Vauxhall Calibra
Discussion
I remember when this car was launched. About 6 months previously I had just taken delivery of a brand new Astra GTE 16v and the smug Vauxhall dealer (same guy) told me that they would offer nothing more than bottom book price for the GTE. This was on the basis that the Calibra was very desirable.
I know every retail is priced according to supply and demand but this was a rather silly statement to make given that I decided there and then never to buy another Vauxhall.
Anyone else had similar sillyness with a dealer?
I know every retail is priced according to supply and demand but this was a rather silly statement to make given that I decided there and then never to buy another Vauxhall.
Anyone else had similar sillyness with a dealer?
When I was 18 or so I went to a Ford dealer to have my Mk.1 Fiesta looked at as it was making a scraping noise under braking (worn pad scoring the disc), they wanted to charge me £700 to replace something or other. Cost about £40 to fix inc. labour at a mechanic's.
Never been near a Ford dealer since, even didn't bother buying a Escort Cosworth or RS because of their shoddy aftersales service.
Never been near a Ford dealer since, even didn't bother buying a Escort Cosworth or RS because of their shoddy aftersales service.
rover dealer somewhere north of bristol on the A38 who told me that the reason my car was randomly throwing its coolant everywhere was a faulty sensor somewhere in the inlet manifold which could be fixed for £400..... until i noticed a hole in the radiator.... and then he said "yeah it could be that"
pablo said:
rover dealer somewhere north of bristol on the A38 who told me that the reason my car was randomly throwing its coolant everywhere was a faulty sensor somewhere in the inlet manifold which could be fixed for £400..... until i noticed a hole in the radiator.... and then he said "yeah it could be that"
was in a small Alfa/Fiat specialist a while back to have the car looked at as it was using a little power steering fluid.
"You should scrap it , you need a complete new steering rack at £1500 , and the rad. will need replacing .... thats about £2000 and the car is worth £500 ........ oh and we have some newer cars for sale that might suit you Sir "
then I went to another Garage: "just top if up with £1 worth of gear-oil every few months , and your rad is fine... will just run a bit warm when there is a heatwave "
"You should scrap it , you need a complete new steering rack at £1500 , and the rad. will need replacing .... thats about £2000 and the car is worth £500 ........ oh and we have some newer cars for sale that might suit you Sir "
then I went to another Garage: "just top if up with £1 worth of gear-oil every few months , and your rad is fine... will just run a bit warm when there is a heatwave "
Alfa dealership with a GTV, bought the car second hand and the battery kept going flat - new alternator sir was the response...just needed a new battery after speaking to another garage. Also - knocking noise from the boot "New rear suspension mounts sir that's what the knocking noise is" upon further inspection it was something from the toolkit that was loose.....
I hate that dealership and will one day burn it down when I'm drunk.
>> Edited by boozyhughesy on Wednesday 15th February 16:48
I hate that dealership and will one day burn it down when I'm drunk.
>> Edited by boozyhughesy on Wednesday 15th February 16:48
Vauxahll Dealership...
My car was misfiring, so I called in to 'pick their brains' and asked them if they had any ideas about repair / prices / parts.
Them: One of our chaps can have a quick look if you want...
Me: Great! Help yourself
4 minutes later...
Them: Dunno.....HERES A BILL FOR £28 DIAGNOSTIC
My car was misfiring, so I called in to 'pick their brains' and asked them if they had any ideas about repair / prices / parts.
Them: One of our chaps can have a quick look if you want...
Me: Great! Help yourself
4 minutes later...
Them: Dunno.....HERES A BILL FOR £28 DIAGNOSTIC
The SAAB dealership that sold me my car (at 2 and bit years old) fetched it all the way from the south-east to the midlands so I could have a look at it and said "anything you don't like we'll sort out" - and they did - I was very impressed. He even pointed out how much more rear leg-room there was than in the new version. (I suppose he must have been making a good profit!)
chap in work took his mk2 astra estate to the local dealers for its first MOT. gets a phonecall mid morning "needs new front discs and pads", he tells them to go ahead with it for some sort of daft money.
a couple of months later, he takes it back to them for a new exhaust and a service, gets a phonecall mid morning "needs new front discs and pads", ok he says go ahead and change them.
teatime he went to pick the car up off them, and asked for the price, minus discs and pads, then hands over the money.receptionist gets stroppy, my mate says go fetch the manager. manager turns up and gets stroppy, mate pulls out invoice for front discs and pads from 2 months before, fancy a call to trading standards he asked the manager?
a couple of months later after a trading standards investigation, vauxhall pulled the franchise for the dealership.
a couple of months later, he takes it back to them for a new exhaust and a service, gets a phonecall mid morning "needs new front discs and pads", ok he says go ahead and change them.
teatime he went to pick the car up off them, and asked for the price, minus discs and pads, then hands over the money.receptionist gets stroppy, my mate says go fetch the manager. manager turns up and gets stroppy, mate pulls out invoice for front discs and pads from 2 months before, fancy a call to trading standards he asked the manager?
a couple of months later after a trading standards investigation, vauxhall pulled the franchise for the dealership.
