Frank Keane BMW

Brewster

Gentlemen, I wouldnt worry about buying a UK import.. Frank Keane BMW no less, has 5 or 6 UK cars with yellow plates sitting on their forecourt.......Makes no attempt to hide it! Well I never....

homer90

With a view of passing on the savings to customers....

HMmmmmmmmm

robbie99

If you can't beat em, join em.

Stevie Dakota

Wait till the SIMI hears of this! Shocking!

Brewster

I nearly fell off the chair when I saw the yellow plates, thought I was seeing things or that I must have been on bmw.co.uk:D:D:D

Drummerboy08

Where'd you see this?! Absolute headcases in there. :rolleyes:

Brewster

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Where'd you see this?! Absolute headcases in there. :rolleyes:

http://www.frankkeanebmw.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=1292489

lifer_sean

Lots of the BMW main dealers at it.

Saw truck with bmw's with yellow plates being unloaded in Keogh BMW Limerick about a month before Christmas. Have heard of other nearby BMW dealers also importing.

Drummerboy08

Like someone already said - if you cant beat em...

Brewster

Absolutely. I dont have a particular problem with what they are doing.. They cant very well try to screw you though on trade in prices now cos car was a Uk one, or refuse to work on your car when they are at the very same thing themselves! I think it levels playing pitch nicely :pac:

MassDeb8r

Haggle with the Bugger

agent_smith

only problem, if they are passing on the savings to the customer, they are in fact endorsing the massive depreciation they are contributing to when you buy a car new from them!

robbie99

agent_smith wrote: »

only problem, if they are passing on the savings to the customer, they are in fact endorsing the massive depreciation they are contributing to when you buy a car new from them!

You'd want to be prety naive not to expect massive depreciation when buying a new car. I hope Irish dealers are able to put pressure on the manufacturers and distributors to bring Irish prices (pretax of course) in line with the UK. Why should the Brits get a better deal than us? Pass on the savings!

rebel.ranter

I thought that these days most dealers, particularly main dealers would be full to the brim of nearly new 2nd hand cars negating the need to bring in similar cars from the UK?

Drummerboy08

AFAIK, most dealers have blown out their old stock at a loss, mainly to get rid of it, to allow a better trade in price to a customer, and to become more competitive to the UK market.

robbie99

Hmmm, I wonder how Frank Keane will sell the extra waranty that's on those cars?

rebel.ranter

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

AFAIK, most dealers have blown out their old stock at a loss, mainly to get rid of it,

....to whom did they blow it out to though? I have not heard of any super deals out there. There are always posts on here asking why dealers don't reduce their prices to the market values?

L-M

robbie99 wrote: »

If you can't beat em, join em.

Ha +1

About time

Drummerboy08

rebel.ranter wrote: »

....to whom did they blow it out to though? I have not heard of any super deals out there. There are always posts on here asking why dealers don't reduce their prices to the market values?

Dealers arent going to advertise that they are selling cars below its standing cost. Its usually a case of someone going in at the advertised price, and negotiating for the sale.

It has and is being done all the same.

MarkN

Last Thursday Belgard Porsche knocked €€€€'s off cars. They're selling Cayman S cars for crazy money compared to similar cars in other garages.

BMW/SIMI are aware of dealers importing cars at a guess, Joe Duffy have been importing Minis to keep up with demand for a long time.

bf

Brewster wrote: »

http://www.frankkeanebmw.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=1292489

They are probably doing it to keep profit margins up, as there is potentially little profit margin in the "Irish" stock they currently have. Take the car in this link - one like this can be picked up in the UK for the equivalent of €24k from a BMW dealer + €7k for VRT ryanair flights, ferry etc, so say €32k all in...

Chances are Keane's got this out of the BMW network at a wholesale price, so there is a healthy level of profit for them in it if they get it away at anywhere near €40k.

This car stands them in somewhere around the €20k mark today as VRT isnt paid yet, how much would an "Irish" 320d coupe be standing them in?

As an earlier poster pointed out, if you cant beat em join em!

