Discussion
I have found myself considering buying my next car on Cinch as the part ex price they are offering (£5900) on my 10 year old S212 Merc with 130k on the clock is at least 1k more than anywhere else.
Looking at Model Y long range for about 73 plate.
The downside here, for a company that seems to like doing pretty much everything online, their photos are absolutely rubbish low res crap, impossible to tell if the paint is awful or the pic has loads of artifacts. They also seem to no longer list defects anymore so combined with crap pics it really is like buying blind.
Checking the terms, it looks like I can just hand the car back if I am not happy with it and they will refund the price paid plus what they offered for part ex, so seems pretty low risk and a reasonable way to get the value I want for my old car...
Any recent experiences of how long refunds take as don't want to be potentially waiting weeks with no funds to replace it?
Looking at Model Y long range for about 73 plate.
The downside here, for a company that seems to like doing pretty much everything online, their photos are absolutely rubbish low res crap, impossible to tell if the paint is awful or the pic has loads of artifacts. They also seem to no longer list defects anymore so combined with crap pics it really is like buying blind.
Checking the terms, it looks like I can just hand the car back if I am not happy with it and they will refund the price paid plus what they offered for part ex, so seems pretty low risk and a reasonable way to get the value I want for my old car...
Any recent experiences of how long refunds take as don't want to be potentially waiting weeks with no funds to replace it?
Cant say on the refund process but when i collected a tesla from there the guy was pretty upfront about the 7 days no questions refund. Dont even have to return to pick up point they will collect from home address.
Dont know if its changed but the defets used to be listed on the website with closer photos but these seem to be vary by inspector as to what gets picked up. There was a set of pink fingernails that seems pretty intensive on picking everything as a defect where as other cars i could see from the wider shot but nothing listed in defects.
They also are one of few places that accept credit cards and split payment methods purely online.
I would say its a safe bet with the return in 7 days beside the administrative hassle.
Dont know if its changed but the defets used to be listed on the website with closer photos but these seem to be vary by inspector as to what gets picked up. There was a set of pink fingernails that seems pretty intensive on picking everything as a defect where as other cars i could see from the wider shot but nothing listed in defects.
They also are one of few places that accept credit cards and split payment methods purely online.
I would say its a safe bet with the return in 7 days beside the administrative hassle.
Total f
king nightmare to get a refund , they hand it over to some money handling third party and then they take no responsibility for the time it takes …
This was my wife’s car that was recalled for a gearbox fault and they then managed to lose the whereabouts of the car for a week ,lucky I had the number of the HGV driver who picked it up.
king nightmare to get a refund , they hand it over to some money handling third party and then they take no responsibility for the time it takes …This was my wife’s car that was recalled for a gearbox fault and they then managed to lose the whereabouts of the car for a week ,lucky I had the number of the HGV driver who picked it up.
Sounds like a mixed bag then.
They don't seem to bother listing defects at all now, it is pretty much on you to spot them from the pics.
This one for example https://www.cinch.co.uk/used-cars/tesla/model-y/de... has a pretty obvious dent on the boot lid, but if it was a bit smaller, it wouldn't be noticeable.
I just don't get why they don't upload decent high res images, the paintwork on that looks like a kid has done it with a brush, might well have been or might be the low quality images. Surely using decent images would reduce their returns and increase margins, unless they are just selling tat and hoping people won't bother with the effort of returning it.
Still tempted mind you (just not that particular dented one) if not just for the competitive part ex.
They don't seem to bother listing defects at all now, it is pretty much on you to spot them from the pics.
This one for example https://www.cinch.co.uk/used-cars/tesla/model-y/de... has a pretty obvious dent on the boot lid, but if it was a bit smaller, it wouldn't be noticeable.
I just don't get why they don't upload decent high res images, the paintwork on that looks like a kid has done it with a brush, might well have been or might be the low quality images. Surely using decent images would reduce their returns and increase margins, unless they are just selling tat and hoping people won't bother with the effort of returning it.