1997
Citroen Dealer in the city where the pilgrim fathers sailed to the USA from
Looking at Savo VTR, during the summer
Me: I think I will wait til September when the R-regs come out.
Sales: Oh they are changing that this year so reg's are issued twice a year, wouldnt worry about resdiuals if I were you.
1. Ok, but he was about 4 years ahead of the rest of the UK
2. Even now the reg plate makes an October car worth more than a January car.
2002
Rover dealer in a town called (insert colour here)pool...
Ordered a MG ZS 180 brand new. 13k after discount. As it was MGR Employee scheme, I had signed the deal chosen the colour (met red), chosen options (wing spoiler delete + kenwood MP3) but not left a deposit.
I was due to pick the car up Good Friday. Thus, needed the reg number on Wednesday or Thursday in order to sort out insurance before the Easter holiday weekend.
I was on business that week, asked salesman to call me and give me a reg number on my mobile phone. I could then get my car insurance sorted.
No call, went to dealership Good Friday to find out why. Knowing that I couldn't get road tax or insurance sorted til the Tuesday I was absolutely livid that he'd forgotten to call me. So, I started to make a scene and got ushered into an office. Asked to speak with GM at this stage.
Salesman blatently lied and said he'd called & left voicemail. I had no missed calls nor voicemail so I accused him of lieing and apologised to the GM that his salesman had lost the dealership a sale.
Walked out, slightly embarrassed as the GM is my mates Father in law.
>> Edited by texasjohn on Wednesday 15th February 19:30
Citroen Dealer in the city where the pilgrim fathers sailed to the USA from
Looking at Savo VTR, during the summer
Me: I think I will wait til September when the R-regs come out.
Sales: Oh they are changing that this year so reg's are issued twice a year, wouldnt worry about resdiuals if I were you.
1. Ok, but he was about 4 years ahead of the rest of the UK
2. Even now the reg plate makes an October car worth more than a January car.
2002
Rover dealer in a town called (insert colour here)pool...
Ordered a MG ZS 180 brand new. 13k after discount. As it was MGR Employee scheme, I had signed the deal chosen the colour (met red), chosen options (wing spoiler delete + kenwood MP3) but not left a deposit.
I was due to pick the car up Good Friday. Thus, needed the reg number on Wednesday or Thursday in order to sort out insurance before the Easter holiday weekend.
I was on business that week, asked salesman to call me and give me a reg number on my mobile phone. I could then get my car insurance sorted.
No call, went to dealership Good Friday to find out why. Knowing that I couldn't get road tax or insurance sorted til the Tuesday I was absolutely livid that he'd forgotten to call me. So, I started to make a scene and got ushered into an office. Asked to speak with GM at this stage.
Salesman blatently lied and said he'd called & left voicemail. I had no missed calls nor voicemail so I accused him of lieing and apologised to the GM that his salesman had lost the dealership a sale.
Walked out, slightly embarrassed as the GM is my mates Father in law.
>> Edited by texasjohn on Wednesday 15th February 19:30
While I have been overseas
Just phoned the local Lexus dealer .....Poole .
to pay for service of my IS 300 sportcross.
not only did the dealship arrange to pick up my car free of charge ( round trip 20 miles)
car was returned valeted ..
then they offered to clean my car and offer coffee any time I care to pop in
maybe this is why lEXUS have been top of poles for custemer service
cheers.............
wonder if they will clean the Lotus if I turn up ????
In a classic car dealership type thing (not franchised, just owned by this bloke).
Walk in, get a sudden "do come in, you can look but don't touch ANYTHING".
Anyway, the guy I went in with mentioned how he had sent this guy details of several of his cars, surprise surprise the guys attitude suddenly changed! He was interested in everything the guy I went with said.
Anyway, I walked around, lots of DB5's, an F355, old Astons, Maseratis etc. Anyway, my mate comes over and says "so come on, if you could have anything in here, what would it be?". My reply was "the little off road buggy over there in the corner". The owner suddenly appeared..."I'll sell you it for £2,500, no, wait, £3,500", so I stared at him and said "so the price has jumped by £1,000 in 2 seconds?"..."yes".
