WRX54

I am new to the site and came upon the site after having a major problem with some warranty work being undertaken. I purchased my wrx at the beginning of the year from Motorpoint in Derby but the car originally came from Liaco in Malta. I was assured that the vehicle came with a three years manufacturers warranty. And as Motorpoint had previously said the warranty booklet arrived soon after we picked up the car along with the welcome letter from Liaco detailing that the car did in fact come with a 3 years cross border warranty and that in the event of a mechanical failure the only document to be produced to the repairer would be the sales invoice which also came with the warranty booklet from malta. At no time was it mentioned that we should register the warranty with Subaru Uk.
After serveral months of trouble free motoring a rear shocker "packed in" i quickly took the car to my local Subaru dealer where we the car had been serviced on 5 other occaisions to be notified that the car is not listed on the warrnty network. i refered back to my letter from liaco and produced a copy of the Maltese sales invoice. After many weeks of sending different information to Subaru Uk including my V5, EC Conformity, copy of malta sales invoice, copy of letter from Malta. I was still not getting anywhere. I have had this week a response from Subaru Uk who have requested a copy of my Motorpoint Invoice.
To cut a long story short we have had many conversations in the last couple of days with Subaru Uk and Motorpoint. Both sides are giving conflicting information. The whole situation of the warranty issue from Subaru Uk's point of view is centred around the "Motor Block Exemption Regulation" i have tried to find more out about this on the web but without success, does anyone else no more about this? They are basically saying that Motorpoint are not allowed to sell the Subaru's which they purchase from Malta onto us the consumer as they are not an authorised Subaru dealer to do so. Therefore the warranty is void.
One source from Subaru Uk has told us today that if we have a sales invocice from Malta and a sales invocie from Motorpoint we do not have a warranty and would never have had a warranty on the vehicle. We have taken this claim to Motorpoint today who are contesting this and are waiting as we are for the letter confimring this from Subaru Uk.
We have also contacted Trading Standards as i would urge everyone to do so who is having issues with the warranty, basically they are not aware of the requirements of this Motor Block Exemption regulation but have advised us to send a letter to Motorpoint. As it was Motorpoint who sold us the vehicle with as they claimed a 3 years manufacturing warranty. We have also been told that if Motorpoint cannot secure a warranty with Subaru then we are entitled to compensation be that in the form of a smaller claim and keep the car or give them the car back and receive a full refund. Trading Standards have said they will aid us with the claim against Motorpoint if it has to come to that.
This is a really bad situation for Subaru as a whole and the unfortunate owners who have placed their trust in Motorpoint in thinking that they were buying a fully "legitimate" car from them.
If anyone can shed anymore light on this whole situation i would like to hear from you. Also is this just an issue for Subaru's as Motorpoint sell nearly every make of car - Has the warranty been an issue for new owners of these other vehicles?
One thing is for certian that as Motorpoint and Subaru battle it out it us the customer who is losing out.

I look forward to receiving your comments.

WRX54

Further to my note above i have today been to my local authorised dealer who has done all of the servicing on our car. they are fully aware of the situation and have received notification from Subaru uk not to do any warranty work on any vehicles like ours (parallel imports).
We asked the dealer to explain the motor exemption block regulation and basically what it means is that any authorised dealer can source a car from anywhere in the world to sell on. However as Motorpoint are not an authorised Subaru dealer they are in fact not allowed to do this and then to sell this onto us.
This does however beg the question as to why is Subaru Malta still selling these cars onto Motorpoint and other outlets like them as they must know by now, if they didn't at the beginning, that it breaches the EU regulations and so will never have a warranty.
I do worry though that the fact that i am not the first registered owner on the V5 document maybe some loop hole for Motorpoint to use against any claim, i am unsure in which way but i will relay all my information to trading standards on Monday.

wakeboardar

thats the chance you take when you buy a car on the cheap!!!
if you have found this site before you bought the car you would have seen all the negative comments about motorpoint

WRXPete

Bit harsh fella, too many idiots like you on SN, and just 5 posts in, i can see you'll be making plenty of friends here...i bought from Motorpoint too, saved a ton of money and fortunately haven't had any issues that might come under the warranty.
No matter where you get the car from, if it's supposed to have a warranty and the docs are there, then someone should be honouring it.

As a footnote when i got mine 2 years ago Motorpoint said it only had a 1year warranty but my local main dealer said that all Subaru's come with at least a 2 year manufacturers warranty regardless of how you come across the car....sorry you're having trouble fella.

