Discussion
I had a trip with my son to Car Giant car supermarket this week. He has some money burning a hole in his pocket after selling his Golf and was in the market for a 1 series coupe or a Scirocco. He told me that there was a couple of each there that ticked all the boxes for him and in his budget so made sense to go and investigate. Having never ventured before to one of these huge car sites i couldn't help to remember on the way a post i had read on here a year or so ago. A guy had visited Big Motoring World to look at a few M Power cars and had reported back with the findings of his visit -"Polished Turds" - !
This made me laugh lots and lots at the time and the comments that followed from others that had similar experience were just hilarious.
Well from our recent Car Giant experience i can report the following from what we saw there -" Unpolished Turds"-
This made me laugh lots and lots at the time and the comments that followed from others that had similar experience were just hilarious.
Well from our recent Car Giant experience i can report the following from what we saw there -" Unpolished Turds"-
I think from what i read on the boards around the walls if you pay full asking price plus another £149 they allow you to take the turds home to polish yourself!
My son was talking to a salesman at the VW desk, i stood back not to embarrass him and couldn't help overhearing another customer at the desk asking his salesman what the best cash no part ex price was on the car he had gone to view. I couldn't believe the response he got. The salesman told this chap not to dare insult him by making an offer on the car!
My son was talking to a salesman at the VW desk, i stood back not to embarrass him and couldn't help overhearing another customer at the desk asking his salesman what the best cash no part ex price was on the car he had gone to view. I couldn't believe the response he got. The salesman told this chap not to dare insult him by making an offer on the car!
I think from what i read on the boards around the walls if you pay full asking price plus another £149 they allow you to take the turds home to polish yourself!
My son was talking to a salesman at the VW desk, i stood back not to embarrass him and couldn't help overhearing another customer at the desk asking his salesman what the best cash no part ex price was on the car he had gone to view. I couldn't believe the response he got. The salesman told this chap not to dare insult him by making an offer on the car!
My son was talking to a salesman at the VW desk, i stood back not to embarrass him and couldn't help overhearing another customer at the desk asking his salesman what the best cash no part ex price was on the car he had gone to view. I couldn't believe the response he got. The salesman told this chap not to dare insult him by making an offer on the car!
That's what they're about, they sell ex lease cars (I think it says more about the people that had the cars rather than the people selling them) in the state they get them from the lease company, I think they make around £500-800 per car it's that, they're always competitively priced so the choice is yours.
I've bought from them before. My experience was...OK for the most part.
I spotted the car online somewhere, before pictures were done as it had just come in. I scheduled a viewing/test drive the next day. Went to view it and it hadn't come out of their storage warehouse. Waited a bit and it turned up. Not washed but otherwise as described. Checked it out, seemed good. A few other people loitering around it who seemed quite keen. Took it out for a test drive. I say test drive, it's pretty much just a drive up and down the road on the industrial estate but nothing seemed off. Brought it back and decided to go for it. They weren't fully aware of it's spec so was a bit under valued I think. I had already done HPI check, MOT check, confirmed history with dealers e.t.c. so was just a case of putting down a deposit.
Yeah, there is an admin fee. Was £99 when I bought I think but now £150. No budging on this. I don't know they don't just build it into the price of the car. Tax reasons? Anyway, smiling politely and say no, no no to tyre insurance, wheel insurance, wax protection, blah, blah, blah. Easy enough.
Back the next day to pick it up. They had given it a clean thankfully. Not quite to my standard but hey. Local post office open on Sunday evening to get tax which was handy.
Starting driving home, about 5 mins from CG and a warning light on the dash. WTF....Drive back to CG, explain and one of their guys takes a look, pretty much straight away to be fair. Just turned out to be the tyre pressure light. They said it hadn't been reset and was fine after that.
Next day took it to my local indy and they gave it a once over, all good but found some codes. Cleared them and went back the next day. Codes back. I contacted CG. They said to take it to one of their affiliated places and they will verify the codes. Eventually booked in with them and they couldn't read the codes...Contacted CG again and they said to drop it back. They had it for a couple of days and replaced some stuff and said it was sorted.
Went to pick it up and I noticed a small scratch down the side which was definitely not there when I dropped it off. (I took a video of a walk around it in their car park when I dropped it off) They showed me the sheet I signed which noted damage and there was a mark in that area for the scratch. I foolishly did not get a photocopy of the form when I dropped it off. Lesson learnt. They offered to attempt to polish it out but I didn't want them to make it any worse. It wasn't that noticeable and I could sort it myself. I was just a bit annoyed.
Went and got it scanned again and all good.
I spotted the car online somewhere, before pictures were done as it had just come in. I scheduled a viewing/test drive the next day. Went to view it and it hadn't come out of their storage warehouse. Waited a bit and it turned up. Not washed but otherwise as described. Checked it out, seemed good. A few other people loitering around it who seemed quite keen. Took it out for a test drive. I say test drive, it's pretty much just a drive up and down the road on the industrial estate but nothing seemed off. Brought it back and decided to go for it. They weren't fully aware of it's spec so was a bit under valued I think. I had already done HPI check, MOT check, confirmed history with dealers e.t.c. so was just a case of putting down a deposit.
