Worst Main Dealer Stories, get it off your chest!

[londonm]

A while back my girlfriend took her 3 year old Vauxhall Agila in to Phoenix Vauxhall, Plough Lane, Wimbledon, for a service and MOT. When they called back they reeled off a list of things 'needing doing for the MOT' which included de-glazing the brakes and a new pollen filter (this part was priced at about £100 for part and fitting, wtf?). All in all the tw@ts wanted £600.00 to service a immaculate 12,000 mile car, with nothing wrong with it. After a chat with a mechanic we knew elsewhere, we phoned back and told them to get the feck out of here and just do the basics, like change the oil and adjust the brakes. I asked them would the car fail the MOT if the brakes weren't de-glazed, to which they said no. The bill was eventually £250.00, and the car didn't look like it was even touched to be honest in my honest opinion. We now go to a normal garage run by someone who appears not to take the p*ss. Any other horror stories, charged ten times the going rate for a part etc? I'm sure you can better my post. Are most or all main dealers absolute p*ss takers?

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

We've done this discussion before. Consensus is that there is no rhyme or reason when it comes to quality- there are a few brilliant ones, some who are absolutely horrible, and most of them are somewhere in-between. Of course, that makes them poor value on average.

 

Highlight for me has got to be the Greek Ford dealer who did a major service and was briefed to check all the rubber bits around the car 'as the car had been standing for a while and is going to embark on a trip back to England'. We had barely made it as far as Dijon when a radiator hose blew up, and the 14th July celebrations meant that a new part couldn't be obtained for ten days!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

We've done this discussion before. Consensus is that there is no rhyme or reason when it comes to quality- there are a few brilliant ones, some who are absolutely horrible, and most of them are somewhere in-between. Of course, that makes them poor value on average.

 

Yep. I don't really have any horror stories, but when my grandad couldn't get the immobiliser to deactivate on his Escort, the manager of the (tiny) local Ford dealership stopped by on his way home to sort it out (for no charge). I thought that was good. Guess it's the benefit of being loyal to the same dealer for years.

 

Meanwhile, many miles away, an enormous chain Ford dealer blew an easy sale by tacking a range of nonsense charges onto the price of a used car, including a mandatory £99 HPI check. The same dealer had already blown a new car sale by refusing to sell a car for cash and insisting it was bought through their finance scheme. 

[red5]

Having been in both - i can say hand on heart that there are just as many poor independents/specialists as main dealers. Shit garage is shit garage.

[Leyland Lawrence]

A few years ago parents went into Merc garage in Bristol. They had the cash there and then to buy a new Smart but the dealers wouldn't open a car up for them to sit in and get the feel of because they would have to make an appointment and were 'too busy'

 

They went and bought a Hyundai instead.

[purplebargeken]

 

 

They went and bought a Hyundai instead.

 

A very wise choice indeed! i10 perchance?

 

Ken

[londonm]

Conrad, unbelievable that the dealer was thinking he could FORCE you in to a finance scheme on that car when you wanted it cash. What a tit! The one time I went in to a dealers looking for a cash sale they practically pleaded me for a finance deal, eventually offering m it at 1% APR. Lesson to learn from this? Go to dealer, pretend you have the cash, and beat their finance dealer down to almost interest free loan. See it as help towards the piss take service you'll get from them later!

[londonm]

Conrad, Watanabe, name and shame them! I wanna know who these knobs are.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Oh, this dealer is local to me and is known for it. Fuck knows how many sales the nearby VW garage has picked up. 

 

Two from my family alone. 

[Hendry]

I have loads I could tell you having worked for main dealers before about their shenanigans and the countless times family members and myself have had issues with them, but I'll settle for just one.

