AliJay Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 Sorry to say I found Select less than select in their service. When I phoned them there was no one who could take my call and having left my number, no one bothered to call me back. Needless to say I didn't bother calling them again, I can get that sort of service from my local Stealer thanks very much. On the other hand, in my experience, Richard at Euro Imports never failed to return a call, or keep a promise he made - even if this meant on one occasion sending me an email at 9:30pm on a Sunday night. As you can choose the exact spec' of the car you want from Euro Imports and they then go and source the car for you, I think it's fairer to say their role is far more that of broker than importer. Yes, they do order some cars speculatively that can be bought from stock, but so do Select. One last thing, I'm not sure how Select work the final payment, but I really liked the fact I only handed over the balance (via Debit Card) once I'd checked the car over and not a second before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mu71rd Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 Select and Euroimports are both very small companies, and whilst that suits me (being a small company owner amongst the big boys), it does mean they don't have the infrastructure that a large dealership would have. I had a similar situation with quotes with them both, but in the end Shaun at Select chased me hard, and Richard wasn't so responsive. In response to nutkins point, yes I was worried about having to pay in Euros etc and the fluctation of the currency. But actually it's really easy, and I think Select were sufficiently cheaper than Euroimports at the time that there was no chance the currency would fall enough for me to lose out. I did like the 'one price' from Euroimports, but with hindsight, it was nice to have an invoice from VW directly, showing me itemised costs in Euros, and the Select fee at the bottom. Seems bizarrely honest if you ask me. Anyway, as I said earlier you're pretty safe with both options. Each method has it's advantages/disadvantages. I think from the scouring that I did, these are the best two options available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathansargent Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 I have posted earlier my experiences. I am ordering a shadow blue 5dr with cruise and CD autoch. from Motor Depot (allbrandsnew) for £18201 on the road with one year tax. I am assured the car is to full UK spec. and I will be the first registered owner. I checked the price of exactly this spec car through the select website - it is £18939 - still a whole lot better than the UK dealer price of £21500 - but £700+ more than Motor Depot. I am collecting the car from Motor Depot on 11 Feb - less than four weeks after ordering. True I had no choice of options (I would have put a highline on it) - but that would have been it. I even got the metallic paint for the same price as non-metallic, though I only had a choice of black (drop dead gorgeous but hard to keep clean in my experience) or silver. Red had gone - much to my wife's delight as she doesn't like the red - sorry guys with red ones!! I will keep folks posted as to what I think of Motor Depot - all I can say is that the guy I have dealt with Matt, has been very helpful. The car will carry Yorkshire plates in Sussex - but hey I'm not a northernist!! They are even supplying it with GB plates as it will spend quite a bit of its life in France. To me, buying a German car, to be used in England and France is what the EU should be all about. And along the way, the monopoly of VW UK gets sidestepped. Please don't get me wrong, VW dealers are no different to any other - lovely showrooms, free coffee, acres of glass, wood and carpet everywhere; lovely decor and nice furnishings and lots of helpful salespeople with PCs, brochures, colour samples, test drives and office workers - but who is paying for all this? I am so looking forward to my Golf - if it lives up to half the reviews and praise it gets in this forum - I will be delighted. All strength to this forum which I have found really useful since I discovered it - another triumph for Google! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mu71rd Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 yes exactly. whichever way you do it there's an element of more risk, but it's worth it. I'd still be driving my 6 yr old Peugeot 206 GTi if UK dealers were the only option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spankit Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 [ QUOTE ] a little word of warning...I had a GTI on order from Allbrandsnew myself, but then I started getting a little nervous that they couldn't be straight with me about the full uk spec. one sales person told me it wouldn't have an alarm, the other said it did. They never actually GUARANTEED it was full uk spec, even when I asked them to, and what they also don't tell you initially, is that the car is ordered from Malta, and I'm pretty sure it's not from the VW Germany factory. Those things combined were enough for me to get worried, and place my order elsewhere. I didn't have a problem with Euroimports, but it just happend that Shaun at Select was quicker to respond, and also cheaper. [/ QUOTE ] I can garantee allbrandsnew.co.uk come from germany, and are full uk spec a mate got one from them. The advantage of allbrandsnew is no fecking about with currency/currency exchange rates no fecking about with customs, no fecking about with large deposits etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathansargent Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Thnaks for the info Spankit. When i have got mine I will post a full report on MotorDepot/allbrands new here for anyone who is interetsed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMC950 Posted January 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Lots of positive feedback from all the importer/brokers then. Good to hear. I gather that you can 'fix' the final cost of the car and therefore insure yourself against exhange rate changes, with Select, for an aditional 350 quid. Perhaps the other companies simply include this from the outset? