Flash car dealership in Harrogate
Discussion
Has anyone had experience with these guys? Just on the outskirts, they carry a fair bit of stock, and talk the talk, but after purchasing a car from them a month ago, they have left me in a position where they have transferred my cherished registration, with all the paperwork being updated (I've checked with the DVLA) but I can't get new plates made up because the paperwork hasn't actually arrived and it's taxed from Monday with the 'new' registration showing on the tax disc, which won't match the plates on the car.
They've been promising to send me the correct plates for a month, and still nothing, despite several promises.
Pretty poor aftersales to be honest - I get the impression that once they've sold a car, they're simply not bothered.
Hope it's just a one-off and nobody else has had a similar experience?
They've been promising to send me the correct plates for a month, and still nothing, despite several promises.
Pretty poor aftersales to be honest - I get the impression that once they've sold a car, they're simply not bothered.
Hope it's just a one-off and nobody else has had a similar experience?
I didn't get along well with whoever was running it a few years ago. Scottish bloke, quite small. This was late 2010, early 2011 I think.
I had made a few big deals at work and went in to look at a black Porsche 997 Turbo they had in. Was approached by a terrific sales guy who showed me around it and then mentioned the Audi R8. Ten minutes later we were out in the car blasting around the outskirts of Harrogate and out to Menwith Hill. Turned out the sales dude was on his first day - he was a tech from Mercedes who had got laid off. He'd never driven an R8 before so we swapped seats so he could get a handle on what he was supposed to be selling. He was a good driver.
We arrived back at the showroom and I was a hair's width away from buying it. Then along came little Mr. Something-to-prove.
Asked me abruptly if I could afford it.
Told me he didn't want the car I'd arrived in for part exchange (Range Rover).
Asked me to prove I could afford it.
Told me I'd be dealing with him now rather than the sales bloke as he was still training.
Maybe he was having a bad day. Maybe he was just a chippy little
. Either way I just chuckled at him and walked away. I'll never buy anything from that place.
Sorry to not be more positive, good luck getting your issues resolved.
I had made a few big deals at work and went in to look at a black Porsche 997 Turbo they had in. Was approached by a terrific sales guy who showed me around it and then mentioned the Audi R8. Ten minutes later we were out in the car blasting around the outskirts of Harrogate and out to Menwith Hill. Turned out the sales dude was on his first day - he was a tech from Mercedes who had got laid off. He'd never driven an R8 before so we swapped seats so he could get a handle on what he was supposed to be selling. He was a good driver.
We arrived back at the showroom and I was a hair's width away from buying it. Then along came little Mr. Something-to-prove.
Asked me abruptly if I could afford it.
Told me he didn't want the car I'd arrived in for part exchange (Range Rover).
Asked me to prove I could afford it.
Told me I'd be dealing with him now rather than the sales bloke as he was still training.
Maybe he was having a bad day. Maybe he was just a chippy little
. Either way I just chuckled at him and walked away. I'll never buy anything from that place.Sorry to not be more positive, good luck getting your issues resolved.
Hmm... I'd tried doing a bit of research beforehand, but didn't really find anything on them.
I'm publicly raising the issue with them on Facebook and Twitter - shame I have to resort to this to get a response from them. Seem like all dealers are pretty much the same: totally uninterested after the sale, despite the many tales of 'customer for life'.
I'm publicly raising the issue with them on Facebook and Twitter - shame I have to resort to this to get a response from them. Seem like all dealers are pretty much the same: totally uninterested after the sale, despite the many tales of 'customer for life'.
The one next to the Shell petrol station - first one.
They have some pretty decent cars in there, and their setup seems decent as they have a James Bond style 'underground lair' where they service their cars. Was quite impressed to be honest, but alarm bells did ring when they we're incredibly pushy that I collect on a Friday (last day of the month) when I'd already told them I wasn't available - they even went as far as to say they would drop the car off at my house, even though I'd said I was away! Gave them the benefit if the doubt, but then when we eventually did collect it, my private registration wasn't on, despite them agreeing to arrange it all and saying it would be done when I collected the car.
It was only a small thing really, but it's worse now that I don't think I can drive the car until they supply the plate itself, or the paperwork arrives from the DVLA.
Ironically I bought a car from another dealership in Harrogate years ago who specialised in Porsches and M-cars. That ended with them having to close and reopen under a different name because of all the bad publicity I managed to create for them after discovering they'd 'adjusted' the service record... Really hope this isn't the start of another of those journeys...
They have some pretty decent cars in there, and their setup seems decent as they have a James Bond style 'underground lair' where they service their cars. Was quite impressed to be honest, but alarm bells did ring when they we're incredibly pushy that I collect on a Friday (last day of the month) when I'd already told them I wasn't available - they even went as far as to say they would drop the car off at my house, even though I'd said I was away! Gave them the benefit if the doubt, but then when we eventually did collect it, my private registration wasn't on, despite them agreeing to arrange it all and saying it would be done when I collected the car.
