A rare tale of an excellent independent car dealer !
Discussion
I was on the lookout for a BMW 650i Coupe and looked long and hard over the BMW AUC website but nothing that had the spec I wanted was coming up. I then found a car 80 odd miles from home at IAC Cars in Winchester.
I was very sceptical to buy a car from a non BMW dealer as I had never done this before and have always been a "main dealer guy". I went up to see the car and took it for a test drive and fell in love with it there and then. After the usual haggle I made a deposit on the car and a couple of days later the owner "Ian" had his dad bring the car down closer to home for me to pick up (as his dad lives 12 off miles from my home).
The next day on the way to work I noticed a really bad steering wheel judder upon braking at high speeds. I immediately emailed Ian and told him what I felt - at this stage I honestly thought he'd tell me to f off as the car had an independent RAC inspection report and it was all cleared. ON top of that the Mrs firing away "see I told you not to buy from a dealer like that"
Ian told me to take the car to a local dealer and have it diagnosed. I took the car to an indy and they confirmed it was warped discs and the rears were totally rusted so it was a cost of around £1000 to me to have all 4 corners brakes and pads changed.
I emailed the report to Ian who told me to drive down and he will have the pads and discs changed at his workshop. I drove down this weekend and the fronts where changed (using Pagid material). When they got to the back they noticed that 1) the rust wasnt that bad and the discs didnt need to be changed and 2) that they had ordered the wrong set of discs for the rear.
Ian gave me the option of 1) coming back next week to have the rears changed or 2) taking cash for the price of the rear pads and discs + 2 hours labour at £100. I took the cash and he gave me around £400 even though he knew the rears were OK !
I think this is exeptional customer service as even BMW AUC wouldnt cover brakes and they'd have probably told me to F off!
I was very sceptical to buy a car from a non BMW dealer as I had never done this before and have always been a "main dealer guy". I went up to see the car and took it for a test drive and fell in love with it there and then. After the usual haggle I made a deposit on the car and a couple of days later the owner "Ian" had his dad bring the car down closer to home for me to pick up (as his dad lives 12 off miles from my home).
The next day on the way to work I noticed a really bad steering wheel judder upon braking at high speeds. I immediately emailed Ian and told him what I felt - at this stage I honestly thought he'd tell me to f off as the car had an independent RAC inspection report and it was all cleared. ON top of that the Mrs firing away "see I told you not to buy from a dealer like that"
Ian told me to take the car to a local dealer and have it diagnosed. I took the car to an indy and they confirmed it was warped discs and the rears were totally rusted so it was a cost of around £1000 to me to have all 4 corners brakes and pads changed.
I emailed the report to Ian who told me to drive down and he will have the pads and discs changed at his workshop. I drove down this weekend and the fronts where changed (using Pagid material). When they got to the back they noticed that 1) the rust wasnt that bad and the discs didnt need to be changed and 2) that they had ordered the wrong set of discs for the rear.
Ian gave me the option of 1) coming back next week to have the rears changed or 2) taking cash for the price of the rear pads and discs + 2 hours labour at £100. I took the cash and he gave me around £400 even though he knew the rears were OK !
I think this is exeptional customer service as even BMW AUC wouldnt cover brakes and they'd have probably told me to F off!
Edited by 6BMW on Monday 6th June 10:19
Ah now thats another story - He actually made a loss of £1500 now that he has changed the brakes. I have paper work with me to prove this!
He has given me the invoice of the car from the company he bought it from. Was sitting on his forcourt for over 5 months (which explains the brake corroding) so he was desperate to rotate stock so let it go for cheaper than he bought it for!
He has given me the invoice of the car from the company he bought it from. Was sitting on his forcourt for over 5 months (which explains the brake corroding) so he was desperate to rotate stock so let it go for cheaper than he bought it for!
richyb said:
Caulkhead said:
Shouldn't the RAC be paying the bill?
I would have hope the inspection the OP had done would have covered this kind of thing as well. If not, what is the point of it? 6BMW said:
No I didn't notice anything on the test drive!
But did you drive it like you do now? going OT.. I find that people drive slow when test driving, I always tell the person after a few miles relaxed driving (checking cold gearbox action etc etc) that I am going to push on to check it out.I need to check these things in the s2000 and the clio cup, as that is where they will be crap.
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