Still tempted mind you (just not that particular dented one) if not just for the competitive part ex.
yeah seems they have done away with the defects photos. which is weird as im sure they must still do the inventory for them or get it from when they come in from BCA.
seem to get a mixed bag. i seen a lot of tatty model 3's that i would think why not fix but must not be there operating model. the model 3 i ended up with is pretty much spotless other than the defects listed which was marks to inner door shuts and tiny windscreen chip. Did find the balfour betty fleet documents in the glovebox so god knows how it was treated before me.
seem to get a mixed bag. i seen a lot of tatty model 3's that i would think why not fix but must not be there operating model. the model 3 i ended up with is pretty much spotless other than the defects listed which was marks to inner door shuts and tiny windscreen chip. Did find the balfour betty fleet documents in the glovebox so god knows how it was treated before me.
I had a good experience with them. Never thought I'd buy a car unseen but was reassured by the money back offer. At the time a 5 series touring with low mileage was a rare find and they were so much cheaper than anywhere else so I decided to risk it.
Completely as described except for a mark on the rear bumper that was visible in the photos but was not marked as a defect (I thought it was a shadow). I'm sure 90% of people would not have noticed or bothered but I raised it with them and completely without quibble they agreed to cover the cost of having the bumper fully resprayed and were happy for me to use a local bodyshop I knew and trusted. 28k miles later no other issues.
Completely as described except for a mark on the rear bumper that was visible in the photos but was not marked as a defect (I thought it was a shadow). I'm sure 90% of people would not have noticed or bothered but I raised it with them and completely without quibble they agreed to cover the cost of having the bumper fully resprayed and were happy for me to use a local bodyshop I knew and trusted. 28k miles later no other issues.
We have a couple of customers who have purchased bits from them, any warranty work was covered with very little issues, they did repair one car which we had back as they made a complete mess of it, you can road test them if you are local to the centre the car is at.
I would happily buy from them
I would happily buy from them
_Hoppers said:
IIRC with some of the cars you can view them at one of their sites before purchase?!
Yeah they seem to be on warehouse type sites now, although a good 60 odd miles from me so I'd probably just go in blind and return if it needs be. The part ex offer is too good to refuse and beats selling it privately. UK_Scat_Pack said:
Went bankrupt. Now they re back ..but for how long??? Won t be touching them!
Are you mistaking them for Cazoo or similar. Cinch are part of the BCA group and haven't been bankrupt as far as I can see.Bendo said:
_Hoppers said:
IIRC with some of the cars you can view them at one of their sites before purchase?!
Yeah they seem to be on warehouse type sites now, although a good 60 odd miles from me so I'd probably just go in blind and return if it needs be. The part ex offer is too good to refuse and beats selling it privately. UK_Scat_Pack said:
Went bankrupt. Now they re back ..but for how long??? Won t be touching them!
Are you mistaking them for Cazoo or similar. Cinch are part of the BCA group and haven't been bankrupt as far as I can see.Bendo said:
_Hoppers said:
IIRC with some of the cars you can view them at one of their sites before purchase?!
Yeah they seem to be on warehouse type sites now, although a good 60 odd miles from me so I'd probably just go in blind and return if it needs be. The part ex offer is too good to refuse and beats selling it privately. We bought a Skoda through Cinch for my mum recently. Paid for delivery, which means it's 100% a distance sale so you can cancel for any reason within 14 days if you're not happy.
I've no idea how that works with part-ex - I suspect it's impossible to unwind that part of the deal?
The good:-
Car was delivered on time, as described. Delivery driver was excellent.
A surprising amount of paperwork left in the car, including previous owner's main dealer invoices (complete with name/address....!)
This included a job sheet showing the prep work done. Front disks/pad, repainted roof, paint touch-ups etc.
The less good:-
Almost every car on the website had a weird mixture of ditchfinders fitted.
Many cars were missing service history, so choose carefully!
The car could have been cleaner inside.
We had a minor issue with central locking - took a long time to get a proper response, but then offered appt at main Skoda dealer. (Marshalls are closely related to Cinch)
Overall I'd certainly use them again.