 

My first car a '97 R mk3 Astra the dead locking didn't work, hadn't done for a few years while my old man had the car and it'd never bothered him, so when I got given the car I sent it to Arnold Clark Vauxhall in Paisley to get it fixed, they called me to tell me it was ready, so duly went in, when i got there the receptionist said she was going to get the mechanic to explain how it worked, which confused me, I thought "I know how to deadlock my car" so he appeared and said I'd need to be careful operating it as there was a wee metal clip missing and if I wasn't careful I'd cause one of the rods to come loose and stop it working again, couldn't believe it I'd paid the fuckers to fix it and they openly admitted not doing it right and charging me £180 for the pleasure, too add insult to injury they then told me that my brake lights and indicators weren't working. Now they'd been working fine when I took it in so they'd obviously broke them, denied all responsibility and didn't even offer to rip me off to fix them like dealers usually do with faults, instead saying that they'd noticed an HBOL on my back seat so perhaps I should try and fix it myself as they thought I couldn't afford to get them to fix it, suffice to say I never went back.

 

The same dealer also omitted to put the oil filler cap back on after servicing one of my dads taxi driver mates' Vectra C, he drove away thinking his car was a1 having just been looked over by them until the inevitable happened, they again denied all responsibility and eventually fixed his car at no cost to him but didn't even apologise.

 

The Renault dealer I take my car to is on the other hand miles better, they are part of a reasonably big dealer group and I've had issues with some of their other branches before but this 1 dealers is spot on usually, the odd minor issue which they fix no problem, they usually don't charge for "fault investigation" like most places do, I got my old mk5 Astra from there and they've fixed stuff like wheel bearings, springs and drop links under warranty and I've had odd stuff like window rubbers and my stereo replaced under warranty on the Clio with no questions asked.

[brickwall]

Arnold Clark....

 

no need to explain. If you are working for the poisoned dwarf you will have hit rock bottom.

[Hendry]

Arnold Clark....

 

no need to explain. If you are working for the poisoned dwarf you will have hit rock bottom.

I saw the error of my ways about 3 years ago and chucked it, deciding I'd rather be unemployed and skint than work there any longer. If you thought they only treat their customers badly, think again, the staff are treated just as bad IMO, that's why their customer service is shocking, nobody who's constantly being treated like they are dirt scraped off an old shoe would bother.

[brickwall]

Just google "arnold clark complaints". HAven't seen that many complaints about a company...

[Spiny Norman]

"Arnold Shark" - I'm surprised it took till post #12 for the name to get mentioned.

 

Being more established and prevalent in Scotland (up here it's getting harder and harder NOT to buy a new car from these shysters) I know lots of people who've had run-ins with them.

Cars just plain not fixed and charged for, services being charged for when the car hasn't left the customer car park, bits broken on cars that were in for unrelated repairs, warranty work refused etc.
Personally I've had my driving school car in for a major service where they chucked out my screenwash so they could fill it up with their own, yet miss the fact the front brakes were just about down to the rivets, causing the brake warning light to come on within 5 miles of driving my allegedly fully serviced and checked over car out the garage.

 

I will NEVER darken Arnold Shark's door again, ever, for anything.

As a prospective new car buyer I've had dealings with sales staff who wouldn't leave me alone to the point of following me round their showroom like a bad smell, or kept recommending the most inappropriate cars to me.

Me - "Hello, I'm after a nice fast sports saloon, like a MG ZT or a Alfa 156"

Sales muppet (after walking me past a row of MG ZTs, leads me to the 'car of the week') - "How about a nice wee Vauxhall Meriva Diesel?"

Me - "Fuck off"

[Bren]

As stated earlier main stealers don't have the monopoly on shit service.

 

I remember taking my SD1 to some local specialists ( they should have had cowboy hats) in Widnes a very long time ago, welding that looked like a pigeon with the squits on one inner wing, did'nt even cover the glass so all the spatter stuck to the screen.(Even more annoying is the fact I used to be welder but had no gear at home at the time). I remeber having a problem with the rear electric window - I had to remove one of the guides to get it work, but knew it was'nt right so gave it them. They also removed the guide. I could have done that .Hang on - I did.

 

A lot of specialists are'nt even mechanics - they specialise in one make / model as the result of a hobby.

