Mouse to house, one leading online used car retailer calls it. The message is you can confidently buy from us online on the strength of our vehicle photographs and descriptions and our reputation, and have the car delivered to your door.
It sounds hard to resist but a recent survey by Vertu Motors, which owns Bristol Street Motors, has found that most buyers prefer to visit a dealership when they buy a car, rather than view and buy it remotely online. "The desire to build a relationship with your salesperson, negotiate on price and get a feel for the vehicle are as important as ever and, in the minds of today’s customers, online methods simply are no replacement for doing that in person," said Robert Forrester, chief executive of Vertu Motors.
Here at Evans Towers, we like to see and touch what we're buying before we buy it too, so when Mrs Evans said she'd seen an advertisement for a Mini Cooper automatic that looked promising, we rang to check the car was available and drove 70 miles to see it.
I shared her excitement. “Striking Mini Cooper auto with only one previous owner,” trumpeted the ad. “Don't miss this stunning low-mileage example! 12 months warranty, Next MOT due 15/09/2021, Full dealership history, Excellent bodywork, Interior - Excellent Condition, Tyre condition Excellent, Blue, UK's largest Peugeot Dealer Group. Every car multi-point checked and including 12 months warranty.”
The car was an approved used Spoticar vehicle at Robins & Day, a Peugeot dealer in Maidstone, Kent, so, we assumed, thoroughly well prepared under the terms of the Stellantis-backed programme recently launched by the manufacturer group to counter the new online sellers. What could possibly go wrong? After all, during our phone conversation, the car salesman had confirmed the Mini was in excellent condition. He even suggested we pay a £99 refundable reservation charge to secure it, “because it's likely someone will go online and buy it”. Excitedly, we paid up.
An hour and a half later, we were standing beside the car. 'Excellent' it was not. All the wheels were damaged – one so badly that a chunk of tyre was missing. The passenger door had a nasty scratch and the rear wheel-arch cover was badly rubbed. The roof had a largish scratch, too, and the top of the rear bumper was chipped and marked. The salesman we'd spoken to earlier approached us, but when challenged over the condition of the car, he replied saying it was “excellent – for its age”. We left.
Back home, I checked the ad again and could see the Mini's nearside had been photographed at an angle to conceal the damage and, most shocking of all, the least marked of the wheels had been displayed four times to fool buyers into believing all four were in good condition.
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I think my experience may be related to the shoddy way that french dealers (concessionaires) prepare (or rather don't) their cars for sale. I have viewed cars where the Stellantis dealer (Alfa Romeo) does not seem to be bothered that the car is dirty, stinks of cigarette smoke or is visibly damaged inside or out. They seem to have no shame that they are at the same time asking exhorbitant prices, not far off the new price in the UK and not even bothered to prepare the car or worse, at least try to repair it. So I was thinking that maybe the Spoticar scheme would be better so I went to look at another car having read 'glowing' trust pilot reports. Okay, so the used car in question was not from the Stellantis's stable, but it was a used 2019 Volvo S60 T8 with a sticker price of 40999 euros and with above average mileage. It was obviously a trade in. Who would trade in a Volvo against a Stellantis brand is another. So not a cheap car then. Straight away, just viewing the car in the flesh was an eye watering experience, and it did not need a trained eye! The headlight was broken inside, the front bumper was heavily scuffed on both corners and the paint was peeling off the lower valance. Yes, paint peeling off like some damp bedsit. The right hand sill cover had been pushed back so far that it was bending against the wheel arch. The car had clearly had front shunt. The rear left hand quarter had been badly painted in the past and the passenger door looked as if it was a shade off the rest of the car. The rear bumber had also been struck and was rippled from the impact. Go knows what the inside of the car was like because I decided to stop right there and walked away. Now, french drivers are agressive bumper humpers and are notorious for not looking after their cars, but when you are a Stellantis dealership selling a premium car at nearly 41k euros, and you present a car in that condition, you are taking everyone for a ride. This is the second poor experience of Stellantis, the first being at their Alfa Romeo dealership and now at one of their Citroen dealers. What struck me was that nobody seemed to care, but I am sure they didn't offer the previous Volvo owner anywhere near 41k euros for this example. I noted the response to the article from Stellantis claiming that it was an administrative error. I guess Stellantis think we are stupid as much as the dealers do.
I have been looking for a while for a specific model with the right options so have viewed several cars. At the outset I thought I would be safest confining my search to the franchise network but TBH I have found the best prepared and honest cars in small specialist used car dealers who invariably prepare their used stock to the highest standards before advertising the car for sale. Their prices may not always be cheaper but they appear to be more discriminating when buying stock whereas the big dealerships are selling end of contract PCP vehicles which were it not for lack of stock would pass on to auction to save them the aggravation of having to spend any money preparing to put on the forecourt.
I have been looking for a while for a specific model with the right options so have viewed several cars. At the outset I thought I would be safest confining my search to the franchise network but TBH I have found the best prepared and honest cars in small specialist used car dealers who invariably prepare their used stock to the highest standards before advertising the car for sale. Their prices may not always be cheaper but they appear to be more discriminating when buying stock whereas the big dealerships are selling end of contract PCP vehicles which were it not for lack of stock would pass on to auction to save them the aggravation of having to spend any money preparing to put on the forecourt.