paulr

Any good or bad experiences?....am looking for an A3.

MattW

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Car_Supermarkets_5013908_3

scooby-new

they sound fecking useless from the link............I'd stay clear if I was you.

ronny555

wnakers - do not touch with a bargepole.

Reffro

If you are looking for a cheap car, I'll help you with a few pointers. The first thing to know is not all companies are operating to the same formala, Carcraft, Carland, Motorpoint are all very different companies. Drop me a line with your number (use my address in my profile) and I can call you back with some help. Oh and I'm not selling anything, just willing to help.

scooby-new

Posting again on this topic 'cos I feel like I got ripped off when buying my scoob (another story) makes me realise that there are some REAL cowboys out there far worse than anything I ever experienced. A BBS Sheffnet has actually had threat of legal action from "CARCRAFT" due to the number of complaints on posted there. They sound like no one should consider buying anything from them. STAY CLEAR

brickboy

My dad bought an Octavia from Motorpoint at Derby, it was a straight cash deal, no trade in. He was well pleased with the service, very friendly and helpful.

Brand new Octavia 1.6 GLX for £8999. Thing to watch for is a lot of their cars seem to be Republic of Ireland spec rather than UK spec, so there are minor differences in standard kit. In my dad's this meant getting a Blaupunkt CD / radio as standard instead of a radio / cassette ... which he didn't mind at all.

He showed me the sales dockets, the car was bought from Skoda in Eire by Motorpoint and brought to the UK, presumably as surplus stock. Absolutely unmarked however, had 4 miles on the clock when he picked it up.

Their website has A3s from £12999, and 1.8Ts from £14.5K.



[Edited by brickboy - 3/10/2003 1:29:51 PM]

Regacy

I've bought from these guys twice.
Not great sales division,
But a fantastic price and a good warranty.
If you know what you're after they're good.
Trade Sales Slough

paulr

I went to Carcraft for a look this afternoon.
Most of the complaints in Matts link were about finance and pushy sales staff.Yes the staf were a bit pushy but if you're firm with them its not a problem.
There is also an enormous choice,but the prices were not cheap,some of them were comparable with main dealer prices.

Not having bought anything i cant comment on the after sales service.

Reffro yhm.

scooby-new

there were also complaints of sharp business practice, bad quality cars, warranties that didn't cover anythng but cost £1000's the list goes on. These people are bad news- do so more digging and you'll find they tried to gag people who complain about them.
If that's the way they operate imagine how great the after sales service will be.

paulr

That would be my biggest concern too.

Chrisgr31

My fiancee and I bought a car from Carland the other week. There was great choice, and I thought the prices were good. We even managed to get interest free credit for 3o months, which made the deal even better.

They do try and push you, and when we went to collect the car they tried to sell us AA Cover, a valet cover, and insurance to cover the difference between the price paid for the car and the insurnace payout in the event of a total loss claim.

I have no doubt we could have pushed for a better deal if we could have been bothered, but we couldn't. They did at least do what they said they would, and phoned us a week after to check our satifaction with their service.

What I would say is this sort of operation is likely to attract complaints purely because of the number of cars they sell. I believe Carland Lakeside have a target of just under 400 sales a month, so I would expect some people to be unhappy, and unhappy people always shout louder than happy ones!

However I suppose the proof in the pudding will come when we get the car serviced and see what the local dealer says! Due to the mileage I do, won't be long before that happens!

Reffro

Paulr, I read your e-mail this morning, I'll call you today.

paulr

Okay,cheers.

Ali82

Went to a particular car supermarket in South Yorkshire with my mate, he was looking for a 106gti on finance. Anyway rang up and was told they had 6 to choose from at this particular store. So made the 40 mile journey, when we got there we got talking to one of the 'staff' apparantly he was from where we lived and would do a 'special deal for a local lad'(!?!) Anyway fact of the matter is they in actual fact had no 106 gti's in stock. When questioned as to why we were told that morning they did have we got the reply that the 'last two had been sold this morning'. Out of intrest my mate asked about them and was told one was a Y reg the other was an X reg and both had gone for £11,995 (more expensive than a brand new one then!!!). Absolute and utter bolloks.
Have heard good things about motorpoint in Derby though so don't wish to tar all with same brush.