Hi
I am thinking of replacing my old Mitsubishi Galant V6 24V with a Subaru WRX. Motorpoint have 2005 models at

 

Motorpoint do usually represent good value for money and are reputable in terms of safe buying. Im not sure what the service is like, i'd imagine that you dont get the service you would expect from a main dealer, but on the other hand you get the saving....

Alot of Imports out there these days, and most cars run out of manufacturers warranty after three years anyway... All i would say is that you make the saving up front but maybe you will get a touch less on the resale. If you plan to keep it a few years I'd imagine that it wont make much difference anyway.

The car has a list price of around

 

Honda's are fine as imports because Honda distibrutes all their cars worldwide.

However, Subarus are distributed in the UK by a franchise called International Motors. As you can imagine the IM are less than happy for people to import their cars but they have to be careful as the EU laws are in their favour.

Please bear the following points in mind if you decide to go with an import...

Subaru dealers are not allowed to work on JDM cars at all.

IM will only honour the minimum amount of work on a EU import.

You cannot get your car upgraded with Prodrive parts at a UK dealer if you buy in the EU. Subaru insist that the car goes back to the country of origin to get any of the Prodrive Performance Packs

If anything goes after the warranty expires don't expect IM to help you at all

Because of the above points, EUs Scoobys are not as easy to sell as EU S2000s. All this was the case when I had mine in 2002, but things may have changed now. Go and ask the question on Scoobynet or www.sidc.co.uk. Also check on the 3yr warranty because the EU warranty only used to be 1 yr and you couldn't extend it in the UK

Good luck

Neil

 

http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/

try here for a forum on Scoobys....... I've had 2 now before the S2K and they are truely great cars. Plenty going cheap after one year as well in the for sale section

I used motorpoint to bargain with my local subaru dealer 4 years ago... and yep the dealer match the price

J

 

I would have thought that *all* of these were against European law.

Sound like a bit of a cartel.

 

I loved mine, but it was just too easy to go too fast If you need four doors and can afford the fuel this is a great car.

 

AFAIK The Prodrive stuff is legal because...

The PPP (Prodrive Performance Pack) allows Subaru to get the car to get through emissions and EU law as a standard car and then you mod it yourself albeit under warranty. The problems come because you are recommended to do 1000 miles before getting the PPP fitted to the car meaning that importing one with PPP becomes a bit of a nightmare.

 

There are lots of UK Scoobs around and the early depriciation is horrendous these days. I'd be looking at a nearly new UK car if it were my money.

 

Worth paying the extra to buy in the UK. The WRX is sooooooooo much better with the Prodrive Performance Pack