Anyway, this guy was smoking now, and I watched in amazement as he stood by a car, price tag of about £80,000 (was an old Aston, can;t remember thich one!) and the ash from the end of his fag slowly fell all the way down the side of the car...and yet we couldn't touch anything.
Total ar5ehole!
Walk in, get a sudden "do come in, you can look but don't touch ANYTHING".
Anyway, the guy I went in with mentioned how he had sent this guy details of several of his cars, surprise surprise the guys attitude suddenly changed! He was interested in everything the guy I went with said.
Anyway, I walked around, lots of DB5's, an F355, old Astons, Maseratis etc. Anyway, my mate comes over and says "so come on, if you could have anything in here, what would it be?". My reply was "the little off road buggy over there in the corner". The owner suddenly appeared..."I'll sell you it for £2,500, no, wait, £3,500", so I stared at him and said "so the price has jumped by £1,000 in 2 seconds?"..."yes".
Anyway, this guy was smoking now, and I watched in amazement as he stood by a car, price tag of about £80,000 (was an old Aston, can;t remember thich one!) and the ash from the end of his fag slowly fell all the way down the side of the car...and yet we couldn't touch anything.
Total ar5ehole!
VW Dealer , Was looking at a pissat estate for a company hack , wanted to have a nosey round one of the cars and got told i couldnt sit in it as my trousers looked dirty ! sod them then , got ignored at the ford dealer as well so popped down the road for another look at the vectra 150bhp cdti , they chucked me a set of keys to a deom sri and said go for for a drive and see what you think , well impressed so im going to get a vectra now 
And it dosent handle too shabbily now , and felt better built than the ~VW and the mondeo .
And it dosent handle too shabbily now , and felt better built than the ~VW and the mondeo .I remember looking at a F reg 325i Sport (E30) and the salesman asked me how many miles the car had done. I looked at him rather perplexed. He said it had done 5k but the clock was showing 55k.
He told me that BMW have fitted a brand new engine in it at 50k because the previous owner (A Professional Footballer) had blown it up. And this was supposed to impress me! Muppet!
He told me that BMW have fitted a brand new engine in it at 50k because the previous owner (A Professional Footballer) had blown it up. And this was supposed to impress me! Muppet!
When I went to look at the Skoda Fabia vRS, the dealer was helpful. I thought I might as well go to the Seat garage since i had seen a deal a week previously where they knocked 2k off the list price of an Ibiza TDI Sport (roughly the same car).
Got there and found the ads for this "deal" were no longer there. I mentioned them, and told me I was too late, but nevertheless asked me if I wanted a test drive. I then told him I had looked at a Skoda Fabia vRS.
He then told me how crap they were, and how they would depreciate more heavily. Strange thing was, the Skoda was actually worth more after a year than the Ibiza! When I disagreed that it was crap and told him I thought it was better value for money, he exclaimed that I "didnt have a clue what I was on about". I walked out and bought the Skoda.
Got there and found the ads for this "deal" were no longer there. I mentioned them, and told me I was too late, but nevertheless asked me if I wanted a test drive. I then told him I had looked at a Skoda Fabia vRS.
He then told me how crap they were, and how they would depreciate more heavily. Strange thing was, the Skoda was actually worth more after a year than the Ibiza! When I disagreed that it was crap and told him I thought it was better value for money, he exclaimed that I "didnt have a clue what I was on about". I walked out and bought the Skoda.
I went into my local merc dealer once to test an ML350. When I asked him about fuel consumption he said 'it does 30 mpg'.
When I politely questioned this figure he insisted it was approximately correct.
In the end I had to tell him that he was talking nonsense and could he please go and get the correct figure.
2 minutes later he came back with a manual showing something like urban 15 extra urban 23 combined 19 and had the cheek to smugly say 'See I wasnt far off'!!!
I replied 'Well... 50% off which in my book does constitute far off' to which he replied ' It's not 50%- everyone uses the extra urban figure''
Needless to say that was one arse I didn't buy a car from!
When I politely questioned this figure he insisted it was approximately correct.
In the end I had to tell him that he was talking nonsense and could he please go and get the correct figure.
2 minutes later he came back with a manual showing something like urban 15 extra urban 23 combined 19 and had the cheek to smugly say 'See I wasnt far off'!!!
I replied 'Well... 50% off which in my book does constitute far off' to which he replied ' It's not 50%- everyone uses the extra urban figure''
Needless to say that was one arse I didn't buy a car from!
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