ScoobyDoo555

Nice welcome guys!!
My understanding is that the car is A Parallel European import ,therefore it should have a warrantee from Subaru UK. There are many people on this board who've traversed the same buying route.

I can't help you with query - but persevere. This is one of the best places to get advice.

Best of luck getting it sorted

Dan

Kuro

In terms of the warranty work, your Subaru dealer is telling porks there... The dealer has always been able to fix parallel imports. (of which yours is one) Loads of owners on here (inc me) had or have Dutch classic imports, mine was fixed only be approved subaru agents for years.

Ignore the t*ts who moan about imports; 1) It's nowt new, the smart ones have been doing it for years. and 2) Dealer price is only for those too sad to do anything else.

Do a search on Motorpoint, IIRC there's a long process to get your car registered with IM. From the majority of posts I read, it seems to work fine.

What ever you do, don't search on Imports v UK cars, it's just boring after a while...

Silver Knight

A parallel import from europe is not the problem.
Motorpoint are not an official importer of subaru's therefore they are breaking trademark law by selling cars as new.
So as the car was illegaly imported the warranty is null and void

The smart ones may have been doing it for years but problems only started this year.
Precedent has been set in the Tesco vs levi case and Mitsubishi have also used this to stop L200 imports from Thailand

WRX54

That is my understanding of it as well that it has only become a problem in the last year and it has only been this week when the notifications have been sent to all Subaru dealers to stop/refuse warranty work on all imports from Malta and Cyprus. So other owners could be in a position whereas they have had warranty work done in the past but if they needed it now they would have the same issues who haven't managed to have their warranty accepted by Subaru Uk.

My dealer did indicate that this would not only be applicable to Subaru but to all makes, so this could mean the end of the car supermarkets.

Karl-AL

i would never buy anything from motorpoint they are complete rubbish.
They do not care about customer service, all they are bothered about is selling cars.
If you are a car dealer selling a car is only half your job, customer service is just as important as selling the car in the first place.

no8birkin

Hi all
International Motors are miffed to say the least that they are losing out on sales due to imported vehicles that are sold through car supermarkets.
Under block exemption they can invalidate the warranty on the vehicle which has been bought by a car supermarket like Motorpoint. However if a car is imported as a Personal Import they MUST carry out any repairs under the terms and conditions of the warranty (refer to warranty book supplied).

The way around this problem is to get a letter from the car supermarket thanking you for business and assisting you on your Personal Import of your car.

Smiler

If it were me I would simply get the work done at a Subaru garage.

Pay the bill.

Then take Subaru to the small claims court.

Butty

iTrader: (2)

I fail to understand why people expect their import cars to have warrantied work absorbed by IM?
IM are an import reseller co. as much as Motorpoint or Alliance, only larger.
They have major costs in terms of supporting a dealer network, marketing and licencing agreements with Subaru JP (and recieve preferential service from them acocrdingly). These costs go onto the forecourt price of a new car, along with the insurance costs of projected warranty work.

The other import co.s and resellers in the UK should have built the cost of warranty work or an equivalent IM warranty into the price - but then it may be too close to IMs prices???
The warranty is with the Maltese/Cyprus co.s and they are the ones who should be contacted over warranty work. This contact can be made by Subaru delaers in the UK without having to go through IM.


NIck

Nixon

IMHO it's not Subaru that need taking to court, it's Motorpoint. You bought the car on the understanding that you'd receive a 3-year warrenty as any other UK supplied vehicle.

I understand fully where Subaru UK are coming from and feel it's fully justified. Now it's upto Motorpoint & others to put there money where there mouth is.

You will have enough rights as a modern day consumer to see this through.

Jonty

Forgive my somewhat blunt and simplistic approach but it's Subaru who should be getting this problem sorted. Irrespective of where their cars are coming from or who's getting them, it's still their product... and one which is causing a degree of conflict and dissatisfaction with consumers and tarnishing Subaru's image. From what I've seen, the issue is not with the buyers who think they're getting a warranty for free, it's a case of them still being given a warranty but the whole package price is cheaper. Then they find the warranty won't be honoured.

Perhaps Subaru in the UK should be weighing up the cost of warranties and repair work against lost future sales. I'm not saying Subaru are to blame but it's in their interests to invest time and money into fixing the problem.

