Now this in danger of being a silly question so please bear with me. I have owned a Ford Mondeo Ghia X diesel estate for nearly four years. It seems that I am the third owner. It was first registered in February 02. The V5 has the last owners name and the service book has the original owner's details. Idly thumbing through the service book I notice that the pre-delivery inspection was carried out by a Ford dealership in Antwerp.
It would appear never to have been registered anywhere but the UK but this little anomaly puzzles me. I know there was a trend some years ago for buying RHD cars through continental dealers and shipping them here to save money but if that is the case with mine would it have been registered in Antwerp first and then imported or could it have been delivered direct to the UK or something ?
Not important to me now as it is very far on in its life in mileage terms and any value implications can only be marginal now as it is either worth very little or perhaps not a lot. :-(
I may well just keep it until it will no longer function but if I were to sell it does this detail have any relevance ?
Just curious really to know what this wee clue might tell me about its childhood.
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 26/11/2008 at 20:47
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I would have thought that it was bought through a continental dealer and shipped here before registration. Check the log book, if it was previously registered overseas it will say so in the notes. All new cars state on the log book "Declared new at first registration by Importing Dealer/Concessionare." If it's a personal import, it would say "Vehicle previously registered/used overseas."
I wouldn't have thought it would make any difference to the value of the car anyway, and
shouldn't really deter a potential buyer
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Thanks CC. I'm looking at the V5/log book as I type. It only says "declared new at first registration". Nothing even hints at any non-UK previous life. Like I said, I don't really need to know but this just made me curious really. I expect this is why it has been so reliable, special upmarket european edition I imagine....
;-)
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The car was built in Belgium though. That might explain it. Genk I think.
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At least it will have been PDI'd properly HB ;-)
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I think it must have been. I know I bend on about it but I really have never had such a reliable car ( touches fake wood Ikea computer desk and salutes imaginary magpie ) I have had it since it had about 35K on it and has now got north of 150k on it and in my time the only failure has been one dipped beam bulb which cost me buttons to buy and a few minutes to replace. It has only ever been to my local indy for servicing but has never once given me any grief. I'm really very fond of it and although I have semi-retired it now I'm a bit reluctant to part with it. I may just keep it until it has some sort of terminal problem. It deserves a pampered old age I think....
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Absolutely, HB. I tend to hang on to my cars, I must suffer from favourite slippers syndrome or something....
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favourite slippers syndrome
I think you have the nail on the head there. Although I have another, younger and possibly slightly better car as well now, I still sort of gravitate to the old one a lot. It does indeed seem to fit me like a favourite pair of shoes/jeans/slippers. Difficult to conceive how it would be possible to become so attached to such a car but there it is.....
Middle aged men are supposed to be into swoopy coupes or wig lifting convertibles aren't they ? I have a soft spot for my old Mondeo. Not sure what that indicates......
;-)
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Middle aged men are supposed to be into swoopy coupes or wig lifting convertibles aren't they ?
So they say, HB. I treated myself to a mid-life crisis swoopy coupe a few years ago but can't bear to part with it. At least with an old Mondeo you don't need to keep the windows up and the radio turned up so you can't hear people laughing ;-)
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I saw a Mondeo the other day on an 07 plate which had an Antwerp dealer name either on the rear plate or just underneath.
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Undoubtedly an EU "parallel import".
Probably bought through a car supermarket like Motorpoint or MotorDepot. They are sourced via an EU dealer who does the PDI. Then shipped over to the UK and registered. The V5 will still say 'new at first registration' (or words to that effect). It will only say something different if the car was previously REGISTERED in a foreign country.
I got my Subaru like that last year (over 30% less than UK list) and the only way you'd know it was a so-called 'import' is if you checked the PDI stamp in the book, no other signs. Local dealer has been very good and did a warranty repair without question - apparently they service lots of imports, even now they are quite common on '58 reg. Check out MotorDepot.co.uk - they're still selling EU Subaru's. Skodas etc etc.
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its a euro import for sure.my last golf a 2001 tdi was exactly the same though PDI done in amsterdam at a vw dealers. most likely imported new due to the huge savings at the time due to tax differences in eu countries. I saved nearly £3000 on list and when it was 6 yrs old i came to trade it in at a vw dealers in glasgow they didnt even notice. Great car too
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The car supermarket theory has some credence in so far as the reg plates are stamped with the "Fords of Winsford" logo.
Interesting, thanks all.
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Yes, it must be like discovering that maiden aunt , so prim & proper in her dotage, was a BlueBell girl in the 1950s or somesuch. To know your car, once thought to be the son of dreary Dagenham, is, in fact, a slightly saucy import with perhaps a piquant story or two to tell. Vive le difference, I say!
