Arnold gets another one
Discussion
HendryG said:
although nobody I spoke to seems to have a clue so I'm expecting hassle when my drivers take the car in next week to Shields Road for repair.
I wouldn't trust Shields Road anymore, had bad experiences with them and these are influencing my next buying decision. I am willing to, and will, pay more to avoid having the need to ever go near an Arnold Clark ever again. Edited by HendryG on Wednesday 20th January 18:39
Craigie said:
I wouldn't trust Shields Road anymore, had bad experiences with them and these are influencing my next buying decision. I am willing to, and will, pay more to avoid having the need to ever go near an Arnold Clark ever again.
Unfortunately the major shortcomings of the Arnold Clark organisation are something I'm all too familiar with having worked for them, bought various cars from various different branches and uased numerous others for aftersales/warranty/service and parts. I had defected to Parks Motor Group (who really werent much better) out of principal of not giving Arnold any of my money after how they treated me when I worked there and the shocking service received in their branches, however wanted a new car, visited Linwood Phoenix Retail Park to have a look around one Saturday I was in the retail park for something not car related and the new Corsa caught my eye. Had been planning to visit every franchised non AC dealership in the West of Scotland before choosing a new car, new Corsa caught my eye however and before I know it im talking figures with the salesman and sales manager as their price beat Halshaws and Vardys and actually felt like things had changed and maybe they had improved in the 4 years I'd avoided them, still thought this until I collected my brand new car and realised with the poor PDI standards things were still just as bad, after all how do you explain a brand new car with 2 tyre pressures at 43 and 2 at 57psi and a sidelight completely inoperative and the problems just kept happening from then on, a catalogue of faults and errors and no attempt made to put them right, the only Arnold's places I've ever truly been happy with are Garscube Road and Pollokshaws Vauxhall branches, the rest are appalling. Unfortunately my employers insist we book their car into the closest dealership for work as they don't care how shocking the service is as long as one way or another the car comes back minus the fault it went in for. I notice on Parks website the Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover, BMW and Mini franchises acquired from Macrae and Dick now show as Parks branches in the branch locator but although there's an announcement of the acquisition saying they will now be able to offer Ford, Mazda and Toyota and a listing of the acquired branches listing those dealerships they are still not listed as available franchises on the home screen nor the branch directory, this could be because it was easy to add those locations for the other brands to their site as those manufacturers are already on their site and they'd need to create new pages for the new franchises your imagine they wouldve done that at the same time as adding the other locations, so is it possible they only acquired Macrae and Dick for the BMW, Mini, Jag, Land Rover and Honda franchises and plan to offload the Ford, Mazda and Toyota sites?
I wouldve thought a Ford franchise wouldve been a major earner and like gold dust, giving them a sought after volume franchise they badly needed but maybe they are happy with more "niche" volume stuff than the major Ford/Vauxhall/VW brands and maybe they feel they can't make single Mazda and Toyota sites work
I wouldve thought a Ford franchise wouldve been a major earner and like gold dust, giving them a sought after volume franchise they badly needed but maybe they are happy with more "niche" volume stuff than the major Ford/Vauxhall/VW brands and maybe they feel they can't make single Mazda and Toyota sites work
Last week I bought a used car from an Arnold Clark dealership (Linwood) and I have to say, the chap I dealt with and the service they provided was fantastic. Everything was done via phone and email, I flew to Glasgow, was collected at the airport, checked the car and did a test drive, it was better than described, I paid the agreed amount in full by debit card and took the car home.
Best of all, five days later the money is still in my account! A free car, sure where else would you get the likes of it!?
Best of all, five days later the money is still in my account! A free car, sure where else would you get the likes of it!?
Edited by JuniorD on Tuesday 16th February 20:22
JuniorD said:
Last week I bought a used car from an Arnold Clark dealership (Linwood) and I have to say, the chap I dealt with and the service they provided was fantastic. Everything was done via phone and email, I flew to Glasgow, was collected at the airport, checked the car and did a test drive, it was better than described, I paid the agreed amount in full by direct debit and took the car home.
Best of all, five days later the money is still in my account! A free car, sure where else would you get the likes of it!?
I would not post that outside of this sub forum, you will cause PH to implode Best of all, five days later the money is still in my account! A free car, sure where else would you get the likes of it!?
Are we allowed to ask what you bought?
Edited by 750turbo on Tuesday 16th February 19:39
cas20 said:
Belmont now Suzuki dealer for Edinburgh. Macklin Motors appear to have ditched their Parkhead Nissan operation!
Blimey! Western didn't last long with the Suzuki franchise did they? I'm told the Colinton Road site where Suzuki was based along with Alfa Romeo, Seat and Saab after sales is moving to either Newbridge where a lot of other Western showrooms are or down at Fort Kinnaird where Western Honda is, so maybe this is the reason for them dropping the franchise. Am I also right in thinking that Belmont/Murray/Dunedin/Weir or whatever name John Martin Group were calling their dealerships before not a Suzuki dealer at Sighthill before? possibly in the exact same premises they've now became a Suzuki dealer at again? 750turbo said:
JuniorD said:
Last week I bought a used car from an Arnold Clark dealership (Linwood) and I have to say, the chap I dealt with and the service they provided was fantastic. Everything was done via phone and email, I flew to Glasgow, was collected at the airport, checked the car and did a test drive, it was better than described, I paid the agreed amount in full by direct debit and took the car home.
Best of all, five days later the money is still in my account! A free car, sure where else would you get the likes of it!?
I would not post that outside of this sub forum, you will cause PH to implode Best of all, five days later the money is still in my account! A free car, sure where else would you get the likes of it!?
Are we allowed to ask what you bought?
(Growing family, need the space.)
