Praise god for imports (UK Car Prices and Importing)

Member Name: keithede

Product:	UK Car Prices and Importing
Date:	24/08/01 (232 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Price, Features, Enjoyment of stuffing it up the UK main dealers.

Disadvantages: main dealers may enjoy getting there own back

Ok, i'm not religous. But when i first drove up to a backstreet garage in Manchester and saw my first ever import I knelt down and kissed the earth.
T'was a fine sunny day 4 years ago during the height of Import fever, I borrowed the keys of a 1990 MR2 Turbo Mk2(toyota). With a cheery "you bend it you mend it" quote from the nice chap at the garage, i started her up and pulled away for a test drive.
Now as i say i'm not into religion, but I'm afraid i took the lords name in vain when the revs hit the turbo.
You can probably guess that I bought the car.

My points about imports are :
Contrary to what my Car God Clarkson said, Imports do not have completely different parts in them making parts hard to get. For example the MR2 has a Celica GT4 engine and standard gearbox of a UK MR2 and just supposing i needed some silly little nut and bolt...those wonderful people at Toyota Showrooms have a fully detailed part ordering system for any of their cars that we get imported. And sorry again Jeremy, the cost is not prohibitive (cheaper than VW), rather its virtually the same.
The cost of insurance is not really bad either (of course in my opinion any insurance is a rip off)(have you noticed how easy it for them to accept your estimated price and then how they totally disregard that and give you the equvialent value of a reliant for your Merc). Note: for people about to insure...if you over value your car you wont do yourself any favours you may end up in getting an increase in your premium, but guess what if you estimate lower than the book price then the chances are thats what you'll get....so take care. I digress!!!

Importing is a brilliant way of getting a better featured, cheaper and sometimes quicker to buy car.
A tip to note is check with a main dealer here as to whether they will service it or can source parts if need be. Check the part price against a UK price to see the difference. Some dealers
are still rather stiff upper lipped about letting the mongerl imports into their pedigree garage.
Try Toyota!

Couple more tips.
1. If you buy a new import, be aware that you will not be able to sell it here for the equivalent of a new UK car. The title Import stays with it and so does the price. So the money you saved means that you get a new car for less, when you sell it expect to sell it for a lot less than the UK equivalent (but then who cares you have made your saving, had your car)
If you look at it logically - depreciation taken as a percentage of 10% say, means that you will lose more by paying £38,000 for a UK Porsche Boxster (£3,800) against an import of £30,000 (£3,000). So which would you rather have, knowing that when you resell it, in real terms its worth more.

2. Check your insurance before you buy. There are many so called deals out there that look good in a magazine...for example, the add could read:
All you drivers out there with those powerful imports, have no fear about insuring we are the best come to use...Prices start at £100 for a NIssan Skyline. What they tell you when you phone up is, "yes indeed we will insure you for £100 on a Nissan Skyline. Are you over 60 with a driving proficiency certificate for driving Formula 1 cars"
My tip....go to the high street agents and use them (they are usually pretty good if you barter), telephone insurance is ok, but its good to be able to glare at someone in person.

Keith

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