Trying to by a Range Rover Sport
Discussion
APOLOGIES FOR THE TYPO IN THE TITLE - I CAN'T CHANGE IT ;-)
I hired a 2010 Range Rover Sport TDV8 HSE from AVIS Prestige a few weeks back and absolutely loved it. I was in the market for a new car and had shortlisted myself to two very different cars.
On the one hand I had been looking at a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S (2005 997) and on the other a Range Rover Sport TDV8 HSE. Having hired the Range Rover I did really love it and then when this weather hit that pretty much tipped me over the edge and into Land Rover territory. I further justified it to myself as being a far more practical car than the Porsche.
Anyway, I then went onto the Land Rover UK website and used their used car finder to locate some cars in my area that fit what I was looking for. I found 3 TDV8 HSEs that were around 3 years old with 40kish miles for around the £30k mark. The lowest mileage of these actually turned out to be just a shade under £30k and was at Stratstone Land Rover in Cupar here in Fife.
I called them and asked a couple of questions about the car and then was convinced by the dealer to give them £500 to hold the car for me until I could get up to see it. Due to the current weather conditions it was going to be difficult for me to get up there but it all sounded good so I went ahead and paid the £500 with the agreed proviso that they would return my money if I wasn't 100% satisfied when I saw the car.
I also got the business manager ****** to propose the finance for me so that we could have all the paperwork good to go when I got up there to see the car. This is where things started to go wrong.
Firstly we agreed a deposit and then **** came back later to say that I needed to pay a larger deposit. Then after that when I said I didn't want to he came back and said that the original deposit was okay.
That night I had a look at the monthly figures that I'd been quoted and things looked a bit odd.
The car was £29,994 and I was being quoted the following:
Deposit : £1,000
47 Monthly Payments : £665.89
1 Final Payment : £7,605
When I worked out the APR from this it looked like I was being charged 14.5%.
I then e-mailed the garage to say that I wasn't going ahead with the deal based upon the figures that had been presented.
Obviously at this point I queried why I was paying for a 12 month warranty when all Approved Used Land Rovers come with a minimum 12 months fully comprehensive unlimited Mileage Warranty for Land Rovers up to 5 years old and up to 75,000 miles on the speedometer at the time of purchase.
Alarm bells were ringing with me as I've never experienced this type of thing when buying used cars from Volkswagen, BMW or Mercedes-Benz.
Then upon further investigation I found online reviews of Stratstone's Land Rover garage in Bury and could see that the average rating is only 1 star from people who have purchased vehicles from them.
I've obviously backed out of the deal completely and asked for my £500 deposit to be returned. They have advised that I will have to wait a few days as "the admin girls need to be here to do a refund."
I then received a call from **** ******** at Stratstone. He said "I am under a lot of pressure to sell this car as I have already told the director that it is sold and we could have sold it twice over in the last week. I tell you what I'll do, I'll give you a full Land Rover warranty free of charge to give you piece of mind".
I told ****** that I couldn't buy a £30,000 car from somebody who I do not trust and that I am not buying the car.
This whole experience has really left a bad taste in my mouth. It was my first ever experience with a Land Rover garage and will likely be my last.
I am also going to report this incident to the relevant governing body to hopefully protect other people from this type of misconduct. The car was clearly advertised in the Land Rover Approved Used website and clearly wasn't an approved vehicle.
Has anyone else experienced this type of thing before? Perhaps naively I hadn't expected this from a main dealer.
Regards
Daniel Webb
I hired a 2010 Range Rover Sport TDV8 HSE from AVIS Prestige a few weeks back and absolutely loved it. I was in the market for a new car and had shortlisted myself to two very different cars.
On the one hand I had been looking at a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S (2005 997) and on the other a Range Rover Sport TDV8 HSE. Having hired the Range Rover I did really love it and then when this weather hit that pretty much tipped me over the edge and into Land Rover territory. I further justified it to myself as being a far more practical car than the Porsche.
