Here's a conundrum for you:
Vectra 1.8 Elegance's with heated leather seats, climate control, ESP + traction control, metallic - ie £2550 of optios on top of a £16380 list price car = £18930 at list prices
Although imported from Cyprus and badged up as Opel Vectras, these are brand new.
I saw them yesterday in Motorpoint for....£11999 !
Cheapest UK-supplied one I could find was £16077 including the extras.
So that's £6931 or 37% below UK on the road list price and still £4077 less than cheapest UK-sourced one.
I think this is a startling deal, or am I missing something????
I know it's badged up as an Opel, but...
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I know it's badged up as an Opel, but...
Nothing that a Vauxhall badge from the parts dept wouldn't put right. With all that saving, what's another £10 or £20 added to the price to replace the Opel branding?
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I may be wrong here but I thought that if a car was not imported from the EU (e.g. Cyprus) then you get no manufacturer warranty. Having said that I'm sure you could get a fairly comprehensive warranty purchased with the money you'll save...
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The Opel badge would still be on the V5, but this is trivial compared to my main objection to this deal.
The car is from Cyprus. Cyprus is not (yet) in the EU. This means that the warranty isn't valid, not even slightly. You'll probably miss out on recalls and at trade in time, you'll be penalised. Theoretically, insurers that are fine with EU imports might have problems with insuring it too, although
Perhaps none of this adds up to £6k worth of disadvantages, but given that you can get a 52 or 03 plate car for this money, or even one with slightly lower spec from a supermarket, or a little more from a franchise, brand new, I wouldn't dream of going for a car from Cyprus.
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Still you'd get an awful loof repairs for 6k. Possibly that GM might find it unsustainable to avoid a warranty of sorts especially under the Sales of Goods Act and this new bit of law that gives a 6 month implied warranty ( have to look at the detail of that). Ironic that these are likely to have been made in the UK.
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Don't know about you people, but I'd leave the Opel badge on - looks a lot better then the Vauxhall one IMO!
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Comprehensive 3 year Warranty from Motorpoint £697, they are cheap, very cheap..........
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Yup, saw the warranty deal as well whilst at Motorpoint.
For your info, the Cyprus-sourced 1.8 Elegance has either a 1 or 2 year manufacturer's warranty anyway, from what I recall from my visit yesterday.
Currently trying to choose an opt-out vehicle from company car - budget over 3 years is upto about £20k...on my mileage I will be lucky to get 20-25% residual value (120k miles over 3 years).
Difficult choice! Can't decide to get a) heavily discounted Vauxhall/Opel Vectra as above b)8 month old 2.0DTi Vectra Elite with leather and 14000 miles for £11999 - completely spotless condition as well c)blow the budget and get a Nisan X-Trail 2.2 SVE for £19k d)Buy a Renault Laguna 2.0 Petrol Privilege from Motorpoint for £14999 with a non-UK spec (no sunroof or cruise, but full grey leather and traction control) and risk the apparent reliability issues with these e)Various mondeo Ghias or Zetec-S at similar prices...then there's a Galaxy TDi Ghia etc etc etc
Like I said...difficult choice...
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a. Are you sure about the manufacturer's warranty? If it's not an EU import, they don't have to honour it. They may choose to, but it might be very difficult holding them to it, especially if your local dealer has the typical 'can't be bothered' attitude.
b. Good deal and also likely to be far more economical for fuel, plus you'll have the benefit of full UK warranty and it'll be easier to sell on, even with the high mileage.
c. No problems, if that's the sort of car you want, but no big 4x4 (i.e., raised ground clearance, etc.) short of maybe a Touareg or X5 is going to be as capable on a motorway as a £15k family car.
d. Certainly not. www.ukcarbroker.co.uk has UK supplied cars for less.
e. f. g. etc... Potentially good deals but not enough detail.
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Comprehensive 3 year Warranty from Motorpoint £697, they are cheap, very cheap..........
If you can be confident in the warranty and be happy with the Opel badge - Go for it!
Otherwise, why not ask GM about the warranty? Explain that the car has been brought from Cyprus when you emigrated back to the UK, What is their position? - Some careful questioning here....