TheBazman

Just heard an ad on the radio for BMW advertising their "large selection of premium used UK and Irish cars"

frag4

Soon they'll be giving one to everyone in the audiance.

RedorDead

From what i heard this sales tactic comes direct from BMW Ireland and they cleared it all. BMW Ireland is essentially a regional office of BMW UK and they plan to pre reg thousands of cars in the UK early in 09 and ship them in to Ireland for re-reg here. Will absolutely kill BMW new car sales here and knock thousands off existing BMW Ireland stock. Hare brained if you ask me. Short term gain for long term gain.

robbie99

RedorDead wrote: »

From what i heard this sales tactic comes direct from BMW Ireland and they cleared it all. BMW Ireland is essentially a regional office of BMW UK and they plan to pre reg thousands of cars in the UK early in 09 and ship them in to Ireland for re-reg here. Will absolutely kill BMW new car sales here and knock thousands off existing BMW Ireland stock. Hare brained if you ask me. Short term gain for long term gain.

This is such a bizzare situation. Irish BMW dealers are able to source their cars cheaper from the UK dealer network rather than 'wholesale' from BMW AG.

And who could've foreseen that BMW who have been acknowledged as probably the biggest beneficiaries of the new emissions based VRT and motor tax, suffered one of the largest drops in market share for new cars this January.

reverandkenjami

robbie99 wrote: »

This is such a bizzare situation. Irish BMW dealers are able to source their cars cheaper from the UK dealer network rather than 'wholesale' from BMW AG.

Irish BMW dealers actually purchase their new cars from BMW UK!

Dakar32

Well I just saw Joe Duffy BMW take a delivery of a transporter load of yellow reg bmw's. Must see if there's a price drop now

Drummerboy08

Irish dealers do buy their stock from BMM in the UK. BMW Ireland just seems to be a branch of the operations in the UK.

This is why there is an €850 delivery charge on every new BMW.

Now why there are registered BMW's coming in from the UK is a funny one. Unless they were pre-registered by BMW UK, or are demo models.

Strange, but if they will be cheaper, and cause prices of irish stock to come down, who am i to complain!!

Brewster

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Irish dealers do buy their stock from BMM in the UK. BMW Ireland just seems to be a branch of the operations in the UK.

This is why there is an €850 delivery charge on every new BMW.

Now why there are registered BMW's coming in from the UK is a funny one. Unless they were pre-registered by BMW UK, or are demo models.

Strange, but if they will be cheaper, and cause prices of irish stock to come down, who am i to complain!!

Not so sure about this. If you buy a new BMW in Ireland, it will have an Irish km/h reading in dial. All the UK cars are in mph. I dont believe there are any other differences in specs? Now unless Irish dealers are going to replace that part of dash? I dont know. Its obviously been agree by all parties if Joe Duffy has just received a load of UK cars, expect to see them up on his website in the coming days. Interesting times ahead.

daveharnett

robbie99 wrote: »

I hope Irish dealers are able to put pressure on the manufacturers and distributors to bring Irish prices (pretax of course) in line with the UK. Why should the Brits get a better deal than us? Pass on the savings!

The guys here who are in the industry would have a better idea, but as I understand it, new Irish cars have some of the cheapest pre-tax prices in western europe.

LoveDucati2

If BMW get their cars from the UK then why is there a difference of 20% in the cost of a new car.

BMW 1 Series range starts at £16,410 inc VAT. Approx €17,700, + VAT difference 6.5% = €18,874 + delivery charge €850 = €19,724 landed in Dublin.

then VRT of 20% on top of OMSP

€28,470 OTR price from BMW Ireland.

118d and the new 116d are both 16% VRT, starting at £19k stg, selling for €31k Euro

robbie99

daveharnett wrote: »

The guys here who are in the industry would have a better idea, but as I understand it, new Irish cars have some of the cheapest pre-tax prices in western europe.