Anyway, I then went onto the Land Rover UK website and used their used car finder to locate some cars in my area that fit what I was looking for. I found 3 TDV8 HSEs that were around 3 years old with 40kish miles for around the £30k mark. The lowest mileage of these actually turned out to be just a shade under £30k and was at Stratstone Land Rover in Cupar here in Fife.
I called them and asked a couple of questions about the car and then was convinced by the dealer to give them £500 to hold the car for me until I could get up to see it. Due to the current weather conditions it was going to be difficult for me to get up there but it all sounded good so I went ahead and paid the £500 with the agreed proviso that they would return my money if I wasn't 100% satisfied when I saw the car.
I also got the business manager ****** to propose the finance for me so that we could have all the paperwork good to go when I got up there to see the car. This is where things started to go wrong.
Firstly we agreed a deposit and then **** came back later to say that I needed to pay a larger deposit. Then after that when I said I didn't want to he came back and said that the original deposit was okay.
That night I had a look at the monthly figures that I'd been quoted and things looked a bit odd.
The car was £29,994 and I was being quoted the following:
Deposit : £1,000
47 Monthly Payments : £665.89
1 Final Payment : £7,605
When I worked out the APR from this it looked like I was being charged 14.5%.
I then e-mailed the garage to say that I wasn't going ahead with the deal based upon the figures that had been presented.
- * then got back to me to say that the OTR price for the car was actually £31,319 and not the advertised £29,994 from their site and the Land Rover site. The difference accounted for a year's road tax, a warranty and administration charge.
Obviously at this point I queried why I was paying for a 12 month warranty when all Approved Used Land Rovers come with a minimum 12 months fully comprehensive unlimited Mileage Warranty for Land Rovers up to 5 years old and up to 75,000 miles on the speedometer at the time of purchase.
- * ***** the business manager then told me "We don't put our cars through the Approved Used scheme as it costs £1,300. If you want us to do that the price of the car will go up by £1,300."
Alarm bells were ringing with me as I've never experienced this type of thing when buying used cars from Volkswagen, BMW or Mercedes-Benz.
Then upon further investigation I found online reviews of Stratstone's Land Rover garage in Bury and could see that the average rating is only 1 star from people who have purchased vehicles from them.
I've obviously backed out of the deal completely and asked for my £500 deposit to be returned. They have advised that I will have to wait a few days as "the admin girls need to be here to do a refund."
I then received a call from **** ******** at Stratstone. He said "I am under a lot of pressure to sell this car as I have already told the director that it is sold and we could have sold it twice over in the last week. I tell you what I'll do, I'll give you a full Land Rover warranty free of charge to give you piece of mind".
I told ****** that I couldn't buy a £30,000 car from somebody who I do not trust and that I am not buying the car.
This whole experience has really left a bad taste in my mouth. It was my first ever experience with a Land Rover garage and will likely be my last.
I am also going to report this incident to the relevant governing body to hopefully protect other people from this type of misconduct. The car was clearly advertised in the Land Rover Approved Used website and clearly wasn't an approved vehicle.
Has anyone else experienced this type of thing before? Perhaps naively I hadn't expected this from a main dealer.
Regards
Daniel Webb
Edited by dhansak79 on Saturday 4th December 20:28
Edited by dhansak79 on Monday 6th December 09:48
Dan.
Wow bad story.
I have yet to have a good experience at a main dealer.
Don't let that put you off the brand.
I would only use them for service and warranty if my LR fell into that bracket.
Fight back, they need to sell cars.
Put the deal you want on the table if you don't get it walk.
There's always another car/dealer.
Hope you get to enjoy the brand experience.
Wow bad story.
I have yet to have a good experience at a main dealer.
Don't let that put you off the brand.
I would only use them for service and warranty if my LR fell into that bracket.
Fight back, they need to sell cars.
Put the deal you want on the table if you don't get it walk.
