Obviously not that keen on selling you a car, love to know how the aerial went missing.

Sadly it's not just this type of outlet doing this sort of thing - I've come across many main dealerships across various makes in my area who aren't properly preparing second hand cars, if at all - though more on the inside than the outside.

Maybe the reason is that they can sell them without bothering to do that ?

My major grumble wasn’t the state of the car - point me in the direction of the jet wash and I’ll do it myself to get a better look at the paintwork. No, it was being told initially that the car would be ready to view, and then being told that it was away being cleaned when it was sitting untouched at the back of the yard. Just be honest with me.

Proof of the common belief that "all car salesmen tell lies".

‘ Proof of the common belief that "all car salesmen tell lies".’ Now I’m going to be contrary and disagree with the ‘common belief’. My working life is pretty much full time working with new car sales team, and I meet a lot of good people. Can they be disorganised, lazy and lacking in training? Yes, of course they can. Are they under massive pressure to hit very high customer service scores? Absolutely. A dealership’s profit is hugely dependent on CSI scores. And when you factor in they’re tied to strict Financial Conduct Authority regs when dealing with financial products and the omnipresent possibility of a mystery shop, I’ll respectfully say that they’re not all liars. They may just tell you what you don’t want to hear.

When we ordered the Yaris last September I got the salesman to confirm everything we had agreed in writing (e-mail) before signing any order, a couple of examples:

Delivery date, we wanted it in March, they said December but when we started to walk (saying we would be back in January) the Dealer Principal (who was standing close by) quickly intervened and said that would be fine, they did it all the time

Finance Deal, the existing deal ended in December and we wanted to be sure we would get the contribution and rate in March. They confirmed that the existing deal would be honoured when we took delivery but they also added that should a better deal be available in March we could opt for that.

Order signed and waited.

Late February salesman phoned and said car ready for collection, just needed to agree date and time, looked like they had listened.

I then said we still needed to sort the finance and that we would like the current (improved) deal. Told us could not have it because we had delayed delivery, I told him that he knew that March was when the car was to be delivered and he had confirmed everything in an e-mail but he was insistent it was our fault and that was it. I asked him to confirm it with his manager who rang and said the salesman was correct. I asked it to be escalated to the Dealer Principal who eventually rang back (about an hour before the time I had said I would be cancelling the deal) and he confirmed all would be fine, we could have the deal agreed and that they did it all the time.

I then said all we needed was to confirm the PX valuation the salesman had provided but the Dealer Principal said there was nothing on the system. He explained how it was done and it was clear all the salesman had done was make up a figure. So since the car was not a Toyota it had to be put to other group dealers who sold Skoda for prices and he asked many questions about the car basically saying at the end that since no 6 year old car was that good he would deduct money for any defects present) and this took another few days (the salesman took about 2 minutes), but at least it was better than the salesmans figure. When we took the car in he found no defects but did not have the decency to tell me I had been honest.

Took about 3 weeks from the time the salesman rang to collection, good job we were not in a hurry.

So while the salesman was a liar at least the Dealer Principal rescued the deal. Wonder if the salesman is still there.

Edited by skidpan on 17/08/2024 at 10:57