Import vs. UK supplied Golf GTI

[Chris_]

Hi,

I am tempted by the discounts available on a new imported GTI but am curious to know if there are differences in the specification that cannot be easily remedied through the options list. In your opinion or experience is the saving likely to be lost when it comes to trying to sell the car in the future, and in the end is it worth the hassle?

[goochie]

Have a look at the Golf forum:

http://uk-mkvs.net/

Whilst it is mainly t MK4 Golf site they have a growing number of MK5 owners there.

[Cem]

I personally think that the residuals should differ when you come to sell the car.

At the end of the day if you were buying a second hand Golf GTi in 3 yrs time and there were two identical car's at the same price but one was an import which would you buy?
I would always expect to pay less for an imported car you can't have your cake and eat it !!!

May I also add, damn fine choice of car.

[MBradbury]

I went down the importing route after having looked at the used UK GTI market, my car was delivered in Nov 06 after a 10wk delivery time. Both an import and UK car cars come off the same production line in Germany, the principal difference is down to warranty. The UK has a 2yr VW warranty and a 1yr dealer warranty, making 3yrs in total, whereas the import only has the 2yr VW warranty. If you sell the car after 3 years the cars are identical.

There are some pretty good savings to be had as well, I speced my car pretty highly and saved over £4k on a UK dealer price.

You pays you money and makes your choice, but if you plan to keep the car a few years it makes sanse to look at the import route to either save on the purchase price or get more goodies for yourself/

[Andy Oh]

I imported a Mk4 Golf GTi Turbo in 1999 (I know it was a few years ago now) but I saved £6,000 on the equivalent UK price. We sold the car three years later for about the same money (about £250 cheaper) as UK supllied cars of the same age. I would definately consider importing especilally as the £/EUR rate isn't too bad at the moment.

With regard to warranty, just before the initial 2 years pan european warranty was to expire, I went down to my local VW garage who knew the car was an import and had previously serviced the car on two separate occasions and carried out warranty work, and bought a further 1 year warranty for £200 with no problems at all.

Good luck, you'll save a nice few quid if you do it.