What next..? Can't touch that bird with 'flu because it's not from the UK and flew over here..?

Rant over. Jonts.

donutman

why can't a subaru uk dealer invoice or contact Liaco for payment and have nothing to do with im?

Silver Knight

"Perhaps Subaru in the UK should be weighing up the cost of warranties and repair work against lost future sales. I'm not saying Subaru are to blame but it's in their interests to invest time and money into fixing the problem."

Perhaps Subaru UK are looking forward to the extra sales they will get if the imports stop coming in.

And it is in their interests to stop them as they will sell more cars.
The only people who are upset are the people that bought imports that they made no money out of anyway!!!

Butty

iTrader: (2)

Surely IM have already lost the sale so why should they be bothered?

If someone's gone down the cheap route once, then they won't be swayed by a Subaru UK (IM) warranty in the future, as the cost of the car is greater from IM than the likes of Motorpoint etc.

I thnnk there is a lot of confusion on SN threads about the tie between UK dealers selling Subaru cars, Subaru UK (IM ) Ltd and "the" Subaru in Japan.
They aren't one great happy family who operate as one body or company.

Jonty

That's a very good point and to answer the question you need to look deeper into 'customers' and 'customer care'. These days there's so much competition with every product you can effectively buy that it becomes critical that companies look after their customers. Attracting a customer is one thing... making sure they come back is something else. After all, supply is nothing without demand.

Granted IM have lost a sale from a UK perspective if a customer buys an import but would IM like to have Mr Customer buy another Subaru in later years..? I know a lot of people have and I certainly would.

Although customers can sometimes be powerless (e.g. we need petrol and we're forced to pay silly money for it) when there's choice then customers will quite simply go somewhere else if you rub them up the wrong way, so, it'd be in Subaru's interests to deal with this Motorpoint problem (or fix the source of the problem in Malta if they're selling cars to someone they shouldn't), help those with warranty issues, and do the typical customer sat' bit which makes customers come back for more.

Just my 2p. I've worked in customer service all my life and I expect the very high standards that I myself deliver. Perhaps I should get a job with Subaru/IM..?

Jonts.

Jonty

True, that could happen but if you snub a customer enough that they lose all faith and interest in either a product, service, or company as a whole, some may never take the risk again... after all, why buy another warrantied Impreza when that's what was bought the first time..?

We're lucky here on SN that we're all pretty much switched on but the 'average' customer just wants to buy a product, have it work, and have it fixed if it breaks. A lot of folk will see a Subaru as a Subaru... it has the badge, it's an Impreza... it's what they paid good money for. P!ss him off enough and he'll go somewhere else and never come back.

Jonts.

PS: Just for the record, my comments are based on being a consumer. Have a UK Classic and never had dealings with Motorpoint.

WRX54

I also feel that it is as much Subaru's responsibility as Motorpoint as according to my suabru dealer i have a vehicle of 10 months old that has no warranty and so unsaleable, however he would take it off my hands as part exchange for a new one at a knock down price (£6k less than what i bought the car or 10 months ago) then he said he would be able to put a two year dealer warranty on the car and put the car for sale on the forecourt, at an obviously inflated price. i asked him if i could purchase a dealer warranty with them and they said no. So it does appear that the only real loser in this situation is us the consumer.

Im afraid i also see Subaru as one large group although there are many different divisions like Subaru Malta etc i just presume they are all fighting for the same course so to speak. I do have to admit looking back i think i was slightly nieve when i purchased the car from Motorpoint i did genuinely believe what i was told that the car was exactaly the same as the uk car and the reason it was so much cheaper than the Uk dealers was purely down to the fact that Motorpoint could source them as they do from other countries cheaper. I wasn't even aware that the imported cars do not come with an underseal so the 12 year anti corrosion warranty is void in this country. However the only difference i was assured by Motorpoint was the alarm and tracker.

Are Subaru Malta still selling these vehicles to Motorpoint and are Motorpoint still selling these cars to the public as we speak? I would hope that this trading would stop until this matter is resolved.

I think the situation should start to become clearer next week when i start to receive the claims in writing. But i do agree that my first point of call is definitley with Motorpoint. In an ideal world i think it would be in Subaru's best interest to take charge and to stop the importing of these cars as from now and to then hounour the warranties of everyone that has them now - only time will tell whether this will be an option.

