[Penyfan1960]

The following I noticed in my Sunday newspaper yesterday:-
Quote:
" BMW started to manufacture some of its 5-series and 3-series cars in a factory in Chennai, India in March 2007......."
Unquote
The article goes on to suggest that the buyer should be wary of the spec.
Apparently these cars are being made available for sale in the UK - so be warned and be careful!
Stealers are up to all the tricks!
Cheers!

[Dr Dave]

Indian BMW's? I'm sure we'd have known about this long ago.

What paper have you been reading/looking at? Not the Sunday Sport, surely?

//edit - I see this is old news, Sunday Papers must be running low on content!

Can't see the cars being shipped elsewhere other than the Inidian market.......£££, surely?

http://malteshashrit.wordpress.com/2...now-available/

[doughboy]

For years, 'quality' European and Japanse manufacturers have allowed products to be built in India etc, to a lower standard and cheaper, but strictly only for the indian market.

Problems come when 3rd parties start selling them on to other countries.

[RagingKileak]

Originally Posted by doughboy

For years, 'quality' European and Japanse manufacturers have allowed products to be built in India etc, to a lower standard and cheaper, but strictly only for the indian market.

Problems come when 3rd parties start selling them on to other countries.

Essentially then, be aware of imports, be they of the grey kind or otherwise.

Which is par for the course really!

Matt

[Penyfan1960]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

Indian BMW's? I'm sure we'd have known about this long ago.

What paper have you been reading/looking at? Not the Sunday Sport, surely?

//edit - I see this is old news, Sunday Papers must be running low on content!

Can't see the cars being shipped elsewhere other than the Inidian market.......£££, surely?

http://malteshashrit.wordpress.com/2...now-available/

The Sunday Sport? - No, actually I prefer the 'Screws of the World'
Seriously, I read it in the Sxxxxx Txxxx. The article started off by saying that a price was obtained for a new 525i SE for less that £20K, with a 3 year warranty, against a list price of £32K. It turned out that it was a 2007 model.
I know that good prices are currently available for the 5-series, but not this good. Personally, I could have bought a similar specced 5-series for the price of a good discounted 3-series, due of course to the twilight months of the current 5-series. The BMW 'Made in India' bit was a stated fact in response to a letter that had been written in, the paper went on say that: Quote: "There is nothing to suggest these cars are manufactured to a lower standard that in any other BMW plant."
Unquote:

[RagingKileak]

Originally Posted by Penyfan1960

The Sunday Sport? - No, actually I prefer the 'Screws of the World'
Seriously, I read it in the Sxxxxx Txxxx. The article started off by saying that a price was obtained for a new 525i SE for less that £20K, with a 3 year warranty, against a list price of £32K. It turned out that it was a 2007 model.
I know that good prices are currently available for the 5-series, but not this good. Personally, I could have bought a similar specced 5-series for the price of a good discounted 3-series, due of course to the twilight months of the current 5-series. The BMW 'Made in India' bit was a stated fact in response to a letter that had been written in, the paper went on say that: Quote: "There is nothing to suggest these cars are manufactured to a lower standard that in any other BMW plant."
Unquote:

As with all imports, if the price is lower, it CAN mean good value for money.

At the end of the day you almost always get what you pay for, occasionally people get outright ripped off, and occasionally we get a bargain, but if a car is sold as an import and has a good 10 - 20% off its UK equivalent with more or less equal spec, then its still not a bad buy.

It might still have Nav and other options etc, but what it could lack is things we take for granted or which are country specific requirements - for example you may have no headlight washers or something... That would be ok on a car like mine which does have headlight washers but not xenons.. however for a car in the UK to have Xenons it must have washers too.. I am not sure wht would happen in that case, either the dealer would have to retrofit them, or quite possibly a regulation is in place which is equivalent to the statement that 'as long as it was legal in its country of origin then its ok over here'

Wow. Quite a bit of digressing there lol!!

Matt

[dxb335d]

They left hook or right hookerS?

[dxb335d]

They will have different vins, so gen ya self up you will be ok.

[Neil McRae]

all bmws are imports!

[Dr Dave]

Originally Posted by Neil McRae

all bmws are imports!

Fair point, gotta give that to you Neil!

[smithysmith]

As DXB said the country of manufacture is coded into the vin, as is the actual manufacturing plant.

[ShereKhan]

I've read about this when in India back in 2007.

MB and BMW both have plants in India. The car's are RHD and are limited spec and sold for South Asia continent. MB send some cars out to mainland asia sometimes but again the model spec is limited.

From what I read it was to get round import quota's as the Indian government wanted to tax high value imported items.

Talking of which my tenant I currently have told me that my 320si would be £100k back in Malaysia as the tax is heavy on imported cars. I know back in the 80's the 230E MB was well sought after there so many were sent from the UK to there, as the resale price for used was so good.