Yeah, there is an admin fee. Was £99 when I bought I think but now £150. No budging on this. I don't know they don't just build it into the price of the car. Tax reasons? Anyway, smiling politely and say no, no no to tyre insurance, wheel insurance, wax protection, blah, blah, blah. Easy enough.
Back the next day to pick it up. They had given it a clean thankfully. Not quite to my standard but hey. Local post office open on Sunday evening to get tax which was handy.
Starting driving home, about 5 mins from CG and a warning light on the dash. WTF....Drive back to CG, explain and one of their guys takes a look, pretty much straight away to be fair. Just turned out to be the tyre pressure light. They said it hadn't been reset and was fine after that.
Next day took it to my local indy and they gave it a once over, all good but found some codes. Cleared them and went back the next day. Codes back. I contacted CG. They said to take it to one of their affiliated places and they will verify the codes. Eventually booked in with them and they couldn't read the codes...Contacted CG again and they said to drop it back. They had it for a couple of days and replaced some stuff and said it was sorted.
Went to pick it up and I noticed a small scratch down the side which was definitely not there when I dropped it off. (I took a video of a walk around it in their car park when I dropped it off) They showed me the sheet I signed which noted damage and there was a mark in that area for the scratch. I foolishly did not get a photocopy of the form when I dropped it off. Lesson learnt. They offered to attempt to polish it out but I didn't want them to make it any worse. It wasn't that noticeable and I could sort it myself. I was just a bit annoyed.
Went and got it scanned again and all good.
I had the misfortune to go to look at a jeep grand cherokee probably 10 years ago at some car supermarket in northampton if memory serves me correct, we phoned ahead as it was a 2 hour trek, we arrived and there was no vehicle, a manger had taken it home and was unobtainable. the salesman decribed its condition as "out of the box" would we like to put a deposit down! we didn't but my other half being fairly cantankerous, actually bloody cantankerous and a reasonably persuasive person got them to bring it to our local garage a couple of days later so we could look it over. well what can I say this box must of contained nails and glass. she did buy it after alot of hard negotiation, and actually flogged it 6 months on at a profit!
First and last time we have made out of selling a vehicle
Never again will I grace one of these places, bunch of tards!
First and last time we have made out of selling a vehicle
Never again will I grace one of these places, bunch of tards!
I will never buy from these scam artists or Unbeatable. My neighbour was in litigation with them for 3 years. He purchased a Peugeot 308 which turned out to be mangled underneath. They said he must of done it and refused to do anything.
I then tried Unbeatable for my father's i20. I inspected the particular car he liked and discovered a nightmare. The car was 2 years old and had 18k on the clock. But on closer inspection the rear quarter and drivers side inner boot space was covered in filler and fresh paint.
What shocked me was the manager and salesman's complete denial. In the end I demanded they get their mechanic out to look at it. He confirmed it was a mess. The managers response? We'll knock £200 off the £12k sticker price!
He was told to shove the car somewhere warm and dark and if I see it advertised again I'll be telling TS.
Avoid at all costs.
I then tried Unbeatable for my father's i20. I inspected the particular car he liked and discovered a nightmare. The car was 2 years old and had 18k on the clock. But on closer inspection the rear quarter and drivers side inner boot space was covered in filler and fresh paint.
What shocked me was the manager and salesman's complete denial. In the end I demanded they get their mechanic out to look at it. He confirmed it was a mess. The managers response? We'll knock £200 off the £12k sticker price!
He was told to shove the car somewhere warm and dark and if I see it advertised again I'll be telling TS.
Avoid at all costs.
t sherlock. I purchased a car (Mondeo 240PS Estate) from a place that has lots of available cars. The car is quite rare and was there was 2 other for sale in the country at the time, neither of the other 2 fitted the bill but were similarly priced. So I went to view the car at this place, took it for a good test drive and then went to do the deal. I was told there was no neogiation, the price was the price but there were no extras admin charges or anything. I ended up buying the car and towards the end of the 3rd month the turbo suddenly became very loud. I returned the car to them and they provided a courtesy car while they diagnosed the fault. They diagnosed a failed turbo so would require the car for a week, which would have been fine had I not needed the car to transport my family (wife and 3 kids) from Derbyshire to Woolacombe on holiday. They swapped the Corsa for a Zafira and off I went. Came back from holiday and a recon turbo had been fitted, oil feed pipes replaced and oil and oil filter replaced. The car then ran faultlessly for 12 months till I sold it on.
