I would avoid them - too new to have built the sort of reputation I would want in order to buy blind.

With a 1 or 2 year old car, mechanically it should still be under warranty. Need to check bodywork and interior very carefully on delivery and before acceptance. But would I spend possibly £10k ++ without looking at what I was buying????

Anything older and there is NO substitute for a test drive and thorough personal inspection.

Any cost saving would need to be remarkable even to tempt me!

I've never had any dealings with these people. Some of the reviews and the responses to them were less than inspiring.

More worrying was their (lack of) information on consumer's rights. They make great play on the '7 day change your mind' option. If you buy a car without visiting their premises (e.g. online) you have 14 days to change your mind and cancel the contract for any reason or no reason at all. If you do, they cannot charge you for delivery to you but you may have to deliver the car back to them at your expense. What they could more properly say is 'You can change your mind and cancel the contract up to 14 days after delivery. If you do this within 7 days we will collect the car free of charge. After 7 days if you wish to use our collection service we will charge £250.'

A 90 day warranty is not of much use because under the Consumer Rights Act it is a 'rebuttable presumption' that any fault which becomes apparent within 6 months of sale was present or developing at the point of sale and the seller is liable for repair/refund/replacement. Warranty insurance companies could reject claims within the first 6 months on this basis.

But it gets more complicated if you have a problem ...

If you acquire the car on HP/PCP your contract is with the finance company (they buy the car from the dealer and hire it to you). They have all the obligations under consumer law, not the dealer. So in any dispute you will be dealing with the finance company. Some are no doubt better than others. You are relying on them to handle the process promptly, deal with your refund etc.

The Cazoo site mentions Black Horse Finance, i.e. Lloyds Banking Group. They operate with several entities, e.g Shogun Finance and Suzuki Financial Services Ltd. You may wish to search out reviews for the finance company you will be dealing with.

In any case, the FCA gives finance companies 8 weeks to issue a proposal to resolve an issue. That's a long time when you're at the receiving end and you may have to wait 5 weeks or more just to get them to inspect the car, or even for the call centre operator to get a 'complaint manager' appointed.

I have had no dealings with Cazoo, but I think the above points are worthy of consideration.

Edited by joegrundy on 07/09/2020 at 11:34

Personally, I do not think that it is worth the risk, but for those who buy/rent everything online via an app it might well be attractive.

The problems come when there are problems and if it is not a main dealer car with main dealer service history and WARRANTY the life will suddenly get a lot harder.

YES, the founder has built 2 good businesses but the car retail business is littered with fallers by the wayside.

Like any other business Trustpilot and other reviews have been known to be manipulated.

If i write a good review, it'll pass but as I found afew months back writing a bad review about a hotel booking gets the "checking you actually did book" Police on your heels pretty quick.

In that case my review was judged unacceptable, as even producing the copy of the booking form wasn't acceptable as I had cancelled immediately after spooting the problems and was refunded.

So, beware reviewers... and reviews.

Edited by _ORB_ on 07/09/2020 at 14:49

That's interesting, ORB. Cazoo car registered 2017. Only service (PDI?) 13/6/17 by BCA Bristol.

FSH or what?