Worst Main Dealer Stories, get it off your chest!

[brickwall]

Yes that was them, thanks. They were an abomination to the motor trade.

[Micrashed]

Was that YES car finance?

 

Fucksticks

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[AnthonyG]

I have bought two new cars, both Mondeos, from Evans Halshaw Cardiff in 99 and Dagenham Motors Alperton in 07. Never had a problem with either, salesman at Dag Motors was particularly helpful and made a point of coming over and asking you how you were getting on with the car etc when you bought it in for servicing. So two success stories I guess. The cars have been reliable so never had warranty issues. The crappier experiences I have had have been at car supermarkets, although never needing to use finance I was spared the worst.

[Hendry]

I've held off until now. I work in the motor trade, at a Main Dealer. I've read what you lot have to say, but the truth is, only a couple of you have a clue. Try this one. A car on the forecourt gets sold on a Friday night. Our company policy is a three day turnaround. So the Salesman will tell Mr Customer to turn up at 3pm on Monday. Yup, that's right, we get 6 hours to prep that car, because the knuckle dragging fucktard cannot compute that the staff required to make the prep happen at all, do not start until 9am Monday. These are the Admin team that make the internal job cards. Without the authority to work on the vehicle, we cannot touch it, and by that, I mean that we should not turn a spanner on a car unless a work order has been issued. The reasons are twofold. 1, Insurance, 2, We don't get paid for it..... So... This car wants work doing to it, namely MOT and a Pdi. We prefer to test first, for obvious reasons. Let's say it's a Honda Civic for instance (I work at a Vauxhall dealer) that needs this work doing. I get the work order, identify the car and key number. Locate the car and take it to the workshop, and go order parts (All the while the clock is ticking on MOT status) I then log onto the Test and carry that out. The outcome is then processed, whether pass or fail.... If it fails, it becomes an issue... so we carry out the Pdi at the next stage. We don't carry non-franchised parts, tyres may be non-standard sizes, or it may need AC parts, interior trim, that kind of thing. We the tell the sales department what the outcome is, and go to get authorisation to extend the work order. We then have to twiddle thumbs until the parts turn up, often replacing the wheels to take the car off the ramp, to do another, to return the car to the ramp, and remove the wheels once more. All the while, the bodyshop and valeters are screaming for the car..... I never release a vehicle from my custody until all the authorised work is done. I might report two tyres on 2.5mm, pads getting low, stained boot carpets etc, but if the Sales Dept. do not give authorisation, we cannot fix it to the right standard. Yet when the car comes back a week later, with a grumpy customers growling about tyres and brakes, we are held to account for it. So I always write down what was NOT authorised prior to delivery, and make certain I write down the Salesman's name to further incriminate him. We are made out to be bad guys, but it ain't us.

I thought that was why every dealer had their used cars already prepped before they even went on the forecourt for display for sale? So that when sold it was simply carrying out an MOT that the car was guaranteed to pass as it already had all the possible failure items fixed then a quick rewash and dry and replace the paper mats from the valeters.

[autofive]

Was that YES car finance?

 

Fucksticks

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/03_march/14/finance.shtml

[Albert Ross]

Hendry, not strictly so I'm afraid. It costs money to prepare a car, and if it doesn't sell, that's dead money. Every car has a budget, and we do an appraisal prior to offering up on the forecourt, to make sure it drives in a straight line, the gearbox isn't falling out, and all the gadgets work (important that one) so we at least have an idea of whether it's going to need a lot or a little work. Each vehicle is prepared to customer's requirements, and someone might demand 12 months test. Another might be fine with 10 months test and a full service, someone else might be ok with 6 months test, a set of tyres and pads all round.... it's all relative to the specific deal they want. Every vehicle has a "life" of 60 days before disposal. We don't need to spend £200 on a recon bill for a vehicle that is losing money by staying there. The pre-prepared cars are Supermarket fodder, fixed finance deals, and little "wriggle-room" stuff. I prefer our system. You ask for a car with 12 months test? It gets one.. sometimes the certificate is 5 minutes old when the customer arrives on site, and the vehicle is getting it's final valet..... Thing is, this system is changing.... we are starting to have them prepared on the forecourt, and it's causing problems because salesmen insist on selling the unprepared cars! Causing logjams like the one I described.

[brickwall]

Yep, they were that bad.

 

While another salesperson tells the undercover reporter: "We wouldn't advise you to get a Yes Car credit car..."

 

They are still forking out on PPI calims, but then isn't everybody in the finance sales.

