Has anyone got any experience of buying imported cars from car supermarkets?  I finally passed my driving test after 4 attempts and approx 140 lessons and am now wanting to buy a honda jazz.  the cheapest place to buy them seems to be the 'supermarket' style places e.g. motorpoint or jamjar and places like that and I feel that there has to be a catch somewhere as they often knock thousands off the price compared to traditional dealerships.  If anyone has any experience - good or bad can you please share it with me as I turn into a total bimbo when it comes to cars.  thanks in advance

I haven't had any experience with any car supermarket, but the reason they can knock so much off the price from a dealership, is because the taxes and VAT's are just so much lower in the other countries, so even with the cost of importing them, it still leaves a good saving to be had. Also, the manufacturers know they can just get away with charging so much more in this country, because we buy them!!!

I haven't heard any horror stories of people buying from a supermarket, although I am sure there are, just as there will be with any company.

Good luck :D

Read the warranty you get very carefully, in the UK 99% of the car is covered by the warranty(excludes things like wear & tear items like windscreen wipers, tyres etc), the warranty on foreign cars is no were near as comprehensive

I know some one who bought a grey market Ford Focus & saved £1,500, then something major went wrong & it wasn't covered by the warranty & it cost him nearly £2,000 to put right so he ended up losing overall

Re MM's post, my hubbie has said one of his work mates bought an Audi TT from Germany, imported it himself with a saving of £4000 on English list price, BECAUSE it was an English spec car (i.e. right hand drive etc.) after a phone call to Audi UK, he can now take his car for all of the warrenty aspects you would expect from an English car, obviously you would have to look into it very carefully before you imported/bought a foreign car, but there seems there are ways around this situation :D

I looked into buying an Audi a while ago.  The only difference (besides price) was that the import from the car supermarket came with a 2-year warantee rather than the 3-year warantee from a regular UK dealer.  I've known several people who have bought from the supermarkets and they've had no problems.

Stacey

thanks for all the info, much appreciated.  I'm torn between being too tight to pay full price and also wanting the security of having someone to complain to and know that any faults will be sorted without too much fuss.

I bought mine from a car supermarket.I saved 4 and a half thousand pounds on mine.
Its a Ford Focus 1.8 tddi Ghia Estate.I love the car.
It had 4 miles on the clock when we got it.We are classed as second owner.
I don't understand how they can't sell them that cheap.I was told it was registered in Spain.My logbook shows it registered in Stourbridge.
I don't think my car has ever been out of this country.
It has the same warranty as if I had bought it from ford dealer in uk.It goes to the Ford dealer for service and everything.
Norwhich Union insurance sell cars.Take a look at theres.
Hope this helps.
Dog

Your warranty is 100% valid as if you bought it here.

Hi I bought a new Zafira from Motorpoint. Point the UK version and got FULL Manufacturers warranty. I paid nearly £5000 less that the UK Vauxhall dealer.  Bought it from them and get my local Vauxhall dealer to do the servicing. I had a small prob with my alternator a few months ago and got the full service and treatment like I had bought the car from them.

Make sure you know what you get for the deal is all I advice.

I am about to ( well 75%) buy another new one from Motorpoint if they can get the one I want in. Again about £5000 less.

I do such high mileage I feel I have to be careful with the inital purchase price.

BTW if you buy the UK version it doe NOT affect the resale value of the car.

thanks for all the info.  Motorpoint have a wee silver jazz in just now for £1200 less than the usual list price so I think I'm going to take the plunge and go for it.  thanks again

I haven't tried that but I did get £3000 off the list price at my Renault main dealer ealier this year by just sitting there until I got what I wanted!!!

You can always go to the main dealers and haggle if all else fails. They may not quite be able to match the likes of Motorpoint, but may well make up for it with extras.