Imported cars,

[Vista Estate]

2 hours ago, Miniliteman said:

Didn't think anything has changed for people from Australia buying in UK, and for sending parts from UK to Australia. Maybe he just can't be bothered. But he still imports Escorts by the truckload from EU!

Importing is easier.

Exporting has gained a truck load of paper.

Bureaucracy gone mad. Bloody idiot politicians.

[Miniliteman]

2 hours ago, Vista Estate said:

Exporting has gained a truck load of paper.

For cars or for parts as well?

[Vista Estate]

3 hours ago, Miniliteman said:

For cars or for parts as well?

Both 🤨

[The Transplanter]

On 15/12/2023 at 08:54, Vista Estate said:

If you fast forward to now, British cars are always of a lower spec than European equivalents. We pay higher prices too. 

A few of us ordered RHD cars from European dealers when you could do that, drove it back and got a much better car. They only tell tail was if you wanted a vauxhall you got a opel. 

I did have a 1980 RS2000 Custom and a MK1 Golf GTi from Belgium in the 80s, on those particular cars the specs were identical to the UK. Although I have seen many differences on modern stuff.

 

[Miniliteman]

1 hour ago, Vista Estate said:

Both 🤨

Companies like Burton Power don't seem to be affected by more paperwork, if you buy parts from them from outside UK they won't charge you UK VAT (automaticly).

[katana]

2 hours ago, The Transplanter said:

I did have a 1980 RS2000 Custom and a MK1 Golf GTi from Belgium in the 80s, on those particular cars the specs were identical to the UK. Although I have seen many differences on modern stuff.

If you see a car advert these days that is obviously filmed in Europe there will be small print declaring 'specification shown not available in UK' - pointless bloody advert then ain't it!

[Rally Pack 2000]

3 hours ago, katana said:

If you see a car advert these days that is obviously filmed in Europe there will be small print declaring 'specification shown not available in UK' - pointless bloody advert then ain't it!

We get that all the time now that we dont build cars here anymore. We get many European left hand drive adverts with a tiny fine print you can barely read that says not the model thats available here. Then the model we do get barely looks like the one in the adverts apart from a vague similarity.

[The Transplanter]

11 hours ago, katana said:

If you see a car advert these days that is obviously filmed in Europe there will be small print declaring 'specification shown not available in UK' - pointless bloody advert then ain't it!

In the 90's I was marketing manager & product analyst for two different car manufactures in the UK. The UK market would chose the specs and options from a list given by the manufacturer, which would be completely different to any other country, so that's why you have the differences. When I worked for FIAT Auto UK. Sometimes if the Asian markets were slow, cars destined for them would get re-directed to the UK, these were generally always higher spec than standard UK models and also were available in different colours! But on the flip side, when I worked for Volkswagen GB they would do the same with South African built Golfs & Passats, that were of a lower spec compared to UK models.

In the early 2000s I used to import new Alfa Romeo 156's, GTV's & Spiders from Germany, I used to order the options to match the UK spec cars as it made them easier to sell, Although I ordered all GTV's with the UK optional "Aero Pack" as they looked so much better with them.

Yes the ads seem pointless, but they are now all European or World adverts to save on costs, gone are the UK based ads 

[Miniliteman]

1 hour ago, The Transplanter said:

, gone are the UK based ads 

You mean ads like these?