Whe I looked into importing a Freelander from Europe, saving about 2 to 3K, the local dealership told me that it was Landrover UK's policy not to offer loan cars when these imports come in for servicing etc. Despite close questioning, the salesman stated this as the only disadvntage.
H
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I have seen a few Vauxhall main dealers offering silly money off new Vectras and demonstrators with 1500miles for £11K, didn't take notice of spec as I don't want one yet.
Was going to buy a Mazda pickup imported from Cyprus, then found out they fit air con,but no heater, no airbags, and the spec otherwise is not up to EU standard. How do these guys get away with it? or are we being conned?
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BeetleFreak - there is no 'EU' standard spec for car manufacturers. EU countries have different specs on the same car. In Ireland the new Audi A3 has a different entry level spec to a UK one and some options in the UK are not available in Ireland.
As for the Vectra I'd be looking for an ex dealer demo with less than 5,000 on the clock. Same saving but less hassle with insurance, warranty etc.
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Bought my vectra from Motorpoint Derby and got an excellent deal.
On my first trip to a Vauxhall dealer to buy something the reception asked me if the car was registered? with Vauxhall.
I told him I didn't know and he asked if I had the documents with me and did it there and then.
A while afterwards I rang customer service for a vauxhall/Opel Europe dealership list. They checked I was registered and sent a superb 100 page manual listing every dealer in Europe complete with an excellent Europe Atlas as part of it.
At the same time a friend bought a new Ranault Laguna from Motorpoint.
I was talking about this to one of the Directors there and he said that his was part of a Cyprus order. However he said they hadn't actually been to Cyprus but had been diverted into the UK for some reason and this was quite common.
So whether they are actually classed as imports from outside the EU seems doubtful
alvin
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please remember that some insurance companies will not cover imports from outside e.u.
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I think I probably heard it here first, but I think some imports from cyprus don't have any rustproofing.
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I think I probably heard it here first, but I think some imports from cyprus don't have any rustproofing.
Limes
I very much doubt that this is true
ALL cars produced at a factory will go through the same production process. OK they may have different specs etc fitted but rustproofing is in the initial preparation of the bodyshell and its associated panels (doors, wings etc).
It would be wholly uneconomic for the manufacturer to apply different pre paint protection processes to body parts destined for different countries for the following reasons.
1) You would need to invest in more than one production line, or control which batches of parts went through one process and which did not - a logistical nightmare to save a few quid on a small percentage of components.
2) Applying the same process offering maximum protection to all body panels produced gives the manufacturer more flexability to change production at short notice for any market rather than limit themselves to certain regions.
Whilst the fitted accessories may vary from country to country, the processes used to manufacture them will always be to the same standards.
H
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I think it is possible but unlikely, especially in this case.
Where I might expect it would be from Japanese manufacturers that sell completely different models, or out of completely different plants for different markets. Cyprus could then be treated like an African market and sold hot climate vehicles built to the lowest possible cost.
Even then there is no guarantee that it would happen. For a car that is overwhelmingly sold in the EU, and manufactured there exclusively, it is hugely unlikely that there is any difference whatsoever in the standards of assembly, because as Hugo says, it would involve serious logistical difficulties and less flexibility when shifting production between markets.
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It would definitely be worth checking the insurance situation with your broker/company. As said earlier, some (if not most) will not deal with NON EU imports. One or two companies refused to deal with my personally imported Toyota's, from Belgium/Holland. There remains confusion and mis-information with insurers about spec.s and countries of origin etc. but irrespective of who's right and wrong, if an insurer won't insure you, you're in trouble.
KB.
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About 10-12 years ago I was doing some work for Ford and had cause to visit the Koln HQ (Germany). I was very surprised to find that assembly specs. for cars destined for UK and German markets were different. E.g. cars assembled for Germany had more spot-welds on the the sill flanges and bigger washer reservoir!! (there were many other small differences too, can't remember now though).
That may have changed in the intervening period though, but I still suspect there are more differences than you would expect.
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PS - forgot to note the car I was talking about above was the *Escort*
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