Nathan L

Below is a letter from Subaru Benelux in relation to the implications of having a PPP fitted to a euro import MY01 WRX. Its not great news but at least they are still looking into whether they will honour warranty claims if you get a PPP fitted.

Cheers Nathan

Dear Mr. L******,

Your e-mail dated November 7 retained our utmost attention. Our warranty policy is, with the increase in sales of RHD-Subaru vehicles and new European guidelines, currently being re-evaluated. A number of remarks need to be clarified before a final decision can be reached. Until then, we are unable to confirm whether we can honour your warranty claim for a RHD Subaru
Impreza equipped with a Prodrive Performance Pack .

Our after sales department assures me that a decision in this matter is imminent. I will ensure that this information is brought to your attention as soon as available to avoid any further inconvenience.

Kind regards,

Yvan Glorieux
Subaru Belgium

boultsy

Good on ya Nathan for following this up, your right it's not great news but the fact that they are re-evaluating is very positive. Do you think it's worth while other Belgium importers (e.g. me) following up with email to highlight the interest??? What do you reckon, if so do you have the email address.

Boultsy

chiark

Definitely write to them and ask the same question - the more feedback they get, the more likely they are to do something!

Nick.

EvilBevel

It is good news they are taking it seriously, because before they would state the PPP would definitely void your warrenty.

Yvan is a top bloke BTW: he has been on several Scooby meets in Belgium, and was always very intrested in our cars. One of the very few people who really care about the cars & their customers.
Great sense of humour.

If you really have a problem in the future, I suggest you try contacting him (he may not like me anymore after this suggestion ). However, flooding him with mails may not really be productive. If he says he's on to it, he's on to it.

Theo

boultsy

Theo, coming from Belgium your probably in the best position BBS wise to give feedback on the Subaru Belgium attitude to warranty claims and mods.

For example:

Recently (you may have seen the thread) a scoobynetter had problems trying to claim for a faulty disk from a Dutch imported "nearly new" WRX, and they tried to avoid covering the cost saying that the part wasn't covered as it was a....what's the word.....a consumable part. Have you had any experience or know of any such claims, I believe in the UK they would replace the part under warranty for such a problem as the car was so new.

Also what is the limitation of mods, whats parts do they accept/not accept as valid upgrades, are these limited to dealer supplied mods as listed for example in the accessories brochure and in the Dutch website, what mods have you got.

Thanks for any Feedback, email me offline if you wish: al_boultsy@hotmail.com

Boultsy.


Edited because scoobynet has gone MAD and done some wierd things to my text so trying to repost....


[Edited by boultsy - 20/11/2001 16:26:07]

Hunk

Do you think Belgium and Holland are one country?

But it's true. Subaru Holland regards brakediscs as consumables... there are more people with this experience.

The warranty on all cars could change because the European Parliament is working on this.
When i read this correct all warranties must be for -at least- a period of two years:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/policy/developments/guar/index_en.html

You could always read this site and look how your claim stands up in the light of European laws.

Hunk

Hunk

And when i read this i think every car bought in the EU after july 1999 has got a 2 year warranty, regardless of what the seller told.

4. The seller is liable to the consumer for any lack of conformity which exists when the goods are delivered to the consumer and which becomes apparent within a period of two years unless, at the moment of conclusion of the contract of sale, the consumer knew or could not reasonably be unaware of the lack of conformity.

4) DEADLINE FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LEGISLATION IN THE MEMBER STATES 01.01.2002
5) DATE OF ENTRY INTO FORCE (if different from the above)07.07.1999

This is quite interesting stuff...

EvilBevel

Boultsy, as Hunk said, in Belgium & Holland (same importer) there have been lots of claims for discs (hair cracks or even completely broken), but I don't think that anyone ever got their discs replaced under warranty I'm afraid.