Mjb1957

I'm sorry to hear some negative comments from other scooby owners , but in support of WRX 54 I bought an WRx from Virgin Cars in Sheffield so I am now going to find out if I will have the same problem . Basically the imported car I got was from Cyprus has no difference in performance than a Uk model plus I saved about 5k . Thanks for your info .

st3ph3n

I also have a motorpoint sourced WRX. Another one of the Scottish contingent got a letter from Subaru UK to say they wouldn't have their warranty honoured, but have spoken to Motorpoint to try and get it sorted out.

When I checked with motorpoint back in May 2004 the cars only came with a 1 year warranty provided by them at the time, but when I bought the car in December last year the rules had changed (part of the reason I bought it) because the car was sourced from Malta which was now in the EU and as such was valid for the pan european warranty.

My car has been registered with IM since the start of the year, and I've had no communications to tlel me I was no longer covered, so as far as I am aware I am covered.

MY understanding of the whole situation is that IM wouldn't be out of pocket for any warranty work, as they would simply bill Liaco for the work, who I imagine then bill Fuji in japan for any faulty bits?

Surely with the new rules about warranty work you can have the car repaired at any VAT registered garage and simply send then bill to Liaco. I'm assuming Subaru garages in the UK are registered for VAT (you'd hope so!). So why not check with Liaco that it is ok, then agree those terms with the Subaru dealer. SHOULD the situation not be as originally thought where you have a pan european warranty that IM will support.

The Trooper 1815

iTrader: (31)

FRAUD!!!!!

Scooby Soon!

WRX54

I have today had a breakthrough, although i have still haven;t received my letter from Subaru confirming i haven't got a warranty - Motorpoint have come up trumps. I don't know if they are adopting this policy for everyone or are assessing each claim case by case but they have paid for my repairs to be carried out direct to my dealer. They are seeing this as a short term fix until the warranty issue is resolved.

Although I still do not have Subaru warranty i am impressed that Motorpoint have done something to try and rectify the matter. This doesn't however solve the problem as everyone that has a Euro import still does not currently have a warranty.

firewire

God you make me smile!! You whinge that its not right (even though it would appear legal) that IM are using a piece of EU legislation to restrict the number of imports coming in and yet here you advocate fraudulent deception. Get real!!

What you should be doing is throwing the car back at whichever Supermarket you bought they car from telling them you want your money back cos what they sold you was misrepresented. If they won't sue them. Ignore people who tell you to sue Subaru Japan, Subaru (UK) or IM or whoever else you can't you don't have a contract with them. This is basic contract law.

ZippyLane

Hi.. I purchased my WRX SWRT from Motorpoint back in October, saved 5K on a UK model and was very happy.. Had it serviced at a Subaru Dealer last week when this mess came to light when the Service manager gave me the news.. Had my paperwork thru from Motorpoint this weekend and a letter from Malta telling me to show my invoice and V5 to get it registered.. they didn't say where or who to send it too.. now I'm worried.. will be ringing Motorpoint to get answers tomorrow..

Chris L

firewire makes a very good point here. Your complaint is with Motorpoint and no one else. Try to sue IM and they'll laugh at you - it's got nothing to do with them. Thing to note here is that IM are nothing to do with Subaru - beyond being the official importer for them in the UK. As I understand it, the 3 year warranty consists of 1 year, provided by Subaru Japan and 2 years by IM. Effectively, this is an insurance scheme, run by IM, that you all contribute to when you by a car from an official UK dealer.

So you can understand that IM get a bit stroppy about being asked to pick up the tab for cars they haven't sold. Whether, in this case, they should do anything to help, given that the car is only 10 months, is open for discussion, but I think you would have to rely on IM's goodwill rather than any compulsion to help. Again, they haven't sold the car, so this is costing them money.

What Motorpoint, did or did not sell you in terms of a warranty on your new car is the real question. It is they who should cover the cost. Speaking as a long term member of this site, this isn't the first time that this has come up....

codie247

Hi, I was talking to a salesman a while ago who mentioned that Mitsibushi was taking legal proceedings to invalidate i this country the imported Evo's warranties. He said once this goes through, and it more than likely will, other makes will then follow suit. Looks like this has already begun. probably done to help the sales in the UK me thinks.


Lee

Silver Knight

Imported evos from japan have no warranty at all,it is the importer in each country that puts the warranty on them.

What Colt cars are doing is stopping cars being sold as new by people that are infringing trademark regulations and bringing them to this country.
The main problem is with pickups from thailand