Just read HenryGs post about the Parks takeover of Mcrae and Dick and he mentions that there is no mention on Parks website of Ford Mazda or Toyota. These franchises all share the same site but all have there own parts departments. Jaguar used to be in the showroom now occupied by Toyota and shared the Ford parts department, when Toyota came on board Jaguar moved in with Land Rover and today when I phoned for Jag parts I find they now have there own parts dept so sounds as if maybe Parks dont want Ford Mazda Toyota.
HendryG said:
Am I also right in thinking that Belmont/Murray/Dunedin/Weir or whatever name John Martin Group were calling their dealerships before not a Suzuki dealer at Sighthill before? possibly in the exact same premises they've now became a Suzuki dealer at again?
Yeah, they are advertising the new franchise as "Look who's back!"HendryG said:
still thought this until I collected my brand new car and realised with the poor PDI standards things were still just as bad, after all how do you explain a brand new car with 2 tyre pressures at 43 and 2 at 57psi and a sidelight completely inoperative and the problems just kept happening from then on, a catalogue of faults and errors and no attempt made to put them right
Have you seen how many AC cars have squint number plates? Another example of poor PDI standards.I didn't buy my car from AC, but all of the local VW main dealers are owned by them. I'll add my experience to this thread in case anyone's interested.
I recently took my car to an AC main dealer for a warranty repair on the drivers seat electrics.
1) They gave me a filthy courtesy car with bits of food and receipts all over the interior, and made me pay for the privilege.
2) After keeping my car for a full day, they said they have diagnosed that "there is a fault with the drivers seat electrics" (ie. they pressed a button and nothing happened) - but because they couldn't diagnose the exact cause and fix it, I had to pay a £75 diagnosis fee! Volkswagen Warranty said that they WOULD cover the diagnosis fee, but AC had to request it - and they refused!! Why on earth they would refuse, I have no idea. I tried really hard - they flat out refused to claim from the warranty or give me my keys back until I'd paid £75.
3) My car had a big scratch/scuff on the rear panel. You could tell it was fresh. They did a condition report in the morning and the damage wasn't on it. The service manager wrote and signed a statement (at my request) saying that the damage did happen while the car was with them... But after weeks of fighting them for repair costs, their final decision was "You can't prove that a member of staff caused the damage, it could have been another customer, so we're not giving you anything."
I now have to travel quite far to get to a main dealer who is not AC... But it's worth it. I have had previous bad experiences with AC but this one was the worst. Never going back, never ever.
I recently took my car to an AC main dealer for a warranty repair on the drivers seat electrics.
1) They gave me a filthy courtesy car with bits of food and receipts all over the interior, and made me pay for the privilege.
2) After keeping my car for a full day, they said they have diagnosed that "there is a fault with the drivers seat electrics" (ie. they pressed a button and nothing happened) - but because they couldn't diagnose the exact cause and fix it, I had to pay a £75 diagnosis fee! Volkswagen Warranty said that they WOULD cover the diagnosis fee, but AC had to request it - and they refused!! Why on earth they would refuse, I have no idea. I tried really hard - they flat out refused to claim from the warranty or give me my keys back until I'd paid £75.
3) My car had a big scratch/scuff on the rear panel. You could tell it was fresh. They did a condition report in the morning and the damage wasn't on it. The service manager wrote and signed a statement (at my request) saying that the damage did happen while the car was with them... But after weeks of fighting them for repair costs, their final decision was "You can't prove that a member of staff caused the damage, it could have been another customer, so we're not giving you anything."
I now have to travel quite far to get to a main dealer who is not AC... But it's worth it. I have had previous bad experiences with AC but this one was the worst. Never going back, never ever.
Edited by bigbob77 on Tuesday 19th April 16:06
When I dropped the car off, I reminded AC that it has a warranty (VW approved used). When they asked for the £75 I told them that the warranty would pay that... Their first response was "you don't have a warranty".
I'm guessing they forgot to put in the warranty claim and it was too late at that point (even though the warranty company said they would still cover it if AC asked). They were just stubborn.
The selling dealer (in England) called to ask how I was getting on with the car. When I told them what had happened, they said I shouldn't have to pay a penny as it's under warranty and offered me the £75 even though it was completely not their fault... Quite a contract from AC's customer service!
I took the car to another dealer (Inch VW in Stirling) and they sorted it out with a free courtesy car and good service.
I'm guessing they forgot to put in the warranty claim and it was too late at that point (even though the warranty company said they would still cover it if AC asked). They were just stubborn.
The selling dealer (in England) called to ask how I was getting on with the car. When I told them what had happened, they said I shouldn't have to pay a penny as it's under warranty and offered me the £75 even though it was completely not their fault... Quite a contract from AC's customer service!
I took the car to another dealer (Inch VW in Stirling) and they sorted it out with a free courtesy car and good service.
Couple of things I noticed over the weekend, first Arnold's Hyundai place at the Parade have swapped the signs facing the motorway from "Coming soon" to "Now open", they've also got a lineup of cars in the first floor window, looking over the motorway fence.
Also, there's a big site at the corner of Dobbies Loan/Port Dundas Road/Milton Street that's being progressively cleared from the Dobbies Loan end & a new building put up - the hoardings now say "Macklin Motors Nissan coming soon" or something similar around the new building at the Dobbies Loan end - looks like a big showroom that's going to face towards the motorway.
Also, there's a big site at the corner of Dobbies Loan/Port Dundas Road/Milton Street that's being progressively cleared from the Dobbies Loan end & a new building put up - the hoardings now say "Macklin Motors Nissan coming soon" or something similar around the new building at the Dobbies Loan end - looks like a big showroom that's going to face towards the motorway.
Gassing Station | Scotland | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff