New to BMW game

topazman wrote: Are we not in the EU?? A manufacturers warranty will cover you no matter where you buy your car or product from within the EU so the UK BMW is valid here Topazman

The Approved Used Warranty is an insurance based warranty rather than a BMW underwritten warranty (in fact if I'm not mistaken, only year 1 of the 3 year warranty in the UK on a new one is manufacturer warranty, years 2 and 3 are dealer underwritten but on the same terms).  That may affect the validity outside the UK.

Nigel

The choice, quality and preparation of the cars are still ahead of most other sources of young BMW's.  My sisters e46 328i Touring was bought (sight unseen) as a UK Approved Used Car at 12 months old and couldn't be faulted.  After some determined haggling by my brother in law the price was very competitive (and a couple of grand under asking price).  I went over to pick it up and checked it over thoroughly before handing over the wedge.

UK BMW and their dealers can't fairly be judged against Irish ones.  The Irish organization and dealers are only starting the journey to revamping their network and standards and they have a long road to go.  The UK are years ahead in that process.  The discipline requirements on the dealers in the UK are very high so I'd venture an opinion that at any age they'll stock, the main dealer cars will probably be about the highest standard you'll find and buying on description first isn't the huge risk that you'd think.  They typically don't hold anything much over 5 years old or greater than maybe 60k miles.

e30 prices generally seem to have crept up quite a bit in the UK since I bought the last 325i early last year.  Nice drop tops are getting hard to find in top condition with history and less than 6 figure mileages (I've been keeping my eyes peeled myself!).  This guy is worth keeping an eye on (he has a small stock and doesn't update the site too often, so its worth keeping an eye on the ads he has in Total BMW and BMW Car mags).  VRT does seem to be reasonable all right.  Even when I bought the 320i on 2001 (with 45k and fsh) the vrt was only around £700.

www.wlnautomotive.co.uk

I've been in touch with him about the silver 325i!  Under a bit of pressure at work at the moment but when the dust settles in a coupel of weeks I may be taking a trip over for a chat with him.  His cars aren't cheap (I paid a decent bit less last year for the 325i with 60k and fsh than he wants for the 325 with partial history) but he does seem to be able to sniff out some choice motors with low mileage and decent history.  In the Gallery section he has a 320i conv that he sold recently that I quite fancied.  Same colour as the 325i.

btw, the brilliant red 325i Sport auto in the gallery section was bought by one of our local forum members!

Mark

Sorry, should have read "320i IN 2001".  It might not have been clear also that it was a convertible. 

There seems to be a significant step in VRT values between the e30 and e36 (as there is in turn between e36 and e46 - even where the year is the same).  That figure was just what was being charged at the time, no haggling, etc. (in fairness I couldn't make a case for the condition of the car being less than excellent).

Mrs D's '98 316i with 54k miles cost €2111 in VRT in January. 

The VRT perspective is that VRT should reflect the open market selling price of the car here.  €700 of vRT gives a "grossed up" value on the car of about €2800.  Even if paying it sticks in your throat, you'll still find that €2800 is less than the real value in the market for a '95 316i with 40k miles, so even that figure is an anomoly.

The key to "winning" when it comes to VRT is to do homework to find the anomolies (i.e. the fact that VRT on an e30 325i Sport is 3 or 4 times that on a mechanically virtually identical 325i SE while the Sport is also at least twice the price of an equivalent condition and mileage SE in the UK).

Mark

These are the reasons (spec, condition, price) that virtually all of my cars in the past 10 years have come from the UK!