My personal experience with my Subaru dealership/warranty has rather short. My aircon was broken (lots of rattly noises, didn't cool etc...) from when the car was delivered. I went back a few times, but it was never fixed. Then I had some mods on my car, and immediately they refused to fix my aircon. "It's because of the high boost Sir." Errm. OK ...

Now I'm a bit funny like that, so I told the guy what I thought of that position (and I'm afraid I wasn't very polite) never to set foot there again ...

I now frequent a Dutch dealer (about 110 miles from me) that has a heart for the car, treats me with respect, and is not nitpicking on mods. Of course I can not claim warranty anymore as I went rather mad on mods I have spend about UKP 10,000 on my car since then ( ), have it serviced about every 2 months, and I'm glad they have never seen a penny of that money.

To give you an idea what kind of dealer the Dutch guy is: he is building his own Impreza rally car (fully stripped, welded cage, aiming for 400+ BHP), every Saturday there are mini-meets at his garage, and last time he fixed Stef's suspension at the Ring ... sorry to disgress, but he is a wonderful dude.

Anyway.

In short: I don't believe in companies, I believe in people. Yvan is a great guy, some others at Subaru Belgium are, in my opinion, complete err ... not so nice people. He has a heart for the cars, but I'm afraid he may be a minority. I just tried to say that he is the guy you may want to talk to.

Why I think that the PPP bit could turn out positively ? Up until the MY00, the PPP was fitted at Prodrive. Since the MY01, it is a dealer fit item. It would have been impossible for a Dutch or Belgian car to send it to Banburry (might get expensive ), so the (old) PPP was fitted at the local (Belgian or Dutch) dealership. You had to sign a disclaimer however that you just lost your warranty.

But since the PPP is now a "dealer fit" item (on the MY01), they just might review their policy. Another reason is that they sell more RHD cars than they do LHD ones ( ! )... alledgedly of course

HTH and sorry for the babbling,

Theo

JFB

Hunk,

Just for clarification purposes, is the warranty on my MY00 import from Holland 1 year or 2 years bearing in mind I bought it in Sept 00? I have a little gearbox claim under consideration which is a bit sensitive at the moment and had assumed and have been told that 1 year applies.

Thanks

Jerome

Hunk

Yes, one year is normal here
But... it's gonna change due to the EU regulations. And there is some hope Subaru is obliged to give 2 years on every car sold after july 1999. See the above post about the EU-website i searched.

Spoons

I am watching this thread with great interest since the outcome of the PPP/Subaru Belgium warranty issue may well influence my own purchase (£17000 for a WRX + £1600 PPP is much cheaper than £23500 for an imported STI).

However, I read on a post here some weeks ago that owners of euro imports are not treated favourably when it comes to availability of PPPs.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has already had a PPP fitted to a euro import WRX and if they had problems sourcing it.

Thanks

Spoons

robman

Euro imports are not given favour for anything! Some dealers are sensible though, and mine is quite happy to have my business for servicing, upgrades etc. Other dealers get very stroppy, as they don't always understand that without the Euro import option you would not be able to afford a Scoob less than 3 years old!

boultsy

Ahhh, at last scoobynets working again....

Hunk, thanks for the link, this looks very promising, I'll have a full read of it tonight, a bit busy today, and yes I mean no,reading my post again I see your point but I could hardly use the Belgium website as an example it's not even worth this link.

Theo thanks for the input, an interesting read, I like babble anyway and it's comforting to know that UK peeps aren't on their own when getting screwed by the dealers.

That's some serious mod'in you've got going on there, I take it that this on a pre MY01, surely you've not spent that much on a MY01 in a year. and see your point about the PPP being a dealer fit item now, we'll have to se what response Nathan gets from Yvan.

Spoons, you can get a better deal than that, really you should be looking at £16000 (self collect though) for a WRX +1600 PPP. But if you can afford the import STi, go for it, your still getting a good saving.

Cheers all.

boultsy.


[Edited by boultsy - 21/11/2001 15:37:39]