I had the Subaru up on the ramp a couple of weeks ago and noticed the front lower control arm rear bushes were starting to perish so called my local Subaru dealer for availability and price. I was told next day delivery and cost around £46.00 each (can't remember the exact cost) but was advised to try online as genuine parts are often less expensive abroad, mainly USA. So with some searching I managed to find a N.Y. Subaru dealer who could supply me with the bushes.

I decided that as I was going to be stripping the front suspension to change the bushes I may as well do everything on the front at the one time and this will give me a few trouble free years. The inner track rod arms were an MOT advisory last year so they were on my to-do list, the bottom balljoints and outer track rod ends are verging on the edge of requiring replacement and the lower control arm front bushes might as well be replaced whilst I'm at it.

The cost of 2x control arm rear bushes, 2x lower control arm front bushes, 2x inner track rod ends, 2x outer track rod ends and 2x balljoints from my local Subaru dealer would cost £721.63. The cost including shipping from USA was £325.48, that's a saving of 55% and if the shipping was removed from the equation a saving of 65%

So the question is "who is making the killing?" Are Subaru ripping us off in the UK? Are the dealerships ripping us off in the UK, is the government ripping us off in the UK?

i assume you will get charged vat and import tax on that transaction from the states.. ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

They do make Subaru's in the USA so that might have something to do with it...

My brother who has a Jeep gets parts for about 40% of the cost over here....

Off road items, winches etc are the same price in £'s here as they are in $'s there....

Does seem a rip off.... Pete

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2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

Give you a nice example from France. My DB7 needed a tiny electronic switch on the airco pump. French dealer quoted me 536 euro. Thought that to be excessive and phoned a Jaguar /Aston dealer in the UK with the partnumber from the French dealer. He told me it would cost me 85 gbp postage included. I had that send over and not even 10 minutes work later I saved approx. 380 gbp. It's all in the game. The game is called "trade" and the buyer is called "victim"

Parcel arrived today, no VAT, no extra charges, no import duty

Subaru parts made in Japan, genuine parts exactly what I would have been given from my local dealership

Import duty letter may arrive after the parcel, I imported some bits a couple of years back & thought I'd avoided it....
Alas no
Think it depends if the dealer declared it as new when shipping.
Hope it slipped thru. 2011 (MY12) 4.4 TDV8 Vogue
2016 Golf GTI PP

Gone
Audi A4
VW Passat
VW Corrado G60
VW Golf GTI
BMW E30
Mini
Vauxhall Chvette

Import invoice was $100 so if I do receive a bill it won't be too bad. 20% VAT and 3.5% import duty on $100

Having recently paid £560 for a pair of Sti front springs that rot away in their rubber holder in the UK weather this seems a good idea although some models like the RR's are quite specialised. Also the Subaru costs over the last 15 years we had them has cushioned the blow of FFRR ownership cost since buying one in June.

Welcome to the Club!!

My Jeep has 4 o2 sensors and when i costed uk ones up they were £120 each and a 6 week wait due to the part coming from italy and the lorries shipping parts had temporarily suspended shipments.

Checked in the states and it was about $60 so got a friend to buy it and ship it over on an overnight(same cost due to size and weight!) and worked out about £85 all in!

Now im looking at a dirt cheap flight to the states with a single night stop over and just taking hand luggage and then filling a large suitcase for coming back as it will work out cheaper for some parts! Totally absurd but thats how it goes!

I wish they still offered sea shipping cheaply or i knew a US-UK car importer as i could fill the boot of an import with upgraded bits i want.

Also found a lift kit from Poland for the same price as the US stuff and only £100 on top for shipping, no tax or duty and still £400 cheaper than buying the same thing in the UK!!

Wonder what LR prices are like over there for parts....

John, with the way Audi are going it could be a source of cheap parts for you as well  FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

My old Volvo V70R needed a fuel pressure sensor. £175.00 from Volvo.

A bit of internet digging revealed that Ford use the same part. They quoted £46.00, but no availability.

Fortunately the same part was used on a Freelander. Dealer quoted £56.00 but demanded immediate payment and no return after I had explained what I was doing. It was delivered next day.

Imagine his surprise when I took the part out of the Land Rover box and showed him the Volvo stamp on the part.

And we thought LR were robbing d's.
always worth doing a bit of homework. I had a sd1 and the dipstick was the same as a defender apart from a bit of plastic filling the finger hole. Rover wanted £27 for the part, ordered for LR, £2.75.

similar case with rover 820. Filter- exhaust gas? Same part fitted to metro turbo. Rover was about £30 metro £6.

Andy

Needed 2 rear parking sensors for the Subaru so called the local dealership, "that'll be £42.00 each sir" so I decided to investigate further and turns out the system is made by Waeco, and my system's sensors are compatible with 3 other Waeco models so I went on the hunt for sensors and they were all between £32.00-£45.00 but all abroad so postage was around £12.00+ Further hunting and I found a complete Subaru kit on sale for the Subaru Justy which contains 2 sensors and the vendor had 2 kits left at a bargain price of £24.00 a set, so I bought both sets for not much more than the price of a single sensor from my local dealership and I also managed to bag a single BNITB genuine Subaru sensor from eBay for £15.00


Anyone looking for Subaru sensors, I have a few spare I could sell for the bargain price of £38.00 each

I understand that different countries will have different prices, but a difference of 65% is just daylight robbery

Yip, they take us for mugs.
Ii always start ranting whenever I hear of new tech being sold here and the USA....... i.e. iPads. $299 in USA and £299 in GB.. Previously..
Vogue SE TD6
Defender 90 2.4
Defender 110 TD5
Vogue 3.5 EFI

I know how northernmonkeyjones will be feeling when renewing the exhaust in his Skoda VRS - £2000!! made of mild steel from dealer or ask for one to be fabricated in stainless steel increasing MPG/BHP - £700.
Nowadays more is to be made of servicing and repairs than selling cars.