There's always another car/dealer.
Hope you get to enjoy the brand experience.
Daniel - am afraid your post will be binned due to name n shame. Why dont you try another LR dealer?
By the way a 2010 RRS is a much better car than the earlier ones. Ensure you like the older ones before you start stumping up cash. Also if you were looking at 911s then you will soon feel that the RRS is lardy and boring I think?
By the way a 2010 RRS is a much better car than the earlier ones. Ensure you like the older ones before you start stumping up cash. Also if you were looking at 911s then you will soon feel that the RRS is lardy and boring I think?
I am not surprised by your story
I bought mine from the first dealer I found I felt I could trust
Consequently the car was practically run in when I got it home
Lots of info here:
www.rrsport.co.uk
As well as good recs for dealers
Best of luck
Its a great car
Sounds like they felt they could get away with it and when you questioned it they tried to back track.
Well done for sticking to your guns, I hate a garage telling you that they need a deposit before you have even seen the car or negotiated, they are trying to control the deal, WALK AWAY full stop.
Try Westover Landrover very good guys and helpful too. Andy Grant is the sales manager or Stuart Hall sales team both great guys.
For the sake of the name and shame rule put some stars in the names or change the names in your post else I think the mods will delete it
Either way hope you get your car soon
Well done for sticking to your guns, I hate a garage telling you that they need a deposit before you have even seen the car or negotiated, they are trying to control the deal, WALK AWAY full stop.
Try Westover Landrover very good guys and helpful too. Andy Grant is the sales manager or Stuart Hall sales team both great guys.
For the sake of the name and shame rule put some stars in the names or change the names in your post else I think the mods will delete it
Either way hope you get your car soon
That company is dreadful to try and buy from. My wife and I have turned up three times now to their Solihull branch, each time in something "decent" (Mercedes) so we weren't dreamers.
First time we turned up on spec on a Sunday. No-one in the showroom. Salesman didn't approach within 15 mins so we left.
Second time we had an appointment. Informed salesman who claimed the guy we'd booked through wasn't in - he's had an unscheduled demand to drive a car somewhere - and no-one else could see us.
Third time my wife managed to secure a test drive with them but when she turned up at the appointed time they told her they had a shortage of staff, no car to test drive and that someone would call her. No-one ever did.
She *did* eventually get a test drive but through another dealership. We will never go back to the original dealership. Sadly, in Solihull I think they have their market sewn-up. They can obviously afford to treat their potential customers like that as they seem to sell huge numbers of them.
First time we turned up on spec on a Sunday. No-one in the showroom. Salesman didn't approach within 15 mins so we left.
Second time we had an appointment. Informed salesman who claimed the guy we'd booked through wasn't in - he's had an unscheduled demand to drive a car somewhere - and no-one else could see us.
Third time my wife managed to secure a test drive with them but when she turned up at the appointed time they told her they had a shortage of staff, no car to test drive and that someone would call her. No-one ever did.
She *did* eventually get a test drive but through another dealership. We will never go back to the original dealership. Sadly, in Solihull I think they have their market sewn-up. They can obviously afford to treat their potential customers like that as they seem to sell huge numbers of them.
Hunters - I found the purchase of my D3 via the dealer in Derby very easy.
Will deffo buy my next one from them.
They did spoil it at the end when the tried to sell extras such as gap insurance, tyre insurance, paint treatments, interior treatments etc etc They tried the normal approach - invoke fear and then prey on the customer ie are you fearful of tyre blow outs and tyre prices..... They hated the fact that I wouldnt buy anything and that I wasnt scared!
Will deffo buy my next one from them.
They did spoil it at the end when the tried to sell extras such as gap insurance, tyre insurance, paint treatments, interior treatments etc etc They tried the normal approach - invoke fear and then prey on the customer ie are you fearful of tyre blow outs and tyre prices..... They hated the fact that I wouldnt buy anything and that I wasnt scared!
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