It was only a small thing really, but it's worse now that I don't think I can drive the car until they supply the plate itself, or the paperwork arrives from the DVLA.
Ironically I bought a car from another dealership in Harrogate years ago who specialised in Porsches and M-cars. That ended with them having to close and reopen under a different name because of all the bad publicity I managed to create for them after discovering they'd 'adjusted' the service record... Really hope this isn't the start of another of those journeys...
I had shocking service. I went in wanting to by a bentley GTC, but the salesman talked to me like he'd trod in something.
On the other hand my younger brother swears by them and has bought his last 2 porsches there
[Mod edit to remove initials]
On the other hand my younger brother swears by them and has bought his last 2 porsches there
[Mod edit to remove initials]
Edited by burriana on Saturday 29th June 09:47
I'm shocked to hear people saying they are bad!
A friend of mine bought an M5 from them, albeit about 5 years ago, and rated them very highly....he went on to buy a 535d and also seemed to have a good experience.
I've been there a few times, and on one occasion they were very busy, and kept me waiting about 2 hours before they gave me a test drive in a GTR...was a good test drive though and the salesman was pleasant enough...
they have recently employed a chavvy wideboy salesman who I didn't care much for, but overall thought they looked like a quality outfit...they certainly seem to have good stock of very low mileage cars....
Care to enlighten us as to what experience people have had with them?...as sooner or later I might end up buying a car off them!
A friend of mine bought an M5 from them, albeit about 5 years ago, and rated them very highly....he went on to buy a 535d and also seemed to have a good experience.
I've been there a few times, and on one occasion they were very busy, and kept me waiting about 2 hours before they gave me a test drive in a GTR...was a good test drive though and the salesman was pleasant enough...
they have recently employed a chavvy wideboy salesman who I didn't care much for, but overall thought they looked like a quality outfit...they certainly seem to have good stock of very low mileage cars....
Care to enlighten us as to what experience people have had with them?...as sooner or later I might end up buying a car off them!
Went to look at a £60K RR, no sevice history.. Dont worry said salesman as did a totally obnoxious Sales Manager 'we are an authorised RR service outlet and our service dept will stamp up a new book for you' yer right that'll work then. Also while I was waiting for the story about the service history I looked round at a couple of the high end cars they had in stock IMHO some of the them just didn't look right, from a distance they were fine but up close and personal, just not right. This is of course just my opinion I am sure they sell lots of cars with lots of happy customers, just not to me and unfortunatly (for me) I buy lots of cars.
I am sure you will get a better idea from people who have purchased andthen had problems / issues, (all garages do of course) and how said garage then performed to get the real idea of their worth as a supplier of expensive automobiles.
Forgot to add my experience was a couple of years ago, so things may have changed....
I am sure you will get a better idea from people who have purchased andthen had problems / issues, (all garages do of course) and how said garage then performed to get the real idea of their worth as a supplier of expensive automobiles.
Forgot to add my experience was a couple of years ago, so things may have changed....
Edited by PHOENIXUK on Friday 28th June 16:31
High turnover of cars, cars always priced just a tad lower than anything else out there that's the same. High turnover of staff it seems, if you look a their 'meet the team' page it does seem to change quite a lot, but then I suppose that's the industry.
They seem to try to move as much as possible at low margins, always intrigued as to where the stock comes from,such a big turnover. Looked on Companies house couple of years back & company seemed strong & profitable. Would of thought that they would look after you and have the vision for repeat business, but then like I say it seems set into the industry at this level that staff move on and seem to only be able to see the sale that's in front of them, customer service & long term relationship goes out the window a bit...but then as an MD I suppose it must be hard to get the right people.
When you google them nothing really comes up, and as we know bad press goes viral pretty quick on the internet, so I always take it that if you can shift as many cars as they do, and you don't have any horror stories when googled you are doing ok!.
They seem to try to move as much as possible at low margins, always intrigued as to where the stock comes from,such a big turnover. Looked on Companies house couple of years back & company seemed strong & profitable. Would of thought that they would look after you and have the vision for repeat business, but then like I say it seems set into the industry at this level that staff move on and seem to only be able to see the sale that's in front of them, customer service & long term relationship goes out the window a bit...but then as an MD I suppose it must be hard to get the right people.
When you google them nothing really comes up, and as we know bad press goes viral pretty quick on the internet, so I always take it that if you can shift as many cars as they do, and you don't have any horror stories when googled you are doing ok!.
Have bought 2 cars from them over the last 4 years. Have had great service from them. The first car was an Aston Vantage. Quite a while after I bought it, the battery started to play up, not responding to any of the smart chargers I had. I contacted them, with a view to getting a price for a new battery. They came round to my house, with a giant battery charger. tested and charged the battery, so the car would start, took the car back to the garage, spent 3 days charging and monitoring it, pronounced it in working order, delivered the car back, (after cleaning it). Cost? no charge! (no pun intended).
