I\'ve been thinking about getting myself a new car for the motorway commute to work.
I\'d been thinking about the Skoda Octavia diesel, in either hatchback or estate format.
Motorpoint (www.motorpoint.co.uk) have the 1.9 TDi Ambiente 5dr hatchback from £9,999 and the estate from £10,299 with delivery mileage. Other online brokers seem to be talking more in the region of £12,000 to £13,000 for these models.
So, on the face of it, it looks a cracking deal. My worry is, when a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is?
I noticed the following quote on their website:
\"Same Vehicles, Different Price
Our new vehicles are sourced from mainland Europe and Ireland (as is the stock at some offical dealers). Each and every car is right-hand drive, display speeds in mph and built to a European specification which conforms to UK standards. To guarantee this, an official Certificate of Conformity is supplied with each vehicle.\"
Does this mean the cars are produced to an inferior spec? Or are they effectively the same car I\'d be getting from a Skoda dealer?
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Although I don't know about the individual cars, it is my understanding that Motorpoint Skodas are Irish spec, which usually means quite a bit less kit (e.g., no rear wash/wipe). They'll be substantially the same car, of course, in terms of mechanics, driveability, and so on, but there may be cosmetic and trim differences. But the only way to find out is to go and see, if you possibly can.
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Can't speak for Skoda but the Mondeo I purchased back in '01 was the same in every way to those supplied by the dealer- except it was 25% cheaper.
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Colleague has a motorpoint Citroen C5. It has full uk spec.
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"Each and every car is right-hand drive, displays speeds in mph and built to a European specification which conforms to UK standards". Conforms to UK standards, this is not the same as "Is built to and matches the standard UK specification" - or is it?
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Yeah Armitage, that was what concerned me. It looks like DavidHM has confirmed they may be UK legal but not necessarily full UK spec.
I wil try to get along to my closest Motorpoint and have a look.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
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The spec may be equivalent, but often, these car supermarket cars have subtle tell-tales that they were cheap non franchise supplied cars, and these 'clues' will be in Glass's guide so when you chop it in, they'll know you paid £2000 or whatever less, and so give you less. Basically it's the same product for different markets principle.
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My experience of these places is that the spec is the same as UK cars. One way to find out is to check the spec over the phone before you commit to purchase.
The only drawbacks to these otherwise excellent deals are the reduced warranty and the mere fact you don't get to choose trim/colour etc. When I got my Mondeo, they said "we've got a blue one and a grey one" ...and that was about as much choice as I could make!
If you're planning on keeping the car a reasonable length of time, I think it makes for an excellent deal.
Splodgeface
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I hail from Derby and my mother has purchased two Fiesta's from Motorpoint. You'll find the closeness of specification to UK varies hugely depending on the particular model you're looking at. Motorpoint aquire cars from Ireland, Holland, all over in fact. Mum's T-plate Fiesta was from Ireland and to full UK spec, her current 03 Fiesta Ghia is from Holland and is missing the alarm found on UK models, otherwise identical. Have a look around and hope that they've got the car you want in stock - if not and you're worried about spec then quiz the salesman to make sure you actually get the spec you expect!
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I bought my last car from motorpoint, but it was used. Generaly the used stuff they have, mostly less than 12 months old, is UK spec ex hire cars etc. The brand new stuff is usually imported and you do have to check carefully and dont take the salesmans word for it if he tells you its UK spec - get a brochure and check for yourself.
You do alo have to check the deal carefully - some are pretty good, some not so.
I probably wouldnt buy another car from them as they have a distinct attitude of as soon as you have driven off the forecourt they dont want to know, and the PDI they claimed to have carried out on my car before I collected it was a joke - various silly little things I had to sort out afterwards like stereo not being coded, blown bulbs etc nothing major, just iritating having to take the car you have just picked up to a main dealer to get the code for the stereo - takes the edge off the new car experience.
Think next time I will use a broker to try and do a deal with a main agent.
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My 53 reg Galaxy Ghia TDI was purchased new from Motorpoint.
That EXCEEDED UK spec! It was nearly two grand less than the best deal I could get from a UK car broker for the same spec.
Mind you, the warranty is 2 years/unlimited mileage (standard Ford Europe warranty) rather than 3 years/60,000 miles.
The 2 year warranty is better for me - I will have covered 100,000 miles in 2 years!
The UK Ford warranty wouldn't last me much more than a year!!!
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The 2 year warranty is better for me - I will have covered 100,000 miles in 2 years! The UK Ford warranty wouldn't last me much more than a year!!!
I don't know if Fords are the same, but Citroens come with 2 years unlimited mileage and only the 3rd year is restricted as I understand the 3rd year is paid for by the UK dealer network and not by the manufacturer.
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Their terms and conditions, avaivable on the website, says it all. Paragraph 1 states:
"1. Motorpoint specialise in the sale of imported vehicles, The specification of a vehicle may be different to that of other similar vehicles available in the UK."
If the salesman tells you that it is identical to the UK spec get it put down on the invoice, at least that will give you some protection if it turns out later that they made a mistake.
Generally they have a good reputation here in the East Midlands. Their prices tend to fluctuate so you may well have a genuinely good deal.
