mrdeli

Just to let anyone who may be interested that Virgin cars are offering the above. Looked last night and they had 2 x WR Blue and 1 x Blue Black. I nearly bought one around 4 weeks ago, and managed to get a discount of £250, by moaning to them that there was no tracker.

Mark

AliWrx

Are these UK or Jap spec cars?

Baby Blue

I spoke to them a few weeks ago about their standard WRX's and they confirmed that all of the Scooby's that they buy are from Mainland Europe - usually Belgium. That will include the STi's.

I was asked if I wanted one and was briefly interested until I got a few insurance quotes!!

As I understand it, they will not include such items as Alarm, Tracker or Subaru Assistance, as these are offered by International Motors on the UK cars only. Other than that they are identical to the UK models.

On import into the UK, International Motors will honour the first 12 month's warranty, after that it will need to go to Virgin Cars approved dealers and the warranty is usually then covered by the country of origin, in these cases probably Belgium. It should be a minor inconvenience when you bear in mind the substantial savings to be had.

Then again, if you import one personally or through a firm like KeyCars, you will save another v.large chunk of cash but will have to wait a little longer.

BB

Alpine

I bought my WRX from virgin.... They were doing a free tracker deal at the time and I paid for an alarm to be fitted.. Mine was a Japanese car NOT European... but it came with a certificate of conformity which states it was basically manufactured for the UK market and is the same as a UK spec car...

I love the car..... Would I buy from Virgin again? I'd rather have my B***s nailed to a plank... Took delivery nine weeks ago and am still waiting for handbooks or service books... Their service is abysmal...

john coffey

Can't you just buy direct from a dealer and cut out the middle man?
Lot's of people have bought WRX's in Europe, but I've never heard a mention of a STi being bought in Europe via a one to one deal with a Subaru dealer such as http://www.subaruvdvelde.nl/ or http://www.subarutroch.com/ the latter being where Keyring order their car's from.
Why is this do you think?

mutant_matt

John,

I suspect that is because the Euro dealers have only just got the prices for the Type UK's. Also, the prices are much closer on the STi's than the WRX so I think a lot of people may not go to the bother.....

Matt

mrdeli

The Sti's are exactly the same as the Uk ones - they are arriving on the same boat... the difference occures in that....

When they arrive in the UK they are supplied direct.... they do not go to the Subaru centre and therefore are NOT fitted with Trackstar, Cat 1 Alarm or locking nuts.

frisby

John,

Reason few Impreza WRX Sti type uk's have been ordered from Europe is the prices were only available last week from Belgium/Holland. I have just ordered a UK sti in Rally Blue this Monday - full UK spec less tracker and Cat 1 alarm.

laters

fris

ChrisG

Fris,
Can you give an indication as to how much it is costing you for your STi.
Feel free to email me direct if you prefer c_j_grant@hotmail.com
Thanks,
Chris

frisby

chris, check your mail.

laters

fris

Tim Taylor

Don't forget you won't be getting a TYPE UK car from Europe. They are only avaible from Subaru dealers in the UK.

Tim

frisby

Tim,

Could you advise as to the differnce between a UK sourced STI Type UK and a Dutch sourced STi Type UK other than the lack of CAt 1 security and tracker??

mutant_matt

Tim,

Not true. You can buy an STi Type UK from Europe and it's the same car as you would get here. The only difference is that it doesn't have the Cat 1 Alarm or the Trackstar as these are fitted by IM once the cars are in the UK.

Matt

john coffey

And don't forget those all important 'Type UK' badges that you might not get.

Richard Work

Frisby,

Can you also send me details of where you ordered yours from and how much?

Heres an idea...anyone fancy a group buy!

Richard

Fitz

Yes, but if you but from Virgin you have to add on the following:
CAT 1 Alarm. App £400
RAC Trackstar. App £500
1yrs subscription. App £120
Service intervals are doubled compared to UK car so allow extra
£200-£300 per year dependant on mileage.
Add 3yr warranty. say £500
Add 3yrs full European breakdown. App £350.
Add the fact that it will be worth say 10% less at resale due to
not official UK import.
Add that insurance is typically more for imports.
Also, longer delivery and no Prodrive available.

I did both and opted for the Dealer, more because I wanted a prodrive version, but baring in mind you can knock £2K of the dealer price it just wasn't worth buying it from Virgin.....

Now have mine after 2 weeks....

Chris

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

If you can knock £2k off the dealer price then I'd love to know who your dealer is, and how long the sales staff expect to keep their jobs

I asked about STI pricing and was left with no doubt that they'd be charging full list price, even for the demonstrator. If they can sell all the cars they get in, why shouldn't they? (I should add that I'm a good customer of theirs, and that I've had discounts on performance parts and servicing before).

A.

Fitz

Try Lancaster Pangbourne, Adams Aylesbury and SGT Taplow.

If you play them off against Virgin Cars and against each other
then you'll get a discount. It depends on how hard you
push them and how you get the discount, but either way you can
do it if you are prepared to wait for them to ring you back.