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 By the time you have taken out these extras such as insurance, a much heavier deposit, and then you have no reliable idea of when your car will be built, plus it's much more difficult to track and get responses from some of these dealers, I do wonder if it's worth it. Don't forget you'd be wise to buy the third warranty year....another £500? And what happens if they go bust? I'm glad to read that some here have been very satisfied but as someone who was a serious purchaser (for a new R32) I'm not at all impressed. No calls returned to this day! Better the devil you know than the one you don't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mu71rd Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 yes but then look at what happened to Leman. Not sure what the 'much heavier deposit' is, and I can't speak for the others, but if select were to go bust, you still have the written contract with VW Germany. Hence why it's useful to pay them directly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spankit Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 [ QUOTE ] yes but then look at what happened to Leman. Not sure what the 'much heavier deposit' is, and I can't speak for the others, but if select were to go bust, you still have the written contract with VW Germany. Hence why it's useful to pay them directly. [/ QUOTE ] With allbrandsnew.co.uk you pay £500 deposit, and only pay the balance once fully satisfied with the car. Pay the £500 on a card and your coverd by visa/master/whoever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathansargent Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Good point Spankit. In fact with Motor Depot it was £250 on the card.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spankit Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Sorry think it is £250 on the card with albrandsnew too. My mistake... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mu71rd Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 it is £250. that's what I had to sacrifice when I cancelled my manual GTI order with them, to make the DSG order with Select. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ballistic Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Put simply, I am about to place an order for a 3dr Gti with DSG, Leather, 18" and a sunroof. Ordinarily that's a 24K car, but I've got 21. So whats the best solution in terms of the combination of risk, value, delivery times and residual values... ps. I intend to keep the car for 3 years and sell privately at the end. Options are: 1. Reduce the spec to 21 and order through VW 2. Buy a nearly new 1 owner from VW Used or other Dealer 3. Buy through Select (Importer) and save 3K... apparently 4. Buy from supermarket like motorpoint/motorprovider. Have to take what spec they've got but probably save 2K [/ QUOTE ] IMO you will be lucky to find your ideal spec. at a car supermarket. The only ones I've seen advertised have been basic cloth, manual, 17" cars (someone said the ones at Motorpoint were to Cyprus spec, don't know how you tell and if this is true) Don't give up on negotiating with UK dealers, there are some deals to be had at this quite time of year. I got 4.2% of list which was £23585 including extras, and this was also including a p/ex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathansargent Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 Isn't this just an issue everyone has to find their own way through? I can merely repeat what I have been told and what has been confirmed by others on this forum: motordepot/allbrands new cars are German built to UK specs. They are imported through Holland (hence the cruise) and I think one of the reasons they are cheaper is because you have no options: "That's the spec - take it or leave it!" As I wanted a pretty basic spec car (only the autochanger - with which they are supplied!) then it worked for me. If you want to build to your own spec, I agree that Select offer a good deal. All I know is that it would have cost me £10.5 for a second hand car with 11k miles. Through Motor Depot I get a brand new higher spec car for £9k. In my position it was a no brainer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMC950 Posted February 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 Ok, to update anyone interested. I've done a fair bit of work on this the last few days - as I intend to buy asap. For a Gti with Metallic, DSG, Leather, 18" alloys, Sunroof and Armrest, the VW UK price is 25K OTR. Select will do this car for 21,300 OTR at their quoted exchange rate, which is definately optimistic. At todays rate that my bank would give, this car is 21800 OTR. According to historical data, this could go up or down by 500 quid over the next 3 months. For a bit more hastle, I can go through a bank that specializes in foreign finance exchanges and this involves purchasing the EURO's I need at todays rate, fixed 3 months into the future (so I don't have to pay all now). It would work out about 21,600 OTR doing it this way. There is a fair bit of fannying about with separate invoices for VAT etc, but the advantages are that I will have bought this car from VW (not the importer) and it is the cheapest route, if I can be a$$ed. I