panta_rei

Hi!

As said, I'm from the Continent and buying a post-facelift classic 2.0 GL Impreza Wagon in the UK. Am already in the negotiations with the seller, the only problem is to homologate it in my country the car has to have a EURO2 compliancy stated in the papers.

The EURO2 Directive is sometimes also noted in the car's papers as 70/220*94/12 or just 94/12 or 97/24, etc.

The seller says nothing like that is in the car's papers. On my urging he contacted Subaru UK and the DVLA, but they told him that because the car is so old they can give him any answers. :/

The problem is, he won't give me the car's VIN number so I could check it with my own Subaru distributor (who already told me they need the VIN number to give me the EUR Certificate of Conformity), thus I am at an impasse.

The car is lovely, I've fallen in love with it and, just as important, is right in my price range (if all the other costs I'll have are calculated in). In my country, Imprezas of that age and milage cost around 4000 EUR.

I was on the DVLA's website and there is a section, http://carfueldata.d...ds/default.aspx - called "Data for July 2000". In "CSV Data Part C" is the file "DatapartC_july2000.csv", which contains all the models from the year 2000 that were EURO2 compliant (AFAIK, the 2.0 GL from 1999 and 2000 were the same). The Impreza I want to buy is on that list, specifically stated as EURO2.

Yet the seller says he contacted the DVLA and they supposedly said they can't answer... Yet, they have this same car (2.0 five door from 1999 and 2000 were the same, right?) on their list as EURO2. Have contacted them over email personally (only email account I could find was for feedback), told them the date of first registration and the year of the car, plus the name of the model (Impreza 2.0 GL). Am waiting for reply, hopefully soon. And hopefully positive.

After all the checking I did since posting this thread it was confirmed on every side that it boils down to having official paper confirmation for EURO2 (the 70/220*94/12 or the 97/24 directives).

The thing is, from what I extrapolated, all Imprezas were EURO2 compliant. heck, my father's 1995 1.6 was EURO2!

Our bureaucrats are blind to anything but stuff typed in black on white, they're even blind to logic and reason. And they're too incompetent to process that if an earlier model was EURO2 that of course a newer year will be as well.

I've sent emails to various other European Subaru distributers, to DVLA and to the German DEKRA, but have the feeling they'll all say the same: "Can't help you without the VIN number."

The seller says a service garage can check it's emissions, but what I'd like to know (and haven't received an answer from him yet) is if that garage can also give me an official paper that based on their test, the car is EURO2 compliant. Any idea about that?

All suggestions appreciated!

hedgecutter

iTrader: (5)

Welcome! The car`s vin no. is normally on the front suspension mount, so if the seller will not give it to you, then something is wrong. I would`nt buy it if the seller will not give you the vin.

panta_rei

Thank you for your reply and for your welcome!

Yeah, the seller (a used car salesman from what I can figure from pics of the car) says he doesn't want to give the VIN because he's afraid I'll use it to clone a stolen Impreza. Because all oversea-ers are criminals, out to steal something from the UK.

I'm planning on asking him again tomorrow, explaining the situation again. This is namely getting ridiculous.

the DVLA and mycarcheck (since the license plate number is visible on every exterior photo) actually confirm his details on the car and mycarcheck says the car has never been reported as stolen/scrapped/destroyed/etc. The car DOES have a mechanical flaw, but it's nothing I can't fix myself, though I've been told by a friend in the UK that in the UK it is uneconomical to repair. Or something like that.

can it really be true that neither Subaru UK nor the DVLA can give a statement if a car complies with such basic standards?

Christof89

Where's the car? Have you got a link to the add. Maybe someone local on here could go look at it for you and get the details you need?

albob

i imported my car (year 2000 turbo wagon) from the Netherlands.

I got a 'certificate of conformity' with it. the certificate does not mention EURO2, but it has 'type approval number' and 'exhaust emissions' etc. -

if I can give u any info from the form, let me know.....

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Where are you?

panta_rei

Thank you guys for your help!

To update: while DEKRA has already replied (with a good news, if I can supply the VIN number they can give me the EURO2 confirmation), I haven't heard anything from the seller.

I'm getting a weird feeling about him and a feeling nothing will be with this purchase. He's registered as a regular member, but from the photos and text it looks like he's a used car dealer (dealer parking lot with used cars and various ads and slogans inthe background). Also, I've asked him 4 times in various PMs whether he can sort out all the paperwork himself and give me a Bill of Sale (needed for easiest importing - the other option is regular Sell/Buy Contract, but has to be notarized - we are getting ripped off on every step by our fantastic bureaucracy), never got an answer, almost as if he's evading answering.

Sent him one last mail with the link to the DVLA website where the EURO2 is confirmed so he can call the DVLA, alert them to that file and ask about a confirmation. Will see if there is an answer tomorrow.

Otherwise I'll ask him one more time about sending me a photo of the VIN plate and if he refuses I'm done with him. It's been dragging on for a week and I'm really sick and tired of someone who claims he wants to sell, but is almost actively working against closing the deal.

-

EDIT: out of curiosity would be really grateful if any of you with classic Imprezas or even newer versions or other cars could look into your car documents and look for any of these codes:
- 94/12
- 97/24
- 70/220
- 70/220*94/12
- 96/44
- 1998/69
- 1998/77
- 1999/102
- 2001/1
- any code with a year in front, then the slash and another number.
- EURO2-4

Or for any mention of emissions, emission standards, etc.

These are all emissions standards having been put in force by the EU, NOT any sort of identification numbers of cars. Up to 1998/102 they're all EURO2 standards, post 1998/102 it's EURO3 and later.

My brother's old Merc diesel for example has 94/12 noted in it's papers.

Reason I'm asking for any year or model is because I've been hearing strange stuff about these emissions standards not being noted into cars' papers, even cars as young as 2009. It seems strange to me that this sort of thing about their vehicles would be hidden from their owners.

Thank you!

-

EDIT EDIT:

the following is an example of German car's papers (Fahrzeugbrief).

Notice on the lower left paper, at the beginning it clearly saying "EURO 4" even before the brand of the car.

albob

on my 'eec certificate of conformity' i have --

type-approval number e13*98/14*0026*03

exhaust emmissions (3) : CO: 0.74 g/km HC: 0.14 g/km NOx: 0.06 g/km
HC + NOx: 0.2 g/km Particulates: NA

No mention of 'EURO'

car = year 2000 turbo wagon

panta_rei

Thank you kindly for checking!

It seems the part "98/14" aka "98/14/EC" is a larger package of EU homologation/type approval changes, of which emissions standards are only a small part.

This is what is says on http://ec.europa.eu about it:
"Commission Directive 98/14/EC of 6 February 1998 adapting to technical progress Council Directive 70/156/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers"

Further, it looks like the Germans were the only ones using EURO (2-4) instead of number codes of specific Directives.

Thanks again for checking!

PS: is your NL-import an LHD version?

albob

"...PS: is your NL-import an LHD version?...."

no right-hand.......!

vat (tva) is less in the UK. buy in NL tva free, then pay vat in the UK .... (I paid 52300 dutch guilders -- it was 12 years ago !!)

panta_rei

Lol, how come they sold RHD's in Holland?

albob

it was a 'special order' -- many people in the UK did it (not so many now, because the price difference is not so much)

some people even bought in Germany (bit further to go to pick the car up -- and not so cheap......!)

panta_rei

Ah.

panta_rei

So I won't take up another thread (pure curiosity driving this question): what is the difference between the regular and the STi rear lights of classic Imprezas? From what I can see they look about the same?

albob

u will get more answers in a new thread ..........!!

panta_rei

You're right, well,here goes nothing.