Don't take their finance though as it's not very cheap. I managed to get a 4.5 apr from the Abbey Nat as a secured loan. The best they could do is 7.8 apr.

They'll give it the old, Oh we can sell these easy, and I'm only making 1,200 on the car. But the truth is they're not selling that well and they can get bigger discounts from their area Subaru
manager to compete with imports.

Additionally I managed to get them to give me a hire car for the
2 weeks as I was without for that time....

Richard Work

Good to see that there are some discounts to be had. I did a search on the Subaru site and one dealer was advertising a STi Prodrive demonstrator for 1k more than list....! Hopefully it was a mistake.....

boultsy

Chris, sounds like a bloody good deal to me 24k and I'd agree buying from Virgin doesn't make sense, 23k for a car you can buy for around 21k direct + £200 to bring it back home.

I'd just like to clear a few myths up here though.

WHY would you want to pay Virgin for a 3 yr warranty when you get a full 3 yr subaru warranty with the euro import from holland or belgium.

That's simply not true, where typically have you been quoted more for insurance on a euro import, true some companies do this but it is very rare.

P1 Frog

Im paying £19300 for my STI prodrive through a german dealer. the people are a**eholes if i werent getting 15% discount i would of told them to shove it by now.........

Fitz

Firstly I hope you support the team where you reside.... If so, excellent choice....

Warranty, well fair do's if that the case when you import it from
the EU mainland yourself.

Virgin quoted me as supplying only a 1yr warranty.

I've nothing against imports as I personally imported my own Aprilia bike from France some 3 yrs ago and saved near on 45% !!

Re: insurance. examples are Tesco and Bell direct. How do I know.
Well they both asked me if the car was as an import and after a short discussion they did tell me that they will load for an import
from the EU even if it is the same spec car. Wouldn't say how much.

I think imports are personally down to each individual and it all depends on who will do you what type of deal at what time of month....etc...etc....

Alpine

My (Vrgin) WRX has 3 years warranty.. although been trying for 4 days to book it in for warrenty work! Pass me the phone I've got to ring the F***kers again...

Geezer

Cost to Import from Holland £18226.96
VAT £3189.72
Cat1 Alarm £400 approx
Tracker £700 (fitting and 1 yr subscription)
£25 to register it
£20 for plates
£160 ish for road fund license

Car has 3yr general warranty (but you have to pursue any claim thru Subaru Holland, and believe me, it is a nightmare)

Add to this reduced resale value, and the import of an STi is no as attractive you would first think.

Virgin it would seem are not very good value for money compared to going thru a dealer, but then again you don't have to incur the costs of going to pick it up yourself.

Geezer

Steve 555

Andy C

My STi Prodrive was £25,900 with a performance 1 cat exhaust

Steve

Edited to say from a UK Dealer

[Edited by Steve 555 - 4/18/2002 2:21:49 PM]

fubar

I'm about to opt out of company car scheme(MY99 Turbo).
Looked at personal contract purchase.
Lex vehicle leasing want any eye-watering 750 p.m. for 36 months for FULLY maintained Sti (no deposit).
Insurance has to go on top! (God only knows what that might bring the monthly cost up to).

Tim Taylor

The are no differencies between UK and Europe cars. The only differiences are 3 year Subaru UK warranty as compaired to 1 year manufacturs plus an insurance top up of the other 2 years, Cat 1 alarm and RAC Trackstar included in the price. You won't be able to get the Prodrive Power upgrade on a Euro car as they are done on the VIN numbers so no imports allowed. You won't get the TYPE UK badge on the back but then again at re-sale time you won't get the same values as a Type UK car.

Virgin cars DO NOT sell Type UK cars - only main dealers do.

Harry_Boy

Fitz - you got a secured load to finance the car? That's frightening......

boultsy

Hi Harry how's it goin.

Fitz, of course, till I die and all that Mate

That's a bit cr@ppy on the insurance front but I guess they're the ones who'll lose out as people will take their business else where.

FYI
Just looking on the Subaru Benelux site, yes there's something worth looking at now, they have the STi on there with prices, but I also noticed that the banner says SEDAN 2.0 WRX STi en STi Prodrive Style. Now there are no prices for the Prodrive version but it looks like they're going to be supplying the Prodrive version aswell at some point, so worth asking about.


Frog - Mind spilling the beans how you're getting a Prodrive for 19k.


Tim - euro cars do come with a full 3 year subaru warranty. As for the Prodrive Power Upgrade, don't believe all your dealer tells you The line about you can't get it because it's done on the VIM and so it's not allowed is, well, not true You don't live near the Botley dealership do you? You have always been allowed to have it fitted to a euro import it would just invalidate your warranty. However as of about 1 month ago Subaru Benelux who supply the cars from Holland and Belgium approved the fitting of the PPP, providing it is fitted by one of their dealers.


boultsy.

P1Fanatic

Why is getting a secured loan on a car frightening? Seems pretty logical considering the interest rates your getting.