After I bought my second car from them, but before I received it, they told me they were not happy with some stone chips, (I hadn't spotted them), so they did a front end re-spray, again, no cost to me.
They can sometimes appear direct, but as previously mentioned here, their turn over of stock is substantial, (you only see a certain amount of what they they sell looking online, a lot of their cars get sold before they get a chance to go onto their website). My view is that a dealer that has this high a turnover and doesn't have much in the way of negative internet chat, must be getting it right most of the time.
I understand the comments about dealing with someone you quickly develop a dislike of. This happens and its difficult to get around. I would have probably walked away under the same circumstances!
Regarding the O/P's comments. I had a similar issue with paperwork/tax disc 3 months ago. I bought a Jag XKR from a main dealer, with the previous owners private plate on. I was sold the car based on the promise that the paperwork for getting the previous reg back on the car would arrive "within days". It didn't! Its partially down to the stupid DVLA process for reg retention/transfer, specifically when you attempt to change the keepers name at the same time.
However, ultimately the issue,(in my case anyway) was that the salesman wanted to sell me the car and took a risk that the documentation would be sorted out in time. I was not happy, but I see why he did it. He probably got away with it 9 times out of ten. Having said all that, I had already planned for this scenario and presented my plan to the salesman. Simply, give me another car if I can't drive mine by a certain date. As promised, they delivered a brand new Jag XK to my door, which I proceeded to put 1000 miles on in a week! (I told them this before hand).
When I got back, the paperwork still hadn't appeared, so I gave them a deadline for the end of the week, or I was going to pull out of the deal. They delivered a new task disc, with the right reg number on it 2 days before my deadline!
Interestingly, when I bought the Aston from the "Flash" garage, it still had the the previous owners private reg. The garage processed the paperwork, which took about a week. In the mean time, I drove the car after getting approval from the previous owner, (the original tax disc was till present). I signed a bit of paper saying that I would take any speeding fines that got sent to him.
Sorry about babbling on a bit!
After I bought my second car from them, but before I received it, they told me they were not happy with some stone chips, (I hadn't spotted them), so they did a front end re-spray, again, no cost to me.
They can sometimes appear direct, but as previously mentioned here, their turn over of stock is substantial, (you only see a certain amount of what they they sell looking online, a lot of their cars get sold before they get a chance to go onto their website). My view is that a dealer that has this high a turnover and doesn't have much in the way of negative internet chat, must be getting it right most of the time.
I understand the comments about dealing with someone you quickly develop a dislike of. This happens and its difficult to get around. I would have probably walked away under the same circumstances!
Regarding the O/P's comments. I had a similar issue with paperwork/tax disc 3 months ago. I bought a Jag XKR from a main dealer, with the previous owners private plate on. I was sold the car based on the promise that the paperwork for getting the previous reg back on the car would arrive "within days". It didn't! Its partially down to the stupid DVLA process for reg retention/transfer, specifically when you attempt to change the keepers name at the same time.
However, ultimately the issue,(in my case anyway) was that the salesman wanted to sell me the car and took a risk that the documentation would be sorted out in time. I was not happy, but I see why he did it. He probably got away with it 9 times out of ten. Having said all that, I had already planned for this scenario and presented my plan to the salesman. Simply, give me another car if I can't drive mine by a certain date. As promised, they delivered a brand new Jag XK to my door, which I proceeded to put 1000 miles on in a week! (I told them this before hand).
When I got back, the paperwork still hadn't appeared, so I gave them a deadline for the end of the week, or I was going to pull out of the deal. They delivered a new task disc, with the right reg number on it 2 days before my deadline!
Interestingly, when I bought the Aston from the "Flash" garage, it still had the the previous owners private reg. The garage processed the paperwork, which took about a week. In the mean time, I drove the car after getting approval from the previous owner, (the original tax disc was till present). I signed a bit of paper saying that I would take any speeding fines that got sent to him.
Sorry about babbling on a bit!
Edited by Tonto on Friday 28th June 18:27
Edited by Tonto on Friday 28th June 18:29
Windymiller said:
after purchasing a car from them a month ago, they have left me in a position where they have transferred my cherished registration, with all the paperwork being updated (I've checked with the DVLA) but I can't get new plates made up because the paperwork hasn't actually arrived and it's taxed from Monday with the 'new' registration showing on the tax disc, which won't match the plates on the car.
They've been promising to send me the correct plates for a month, and still nothing, despite several promises.
DVLA are taking up to six weeks to process cherished transfers at the moment. Could be something to do with most of the regional centres being closed down.They've been promising to send me the correct plates for a month, and still nothing, despite several promises.
I have heard a fair spread of reports on them. It appears their model is get them in, sell them cheap with not much room for negotiating. If the car's good, you get a good deal, if there is a problem, maybe not.
Don't shoot them down because of paperwork delays just yet though
If you can prove the paperwork trail then you should be ok to drive the car, give DVLA another ring and see what they suggest. If DVLA records show the car with plate on, then put it on the car as that is what the ANPR system that the police use will show.
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