I've no idea how that works with part-ex - I suspect it's impossible to unwind that part of the deal?
The good:-
Car was delivered on time, as described. Delivery driver was excellent.
A surprising amount of paperwork left in the car, including previous owner's main dealer invoices (complete with name/address....!)
This included a job sheet showing the prep work done. Front disks/pad, repainted roof, paint touch-ups etc.
The less good:-
Almost every car on the website had a weird mixture of ditchfinders fitted.
Many cars were missing service history, so choose carefully!
The car could have been cleaner inside.
We had a minor issue with central locking - took a long time to get a proper response, but then offered appt at main Skoda dealer. (Marshalls are closely related to Cinch)
Overall I'd certainly use them again.
I was looking at cars through them recently - specifically Model 3 and Polestar 2s. They had a really good range of both models at competitive prices, which I found slightly odd as they were comparable with private sale prices.
After checking the MOT history of a few examples of both models, I noticed that all the Teslas had the same first 2 digit location code on the reg plates. Likewise the Polestars also all had the same location code as each other (though different from the Teslas). It seems obvious that they had bought bulk lots of ex rental / car share cars which all had similar odd tyres, scuffs / scrapes, and MOT advisories.
It certainly wouldn't put me off buying from them, but worth looking out for to reduce chances of getting something that's been beaten around London by a different person every few hours for several years
After checking the MOT history of a few examples of both models, I noticed that all the Teslas had the same first 2 digit location code on the reg plates. Likewise the Polestars also all had the same location code as each other (though different from the Teslas). It seems obvious that they had bought bulk lots of ex rental / car share cars which all had similar odd tyres, scuffs / scrapes, and MOT advisories.
It certainly wouldn't put me off buying from them, but worth looking out for to reduce chances of getting something that's been beaten around London by a different person every few hours for several years
ilikejam said:
Likewise the Polestars also all had the same location code as each other (though different from the Teslas). It seems obvious that they had bought bulk lots of ex rental / car share cars which all had similar odd tyres, scuffs / scrapes, and MOT advisories.
All Polestars' reg's starts with an 'O' as they are all registered at the head office due to how they operate with direct sales. AFAIK Tesla are similar?_Hoppers said:
All Polestars' reg's starts with an 'O' as they are all registered at the head office due to how they operate with direct sales. AFAIK Tesla are similar?
Tesla do register from their "dealers" (or prep centres) I believe but since they only have about 8 then most cars have fairly similar reg prefixes.I have had a couple of good experiences with Cinch and everything was as described and it worked like clockwork - the new dawn of the dealer in my mind.
A colleague of mine had nothing but trouble with them from the outset. Reserved the car - they then cocked on it as it had been reserved before and was a website error. Hey-ho, these things happen.
He then found another one which was delivered and looked like someone had stabled a donkey in it - looked nothing like the photographs. That got sorted with a valeter they instructed a few days later. Then it needed a replacement infotainment screen. Cinch then funnelled him into Halfrauds and that then turned into a farce.
A mixed bag in my mind…
A colleague of mine had nothing but trouble with them from the outset. Reserved the car - they then cocked on it as it had been reserved before and was a website error. Hey-ho, these things happen.
He then found another one which was delivered and looked like someone had stabled a donkey in it - looked nothing like the photographs. That got sorted with a valeter they instructed a few days later. Then it needed a replacement infotainment screen. Cinch then funnelled him into Halfrauds and that then turned into a farce.
A mixed bag in my mind…
Positive-ish experience from me.
Good PX price - actually they didn’t even check it for damage so I could’ve put excellent condition when actually it was only fair.
New car had some issues which they partially fixed. I decided to reject the car they were willing to give a refund without a fight, but a mate managed to fix it fairly cheap so I kept it.
Overall, would buy from them again.
Good PX price - actually they didn’t even check it for damage so I could’ve put excellent condition when actually it was only fair.
New car had some issues which they partially fixed. I decided to reject the car they were willing to give a refund without a fight, but a mate managed to fix it fairly cheap so I kept it.
Overall, would buy from them again.
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