[Hendry]

Hendry, not strictly so I'm afraid. It costs money to prepare a car, and if it doesn't sell, that's dead money. Every car has a budget, and we do an appraisal prior to offering up on the forecourt, to make sure it drives in a straight line, the gearbox isn't falling out, and all the gadgets work (important that one) so we at least have an idea of whether it's going to need a lot or a little work. Each vehicle is prepared to customer's requirements, and someone might demand 12 months test. Another might be fine with 10 months test and a full service, someone else might be ok with 6 months test, a set of tyres and pads all round.... it's all relative to the specific deal they want. Every vehicle has a "life" of 60 days before disposal. We don't need to spend £200 on a recon bill for a vehicle that is losing money by staying there. The pre-prepared cars are Supermarket fodder, fixed finance deals, and little "wriggle-room" stuff. I prefer our system. You ask for a car with 12 months test? It gets one.. sometimes the certificate is 5 minutes old when the customer arrives on site, and the vehicle is getting it's final valet..... Thing is, this system is changing.... we are starting to have them prepared on the forecourt, and it's causing problems because salesmen insist on selling the unprepared cars! Causing logjams like the one I described.

Thats why when I worked for AC they started prepping cars before going on the forecourt, because when they only got prepped post sale we had silly things like cars coming up for a valet at 4pm when we finished at 4.45pm, staying behind late on a Friday when we were supposed to finish early, rushing about on month end days with not getting cars until late in the day because they had half the workshop prepping cars all morning meaning we didnt get them until the afternoon, and had 15-20 cars to valet in 4-5 hours among 3 or 4 of us plus it was taking guys off the more profitable retail workshop jobs.

 

The worst ones were cars salesmen had sold that came from other branches, they would come in supposedly prepped and valeted but the valets were crap tbh and the cars were scruffy and often not properly prepped.

 

The one thing I can say though about AC and infact any main dealer place ive bought a car, although whether you get mats or a tank of fuel or free servicing etc depends on the deal youve done, the preps never did, there were set rules for those, under 6months mot left then the car got a full new years ticket on it, over 6 months it got left, tyres at 3mm were changed no matter what, pads 50% worn were changed, less than 3months/3K until a service is due it got serviced etc. No "if you give me £250 off im not fussed if it only has 6 months mot and tyres on 3mm" type thing, they got changed regardless of the deal done, this was mainly so they knew what the car was costing them in total thus could work out how low they could go on the sale price, rather than agreeing a sale price then prepping the car, realising it needed loads spend then hardly making a profit. That used to happen and was so bad that a couple of times they even had to tell the punter they couldnt buy the car, agreeing to sell a Vectra for £3.5K then realising it needed £1K of work and was going to lose them money to retail the car.  

[Hendry]

Ps AC never had a "60days in stock and if not sold by then send it to the auctions" policy, if it didnt sell it got moved to another branch and the original branch got fined for not selling it within that time, so any money spent on prep was always recouped. all it meant was every so often youd get hit with another branches shite, so youd get things like Y plate Matiz, 02 plate Nubiras, X plate 206s, Mitsubishi Spacewagons, etc. coming in which were a nightmare to punt (this was 2007/8 btw) as they were either fucked, too old or really odd and uncommon and no-one wanted them.

[Micrashed]

Ive only ever bought 4 cars off main dealers in my life (and they were all second hand ones).

Experience wise they have all been much of a much ness.

 

Fred Coupe Nissan Preston I got a Rover off that had gearbox problems that couldnt be fixed and was bought back by them after 12 weeks of trying to fix it.

 

Perrys Preston I got an 18 month old Fiesta that was Ok and uneventful, had a door lock changed under warranty that was it.

 

Perrys Leyland I got a Zafira off which was a PITA quality wise, but fair play to them they kept fixing it every time it broke under warranty.

 

Lookers Blackpool we got the C8 off which was OK but I was miffed that they  (the Lookers Preston branch) missed the banjaxed ball joint when I took it in because it kept wandering and they said they could find nothing wrong with it. They did replace the £300 electric mirror though that went tits up.

 

So I cant say I have had any major ballaches. Typical salesmen trying to sell me stuff I dont want and push finance on me I dont want when I buy such as when we bought the last car they tried to get me to take out finace for the car and a bit extra to pay for a holiday!

[brickwall]

For those in the know. If one of their hire or fleet cars is in a prang is this recorded? Or is it just fixed and popped on the forecourt?

[Hendry]

For those in the know. If one of their hire or fleet cars is in a prang is this recorded? Or is it just fixed and popped on the forecourt?