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Quite right woodbines. I shall now persuade myself that the slightly odd aroma it has always had is the result of an early exposure to continental tobacco smoke and fine coffee rather than the ghostly vestiges of the scruffy damp mongrel I had suspected must once have inhabited its loadspace.......
;-)
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 27/11/2008 at 11:02
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" slightly saucy import with perhaps a piquant story or two to tell"
From Belgium? I doubt it - a pasty-faced, slightly stocky individual who eats chips with mayonnaise and smokes incessantly, while drinking Stella Artois.
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.....and who may well have had a dog of indeterminate lineage.
Won't hear another word against it. It may be a humble machine with a potentially seedy past but it has matured gracefully and now deserves respect.
;-)
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 27/11/2008 at 11:25
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In short YES .. a lot of stuff from Europe back then.
If reg doc has a few bits of info missing then also a sign.
At this age it dont make a difference.
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Thanks Eddy. Seems that someone spared it the indignity of spending its life having to wear red numberplates and towing a caravan. Perhaps its unremitting reliability is its inanimate form of thanks.
;-)
Curiousity satisfied, thanks for all the replies.
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All this talk of the land of moules-frites and thirst quenching beers got me thinking...
IIRC, British Leyland had a Belgian assembly plant some years ago.
Any backroomers got some juicy kiss-and-tell tales of a "grey" imported Allegro Special they'd like to share with us? :-)
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>>Favourite slippers
Perhaps this explains why I am so reluctant to swap my recalcitrant Vectra. Favourite slippers that have a bit of a hole in them.
Incidentally, it also came from Fords of Winsford when my father bought it.
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Probably is a Euro spec import, only thing that could (maybe?) cause a problem is if you dont declare it on your insurance.
Not sure whether it will have any effect on the insurance price, dont think er indoors Pug is any more expensive being an import, and as someone else has stated is easy to spot on the V5 because there are missing details, ie the Pug just says blue 2 litre diesel, nothing about S, SE, Rapier, XS etc
CBG
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Well you see that's the mystery CBG. The V5 is complete and I have discussed the odd entry in the service book with my insurers and they say it checks out OK as a UK car. Must be as someone above said, imported before registration.
Anyway, I now know what the vague smell is, it's not wet mongrel after all, it's 6.5 year old mussels and chips.........
;-)
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The info on the V5 is down to the person who filled in the original paperwork - its quite possible to have a 'UK' car that has bits of info missing on the V5 !!
No difference on the insurance. If the car is to UK spec (which the vast majority of RHD cars coming in from the EU are) then there is no problem. Basically I think the vast majority of so-called 'EU imports' and just UK RHD models sold through a European dealer to get the car into the country at lower cost. There is a big difference between a 'parallel import' and a 'grey import'. A 'grey' is a model not sold here - e.g. Japanese market car. The greys usually have to go through SVA or ESVA.
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We have got to ask ourselves, 'where do the very large but NON main dealers source their new cars from in order to knock them out preferable prices than the sometimes greedy main dealers'
Answer: other european countries, esspecially Belgium, Holland.
I believe this was big business around 2002 when this particular car was new as well as other years but less so today because of the weakening £ verses the Euro & the current financial climate where UK mail dealers have to do the best deal possible to sell anything.
It will be a 100% UK spec car & ordered as that in Belgium, then transported to the selling UK dealer to sell as an exact car that could have been bought from a main dealer.
redils
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There was a steady trade in buying new cars in Ireland to avail of our lower pre-tax prices too (more than compensated for by our VAT and VRT rates!). VW certainly tried to knock this on the head by naming Irish models (Comfortline, Trendline etc) where UK models were designated S, SE etc.
Wasn't there also a run of people taking cars back to Belgium or Holland for service (especially on the extended intervals) and stocking up at the hypermarket on the way home to make the most of their ferry fare?
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There is still a trade in 'EU-import' cars. In 2007 I bought my UK-spec Subaru for over 1/3-less than the best UK dealer quote. It was even done as a factory order for me (so I could choose paint and options) and came with all the factory assembly paperwork, Cert. of Conformity and shipping documents.
A friend recently bought an EU-import VW Golf GTi (via Malta) and even with a weakened £ it was still around £2k less than the Drive The Deal price and to exact UK spec. But I guess the weaker £ means the import agents can't make much profit and all car sales are badly down so probably it will die a death by the end of the year.
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We were getting ?1.45 to £1.00 six months ago, and now it's down to ?1.17 : £1.00, so I guess that's clobbered any opportunity to save money.
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