Dog Biscuit

OK, as indicated in another thread, let's take a look at re-sale values with UK & EU cars.

Hopefully we all agree that the car that lands on your doorstep is EXACTLY THE SAME. The car is built in the same factory to the same spec, but delivered to, e.g., Belgium instead of UK. The only aftermarket difference would be your Cat 1 alarm. If it is not full UK spec as promised you can refuse the goods.

Now then re-sale values! Tell me if I'm missing the point on this, but buying a car is the single most financial investment disaster / waste of real money that any of us do regularly. Doesn't matter what you do, you lose money - it just depends how much and how quickly.

Right, now the comparison. Let's say a UK car is

ianl

Blimey Mr. Biscuit, that is a thoughtful, logically reasoned piece. What the hell have you been putting in your tea

I fundamentally agree with your reasoning, though I do strongly suspect if one (you or I even) where to take our UK spec, Belgian/French source S2000's to a Honda dealer for px. our cars will not be looked upon sympathetically price wise (so many of these guys are going out of business because folks like us source our cars elsewhere). Similarly, on the private market, life will not be a bed of roses - selling a car in the

UKjasonm

I'll try not to get too heavily involved in this one as I think Ive made my views clear in the past. Im with you on the import thing, I saved a tidy sum and I am very happy with my purchase, Ive no intention of selling the car on for a profit or at all for the forseable future and hence the savings made can be used for other things.

I think a lot of people who buy in the UK do so for peace of mind, I have no problem with this, its a personal choice, if the cars were the same price or very near i.e. within 500 pounds I would probably do the same myself.

What I do question though is what generates this peace of mind, IMO its a false peace of mind generated by UK car companies (not neccesarily Honda, Mitsubishi and Subaru are probably the biggest culprits) and dealers to justify their outrageous mark ups. As UKPaul as pointed out the dealers only make 5% so perhaps I am being unfair on them here.

If you consider a Belgian Dealer can sell you an S2000 at approx 22K (Ive added VAT at UK rates) and they are making a profit at that then I fail to see how adding an Alarm, locking wheelnuts and throwing in 3 years AA cover(available for 300 quid directly, not the 600 Honda UK want to charge for Honda Assisitance) can take the price to 26K (4000 increase), 1000 increase maybe and thats giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Now I shall climb back into my shell and lurk annonimously on this subject.

Dog Biscuit

Ah! Civilised debate! Just got to wait for others to join in, tell us we are heretics and should be burned at the stake1

biker1

EU import or UK cars in my opinion don't seem to have any price disparity ( I must stress this is only my experience in this).
I have found that it is the pedigree/history and condition of the car that is of concern to most people.
With a car that is supplied in small numbers in the first place you don't get the large choice secondhand to choose from like many of the volume cars, thus you cannot drive the prices down dramatically.
Whether it is UK or EU (must be same spec) if someone wants one and there is "limited" choice they are not bothered as long as they are getting the "Right" car, the price is immaterial.

In the "Trade" usually goes something like this;

When your buying " you can't get these sir doesn't matter if its an import worth a fortune"

When your selling "Oh dear sir its an import, not worth as much you know"

Its all part of the big game that all businesses' play, lets get every thing as cheap as we can and then we can sell at big profits and its not just the motor trade that does this!

I've had 3 S2000 now secondhand, EU and UK, have had customers waiting for them and there has been no great difference in price between any of them.
A good friend of mine only last week sold a 2000 " V " UK car with only 650 miles on, price

UK Paul

Saves me starting a seperate piece to include some Autocar rage, I've added my bit about imports in the insurance section but here's my input,

INTIALLY in the first two years if you did a swop back to the dealer, the savings you have made will be in the MAJORITY lost, but not many who have imported are going to do this, UK dealers are either nervous or Honda UK are leaning heavily on them, Secondly the uninformed (Not us) when it comes to insurance could happily (well you know what I mean) pay

Tifosi Red

[QUOTE]Originally posted by UK Paul
[B]
Right now Autocar, browsing through their New car prices and Depreciation % they reckon the S2000 will be worth only 43% @ 3 years / 30,000 miles @

UK Paul

[QUOTE]Originally posted by biker1
[B]EU import or UK cars in my opinion don't seem to have any price disparity ( I must stress this is only my experience in this).
I have found that it is the pedigree/history and condition of the car that is of concern to most people.
With a car that is supplied in small numbers in the first place you don't get the large choice secondhand to choose from like many of the volume cars, thus you cannot drive the prices down dramatically.

Tonky

This is nothing short of a bloody racket which surely must disappear as more and more E.U. cars are imported into the country. Aren't we supposed to be in the Common Market anyway.

I have no regrets about paying top whack for my S2000. I'm happy with the car, and I paid the price for getting it fairly early after it's launch. I get as big a buzz out of driving it as the day I bought it.

However having owned an import before, albeit Japanese, I know that at trade in time, dealers of new vehicles anyway, will almost certainly not be interested other than at derisory prices. The point has been made that people rarely buy privately in the

Frenchie

In July, I came across a UK sourced, March 2000 reg with 2,046 miles on it, complete with 6-CD unit, air-con, mats and an after-fit windscreen for