That might have been true 15 months ago. Since September 07, sterling has taken a noesdive. I'm not going to do the calculations to get the exact figures but sterling has lost over 30% of its value.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=EURGBP=X#chart1:symbol=eurgbp=x;range=2y;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

I'm also not going to give specific examples or break the down the figures but pretax prices in the UK are perhaps well over 20% cheaper than Irish pretax. It's well established that buyers are saving many thousands by buying in the UK. Pass these savings onto Irish buyers please!!!

Drummerboy08

One thing i would like to point out here - It is not up to the dealer to pass on the savings to the customer. Bear in mind, he has to buy the car from the manufacturer.

If you want the savings, its the manufacturers who should be hassled.

With a lot of cars being reduced in price the last few weeks (Ford, Nissan, Peugeot to name a few) the manufacturers have copped on a little, but i think these redcutions only show the margin they have been holding on cars for the past number of years.

Cars are being reduced in price to try and become competitive with the Irish market, but i think the day you see an Irish car being cheaper or even equal in costs to a UK car is a long way off yet.

-Chris-

robbie99 wrote: »

That might have been true 15 months ago. Since September 07, sterling has taken a noesdive. I'm not going to do the calculations to get the exact figures but sterling has lost over 30% of its value.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=EURGBP=X#chart1:symbol=eurgbp=x;range=2y;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

I'm also not going to give specific examples or break the down the figures but pretax prices in the UK are perhaps well over 20% cheaper than Irish pretax. It's well established that buyers are saving many thousands by buying in the UK. Pass these savings onto Irish buyers please!!!

But does this not also mean that the UK dealers are now paying considerably more for new cars from the factory then they were in Sept 07?

A fairer comparison would be to compare our pre-tax prices with those of another Eurozone country, rather than against the UK.

The cost of BMW UK buying cars from the factory has increased significantly, BMW Germany have probably reduced the pre-tax price into the UK in order to prop-up the market (as they have in Ireland for years).
Irish people (and dealers) are then buying these lower pre-tax cars with our strong currency.

Irish dealers sourcing from the UK will be able to pass the savings on to the customer, Irish dealers/importers sourcing direct from the factory don't have the currency fluctuation to help them out.

reverandkenjami

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Now why there are registered BMW's coming in from the UK is a funny one. Unless they were pre-registered by BMW UK, or are demo models.

Most of them would be BMW UK Demo models that they can't shift over there..

daveharnett wrote: »

The guys here who are in the industry would have a better idea, but as I understand it, new Irish cars have some of the cheapest pre-tax prices in western europe.

Spot on! Hence we get the crap specs over here compared to the UK.

LoveDucati2 wrote: »

If BMW get their cars from the UK then why is there a difference of 20% in the cost of a new car.

BMW 1 Series range starts at £16,410 inc VAT. Approx €17,700, + VAT difference 6.5% = €18,874 + delivery charge €850 = €19,724 landed in Dublin.

then VRT of 20% on top of OMSP

€28,470 OTR price from BMW Ireland.

118d and the new 116d are both 16% VRT, starting at £19k stg, selling for €31k Euro

The prices are set by BMW Ireland. An irish dealer can't buy a car from BMW UK without first going through BMW Ireland. BMW Ireland are essentially just an irish office for BMW UK. Everything comes from the UK. Cars, parts etc..

Irish dealers can't buy the car at the same price as a UK dealer. The problem is with the manufacturer!

AudiChris wrote: »

The cost of BMW UK buying cars from the factory has increased significantly, BMW Germany have probably reduced the pre-tax price into the UK in order to prop-up the market (as they have in Ireland for years).
Irish people (and dealers) are then buying these lower pre-tax cars with our strong currency.

From talking to a former colleague last week the above seems correct. Its the factory taking the hit! BMW UK is still buying cars at the same price as last year. Probably explains why BMW are seeking help from the German government!

McSpud

Are not a lot of Irish sold cars made in the UK anyway. Surely this would mean pre tax prices coming down?

Miccko

Can post this somewhere else if it's not appropriate for here...

BMW Warranty from the UK - I've read different things in different threads on the forums here. Just wondering if anybody has actual experience of the reality.

