Not Such A Nice Dealer

Not Such A Nice Dealer

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heavy right foot

Original Poster:

1 posts

271 months

Wednesday 10th October 2001
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I often read on here about good & bad dealers, I came across this article in the Motor Trader magazine and although I personaly dont know the full story, only what was mentioned, it did make interesting reading. The heading was "TVR quizzes dealer over £5,000 release charge. But Fernhurst Motors says cancellation of order for Tuscan broke agreement". The article goes on :- "TVR is reviewing its relationship with one of its dealers, Fernhurst Motor Company, following the case of a customer being charged £5,000 to be released from an order on a new Tuscan Model."
It goes on to say that TVR are concerned about the action of its dealer. "were looking very seriously at the situation", said a spokesman for the manufacturer. "there is scope for for losses to be made up but what has happened doesnt appear to be that".
The company is currently investigating the course of events, and the spokesman said: " they are our dealer, at the moment."

AndrewD

7,541 posts

285 months

Thursday 11th October 2001
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Not heard the story in question but this sounds very unlike the Fernhurst I know - always found them excellent myself.

jurdy

258 posts

285 months

Thursday 11th October 2001
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Again, sounds dubious. I have used Fernhurst for 4-5 years and have been almost over whelmed by the quality of service/advice I have received

RRTuscan

58 posts

273 months

Thursday 11th October 2001
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Indeed doesnt sound like Fernies.
Having said that there have been rumours about two sothern based dealerships being ditched by TVR.

Doubt fernies would be ditched as they seem to out sell most of the other dealerships and that would make TVR look very silly if they lost one of their main sources of income.

We dont know of course the full story, but if the 10% had been paid and the car spec'd and perhaps if it was only a couple of weeks away from being delivered then 5k sounds about right due to loss of business. Its still cheaper than buying it and then trying to sell it, as you would probably lose 10k.

Peugeot got the right hump when I cancelled an order some 20 weeks before 'likely delivery' for a 206CC (for the other half, before anyone asks). They did give in and give back all of the deposit, silly buggers )

Tuscans still rule though.
Flew past (wasnt dared to look at speedo) a fully loaded M3 a couple of days ago, and the guy must have panicked because as I past him (BMW in slow lane, me in fast) he braked suddenly. Dont know why he thought a tuscan could be a copper?

Whilst here and chatting, isnt it unbelievable the manouvers you see other drivers (in normal cars) do on the roads. Im always following cars who overtake in the stupidest of places (corner, bends, small straights), many of those I wouldnt even do in my tuscan.

And of course when we overtake in cars that can overtake in areas that other cars wouldnt be able to do, we get moaned at.

Had a bloody german tank driver moan about a very straight forward and easy manouver the other day.

Fun and games


stubby

1 posts

271 months

Thursday 11th October 2001
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Quote:[Doubt Fernies would be ditched as they seem to out sell most of the other dealerships and that would make TVR look very silly if they lost one of their main sources of income.]

I find this difficult to swallow as apparently they sold the least amount of cars last year in the south of England!!

PetrolTed

34,428 posts

304 months

Thursday 11th October 2001
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quote:

I find this difficult to swallow as apparently they sold the least amount of cars last year in the south of England!!



...and who told you that? Another dealer perhaps?

stubby

1 posts

271 months

Thursday 11th October 2001
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My brother works in a dealership in the North of England and TVR send out yearly sales numbers for all the TVR dealers, to all the TVR dealers, and it shows that Fernhurst were quite a way behind most dealers, especially for the South of England!!

tjones5420

81 posts

275 months

Thursday 11th October 2001
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Stubby

Can you e-mail me offline? I have a question about those

tjones5420@hotmail.com

Thanks

RichB

51,605 posts

285 months

Thursday 11th October 2001
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I don't know anything about which dealer this is but it is a true story that someone was stiched up for 5k to get out of a contract for a TVR.

flasher

9,238 posts

285 months

Thursday 11th October 2001
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Can't quite get my head around this. A good friend of mine was well and truly stitched by Fernhurst to the tune of over £1500.
I myself was enraged by them when their sales muppet offered me £8K for my mint 40K mile BRG Griffith,in PX for £24K Cerb,which I eventually sold for £12,500!!! Every dealer (6 quoted me) offered at least £12K in PX for a Cerb. One dealer told me that Fernies gave other TVR dealers a bad reputation (sales wise) and I can see why.
You might all get good SERVICE from them but on the sales side they are, IMO, CRAP!!
You might be interested to know that the same £24 k Cerbera is now £20K
meaning they lost 4K and the £3k they would have made on my Griff if they had given me £12K and sold it with a warranty for £15K. I'm delighted, they don't deserve a TVR dealership when they treat potential customers like cash-cows. They don't need to make £7K out of every deal do they?

