YA/YK reg BMW Press Office?
YA/YK reg BMW Press Office?
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Discussion

SlowlnFastOut

Original Poster:

431 posts

238 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
I'm going to look at a MINI in the next few days and the registration begins with YK60. Does anyone know if this is a press car/bmw uk car? Also if it is BMW UK but not the press fleet, who would have owned it before? a company employee?

I've seen a number of YA reg BMWs in magazines so I presume they are definitely press, but YK I was not so sure about. The YK prefix means that it has been registered in the same place in Yorkshire, but I guess there are many cars BMW register that aren't used for the press fleet.

If it is a press car should I avoid?

Any info greatly appreciated.

blank

3,762 posts

217 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
BMW UK cars end up with Y* plates.

Could be anything from press car to employee car scheme.

Press cars have a special option code so if you can get the dealer to run the VIN through the system and give you the printout of option codes you'll know.

Garlick

40,601 posts

269 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
YA, YC etc, etc.

As said already, that doesn't always mean it's ex-press.

LHD

17,002 posts

216 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
Press cars are normally awesome.

Certain manufacturers make sure press cars are 'correct'

Couldn't possibly comment who mind..

>cough< BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes, Ford >cough<

blank

3,762 posts

217 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
Don't fall for the 'management' line. Chances are the person selling it has no idea if it was a director's wife's car, or if it belonged to an 18 year old apprentice.


If it was originally supplied by a Yorkshire dealer, chances are it would have their name on the number plates. Central cars will have BMW.co.uk or MINI.co.uk. Unless of course the current dealer has put some of their own on.


Have a look in the service book to see where the PDI was done too.

Garlick

40,601 posts

269 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
To be honest, if I liked the car, it was well serviced and stood up to the usual scrutiny I couldn't care less if it was ex-manufacturer.

blank

3,762 posts

217 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
Alphabet is one of the employee lease schemes, open to pretty much any employee. A 760 was about £3k per month IIRC.

Management cars are different, they're supplied to managers at different discounts and include insurance so that people can use them for business trips etc. I don't think a proper management car would be listed as Alphabet.

blank

3,762 posts

217 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
Can't remember, it was a while ago when I worked for them.

When I worked for them there were 3 schemes:

Basic lease where you just lease the car and sort everything else yourself. Prices fluctuated a lot but I think some people had 120ds for £80 PCM at one point. I would guess a 335 would have been ~£300. Options were expensive to add - Cost of option divided by the number of months.


There was another scheme where insurance and maintenance were included, and you chose a specific car from a pool of what was available, so you could end up with something pretty highly specced at a low price.


The management scheme was different and was subsidised based on level. The director of my department had a new car every couple of months. 7 series/6 series/X5 etc.

va1o

16,113 posts

236 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
All it means is it was registered centrally with BMW UK rather than supplied through a dealer.

The Y is because the BMW UK Vehicle Distribution Centre is up in Thorne, South Yorkshire


va1o

16,113 posts

236 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
Blakewater said:
all VAG UK owned cars have Oxford registrations, and it was top notch.
Doesn't seem be the case any more, I've noticed whilst some of them have Oxford O prefix plates, a lot also have K prefix Northampton plates like Mercedes use.

Blakewater

4,544 posts

186 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
va1o said:
Doesn't seem be the case any more, I've noticed whilst some of them have Oxford O prefix plates, a lot also have K prefix Northampton plates like Mercedes use.
True. VW are based in Milton Keynes and I think that falls within the O registration area though I have noticed a lot are K now.

Deva Link

26,934 posts

274 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
You get get an idea of how it had been driven by looking at the tyres, and a car driven aggressively will have loads of stone-chips. If it's done 6K miles and has new tyres and a front-end respray then that's probably a bid sign!

I had what I was told was an ex-MB Management car (it had the locations of several NW dealers stored in the sat nav so I'm guessing some sort of regional manager) and at 6K miles / 5mths old, it was completely unmarked.

Kiltox

14,863 posts

187 months

Tuesday 19th April 2011
quotequote all
Could be a hire car....

amirzed

1,784 posts

205 months

Wednesday 20th April 2011
quotequote all
Kiltox said:
Could be a hire car....
I have a hire car with the Y prefix and BMW (UK) plates on in my driveway right now, so there's every chance that these BMW 'management' cars could have been hire cars

Kiltox

14,863 posts

187 months

Wednesday 20th April 2011
quotequote all
amirzed said:
I have a hire car with the Y prefix and BMW (UK) plates on in my driveway right now, so there's every chance that these BMW 'management' cars could have been hire cars
SO MANY hire cars belong to the manufacturers smile

Had the management line from salesmen a few times.

SlowlnFastOut

Original Poster:

431 posts

238 months

Wednesday 20th April 2011
quotequote all
Thanks for all the inputs, will definitely check over the front-end, tyres and quiz the salesman thoroughly.

Kiltox

14,863 posts

187 months

Wednesday 20th April 2011
quotequote all
Find out who's on the V5 too - even if it was supplied by BMW(UK) it could still be registered to ERAC / Avis / Hertz/ Drive Assist / etc.

W1 NER

120 posts

208 months

Wednesday 20th April 2011
quotequote all
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Prices have shot up over the last couple of years, the E92 335d is now about £800+ a month. In 2009 I had one on lease for a year for £240 per month! biggrin

HellDiver

5,708 posts

211 months

Wednesday 20th April 2011
quotequote all
Kiltox said:
Find out who's on the V5 too - even if it was supplied by BMW(UK) it could still be registered to ERAC / Avis / Hertz/ Drive Assist / etc.
Wrong, sorry.

I had 3 ex-rental Vauxhalls, and all 3 were registered to Vauxhall Fleet Management. I saw all 3 before prep, and they all had the Avis stickers on them when the dealer received them off the transporter.

Waugh-terfall

18,488 posts

229 months

Wednesday 20th April 2011
quotequote all
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Aye, our 308 is a KS, was a Peugoet Management car, the dealerships Financial Director ran it for a year. y old Megane was an HK, most Renault press cars seem to have H* plates, mine was a demo at the local dealer, some garages in that area get R*, H* and L* registrations.