Anyone used Motorpoint?

Mr.Generous

I bought an Astra SRI from motorpoint a few years ago, it was an import from Cyprus, full uk spec car as they drive on the left and Cyprus is such a small market they just get uk models. It was a bargain, no regrets whatsoever. When I px'd it for my next car I got the same trade in as you would for a uk sourced car. I once tried to get a deal from a VW dealer and they wouldn't budge on price. With sales down 18% at the moment it might be a good time to visit a VW dealer and see how the cookie crumbles.

motorguy

Mr.Generous wrote: »

I bought an Astra SRI from motorpoint a few years ago, it was an import from Cyprus, full uk spec car as they drive on the left and Cyprus is such a small market they just get uk models. It was a bargain, no regrets whatsoever. When I px'd it for my next car I got the same trade in as you would for a uk sourced car. I once tried to get a deal from a VW dealer and they wouldn't budge on price. With sales down 18% at the moment it might be a good time to visit a VW dealer and see how the cookie crumbles.

Surely it would have been badged an Opel?

15% off Golfs etc has been common for quite some time with VWs.

Having said that, i got a 9 month old Golf 1.6 TDI S 5 door with metallic paint back in early 2013 for £12,600 from a VW dealer when a new one was retailing at a fraction over £20K, so nearly new might be better if your looking a common or garden VW and nothing fancy.

bigjl

motorguy wrote: »

Surely it would have been badged an Opel?

15% off Golfs etc has been common for quite some time with VWs.

Having said that, i got a 9 month old Golf 1.6 TDI S 5 door with metallic paint back in early 2013 for £12,600 from a VW dealer when a new one was retailing at a fraction over £20K, so nearly new might be better if your looking a common or garden VW and nothing fancy.

Trade Sales in Slough where prosecuted by Trading Standards for selling Opels as Vauxhalls, they advertised them as Vauxhalls but I am fairly certain they never changed the steering wheel badges.

Having an Opel instead of a Vauxhall would make little difference to me as long as it was declared properly.

bigjl

motorguy wrote: »

Just did a bit of checking there - there were differences in safety specs of non UK Subarus at that time - for example in relation to the number of airbags, etc.

Also, cars imported from Belgium for example didnt have the same level of rust proof sealant underneath as UK cars got.

His was from Cyprus if I remember correctly.

They didn't come as standard with a drivers airbag but they could be optioned with it, which was why he never had a Momo wheel.

I did mention the fact he had a different wheel previously.

xHannahx

motorguy wrote: »

Surely it would have been badged an Opel?
.

Cyprus and Malta have both Opel and Vauxhall.

Brother has a Fiat from Motorpoint in Newport and is very satisfied. His is ex hire car I believe, but in 12 months has been trouble free.

motorguy

bigjl wrote: »

His was from Cyprus if I remember correctly.

They didn't come as standard with a drivers airbag but they could be optioned with it, which was why he never had a Momo wheel.

So he drove around with a car lacking in key safety features to save a few £££? :eek:

bigjl wrote: »

I did mention the fact he had a different wheel previously.

But failed to mention it was because it was missing an airbag. :eek:

Overall, as i said, he paid probably a couple of thousand less - which seems to be typical once you look beyond the "headline figures" of RRP against import price.

If its worth the potential different spec, possible different safety kit, possible different rust proofing and possible problems come resale time for somebody thats great, but it wouldnt be for me

motorguy

xHannahx wrote: »

Cyprus and Malta have both Opel and Vauxhall.

Brother has a Fiat from Motorpoint in Newport and is very satisfied. His is ex hire car I believe, but in 12 months has been trouble free.

I'd have no issues with buying a used or ex lease car from a Car Supermarket if the price was right - in fact we bought our 370Z through a car supermarket for an easy £4K saving over any other dealer price across the UK on autotrader at the time.

Likewise, my previous Golf TDI was an ex lease car bought through a main dealer.

I'd probably have no issues with an import either IF the actual saving was very considerable.

motorguy

bigjl wrote: »

Trade Sales in Slough where prosecuted by Trading Standards for selling Opels as Vauxhalls, they advertised them as Vauxhalls but I am fairly certain they never changed the steering wheel badges.

Having an Opel instead of a Vauxhall would make little difference to me as long as it was declared properly.

It used to be very common here in Northern Ireland as dealers brought them in from the Republic of Ireland - they're Opel down there, but Vauxhall in the North and the rest of the UK.

Wouldnt particularly bother me either, but you are exposing yourself more to price variance come resale time. But if you're confident you're buying right in the first place....

Bewar3them00n

Just bought a 6 month old C4 Cactus 1.2 Puretech Flair for £11000, about £1500 cheaper than its value on Parkers.
Was reccommend them by a family friend who buys his cars from there.
Can't complain about customer service, they weren't pushy, tried it with Gap insurance etc. But didn't carry on once I said I'll come back to you on that.
Drove it away same day.
I did tend to find that I knew more about the cars I was interested in than they did, but I'd done my homework!

bigjl

motorguy wrote: »

I would be extremely surprised if a WRX was £22,000 in 07. We gave £19995 for our ProDrive modded WRX-S new in 2010. From memory - and i remember because i very nearly bought in Jan 2007 an STI which were £26995 - the WRX at that point was £19,995.

Effectively Subaru have given £4,000 discount off their current WRX STI as they've price dropped it from £32,995 that it was a couple of years ago to £28,995.

Likewise if you can find an importer knocking £6,000 off that price, let me know.

EDIT : Just checked Parkers there, the Impreza WRX was £20K in 2007, not £22K, so your £6K saving was actually £4K, and i'd save you'd have got 10% off a UK car at the time anyway (just like you can on an Impreza or a BRZ right now if you check broadspeed), so you're back to saving £2K for having an import - which is bang on back to what i said in the first place.

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/prices/used/subaru/impreza/saloon-2005/32935/?yearplate=84

I bought a Brand New UK Spec WRX in January 2004 and it was just over £22k, that included lifetime tracker though.

So yes in 2007 a WRX was indeed around £22k, probably slightly more.

If Parkers actually bought a WRX then I will believe them.

I actually bought one, my mates son compared like for like at the time.

When did you buy your brand new WRX?

How much did you pay?

10% discount on a WRX back then? Seriously? They could sell as many as they could import. Would you expect to get the same discount off a GT-R or Evo?