My experience was one I couldn't really fault bar the lack of neogiation on price. The car was immaculate and a rather large fault was sorted without hassle and with a sufficently large courtesy car. Had I purchased the car from a small trader or even Ford, I doubt I'd have been provided with a anything other then a small hatchback as a courest car, which would have made going on holiday very difficult considering my wife drove a Ford Focus at the time.
After the Mondeo I was after a Focus ST and looked at a few at a garage my mate Evan had told me about. The experience was completly different and when they told me about their £99 admin fee, I got up and walked out. Before I got out the door they quickly said they'd remove the admin fee as a special offer if I'd do the deal.
My experience was one I couldn't really fault bar the lack of neogiation on price. The car was immaculate and a rather large fault was sorted without hassle and with a sufficently large courtesy car. Had I purchased the car from a small trader or even Ford, I doubt I'd have been provided with a anything other then a small hatchback as a courest car, which would have made going on holiday very difficult considering my wife drove a Ford Focus at the time.
After the Mondeo I was after a Focus ST and looked at a few at a garage my mate Evan had told me about. The experience was completly different and when they told me about their £99 admin fee, I got up and walked out. Before I got out the door they quickly said they'd remove the admin fee as a special offer if I'd do the deal.
VonSenger said:
I will never buy from these scam artists or Unbeatable. My neighbour was in litigation with them for 3 years. He purchased a Peugeot 308 which turned out to be mangled underneath. They said he must of done it and refused to do anything.
I then tried Unbeatable for my father's i20. I inspected the particular car he liked and discovered a nightmare. The car was 2 years old and had 18k on the clock. But on closer inspection the rear quarter and drivers side inner boot space was covered in filler and fresh paint.
What shocked me was the manager and salesman's complete denial. In the end I demanded they get their mechanic out to look at it. He confirmed it was a mess. The managers response? We'll knock £200 off the £12k sticker price!
He was told to shove the car somewhere warm and dark and if I see it advertised again I'll be telling TS.
You mean they aren't allowed to sell a car thats had paintwork?I then tried Unbeatable for my father's i20. I inspected the particular car he liked and discovered a nightmare. The car was 2 years old and had 18k on the clock. But on closer inspection the rear quarter and drivers side inner boot space was covered in filler and fresh paint.
What shocked me was the manager and salesman's complete denial. In the end I demanded they get their mechanic out to look at it. He confirmed it was a mess. The managers response? We'll knock £200 off the £12k sticker price!
He was told to shove the car somewhere warm and dark and if I see it advertised again I'll be telling TS.
Nickp82 said:
There are plenty of supermarket type dealers that pull that particular stunt.
There are plenty of manufacturer main dealers that try it on used stock too. Was buying a 6-month-old ex-demo for asking price, and they still wanted £140 "admin fee". When I said I'd pay exactly the price advertised and no more there was lots of silly "I'll talk to the manager" theatre.re: cargiant, haven't bought but have been for a look a couple of times (and a couple of friends have bought from there). They seem fine if you understand what you're doing, and I wouldn't put them in the same bucket as the other supermarkets. They'll give you the keys and you can spend as much time as you like looking it over with no sales pressure, so really no excuses for not noticing problems. They're generally unprepared, which I quite like as you're not needing to look past tyre shine and attempts to polish out scratches. Their prices are decent and they don't negotiate. If you're happy to take it and tidy up a few bits yourself it seems a very straightforward and hassle-free experience.
A few years ago I also had a bad experience from one of these car supermarkets (still operating today), I bought one of the early facelift Audi A8's (D3). The first few months of ownership it needed some warranty work, pretty much all of the Audi technicians flocked around my car, scratching heads.
Turns out Car supermarket, had bought a load new unsold pre facelift A8 stock from Southern Ireland, imported it over, sent to paint shops to have new facelift bumpers and big grill fitted to look like new facelift model and advertised and sold them as facelift. This was a big deal as the big grill was the new look of Audi.
As Audi dealer pointed out, the facelift also included many changes inside, inc steering wheel etc. So looked like Facelift on outside, old model on inside.
Turns out these cars had been sitting around unsold for 3 years in Ireland, Audi must have sold them to car supermarket and honoured the warranty. Car supermarket where dishonest advertising and selling it as facelift, for same money I could have bought proper facelift. They tried to fight me on this, until my brother (a lawyer) got involved and they took the car back.
Turns out Car supermarket, had bought a load new unsold pre facelift A8 stock from Southern Ireland, imported it over, sent to paint shops to have new facelift bumpers and big grill fitted to look like new facelift model and advertised and sold them as facelift. This was a big deal as the big grill was the new look of Audi.
As Audi dealer pointed out, the facelift also included many changes inside, inc steering wheel etc. So looked like Facelift on outside, old model on inside.
Turns out these cars had been sitting around unsold for 3 years in Ireland, Audi must have sold them to car supermarket and honoured the warranty. Car supermarket where dishonest advertising and selling it as facelift, for same money I could have bought proper facelift. They tried to fight me on this, until my brother (a lawyer) got involved and they took the car back.
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