Is the 3 year BMW Warranty valid for 3 years here in Ireland? Or is the final year only valid in UK. Some claim it is, and some claim it isn't?

Anyone know the true story?

By the way, was driving by a dealer just outside Athlone yesterday and lined up in the yard, facing the main road, were about 9/10 cars, all UK/NI plates.

LoveDucati2

Miccko wrote: »

Can post this somewhere else if it's not appropriate for here...

BMW Warranty from the UK - I've read different things in different threads on the forums here. Just wondering if anybody has actual experience of the reality.

Is the 3 year BMW Warranty valid for 3 years here in Ireland? Or is the final year only valid in UK. Some claim it is, and some claim it isn't?

The warranty is 3 years regardless of where the car ends up.

BMW Ireland buy new from Germany not UK

Drummerboy08

LoveDucati2 wrote: »

The warranty is 3 years regardless of where the car ends up.

BMW Ireland buy new from Germany not UK

I think BMW Ireland actually does buy from BMW in the UK. Im not 100%, but i am fairly sure this is the case.

Healyc

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

I think BMW Ireland actually does buy from BMW in the UK. Im not 100%, but i am fairly sure this is the case.

Yeah im pretty confident they all come from UK as all that needs to be done is change the clocks to KMH in the factory.

Not suprised at all with the BMW dealers stocking UK plated cars once they dont try and pass them off as brand new :eek:

Owen

LoveDucati2 wrote: »

BMW Ireland buy new from Germany not UK

Wrong again

BMW Ireland do indeed get their cars from the BMW UK Pool, and the 3 year warranty is valid here.

Darragh29

If anyone manages to get pics of Frank Keane's imports, let me know, I'd love to write to the SIMI and ask them for an explanation as to why they are speaking out of both sides of their mouth on this particular issue.

cancan

I think I'll ring that SIMI hotline they set up for everyone to dob in their yellow reg neighbours.

Yet again, the whole system is rotten to the core.

Owen

cancan wrote: »

I think I'll ring that SIMI hotline they set up for everyone to dob in their yellow reg neighbours.

Yet again, the whole system is rotten to the core.

How is it rotten? A motor dealer is entitled to have 'yellow regs' on it's forecourt without paying the VRT, as a motor dealer has a TAN number with the revenue that makes provision for that.

bonzos

Less than 18 months ago a saleman at main audi/vw dealership in sligo told me that buying cars from the uk and NI was "totally wrong!" because most of them are clocked etc...now they ars selling them themself.what a joke!

-Chris-

Darragh29 wrote: »

If anyone manages to get pics of Frank Keane's imports, let me know, I'd love to write to the SIMI and ask them for an explanation as to why they are speaking out of both sides of their mouth on this particular issue.

You'll see the pics on their website:

http://www.frankkeanebmw.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=1292480
http://www.frankkeanebmw.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=1292473

I was looking the other day, and of 51 cars they had on Carzone, 10 had visible UK plates on them - 20% of their stock.

I'm not sure how I feel about it all tbh - dealers need to do whatever they can to keep making profit and stay in business, so if sourcing cars from the UK is one way of doing that, fair enough.
The other side of the coin though is the fact that the importing of UK cars is putting massive pressure on the values of second-hand Irish cars, so by actively importing the cars, they're hurting their Irish stock, and hurting the values they can offer to customers trying to trade-in an Irish car.

Darragh29

It is very Irish though of the SIMI to be tormenting private buyers of these cars... I don't think there are that many people driving around illegally on yellow plates. If you took all these cars off the road in the morning, it still won't resolve the problem the dealers are having.

Darragh29

Just as an aside, there are discussions taking place at the moment within the industry with a view to setting up an effective representative organisation that will represent the part of the motor industry that is not authorised or main dealer/distributor related. Basically a replacement organisation for the useless SIMI entity..

LoveDucati2

BMW Ireland definitely get the cars from Germany

Owen

No they don't.

-Chris-

Are you sure you're not getting mixed up on this?

BMWs are made in Germany, and imported from there.
BMW Ireland buy their cars from BMW UK (afaik, Ned can confirm).