Pro's & cons of each please


(to relieve that other thread that has been 'hijacked'

 

IMHO as far as EU v UK is concerned (I have no experience of Jap sourced cars) then its mostly down to price at the end of the day. The price you pay at the start and the resale / part ex value at the end, this is the true cost of the car.

I went down the E.U. route because I could get a brand new car, identical to a U.K. sourced car (apart from the superflous 90,000 miles / 3 year warranty as opposed to 60,000) for the price of a second hand U.K. car. I was able to be driving this beautiful car via a very small loan, and have been very happy with my decision almost a year on.

The downside is that if I were to part-ex via a dealer I would probably be sodomised, choked and beaten as opposed to just sodomised for someone with a U.K. car to part ex however on the other hand selling privately it may be an actual advantage when selling privately as with two identical condition/mileage cars, one U.K. sourced, one E.U. sourced, the lower priced E.U. car may sell quicker. This is all down to the perceptions / knowledge / bias etc of the buyer.

Having said that I would be happy to buy a U.K. car as they all depreciate at the same rate and the higher initial price is re-couped by a higher re-sale price.

I will be very happy when U.K. and E.U. prices are the same and I can go along to a dealer which is of course less waiting and potential hassle. I hope I have played a small part in hastening this by the way by buying an E.U. sourced car. Would there be a GT model if it wasn't for the the E.U. factor?
Time will tell, who knows? but then I don't intend selling this car for a very long time........

 

At todays Euro rate you wouldn't be able to import one cheaper from the continent 1.47 (Business) to a pound!

A Jap import no matter how close it come to a Euro sourced car is different full stop.

so a UK car it is then (new I'm assuming)

 

I would think on average you can get about a grand off a uk car depending on time of year, I even had a quote from drivethedeal.co.uk for

 

I've kept out of this as long as I could, especailly as it was fairly OT in the previous thread, not to mention the abusive nature of a couple of posts.

I bought EU because I couldn't get a decent deal in the UK, every dealer I spoke to said 'We only make

 

Prick refered to those that purchased a car without investigating. Or purchased a car assuming it to be one thing and actually being another. Prick did NOT refer to those that purchased EU cars. If you re-read the input thats quite obvious.

I felt anyone that went into a 20k+ deal without study to be a little foolish.

 

I'll stick purely to the cars here:

UK Car - Well its the S2000 as most people know it

EU Car - As UK car minus locking wheelnuts, Alarm, Honda Assistance (3 years AA cover, maybe offers some other benefits - not sure), the Warranty is a 60K 3 year pan european warranty that is fully accepted and Honoured by Honda UK. If a EU car is correctly registered with HUK the owner will be contacted and have warranty/recall work carried out free of charge just as the owner of an official UK car.

Mechanically these two cars are identical!!!

Jap - This is a different story, some of the panels, namely the rear bumper are different to cater for the different size number plates, Jap cars will not have a fog light as standard (do they not have fog in Japan?). The cars speedo will be in KPH and I dont think they have the small button the European cars (inc UK) have to switch to MPH. The cars are electronically limited to a top speed of 180kph (approx 112mph), the stereo in the car will only go upto 90 on the FM band, the car may have climate control instead of plain AC, I think Sat Nav is optional. Mechanically the engine is setup for 100Ron and as standard is qouted as putting out 250ps (247BHP), I think if this is like the older JDM prelude then its achieved by a thinner head gasket. Probably the biggest concern to UK buyers is that Jap cars dont tend to be undersealed to the same extent as their European counterparts and hence unless this is addressed they could be prone to corrosion quicker. Some Insurance companies are very funny about Japanese Imports and will load polices accordingly, thankfully some now are being sensible about this and no longer loading policies.

All have their merits and personally I would consider all depening on price.

Ive had experience in importing both EU (2001) and Jap Imports (in 1997) so would be happy to try and answer any questions people may have about either process.

 

Jap: There were more options (interior) on the Jap models, Cruise Control, Sat Nav (Would this work in the UK?), which may enhance the resale value.

With the S2000 being built in Japan only, there should be less mechanical differences than an Accord for example. There is only one F20C engine, unlike the B16A engine (I blew an ignition module on my jap import, it was replaced with a UK ignition module, the engines response changed for the worse and the idle was rough, 6 weeks later I had a jap module put in and all was back to normal).

Biggest problem, people will think you are cheap, sad but true. That's the stigma of a jap import, not all imports are stolen, crash repaired, spanked.

EU: No difference (bar warranty max mileage reduction), alarm can be added as an option (but would you trust an OEM CAT1 with you pride and joy). Poor resale, but not as bad as a Jap import.

UK: The most expensive to buy, but the best resale. Too few sold by the dealers, so dealer bargains are not an option.


Personally after a couple bad experience with an import, I bought a UK car.

 

Thats not actually true, there are two derivitives IMMSMR, F20C1 and F20C2. Also the engines can still be different even if the engine code is the same, the JDM prelude has the same H22A code as the UK prelude but its a more powerful engine, 200PS as compared to UK 190PS. Its achieved by a slightly higher compression ratio due to a thinner head gasket.

 

if you can get a japanese car cheap, so what for the resale, you start from a lower cost - losing 10% of a lower figure is still better.

AC..no climate control, other than the AC button and the different fan speed/hot and cold setting.

no cruise control in Japan.

you may benefit from getting BBS wheels.