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Maybe thye're cheap because they are the old model? Octavia will be replaced by new model based on the Golf mark V - but some variants of the old model will continue. New model available in July according to Diesel Car.
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I got along to Motorpoint today.
The estate was 'European' spec, the hatchback 'Irish' spec.
Thanks for the info. Very useful feedback.
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Taking this a step further, are these cars then deemed as being imports. I am thinking of the separate thread that VTiredEyes had regarding his difference to his trade in when they discovered that it was an import?
So when you come to trade in in a few years time, will it be worth less than the equivalent UK supplied? On another note, do insurance companies give less payouts on an import?
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Taking this a step further, are these cars then deemed as being imports.
Yes, even if to full UK spec.
So when you come to trade in in a few years time, will it be worth less than the equivalent UK supplied?
In all likelihood, yes, although how much less will be offered depends on the particular dealer and what car it is. It may also be more difficult to get the best price privately, although the import price is likely to be closer to the UK price to a private purchaser, who is less likely to be aware of any difference in valuation compared to a dealer and, if the car is long since out of warranty, unlikely to care.
Do insurance companies give less payouts on an import?
Probably in the first year or so, if the replacement cost is actually lower than for a UK car. After that, the car's valuation for insurance purposes is based on what it would cost to replace the car, rather than what you would get on selling it, so the insurers would have difficulty in justifying a much reduced valuation. The only exception might be where the purchaser had recently bought the car at a large discount because of its import status, although even then a replacement value cannot require the insured to repeat an exceptionally good bargain that he may have made.
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I have asked this question before. Why are these imports considered to be inferior to UK spec. cars? Is there something intrinsically superior about UK spec. cars? Are the Irish prepared to accept something inferior?
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I think I may have posted this about Motorpoint before but anyway:
My friend had a 'bad' experience with them. You order the car, they call you when it arrives and when you go to pick it up they try (and in her case succeeded) to get you to pay up BEFORE you see the car. Then its in the car and away and if there's any problems after that their not interested.
My friend ended up with 1 key and some trim missing and (her being a soft touch) having chased them for the missing items for a few weeks and getting nowhere bought the items herself and I think we are all aware transponder type keys are not cheap.
Even with the bits she bought it was cheaper than a main dealer but the whole experience left a bad taste for her.
They are all about pushing tin cheap. If this is what you want then fine but I personally would never part with the hard earned until I had fully inspected the car and anything missing would be replaced before I paid.
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I have asked this question before. Why are these imports considered to be inferior to UK spec. cars? Is there something intrinsically superior about UK spec. cars? Are the Irish prepared to accept something inferior?
They overcharge us for new cars in the UK, so they throw in a few small extras as a bit of a sweetener.
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I have asked this question before. Why are these imports considered to be inferior to UK spec. cars? Is there something intrinsically superior about UK spec. cars? Are the Irish prepared to accept something inferior?
Cars in Ireland attract a much higher purchase tax than in the UK, so the spec is usually lower to keep the overall price down.
Also, Ireland has a much higher proportion of private cars (rather than company vehicles). Private buyers tend to be less fussed about the gadgets
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Car dealers will obviously - and perhaps understandably - use any tactic to drive down the value of 'imported' cars. Their hope is that they will create a climate in which these cars are somehow seen as inferior to 'genuine' UK cars and that customers will buy at inflated UK prices.
I have imported lots of cars from Holland and Belgium and you do have to do your homework if you want to get the cars to match UK spec; although some Continental dealers do it for you. RHD Mercedes used to come devoid of many of the major items that were standard in UK.
My last two cars were from Ireland - firstly a Primera GT that was in stock with the Nissan agent and exactly to UK spec. The second was a Golf Gti turbo that I pre-ordered. At that time the standard Irish Spec differed quite a bit from the UK Spec. The main difference - apart from the warranty - was lack of a sunroof on the Irish version. I don't use a sunroof so upgraded the standard(in UK) air conditioning to Climate Control. The Irish car had the larger alloy wheels that were an extra in UK.
SWMBO bought a Yaris Verso from TradeSales that was exactly to UK spec with a couple of minor extras - fire extinguisher and luggage net. It had been imported from Belgium. That car has the standard 3 year warranty.
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Looking at the Motorpoint advert in the paper today, 2 things jump out at me
1. Their small print says that their prices comparison are to UK dealer prices, but in smaller print tell you that their cars are not UK spec.
Surely this must contravene soem sort of advertising code of conduct where they are not comparing like for like products?
2. Their "Boomerang" finance deal is based on an annual mileage of 5000 miles! Does anyone still only do 5000 miles a year???
When you see things like that in adverts it just puts you off - you wonder what else they are hiding?
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They don't appear to be hiding any more than
a) your average franchised car dealer
b) the SMMT
c) car manufacturers
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I agree with LongDriver. Somehow people seem to think that Euro-spec cars are inferior and never to be trusted...They go ok for the Europeans don\'t they? They have no greater chance of breaking down...
Yes, there are disadvantages but, at the discount Motorpoint is offering, you\'ve got to ask whether you want two extra knobs, and one more year\'s guarantee instead of a £5k discount...
I know what I prefer...
Splodgeface
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