It'll be like with any car, if its written off it'll be recorded, if its not enough to write it off it'll be fixed and forgotten, my cars been shunted up the rear and fixed, next owner probably will never know unless they really know cars and can tell the paint on the rear end is fresher and that the bumper etc have been replaced, but most of the car buying public haven't a clue about this unless its a really shoddy repair.

 

While I'm in the topic I have a new bad experience of my own to share, took the car to Renault yesterday as fan speed 2 stopped working, cars covered by their warranty not manufacturer, they find wiring melted into connector and connector melted into resistor, anyway wiring not covered by warranty so as the part failure caused by wiring cost to repair was £230. They said they'd seen the same thing on 6 or 7 Clios over the last 2 years but that it wasnt a common fault or design flaw/manufacturing defect, I looked up on line when I got home and it seems the issue is common on a lot of Renaults, I googled the part numbers that were replaced and found loads of people's same parts had melted, also 1 of the parts is a heater wiring repair kit, you don't sell wiring repair kits unless you expect the wiring to go wrong, anyway today I found 2 screws in my rear footwell, they hadn't screwed the centre console back in properly and they were missing, went back to Renault and they tried to claim the screws were from the heater control panel and that just to bin those screws as it came with new ones, had to physically show the advisor and mechanic where they were missing from!

[fiatdaft]

Only if its an insurance total loss,just like any other car on the road.

[Mr Lobster]

For those in the know. If one of their hire or fleet cars is in a prang is this recorded? Or is it just fixed and popped on the forecourt?

Depends.

 

AC are / were self insured so it is down to their own judgement and potential repair cost as to whether they write off or repair. I found they tended to be quite conservative if anything and write some stuff off that could have been fixed so the forecourt isn't going to be filled with write offs.

 

That also applies to most self drive hire companies though. Some are self insured and some use the likes of Aon or Network so the procedure is the same as a private policy in terms of whether a car is a total loss or not.

[brickwall]

Thanks guys. I just wondered as AC don not like giving you a gander at the V5; they don't want you seeing how many previous owners or type of owner eg. hire car or want you to contact the previous owner.

[Jim Bell]

I have a question.

And perhaps it belongs in the Stupid Question Amnesty thread, but I'll punt it anyway.

 

Why purchase a car from a second hand car dealer?

They are employed to achieve profit.

A similar car WILL cost less from a private buyer (or am I missing something).

I've viewed a few cars at dealers, but never purchased one. They've always been over priced for what they are.

I have base rudimentary vehicular mechanical and structural knowledge, but have managed to pick out 20 odd decent forms of transport from super happy auction site/forums and nowts let me down yet.

Is a warranty and dealer plates really worth the extra outlay? (Or am I missing something else too?)

 

I always thought that dealers were for folk that didn't have a clue about cars (shoes from shoe shop, cars from car shop) but it seems that educated, and car enthused folk seem to frequent them too.

 

What am I missing lads?

[garethj]

I suppose a warranty is one reason, although you can now buy a warranty from other insurance companies.

 

The other reason is that some cars are only available from dealers, not privately.  If you want a car that's 5 years old, chances are there won't be any for private sale because they'll have been chopped in against a new car at a dealership.

 

I was surprised when looking for an 8 year old Jaguar how few were available privately, of the 5 or 6 local cars all were at dealers.

[Cavcraft]

People assume the warranty and the peace of mind (as you said) are worth the extra. On top of that for all the horror stories about dealers being puppy killing, genocidal, drug dealing baby torturers, there are probably more stories about private sellers who've blatantly ripped someone off then disappeared into the sunset.

It always amazed me the amount of people who would say 'Oh, I wouldn't buy a car that's come from an auction, they're all rubbish'. Then they go down to the local second hand car place and buy themselves something off the lot. Where do they think the dealers get their stock from, the bleeding used car fairy or something?

 

Brickwall: I always assumed car dealers don't want you to see the V5 in case you track down the last owner and ask them what the car was like and how much they got for it. I suppose there's always the risk you'd get a 'spoiler' who'd tell you the car was knackered even if it wasn't.

[brickwall]

It seems obvious, but that's what I assumed. There seems to be many complaints about a One OWner car having 3 Owners when the v5 turns up in the post.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

There's also the part ex. You've got to see the attraction of driving to the dealer in your old car and driving home in the new one, even if it's not the cheapest way to buy a car. 

 

No hassle advertising your old car, no viewings, no large sums of cash to worry about, no awkward period where you have either no car or both cars, no public transport epics to collect the new car.

[Jim Bell]

 

 

The other reason is that some cars are only available from dealers, not privately.  If you want a car that's 5 years old, chances are there won't be any for private sale because they'll have been chopped in against a new car at a dealership.

