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Useless car dealers & useful specialist - skidpan

He said avoid the petrol because they were trouble, I'd not realised it was the BMW unit.

Think you will find that BMW used the Peugeot 1600 petrol in the Mini and the 116/316. BMW now use their own 3 cylinder petrol in these.

Think you have just found the least knowledgeable Peugeot salesman in the land. If he tells you a pack of nonsense about the engines origin what chance is there of getting a honest car.

Useless car dealers & useful specialist - RT

The 1.6 petrol used in the 5008 is the PSA Prince, built at Douvrin France, and is also used by BMW and MINI but built at Hams Hall England.

Useless car dealers & useful specialist - Andrew-T

The woman in sales said all salesmen were busy and asked for my number which i duly gave so someone could phone me when free. They must have been very busy this wet afternoon because they haven't got back to me.

Trilogy, as a long-term regular on here, I am surprised that you expect any dealer to make outgoing phone calls, they are far toooo busy for that. I am a very rare visitor to dealerships now, but I long ago learnt that picking up a phone to call a possible punter just isn't part of the training.

Useless car dealers & useful specialist - gordonbennet

I've been to dealers who insisted on their morning meetings whatever, much to busy to check new cars in and i'd probably be blocking half the road outside with the transporter.

That's fair enough you might think and after all they are the customer and call the shots, though other dealers who worked with us received infinitely better service ie that special emergency car order we'd rush through to seal a deal, too thick to take that in.

The same couldn't care less attitude at some was awarded to the customers too, i've seen customers having to wait for ages to see a sales bod due to the statutory meeting, and seen enough of them walk out too vowing never to set foot in the dump again.

Clueless many of them, they deserve whats coming to them as the downturn bites hard.

Useless car dealers & useful specialist - Warning

Most main dealers are useless if you are after a used car. It seems they are disinterested in selling cars.

I was interested in a particualr model only to be told it had been sold, they take all my personal information.They tell me stock is due in they will call, but I never receive a call back!

So why waste time, by asking for people's personal details? What do they do with this information? They record in their computer system.

The only time, I got a call back, was for a car, but it about 25,000 on the clock, but according to the wear and tear, it was the same as a car which had done done 80,000 miles.

Useless car dealers & useful specialist - SLO76
“Most main dealers are useless if you are after a used car. It seems they are disinterested in selling cars.

I was interested in a particualr model only to be told it had been sold, they take all my personal information.They tell me stock is due in they will call, but I never receive a call back!

So why waste time, by asking for people's personal details? What do they do with this information? They record in their computer system.“

Problem is the working hours involved in car sales simply doesn’t appeal to most people so those with the capability of doing something else that pay close to it leave and they end up with the less capable and the young who’ve yet to be sickened off by it. I loved selling cars, I’d still be doing it if it didn’t mean working every weekend and you’d certainly get a call back from me hungrily looking to get my hands on your wallet, the only reason I wouldn’t chase up a punter would be if I had deemed them unrealistic or a total time waster. Salesman often get this one wrong as I found when I started taking over enquiries that other older staff had put into the later and gained a fair number of sales monthly from those the other guys had given up on. Some dealers understand this and give sales staff at least one weekend off a month to try and retain the talent.
Useless car dealers & useful specialist - skidpan
Most main dealers are useless if you are after a used car.

In truth I wasn't after a used car but as still seems to be the norm many dealers still do not have petrol demonstrators (but at least some are prepared to take cars form stock for buyers to drive). When I wanted to try a petrol CX5 after hearing the bull dung about not needing to drive one the salesman suggested the best place to find one to drive was to look on Autotrader. When I got home and looked guess where the nearest petrol CX5 was adertised, yup, the dealer I had just visited. it was a 2 year old example with low miles, perfect for a drive in.

Did not bother, ordered the Skoda, at least they loaned me a car for the morning and seemed interested in my custom. That is why we have just ordered another car from them, loaned us a car for the day this time..

Useless car dealers & useful specialist - sandy56

I ran a Peugeot 2l HDI diesel for four years, the same model engine as now in the other newer Peugeot diesels. I never had a problem with it. Smooth and quiet at speed and would buy another, probably a 508 estate.

Useless car dealers & useful specialist - skidpan

We ran a Focus with the 1.6 TDCi (engine of doom) for 5 trouble free years. The chap who bought it from us ran it for another 7 trouble free years, that 12 years in total. It was always serviced correctly using the correct Ford spec oil. It died last September, 12 years old, probably engine failure.

Useless car dealers & useful specialist - daveyK_UK

I agree,

i have heard and read a wide variety of opinions on the 1.6 diesel

The one thing that everyone seems to agree on, a regular yearly or 12,000 service is essential to longevity.

Have seen many go way beyond 80,000 miles at various ages but all had a strong service history in common.

Useless car dealers & useful specialist - SLO76

I agree,

i have heard and read a wide variety of opinions on the 1.6 diesel

The one thing that everyone seems to agree on, a regular yearly or 12,000 service is essential to longevity.

Have seen many go way beyond 80,000 miles at various ages but all had a strong service history in common.

Certainly an abused or neglected example will be more likely to fail but speak to any trader or mechanic and they’ll tell you of cars with up to date service records that still failed. I had a co worker with one that required a turbo at less than 60k, a neighbour taxi driver with a Berlingo that exploded around 80k again with full history and I know of plenty of others via second hand stories via the trade. However none of the cars I use as examples of this had a main dealer history they had all been maintained either by the owner himself or a small backstreet workshop. It’s quite possible the main dealers know enough about these fragile engines to keep them sweet if you’re willing to pay that bit extra. I certainly would with one of them.

Edited by SLO76 on 13/03/2018 at 20:51