Edited by flasher on Thursday 11th October 19:21

RRTuscan

58 posts

273 months

Friday 12th October 2001
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Interesting comments. Ive known fernies for four years now and never had a problem with sales. Ive bought and sold through them and even made money on a sale or return. I would be peeved off too for having to shell out 5k, but as I said before, we dont know the whole story. I would be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt though.

You've got to remember, they arent there to give us all blistering deals on cars. They do actually have to make money and I wouldnt be prepared to lose money by a customer who I did not think would ever come back.

The biggest problem with Tiv's is that all the niggle fixes arent neccessarily paid for by the factory. Most dealers are having to spend considerable amounts of their own time and cash on warranty work.

Im suprised any of the dealers are making money on new car sales due to the cost of the warranty work they carry out and do not get reinbursed for.

As for the amount of cars they sell. Judging by the amount of their customers that come from London and beyond for sales and servicing, Im suprised any of the other dealers in the south have any customers.

I could be wrong of course, so hey, life's too short.


-RR-

Dave-Big

4 posts

272 months

Friday 12th October 2001
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quote:

I myself was enraged by them when their sales muppet offered me £8K for my mint 40K mile BRG Griffith,in PX for £24K Cerb,which I eventually sold for £12,500!!! Every dealer (6 quoted me) offered at least £12K in PX for a Cerb.


Sounds to me like they just didn't want you as a customer.

YellowCerbera

56 posts

273 months

Friday 12th October 2001
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What do you guys think of Mole Valley ?
DY

deanb

175 posts

285 months

Friday 12th October 2001
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Have bought 3 cars from Fernies over the past 6 years. (Two used, one new) They have always been helpful & very up-front when it has come to the financials.

I sold my Griff through them on sale & return when I bought the Tuscan & although the price I got in the end wasn't great (i.e. compared to what I'd paid 2yrs earlier), the market itself was lousy at the time & they seemed to put a lot of effort into selling it.

I'd also point out that as well as selling new cars, they seem to shift a huge volume of used ones as well.

Bottom line: I've bought & services 3 cars there (despite living in central London). If the service was no good, I would not have done so.

flasher

9,238 posts

285 months

Friday 12th October 2001
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"I'd also point out that as well as selling new cars, they seem to shift a huge volume of used ones as well."

Yeah that's why they still have the Cerbera for sale SIX MONTHS LATER!!!!
And for £19750 instead of the £24K I would have paid.

"Sounds to me like they just didn't want you as a customer"

Maybe, but as I said EVERY other dealer offered me £12K against similar priced cars. Ask anyone who saw it or email me and I'll send a picture, the car was in fabulous nick.

"You've got to remember, they arent there to give us all blistering deals on cars"

I know that but they are not there to take the pure piss either. They are there to SELL cars and in this instance they failed miserably and made sure that I will NEVER be a customer of theirs at the same time. They still have the car (now 5K cheaper!) and if they hadn't tried to financially rape me they would have had a nice profit on BOTH, because mine went to the first guy who saw it. I would have gone back with a cash deal if they hadn't insulted me, but I thought "Fu*k them" and bought a car from another dealer who didn't try to rip me off.

My point is that NO dealer is perfect, they all take the piss out of customers, you just have find the one that treats you right on an individual basis.
All this "Fernies" nonsense gets on my tits. I don't call TMS, TMSykins do I!!
They are a car dealer for Gods sake!! and they treat some customers like sh*t just like any dealer does!! They are good to me but may be crap to other people. One mans meat can be anothers poison.


flasher

9,238 posts

285 months

Friday 12th October 2001
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quote:

What do you guys think of Mole Valley ?
DY


Sold a friend of mine a brand new Griff costing £39K. Six months later offered him £22k for it!!!(selling due to baby) If he hadn't told them where to go they would have had it up for £32K at least.
Needless to say he sold it privately for £30K and when he bought a Cerbie 3 months later he went to David Hendry. That's what happens when you take the piss out of customer.. They don't come back... ever..

kajagoogoo

67 posts

272 months

Saturday 13th October 2001
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Re Mole Valley,

On two separate cars of mine they have found nails in the tyres - three tyres in all. Replacements have been £235 a pop. Two of them only had 800miles on them.

They had repaired a damaged one without my permission and I feel that they were going to sell it on - if I hadn't asked for it back.

I have never had the same problem in my many visits to H.R. Owen.

It might just be bad luck on my part and, in case their lawyers are watching, I cannot and do not say that it happened deliberately. What I can say is that they won't be getting the chance to find another nail.

PetrolTed

34,428 posts

304 months

Saturday 13th October 2001
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Last word on this:

- dealers are in it to make money
- some will be more ruthless than others
- we've all received bad service from someone
- I've heard bad stories about every single dealer in the TVR network. I've heard glowing praise about many of them.
- Many dealers have lost out on the sales of several cars based on single incidents when potential customers first introduced themselves and were mishandled.

At the end of the day as with any business relationship, it's about striking up a good rapport with the person or company that you're dealing with.