AutoQuake 2nd hand car sale - any one brought from?

tigdem

Im about to get a nice buy from autoquake.. well i thought so anyway! im also now experiencing anxiety mixed with excitement. the excitement because the car ive been searching for with extras (leather seats) for less than should be possible and supposibly in mint condition! the anxiety from the experiences of others.. its seems hard to believe all of the good experiences are all genuine posts. however i feel the urge to find out what this company has to offer in this situatuation. i have paid the reservation fee (fully refundable) and will goto this "shabby portocabin" to meet the staff with "no knowledge".. then i shall let you all know of my experience after friday when i go to pick it up.

happywarmgun

Just an update on my story a few posts (and several pages) above. I spoke with autoquake about the fact that the service I had showed up some things. They asked how much it had cost me - they asked me to send a copy of the invoice to prove I wasn't making it up - and then - get this: They refunded me the lot - i.e. all the work in my bill that wasn't the standard service cost - this came to over £350 (cheque arrived this morning). There was clearly no legal requirement for them to pay me this - and even if there was I didn't threaten it - it was a goodwill gesture - the bloke was clearly upset that a car had gone out the door with something missed.

Given I was happy enough before with them (see reasons earlier) - I am very, very, very happy with them now and would recommend them as an honest company who do what they say on the tin and seemingly do care about customer feedback. So long as you read their website properly and understand how they operate and are not expecting a traditional dealer then you will get everything it says on the tin. I'd go back.

terrydactil

happywarmgun wrote: »

I am going to look at/pick up a car today. You can see from my post count (and length of registration) I am not an employee plant. However - in case they monitor this site - to get myself the same service a food critic gets in a restaurant - the car I am coming for is this one...

(refer to happywarmgun's original post for the link, as I cannot post it)

Will post a a full and honest account of the experience later....

As you say you bought this car last month, I'd be interested to know why this link is still showing a Seat for sale. Surely Autoquake don't used the same URL code number a couple of weeks later for a different car. Something seems fishy here.

On a more positive note, Autoquake seem to be simply an online car auction, but better because cars can be tested for 7 days. You can't do that at a main dealer. Even something like Mazda zoom-zoom only lets you change the car for another Mazda within 30 days - no money back guarantee.

I can't understand why people are moaning about this type of way to sell a car, writing stuff like "you really bought a car without having ever seen / driven it??" etc. If you want all the whistles and bells of looking over lots of cars, full test drives, included warranties, !!!!-licking salesman etc, go to a main dealer. If you think you could save some money this way, with a 7 day money-back-guarantee, then why not give it a try. Warranties are available, and you can use some of the saved money to either take an RAC inspector with you or get the car serviced within the 7 days should you wish to, for peace of mind. I'm tempted, because I know that my local mazda main dealer sticks almost £3000 on the price they pay for 2-3 year old cars.

Would love to hear from someone who has used the 7 day money-back-guarantee, but not an internet shill please (autoquake staff or competitor). Shills, get a life!

terrydactil

Autoquake only showing 352 cars for sale at the moment. I was looking for diesel cars last week and they had nothing new in for nearly the entire week. Their "50 new cars per day" claim may be incorrect at the moment.

Also, their claims about savings made against Parkers prices seem to be based on Parkers mid 2009 prices, despite me seeing Parkers Feb 2010 available in the shops yesterday. Plus it is a bit misleading to claim "you save £xxx over the parkers price" when the parkers price is based on dealers, who would presumably include a warranty in the price. Autoquake should take that into account.

olly300

Parkers give different prices according to whether the dealer is Franchised or independent.

paula.paula13

Terrydactil - when I went to the Leeds Autoquake depot there were more cars than I could have easily counted. I can't vouch for their claim to have 50 new ones a day (if that is their claim? I guess that would be 25 at each depot?) but they certainly had plenty of stock. Most of them looked really good too!

Having bought several cars in the past, I don't think dealer prices do always allow much for warranty. And if you get a warranty on a 3 year old car then it will probably only be for 1 year.

I paid about £750 for a 3 year warranty with Autoquake after seeking advice from my local garage who looked over the contract for me.

BaBa

I'm in the process of resolving a catalogue of issues with Autoquake at present, some caused by poor customer service but most as a result of an inaccurate description of the vehicle in the advertisement online.

When I first raised the complaint at the weekend the initial response was very positive, though the subsequent follow up this morning and throughout today has been disappointing.

I'm still hopeful of resolving the issues without legal action being necessary, but it seems that the most I can hope for, if I really fight for it, will be for the car to be returned to something close to what was described when I purchased - by which time I'll undoubtedly have had to go to great lengths in terms of the personal effort required to achieve this.

Can't help but feel that it will end up being an entirely unrewarding experience when you compare the negligible saving over retailer prices against the nuisance factor of fighting your corner so as to prevent being significantly out of pocket.

Errata

If a car doesn't match Autoquake's description, surely the opportunty to point that out and get it sorted is when it's viewed by a prospective purchaser.

BaBa

Errata wrote: »

If a car doesn't match Autoquake's description, surely the opportunty to point that out and get it sorted is when it's viewed by a prospective purchaser.

The car was at Westbury in Wiltshire, some 160 miles from where we are in the North West. I had it delivered. Any further questions/ observations?

Errata

Pig in a poke springs to mind.