have haggled with Euroimports and Allbrandsnew all week. The advantage is that these cars are bought in pounds and not untill you have seen the car. The downside, to get a good price, you need to negotiate to get these people to agree to fix lower on their own exchange rate (for the transaction that they make to Denmark) for the car on your behalf. Euro will do it for 22.2K OTR (down from 22.7K OTR originally) and AllBrands will do it for 22K OTR(down from 22.4K OTR). Both these cars come with cruise control as standard (because Danish spec is same as UK spec with cruise) - they say this is a free bonus item - I say its paid for, or they could do it 250 quid cheaper... That said, these routes are hastle free but the Invoice will be from the Importer, making things slightly less honest, when I come to sell. All in all its looking like Select are likely to come 400 cheaper than AllBrandsnew and for that 400 I have to do a bit of paperwork. And I might not make that saving but at least the car would be from a VW dealer, albeit German... As you can see, there aint much in it when it comes down to it. Save for Motorprovider, who haven't got back to me yet, the service has been great from all so far. I'll be ordering the car in the next week. All I will say is that this is definately the way to go in my opinion, its a 3K saving whatever way you shake it. There are year old used same spec cars with 15K miles going on VW site for 25K FFS!!!! Why would you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spankit Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 I like the £250 deposit and if the car is not 100% thats the least you are going to loose. Do not like coughing up a large deposit, having the car in the uk and a dealer in germany if something needs fixing! (imagine a scratched 18" monza: german dealer "was fine when it left us". Select "was not us". Transport company "not us") feck that for a game of pig-in-the-middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ballistic Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 You should be able to get a discount from a UK dealer of around £1k of a £25k list price otr if you negotiate well. This helps to narrow the gap. I agree with CMC950 that the money being asked by some dealers for nearly new, demonstrators etc with a few thousand miles on them is currently to close to list. You might as well pay a few hundred more to get a new car to your ideal spec which is what I have done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petsy Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 I would be surprised if you could get a £1K discount from any dealer atm... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mu71rd Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 for what it's worth - I used select's recommended currency broker - halofinancial - who gave me a very competetive exchange rate, and were incredibly helpful. I think they'll always better rates than your bank. I basically rang them and said I didn't know anything, and he made things very easy. Just set the account up, transfer them the money when you need to, and it's done. They handle transferring to the German bank accounts. if you do decide to do that - I would recommend you don't buy the currency in advance. Perhaps I'm a risktaker, but basically when I fixed my currency it then went really high (in a good way for me), and then came back down again, during my 12 weeks. I could have done a spot purchase at the high rate and saved a few hundred pounds. all very well with hindsight of course, but if you fancy a risk or two, it can be quite interesting to see how the currency goes up and down. what rate are you seeing at the moment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhs Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 You can certainly get >£700 off on a new UK car at new car discount. And probably upto £K1 with shopping around - but still scarce bargains! http://www.new-car-discount.com/cgi-bin/cardetail.cgi?carID=2113 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neimad Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 [ QUOTE ] You can certainly get >£700 off on a new UK car at new car discount. And probably upto £K1 with shopping around - but still scarce bargains! http://www.new-car-discount.com/cgi-bin/cardetail.cgi?carID=2113 [/ QUOTE ] You may be waiting a while... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muppetboy Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 [ QUOTE ] I would be surprised if you could get a £1K discount from any dealer atm... [/ QUOTE ] I agree. When I walked in to the dealership the first thing the guy said was "there's no discount on the GTI so don't even bother". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhs Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Indeed, may be waiting a long time, but you can always print it out and see when you can get one at the local dealer and if they'll match/beat the price..... The whole ordering business seems bizarre to me - my local dealership sold two R32s at £K2 more than list when they came out! And the same dealership is quoting 12 months delivery for a R32 DSG and up to 6 months for a GTI DSG - with no discount. The neighbouring dealership will supply a new R32 to specification within 26 weeks - still seems an age. So an import, with 8-12 weeks (if that really happens!) cheaper might be the way to go. But as spankit says, if you have a damaged product, then you are in difficulties.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathansargent Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 If you have damaged goods - don't close the deal..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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