 

On the plus side, my local MOT station is very good - good service and he does'nt take the piss with his prices.

[Junkman]

I worked for a Chrysler main dealer in the Frankfurt area 1988/1989.

If you think you have a 'Worst Main Dealer Story' to tell, think again.

[Cavcraft]

NOT FIAT DAFT CAR SALESMEN TRADE IN MISERY ARNIE CLARKE RAPED MY BUDGIE AND TOOK MY V5 DETAILS AS HE DID SO.

[fiatdaft]

OH AND VOXHALS R SHIT.

[ProgRocker]

I don't have any experiences of bad service at a main dealer as such, just a few bad attitudes and inept characters within those dealers.

 

When I had my SEAT Ibiza I occasionally popped to Castlegate for some spares. I remember ordering a radiator hose from them once. At the reception/service desk, some middle aged guy ordered it for me, took payment in advance and said that he would give me a telephone call when it came in the next day. I thought that the promise telephone call was above expectations and left in a good mood.

 

I didn't receive any telephone call but as I had time to kill I thought I would go into Castlegate and enquire if it had come in. It was about 1pm, although the radiator hose didn't have to arrive there until much later that afternoon. Spoke to the female receptionist, who then got a different service/parts employee on the case. He was a young chap I have dealt with before with a slight attitude - bit of a chav. He appeared with a rather curt "can I help you?" and a fixed stare. Seemed that I probably interrupted him from his lunch or online poker game. Rince and Repeat what I told the receptionist. I eventually got the radiator hose. Was rather pissed off not just by the younger chap's attitude but the failure of a telephone call informing me that the part was ready for collection. In workplaces past and present, I didn't make promises I cannot guarantee to keep.

 

I bought my Nissan from Norfolk Motor Group (Kia). It was the cheapest car on their used car forecourt. Salesman was alright, deposit for it paid on a Sunday, agreed to pick it up the following Friday. So I went there on the Friday morning, parked the 'trade-in' Escort in their car park and went into the showroom, a little excited. Some guy at a desk (who looked a bit like a former school headmaster) kept his head right down in some papers. There was no obvious reception desk in there so for a few seconds I did look a bit like a lost lamb. The salesman I dealt with was nowhere to be seen. No-one else was willing to offer me any assistance there and then...I could have had £20k to spunk on a new Kia 4x4 for all they knew!

 

Went up to the service desk (as close to a reception as there was). A woman finished her telephone call and then asked me if I was there to book a service. I told her I was there to pick up my new car. Suddenly, the salesman appeared from out of the blue.

 

Had I been wearing smarter trousers and a collared shirt instead of the jeans and t-shirt, then maybe I would have been given more consideration by NMG staff.

[purplebargeken]

Mate of mine was asked to leave the Bristol car showroom in London. How I would have laughed and as I walked out I would have said that I banked at Coutts & Co and that I will now take my business elsewhere. I don't but what the hell. 

[brickwall]

FACT: Arnold Clarks youngest son Adam was me best pal when we were wee. That never got me a discount.

 

I've known a few folk that have worked for them and the stories make the mind boggle. We're talking about people who are told to lie, told to hide things from the customer as a matter of company policy. People work for them out of desperation. I once met this guy at an auction that was buying cars for the AC group. He told me they will buy any old crap and an old mini cab could be Arnolds Deal of the Week in a few days. The service books are always hidden from the customer and they say they will send it to you. They MOT cars in the same way Kwikfit do, but instead of selling you new stuff you don't need they will just charge you and not bother fitting it.

[Mr Lobster]

^ I worked for them for a bit - not out of desperation more out of the fact that they offered me more money than my then current employer.  Whilst there are a few shady practices and the customer doesn't always get the absolute truth they aren't as bad as the above. TBH though Arnies is no worse than a lot of the big groups (and I think specifically of Pendragon here) in terms of what they tell customers and how people are treated.

