Cridfords... any experiences ?
Discussion
Gents, not looking for dirt just genuine customer experiences.
Cridfords have a car in stock that i have an interest but unlike RSJ, Paragon and 911 Virgin i know very little about them and was looking for some feedback from the usually excellent PH Porsche clique ....
feel free to pm anything useful to me that you may not want to post.
thanks.
Cridfords have a car in stock that i have an interest but unlike RSJ, Paragon and 911 Virgin i know very little about them and was looking for some feedback from the usually excellent PH Porsche clique ....
feel free to pm anything useful to me that you may not want to post.
thanks.
Just bought a nice Cayman from them. I've previously ran a Cayman for over 4 years so i knew of all the right questions to ask, they were spot on with all the responses.
The car was handed over with a full major service, MOT, new water pump, new front discs/pads. It was not apparent to me that the water pump and front discs needed replacing.
I was presented with a checklist of everything they'd looked at. For instance RMS - Dry / Moist / Leaking.
I rate them pretty highly so far as my dealings with them.
The car was handed over with a full major service, MOT, new water pump, new front discs/pads. It was not apparent to me that the water pump and front discs needed replacing.
I was presented with a checklist of everything they'd looked at. For instance RMS - Dry / Moist / Leaking.
I rate them pretty highly so far as my dealings with them.
Seem to take the cheaper tougher selling cars which others don't want
on the plus side the cars are cheap, I hate to think what people have to offload them at.
Saying that Looking at them the last 12 months they seemed to have upped their game a bit.
If they had a car I wanted I would still buy off them, which I could not have said 5 years ago.
on the plus side the cars are cheap, I hate to think what people have to offload them at.
Saying that Looking at them the last 12 months they seemed to have upped their game a bit.
If they had a car I wanted I would still buy off them, which I could not have said 5 years ago.
Many years ago when they had a showroom in Weybridge my Father bought a series of cars from them and without exception they were all good cars. I appreciate that this is not recent news but I missed Cridfords when they moved as they always had some interesting cars for a youngster to ogle over through the window.
Diesel130 said:
Just phone them up and ask "if I buy a car from you and 3 months later find that the cigarette lighter has been used, will you replace it?" 
lol ...... and if you don't, I may well start a big big possibly b
hy thread on PHs. I will shove my head up my arse and cry. It will be a muffled cry of course; until you see sense and give 30K worths of warranty work on a 20K car, cause like the advert on TV ........ I'm worth it. 
I bought a car from them 6 months ago. Car is lovely but there attitude to customer services is abit up and down. They didn't really prep the car well when I went to pick it up so it was with them for abit longer. That said, they did fix all the issues but that took a couple of months. Jeff the mechanic knows his stuff and Jonathan who owns the place can be abit arrogant at times. All I would say is that if you like a car get it inspected and try and negotiate as hard as possible.
Have dealt with them in the past and to be honest they are as good as gold and have been going 3 times longer than most other indies , just because they do not come on here or get their customers to come on here and blow smoke up their arxxxse they get a bit of unjustified stick. I think the thread running at the moment on another indie who supposedly preps their cars to a higher standard than most and charges on average 2 grand more for their cars highlights the fact that a good wash and polish does not constitute a good prep.
These guys along with a couple of other indies sell the earlier cars as well as the later low mileage stuff and in my mind makes them a true indie, anybody can set up and only sell "safe cars"and gain a good reputation but to sell the cars that Cridfords sell and still get a decent reputation makes them a safe bet in my eyes.
These guys along with a couple of other indies sell the earlier cars as well as the later low mileage stuff and in my mind makes them a true indie, anybody can set up and only sell "safe cars"and gain a good reputation but to sell the cars that Cridfords sell and still get a decent reputation makes them a safe bet in my eyes.
johnbrace said:
...they get a bit of unjustified stick.
Nope. The stick has always been justified. Plenty of people have written letters to them and got solicitors/ courts involved, or had cause to threaten to. I am sure people will PM you if you ask...If customers want to come on here and praise them; they can. Can't find any threads praising them, can find plenty doing the opposite. Only one other place that comes to mind that has more negatives than positives; HWM. And who would go there?
If you are happy to buy a car from there, make sure it is inspected. My car had so many faults that I gave up having them dealt with by the dealer as paying for them myself was less painful. Did you know you could cure running faults by unplugging the MAF?
No dealer is perfect, but I would certainly (from experience) treat this like a private sale and negotiate very hard indeed. Their margins are clearly small and prep work is very important. I used to have a tutor at University who would only fly BA. Back then, they were the most expensive, but they did the most 'prep' work (maintenance) and he specialised in structual failures in aircraft. I paid a certain amount for a car... Then spent a lot more on remedial work. I was naive - Never again.
The car that I bought from them was cheaper than elsewhere and had some very nice spec.
Many things that I had requested to be fixed prior to purchase were not actually done 10 days later when I went to pick it up. I had to go back later to get them resolved. But they did resolve them.
Over the first few days/weeks I found it was certainly not perfect, but it was reliable and had nothing other than the usual faults over the 2-1/2 years I owned it.
At the end of the day it was a used car. I would go there again, but I would like to have an inspection done to be fully advised. Same advice for any dealer though.
Many things that I had requested to be fixed prior to purchase were not actually done 10 days later when I went to pick it up. I had to go back later to get them resolved. But they did resolve them.
Over the first few days/weeks I found it was certainly not perfect, but it was reliable and had nothing other than the usual faults over the 2-1/2 years I owned it.
At the end of the day it was a used car. I would go there again, but I would like to have an inspection done to be fully advised. Same advice for any dealer though.
Magic919 said:
I'd certainly get the car inspected before buying unless you know what you are doing.
I would say do this anyway.You don't buy the dealer, you buy the car. It doesn't really matter what the dealers reputation is like, only the quality of the car, and you should always ascertain before buying anyway.
Yes, if there are hidden problems that occur soon after taking delivery you'd like some comeback, but in reality, if they're really that well hidden (and couldn't reasonably have been picked up prior to purchase) then that could happen to any dealer, no matter how/good bad their reputation.
If you want complete peace of mind, go brand new (or perhaps OPC). Otherwise accept that there is always a degree of uncertainly when buying used (that's what you get in return for not suffering the depreciation), keep your wits about you and take all sensible precautions to avoid getting stung.
I will stress again, this is a general comment, and nothing specific about any dealers who have/have not been mentioned on this thread. They're all rogues in my book.
Edited by monthefish on Wednesday 7th December 15:59
Gassing Station | Porsche General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff