it was UK supplied, or UK spec ? TBH it's well known that Well Lane deal in Euro imports, they used to sell loads when the exchange rate was better. If they definately stated it was a UK supplied car then you have every right to a refund of any monies you paid and to whatever amount they offered you in p/ex for your ITR. I would be very concerned about the CEL light though, and use their misrepresentation as a way to get out quick. If you end up keeping it, the main downsides are slightly reduced resale value, no chance of a PPP but then again, why would you want PPP when you can get more power for less money elsewhere. EU imports back in 01 IIRC came with just 1 years warranty, so that's long gone and there's no chance of extending it with SUK/IM. See how it goes, but it might be worth contacting your local CAB, or even a solicitor if they won't give you what you want.

Ninnybobs

Agreed with Corradoboy,

What you have there is a UK Spec 'parallel' import.

Nothing wrong with imports from Europe (Got one myself). The difference being that whoever imported it paid around £15k instead of the UK Dealer price of £21k. Therefore, I would have expected that to be reflected in the resale value.

Good Luck

Martin

Ray_li

was the car cheaper over a UK car?
If not get the difference back but i'll just get a full refund.

Scott.T

iTrader: (2)

If it's out of Subaru Warranty then there's no reason why it should be any different to a UK.
The only advantage if a UK over an EU was that the UK came with 3 years warranty and the EU 1 or 2 years. Other then that the specs are identicle.

If it's got FSH then don't worry about it.....

Most UK owners (particularly those that bought from new) get on their soapbox and demand that the EU's should be cheaper, but IMHO that only applies to the first 3 years.

Once the Warranty runs out they are all equal.

P.S I own a MY00 EU. I didn't buy it from new but when it was 2 years old. It was out of warranty but for me that was an advantage. It mean't I didn't have to use Subaru to get it serviced anymore

jmk

IMO, If you didn't ask about the specific car you bought then I wouldn't have thought you'll have a any chance of a successful claim against the dealer. Also, if you didn't read the supplied paperwork thoroughly then I think this would weaken any case you may have as the dealer actually gave you proof it was an import.

I'd suggest your best outcome would be to get the issues sorted and keep the car. If you wanted to sell it back to them you'll loose out financially. Had a mate who traded in his 01 WRX import 3 weeks ago and they only gave him £9.5k for it - which I feel was on the low side but a car's only worth what someone's willing to pay for it. It was always garaged, 17k miles, new tyres and absolutely immaculate but as someone else said, being an import (and £5k cheaper than a UK car) is reflected in its resale value.

Hope you get it sorted.

BrynO

I would say that an '01 EU import is worth about £1k less than UK car now, but they had probably priced it knowing it was EU anyway, sure, you can always buy cheaper, but if you get the CEL light problem sorted and you are happy with the car, don't fall out with it just becasue it's EU - enjoy!!

MadGrip

I had a similar encounter with well lane

I bought an 01 WRX and asked all the same questions. Is it a UK car, modified etc

I got the same replies as you did.

maybe I should have done more homework before buying the car, but it drove and looked nice so I got it

I found out afterwards that it had had a superchip fitted, bleed valve after market fuel pump etc and it was also sourced from Belgium. It didnt really matter to me that it was a parralell import, just the fact that they surely knew about this fact and lied/hid it from me

I was also told there was a tracker fitted but when I went to collect the car I asked for the tracker documents and after a while he said "well its got tracker stickers in the windows" not impressed

The guy who owns the place IMHO is a bit of an **** when it comes to customer service, but this shouldn't reflect on the top mechanics that work there.

just my experience

I've since sold the car and moved over to the Dark side

Jamesemt

Mmmm - feel I must stick up for Well Lane. I bought my 03 WRX EU new from them and they were very very clear to me that it was an import - even had a poster outlining the differences (no tracker/Cat1 alarm/locking wheel nuts).

speedking

Don't understand why people say . Once the warranty has expired the cars are equal. When you buy any car, do you ask what the vendor paid, and then adjust your offer based on that? Of course not. There is a market value irrespective of whether the previous owner paid full list price or negotiated a £2k discount.

The only slight downside is dealer attitude to imports, but this is a minimal influence after the warranty period.

ZIPPY

Agree with Speedking and as for the warranty ALL 01 onwards Euro cars came with 3 year warranties.

As for where you bought it from the vast majority of the for sale cars are Euro or Jap imports.