 

A lot of the used stock these days is ex daily rental both from their own rental operation and a fair bit from Enterprise (at least it was when I left three years back) and they weren't really buying anything from auction other than very late, ex fleet / demo stuff if at all.

 

That said, the salesmen were adept in telling some considerable untruths when needed and would pretty much do anything to get a sale. The wierdest thing was the spare keys - if you bought a car they used to tell customers that they didn't have a spare but if the customer wanted one they could pay an extra (IIRC) £75 for one. Most people didn't buy them.

 

Thing is though they did have the spares and kept them in boxes in storage. How do I know this - I found them. During my last few months with AC I was responsible for moving a rental operation into a closed former franchise showroom. The showroom and offices were left just as the staff walked out on their last day so we went through the place and found boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of keys, all labelled up with make / model reg. These it transpired had come from that closed franchise and three others in the city which had previously closed and someone thought the best thing to do with them was just to leave them in an otherwise abandoned storeroom.

[Hendry]

FACT: Arnold Clarks youngest son Adam was me best pal when we were wee. That never got me a discount.

 

I've known a few folk that have worked for them and the stories make the mind boggle. We're talking about people who are told to lie, told to hide things from the customer as a matter of company policy. People work for them out of desperation. I once met this guy at an auction that was buying cars for the AC group. He told me they will buy any old crap and an old mini cab could be Arnolds Deal of the Week in a few days. The service books are always hidden from the customer and they say they will send it to you. They MOT cars in the same way Kwikfit do, but instead of selling you new stuff you don't need they will just charge you and not bother fitting it.

Just before I left they were buying in particularly wrecked ex fleet and motability stock, IMO dealers should be sending their shit p/exes to auction not buying stuff from it, now some motability stuff can be an excellent buy, immaculate, low mileage stuff with full dealer history but the bits of shit they were buying were 3 and 4 year old ex fleet Mondeos/Passats/A3s etc with 90K on them, we'll worn interiors and fucked bodywork. And the ex motab stuff was the bottom of the barrel shit that not even the dodgy backstreet dealers would touch, usually Notes/Scenics/Zafiras/Focus/Astras which were high mileage, every panel damaged in some way, torn seats, fag burns, stinking of smoke, full of dog hair, disgusting inside and looking like they hadn't seen a single bucket of water or Hoover in the 3 years since new.

 

Some were even so bad they ended up getting punted back up the auctions, I remember a particular 56 plate Astra 1.8 auto estate which had a hand lever to push down on the brake/accelerator which meant so much trim had been butchered itd need everything around the driver replaced.

 

Their nearly new stock are all piles of junk from their own daily rental fleet too

[Mr Lobster]

There were a load of 3 dr Astras about 3 years ago which I think the average spend on rectification prior to sale was something silly like £800 each. But they had bought them so cheap that the profit per unit was just short of £5k.

 

A lot of their own rental stuff was ok, some were rough but they were no worse than most main dealer ex rental stock in that regard.

[Hendry]

Oh ps even as an employee I got shafted when buying cars - first Clio was sold to me as 20000 miles, it had actually done 29,000, spare key missing which I had to go and get replaced myself and have it charged back to them, 2 on the limit tyres which I had to fight my sales manager to get replaced,

 

After that I decided to try another branch next time I wanted a car, bought a Corsa, no clutch pedal rubber and the handbrake was almost vertical and wouldn't hold it on a slight camber, they told me they hadn't made enough out of the deal to pay for fixing them until I fought them.

 

Bought an Astra from another branch, it was mot'd supposedly the day I got it but yet one of the side repeaters was hanging off when I picked it up and I got pulled for a brake light bulb being out the same day (yeah it could've failed after test but unlikely) then less than 24 hours later the EGR valve failed.