 

I was surprised when looking for an 8 year old Jaguar how few were available privately, of the 5 or 6 local cars all were at dealers.

 

I'd never even considered availability as a factor.

Suppose living in the sub £500 chod bracket, I miss a lot of the world.

Cheers for opening my eyes a bit fella.

[MK5 Escort]

I have no experience of Arnold Clark and I don’t know of anyone personally who has dealt with them so I can’t comment.

 

If I was in the market for a nearly new car (i.e – anything up to a couple of years old), I’d personally go to a main dealer rather than a generic car supermarket, just for peace of mind. It would have to be ridiculously cheap for me to consider otherwise. I’d have more trust that the dealer will still be there in six months time in case of a warranty claim. There’s one mid-sized car lot a few miles from me which has gone through at least three different owners in the last two years alone.

 

I’ve also traded in cars to dealers for ease. Yes, I know full well you get less than what it’s really worth but it’s always been a hassle free experience for me. Drive in at one end in your old car and drive out the other in your new one. No comebacks, no haggling with private buyers, no advertisement costs… I feel this point isn’t emphasised enough when it comes to main dealer experiences.

 

Mitchells Skoda (Cheshire Oaks) is a bit of a mixed bag. Brilliant for when you want to purchase a car from them (used - on the forecourt) and couldn’t be more helpful. A couple of years back they also promoted how if you keep their sticker in the rear window they wash your car for free on Saturday mornings… Unrestricted test drives also. However, when it comes to aftersales, they don’t want to know or can’t find whatever fault you’ve taken it in there for. Much like most dealers I’ve dealt with in that respect.

 

Lookers Vauxhall I feel were really decent twelve/fourteen years ago and we had pretty much no issue with them. However they’ve notably declined over the last five/six years and it’s the reason we no longer deal with them. I know these dealers well because my family get the ‘friends and family’ discount. It seems they take on too much work in a day because no matter what time you say you need your car back for, you’ll get a mandatory call from them an hour before this to advise you they need it another ‘x’ hours. Whatever time you drop a car off (i.e – 7:30am), it’ll be there until at least 5pm. Another irritating thing is that you know full well what’s wrong with the car (even if an employee from the factory has even looked at it before hand…) but they don’t trust you. Instead, your car is in for nine hours for them to only confirm exactly what you’ve already told them and oh yes, it has to come back because they carry pretty much nothing in stock. Therefore any warranty work become a minimum of two visits on each occasion.

 

They have (or had) a habit of never, ever touching brakes either – especially at service time. I had two cars from them myself and over time as the brakes deteriorated and the pedal needed more and more pressure. It was always mentioned come service time. Every time they done bugger all to the brakes. My father currently runs around in a 57 plate Corsa (he bought it at four years old). Last year he took it away from Lookers (it had a full Lookers history until then) to a quality independent we know who also take care of the Escort. It turned out the brake fluid was degrading and likely to be the original… It come as absolutely no surprise to us.

 

Local Ford dealers are truly shambolic around these parts (the reason why all the company cars he ordered some 20-25 years back for the firm he was at during that period come from Forrows in Shrewsbury). The firm I used to work for always had problems with them in the nine years I worked there, whatever dealer the vehicles went to. One was even taken to the trading standards (all I’ll say is that it involved loose fitting cable ties and string as ‘permanent’ repairs). Another good tale I heard was a freshly serviced W reg Mondeo estate leaving the dealer, following a huge thud and then clanging sound coming from under the bonnet. The metallic sound moving from the engine bay to the back. The driver looked in the rear view mirror to see a spanner is bouncing down the street. Back to the dealer immediately (bent spanner in hand), who of course denied all knowledge until it was pointed out that the mechanic who worked on it had stamped his initials on it... A year before I left we gradually reduced the Fords we had in the fleet and replaced them with Vauxhalls – by which time Lookers seemed to be improving their act…a bit, and the time we had vehicles off the road for warranty/repairs e.t.c. had dropped by more than two thirds.

[Richard]

[rainagain]

I only ever purchased one car from a main dealer, a diesel 206. On the first long drive I took it on the fuel economy was worse than I expected, I looked underneath looking for a diesel leak and found something dripping, it wasn't diesel it was gearbox oil! I called them up and was given the usual it's a trade in get lost, we don't give warranties on trade ins, etc, etc (they never once referred it to as a trade in at any point when I was looking at it) after me mentioning SOGA they buckled and agreed to fix it. Felt like a real valued customer!