Zippy

mc5

This happened to me at a Subaru dealer once they ended up giving me a couple of hundred off the next service. I was happy with the car and didnt affect resale.

fallwood

Just got back from well lane and everything is sorted. After id read a few posts about euro imports i decided it wasnt that much of an issue but made it clear that I had not been properly informed of the cars status and was a bit miffed, a bit of a coms breakdown on boths sides as I should have really been more vigilant with the questions and they should have been a bit more up front, anway we had a chat and everything ok now. As for the fault light it was detecting that the primary cat was not functioning properly, hardly surprising as its been decatted (I was informed of this when i bought the car and was happy as It meant I didnt have to do it), the mechanic reset the ecu and said if it comes back on to ignore it and it should go off once the ecu has remapped itself and realised that the cat is missing . Does this sound right, if it is right I am a very happy camper, the staff at well lane were very helpfull and I can't fault how they handled the situation. At last I can take it out and give it a good thrashing. Thanks for the info, as a scooby newbie I was getting a bit worried that id bought a lemon.

BrynO

Speedking - I say that because the '01 car I bought recently I knew to be an import so I paid £1k less than if it was a UK suppied car, that seemed to be the differential from the ones I looked at, fair deal to expect to pay a little less if you know you are buying an import.
Fallwood - glad you got it sorted - enjoy!

Dark

iTrader: (1)

>>and said if it comes back on to ignore it and it should go off once the ecu has remapped itself and realised that the cat is missing

That's bollocks !!!

The ECU is never going to remap itself or realise that the cat is missing.

The ECU only uses different, pre-programmed maps, depending upon fuel, rpm, boost, the weather, etc. It was never programmed for the eventuality that a cat was removed and will keep giving the check engine light because the measured emmissions will be out of spec.

That's why any decent garage will either modify the ECU with the ECUTEK software or fit a "black box" to fool the ECU into thinking that all is okay with the cats.

Mark

scooby L

Total Cr4p mate

You will need either a CEL fix box (cheapest option) or a re-map to re-set the figures so the ecu ignores the higher emmisions.

It is just a matter of time before the light comes on again..

chris singleton

Ditto to what SCOOBYL says, I've had loads of CEL's on my 01 WRX and I had a CEL fix fitted with my decat (which it turned out subsequently wasn't wired up propertly ) Used to drive me mad.

I had a TEK3 in the end and no more CEL's to date - <desperately looks for some wood to touch>

I think Spooks is selling a CEL fix in the F/S forum right now

If not, I can always try and find mine, I'm sure it's burried in the garage somewhere.

Chris

Azyman

iTrader: (1)

i am confused why no PPP ?

fallwood

So the plot thickens, It really p***es me off when dealers try to feed you a load of crap when they know you dont know much about a particular car. Does the car go into limp home mode when the cel comes on or should it run ok . I will contact them tomorrow armed with my new info and see what they are going to do about it. Does the cel fix just stop the light coming on for the missing cat or does it stop it coming on altogether, I wouldnt like to think that i'd totally disabled a warning light that could be telling me that something serious is wrong. Cheers for all the help I feel a little less vunerable now ive got some knowledge of the car.

BrynO

Believe they will only fit it in the country where the car was supplied, so it would be a trip back to Belgium, Holland or wherever..

wakeboardar

When you say pleased now do you mean they gave you some money back or a couple of services or anything?

robby

Did well lane give 12 months MOT before you picked it up? if they did how would it pass without the cats? - if they didn't then surely they sold you a car which is unroadworthy and can get you pulled in a roadside check
i'd ask for the cats for future MOTs

Gary C

ECU's can often tell the cat is missing, an O2 sensor before and after the cat lets it know its working.

DrJP

I part exed my UK spec Belgian import about 2 months ago at a Subaru dealer, I got the impression they weren't going to be too forthcoming with the info when they sold it on

OdD KiDS OtHeR MatE

If the service book is with the car and is genuine then there should be a PDI stamp from the euro dealer! If it's not stamped, is the book genuine? is the car genuine? If the dealer 'forgot' to stamp it, what else did they forget to do???

Also one difference between a Euro and a UK -after warranty- is that a car can develop a fault at 3 1/2 or even 4 yrs old... if it'a got low mileage and full dealer history, chances are you'll get a good will contribution from the manufacturer...

This may still make the bill more than at a specialist, it depends what the work is and what the contribution towards cost is but it's worth bearing in mind.

I'd be worried about the M-O-T and where the CAT / CAT's are tho as you will probably need em next year -unless you get them to M-O-T and agree to pass it on emissions for the length of your ownership

Good luck...