 

The sales staff seemed to flit around from branch to branch and some continually left and came back from other companies, sacked salesmen continually got taken back on at other branches and they seemed to be promoted and demoted regularly with no rhyme nod reason, one day you could be general manager next you were a salesman and vice versa, you were doing well if you lasted 6 months in the same role at the same branch, the branch manager when I left was rumoured to be an alcoholic with anger management issues who had once bitten a bit of someone's nose off during a row at a new car dealer launch at Vauxhall HQ and seemingly had made sexist comments to a female member of staff and had been sacked and later reemployed because he could make them money, the fact 90% of our sales staff walked out within weeks of him starting would back that up

 

One of the salesmen had been a general manager before and had been sacked for selling cars destined for the auctions to people through the branch on the sly, bending the figures and pocketing the difference but had gotten back in by getting a job with their sister company Machargs.

 

Another a motability salesms. was taking advance rentals from customers and pocketing them and the CID appeared the day he flew out to Florida on holiday, and finally another was giving receipts for deposits paid by customers to sales admin but keeping some of the money

[Hendry]

^ I worked for them for a bit - not out of desperation more out of the fact that they offered me more money than my then current employer.  Whilst there are a few shady practices and the customer doesn't always get the absolute truth they aren't as bad as the above. TBH though Arnies is no worse than a lot of the big groups (and I think specifically of Pendragon here) in terms of what they tell customers and how people are treated.

 

A lot of the used stock these days is ex daily rental both from their own rental operation and a fair bit from Enterprise (at least it was when I left three years back) and they weren't really buying anything from auction other than very late, ex fleet / demo stuff if at all.

 

That said, the salesmen were adept in telling some considerable untruths when needed and would pretty much do anything to get a sale. The wierdest thing was the spare keys - if you bought a car they used to tell customers that they didn't have a spare but if the customer wanted one they could pay an extra (IIRC) £75 for one. Most people didn't buy them.

 

Thing is though they did have the spares and kept them in boxes in storage. How do I know this - I found them. During my last few months with AC I was responsible for moving a rental operation into a closed former franchise showroom. The showroom and offices were left just as the staff walked out on their last day so we went through the place and found boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of keys, all labelled up with make / model reg. These it transpired had come from that closed franchise and three others in the city which had previously closed and someone thought the best thing to do with them was just to leave them in an otherwise abandoned storeroom.

What branch were you converting from a franchise to a hire drive?

 

Only ones I can think of that have changed from a showroom to hiredrive are Allison street Fiat in Glasgow, Aberdeen Mazda and Liverpool Chevrolet

[Mr Lobster]

What branch were you converting from a franchise to a hire drive?

 

Only ones I can think of that have changed from a showroom to hiredrive are Allison street Fiat in Glasgow, Aberdeen Mazda and Liverpool Chevrolet

 

Bingo!

[londonm]

Wow, opened up a real hornets nest with this one. Don't think I'll ever be tempted to buy a car of Arnold Clark!

[Hendry]

Bingo!

Yeah I remember when AC was a lot bigger in Liverpool, the Kia/Mazda/Motorstore on Sefton street was a Nissan dealer, there was Citroen on Aigburth road and Rover/Seat/Kia on Fox Street/Great Homer street.

 

I remember the day Eddie Hawthorn came in and told us they were binning Citroen Liverpool and relocating our Citroen franchise to make way for a VW one.

 

I notice they seem to struggle down South with some of the franchises they make a mint from in Scotland, namely Nissan where they got rid of the Nissan franchise completely in England and Honda where they sold off all their Honda franchises down there.

[mrcitroen]

After that I decided to try another branch next time I wanted a car, bought a Corsa, no clutch pedal rubber and the handbrake was almost vertical and wouldn't hold it on a slight camber, they told me they hadn't made enough out of the deal to pay for fixing them until I fought them.

 

That sort of happened to me as well. I bought a 2,5 year old Xantia from Armadale many moons back. I took it back for warranty & the service manager saidhe would need to ask the sales dude if I paid enough for the car to allow the work to be done. You could have knocked me over with a wet kipper when I heard that one! I reminded him that the car was supplied with Citroen hallmark warranty, which iany claim is paid by Citroen UK not Uncle Arnie! Must have a wee warranty scam going.