[Matt]

Bump, 

 

Arnold Clark fucked up part of the brakes on my first car; It had one advisory on the MOT for a rusty piece of brake bike that led into a rear drum so I booked it into the local Arnold Clark as my parents always had their old Laguna serviced there and hadn't anything to complain about. A year later I take it for an MOT at a garage recommended to me by the VW specialist I used. While having a look around under the car he calls me over and points out to me that one of the brake pipes has a kink in it, take a guess which one... The best part is that he wasn't very pleased when I told him it was Arnold Clark that replaced that very piece... He was the service manager at the time my car was there. I was tempted to take it back to them and try and get them to sort it free of charge but reckoned that after a year I'd just get told to jog on.

 

Found a one man independent garage owned by a friends family member recently and I don't think I'll be going anywhere else for a while. Quoted me £150 including parts and labour to change a back box and a wheel bearing but he wound up changing the exhaust from the cat right back, the wheel bearing, topped up the oil, filled the washer bottle and cleaned the car for £149, I like the accuracy. Top bloke too.

 

My mother has her V50 serviced by Lloyds in Carlisle, they provide a good service but good lord they don't half charge you for it! Michelin tyres, Castrol oil... It adds up fast.

[PhilA]

I've had some very mixed issues with vehicles here from main dealerships

 

When we were running the trucks for the business, we'd bought a number of new vehicles form the same place. The 2006 Silverado I had was citrus through-and-through, a real Friday afternooner. 60,000 miles they complained about having to fix the wailing rear diff (100,000 mile Chevrolet powertrain warranty mind you) and the surprisingly large number of things like balljoints and waterpump, steering racks etc that the vehicle went through in the 110,000 miles we had it.

 

PX'd that in against the Impala, which was relatively painless, a 6pm transaction on a Thursday evening.

 

Glad we moved away from Chevy in a way. Brought the Impala in after I'd serviced it, valeted it and generally made sure it was good.. the inspectors spent about ten minutes switching things on and off, drove it a while, left it idling.. gave it the thumbs up. We got given the key to a V6 pre-owned Challenger for a test drive.. went for a quick spin and came back decided that the V8 was the way forward.. wife picked it and everything was signed and we drove out of the place in about 4 hours all said and done.

 

So, you pays your money, they are in it simply to make money, just their method is cars, and cars attract every sort of person from the best to the worst. It's a crapshoot and I've never seen someone at a gambling table happy to see someone take money away from them...

 

--Phil

[Minimad5]

Not a main dealer, but an ex dealer ... Fucking wankers, rhymes with Hayton, but begins with Dr (remove the H)

 

Basically had boost problems with the V70, an they tried to fuck me off saying it's because i do town driving.

Sorted now (after i used my own pennies to fix it)

[mrcitroen]

Posted Today, 12:05 PM

Problem with main dealer service is that they only want to do quick in & out work for max profit. As a result the guys spend most of an 8 hour shift doing oil changes & brake pads. As a result they are flummoxed if a car needs an actual repair for a fault.

 

I can't imagine uncle Arinie etc being set up with the tools or experience / knowledge to do jobs such as head gaskets piston rings etc. I think they base their workshop business model on a posh quick fit and the fact that modern cars rarely go wrong*

 

I bought my Alfa as a pre reg from Western Alfa in Edinburgh. From the tyre kicking stage to sale I was treated with utter respect and like royalty. After sales was just as good and any warranty work was done without any shit from them. A complete contrast to what I have had before from other dealers.

[ruffgeezer]

I've said it before, a full main dealer service history to me means that nothing but the bare minimum will have been done.

 

We get plenty of 2/3 year old cars in at work where the wheels have never been off, there is no grease on anything and the brake pads are all stuck in the callipers.

 

It isn't that they are bad at their jobs, main dealer mechanics are paid on how "effieciently" they do the job in hand, so why is such a premium placed on work done by people paid to do the job as quickly as possible.

[panhard65]

I had a pleasent surprise ringing a main dealer on Tuesday. I had a peugeot 807 in with the warning light for the Eolys fluid on. I rang them up to get a quote to top the tank up and re-set the light. The service advisor didn't have a clue what I was on about but put me through to the workshop. He was great told me that there was nothing to topping it up and that it was cheapest to buy the 3 litre pack as you get the pipework to connect it all in the kit. He also said that it would need re-setting but most code readers could do this (Mine couldn't) , but if I needed it done they charge £36 to re-set. So well done Peugeot in Exeter. Not so good my local dealer who wanted double that to re-set the computers. I thought all these dealers charged the same, still a rip off but would of been quicker than the 2 hours I spent with the local diagnostics "expert" trying to re-set it. I really must update my diagnostics kit.