BUYING NEW CARS AT BETTER PRICES
by Ronald Hall Managing Director Burbank Automotive Holdings

In the last few months the press campaign regarding the high cost of vehicles in the UK compared with the better prices obtainable from Europe has subsided. As a result of pressure from Government, the press and consumers, the manufacturers have reduced prices in the UK and the large savings i.e. £18,000 on a Mercedes Benz or £13,000 on a Range Rover are no longer available on imported vehicles. In spite of these reductions Burbank Automotive Holdings, a company set up purely to source vehicles from Europe for clients in the UK, can still show substantial savings on cars sourced from within the European Union.

Burbank was originally formed in 1998 and great care was taken during the first six months of that year making certain that the process of importing vehicles was being done correctly. Long meetings with Customs and Excise and the DVLA, together with obtaining a full understanding of European law means that Burbank has an excellent reputation for trouble-free importing of vehicles.

An investigation was then started which required us to visit a franchised dealer for each manufacturer in each of the EC countries in order to obtain the best possible price and delivery; this took a further twenty two weeks to complete.

All this is now behind us and the information obtained daily from the selected dealers allows Burbank to constantly update the prices and delivery times which appear on our website.

The cars that we supply are all right hand drive, fully to UK specification, have the full manufacturers warranty and will be serviced by your local franchised dealer. Vehicles from twenty five different manufacturers from Alfa Romeo to Volvo are all supplied at a lower price than can be obtained from UK dealers.

As an indication of how the system works, our office in Warwick is sixteen miles from the factory where Jaguars are built. If, for example, we were to order an S Type for a client we would probably place

the order in Germany. The car would be built in Coventry and transported to Germany. Burbank would then collect the car on a transporter in Germany, import it back into the UK, tax and deliver the car by transporter to our client anywhere in mainland UK and still save up to£4000 on the price. It may sound strange but that is how we purchase all cars manufactured in the UK.

Burbank now offers a service to the individual, or small business client, that is as close as possible to that of the local franchised dealer, including a full range of private and corporate finance packages. The company is small, with only seven employees and although the infrastructure is in place the overheads are kept as low as possible so that the maximum cost saving can be passed on.

In the past few months Burbank has secured many new small business clients and we are now in discussion with two of the largest leasing companies in England who are satisfied that considerable savings can be made.

As an example, one of our client companies purchased thirty six cars with our help between October 2000 and October 2001 and saved £96,000. These cars ranged from a Toyota Yaris, where we saved £1989, to a BMW 530d SE with many optional extras where we saved £5898. Over the same period our largest client, a company with very high purchasing power, obtained 516 new cars through Burbank and saved £638,000 without any increase in employees. The final benefit is that since we import only UK specification cars from within the EEC there is no effect on the residual value.

For further information please refer to www.burbankholdings.com