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

terrydactil

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.

Or during the 7 day money back guarantee period. That should negate the need for legal action over a description.

Cool_Username

God this is a strange thread - seriously what the hell is up with all these one post posters who've popped in, written a favourable comment and never come back!

Spot441

Cool_Username wrote: »

God this is a strange thread - seriously what the hell is up with all these one post posters who've popped in, written a favourable comment and never come back!

That includes me!!!! I posted to support Autoquake. Ive had my Jag 15 mths (30,000miles)- no probs at all. In fact, Ive been offered almost as much as I paid for it from webuy any car. (and I am not sure if I trust them!).

AQ has changed in that they no longer do Part ex, and their stock levels have dropped dramatically.

Obviously tho, my opionion doesnt count as I have a low post count.

Also, I can guarantee that I have no association with them. I have just bought 1 car!

Neil

vikingaero

Spot441 wrote: »

That includes me!!!! I posted to support Autoquake. Ive had my Jag 15 mths (30,000miles)- no probs at all. In fact, Ive been offered almost as much as I paid for it from webuy any car. (and I am not sure if I trust them!).

AQ has changed in that they no longer do Part ex, and their stock levels have dropped dramatically.

Obviously tho, my opionion doesnt count as I have a low post count.

Also, I can guarantee that I have no association with them. I have just bought 1 car!

Neil

Neil,

For all we know you could be Transvestite Neil at the weekends. :D

My point is that low digit posters are treated with skepticism and sometimes quite rightly so. We have loads and loads of spammers and trolls. Most of the time the people on here get it right and spot companies that masquerade as satisfied customers. Look at the Kybotech thread where satisfied customers were directed by the company to leave praise.

Nothing in this thread convinces me to buy from AQ. There's too much negativity and the positives from people without reputation. Note that reputation is different from "Thanks". There are many people on here that are positive knowledgeable contributors whose opinion I would trust.

Sammy_Dee

Just saw that this post was near the top again - as you can see, I'm not a "new poster" however my husband bought a
56 plate Mazda RX-8 from Autoquake in Oct 2008 and we've been incredibly pleased with it.

They were a great company to deal with from start to finish, we had the car delivered from the Birmingham depot and it was exactly as described.

he went for the 231 model, top of the range and saved over £2500 on the price.


Only issue we've had since involved having the brake pads replaced - but considering the car is now 4 years old and it's used regularly - not exactly major.

Came with full and regular service history too


Definitely looking to use them again.

terrydactil

vikingaero wrote: »

My point is that low digit posters are treated with skepticism and sometimes quite rightly so. We have loads and loads of spammers and trolls. Most of the time the people on here get it right and spot companies that masquerade as satisfied customers. Look at the Kybotech thread where satisfied customers were directed by the company to leave praise.

Nothing in this thread convinces me to buy from AQ. There's too much negativity and the positives from people without reputation. Note that reputation is different from "Thanks". There are many people on here that are positive knowledgeable contributors whose opinion I would trust.

I agree, and I don't understand why people would join a forum simply to praise somewhere that they have bought something. Of couse, AQ gets it right sometimes and someone gets a bargain with a good car, but people usually make far more of a point of passing on news of bad service than they do good service. So yes, all these praise posts are weird (and possibly the work of AQ salesman).

However, I disagree with your "Nothing in this thread convinces me to buy from AQ" line. Why would anyone expect to be able to trust the spending of thousand of pounds to anonymous comments posted on an internet forum? Personally, I take everything I read with a pinch of salt, and only for background information purposes rather than for actual decision-making purposes.

terrydactil

There is one major issue that makes it look as if the place isn't too honest.

Take for example, this

Our price
£ 4,985 (+£99 )
Parker's retail price
£5,640 - £6,080
You save
£655 - £1,095

Now, they claim that you'll save these amounts, but this completely fails to take into account the £99 "admin fee" that they add on to build on the illusion of offering rock bottom prices. £99 isn't a lot, but it is a mandatory payment, and thus makes their "You save" claim to appear dishonest from the outset. I have also noticed that their Parkers prices are sometimes not accurate. So why would anyone trust them any further?

happywarmgun

Terry -

All I can say is that almost every time I've been to a main dealer I felt a bit shafted. These guys didn't pretend they were anything other than a 'stack 'em high', sell em cheap outfit with no hard sell whatever. I did discover some problems with the car (I had it serviced in the 7 day money back period) and they refunded me all work above the cost of the service - without me asking them to (ie. when I mentioned it, they VOLUNTEERED to pay me back).

Now had the car for a few months and still no regrets.

Let's face it the car trade is about as unscrupulous as trades come - but having dealt with this lot all I can say is it will be my first port of call next time I want a change. You pays your money you take your choice...

maninthestreet

autoquake wrote: »

Hi – my name is Dermot Halpin, I'm the CEO of Autoquake.com and I was previously President of Expedia Europe (uk.linkedin.com/in/dermothalpin). One of the reasons I took this job is because of the great offer and excellent customer service Autoquake.com provides its customers. I’d like to respond to the two points you've raised:

1. The £99 admin fee is not included in the quoted saving over Parkers. You are correct that this is an error, it should be deducted from the quoted saving and we will do so starting next month. You’ll note that including the admin fee in the "You save" range has negligible impact on the considerable savings against Parkers retail prices that we offer. Consumers have lots of choices, and they buy from us because we have great cars at low prices.

2. Parker's retail price inaccuracies. The price claims we make are genuine and are based on Parkers.co.uk Used Prices data. We have found the car you used as an example, checked the saving against Parkers and can confirm that the figures are correct. If there are any inaccuracies, please do highlight them here in this thread and we'll check them and, where necessary, correct them.

Thanks,
Dermot (Autoquake)

Dermot, you need to have permission from the site administrators to post on these forums as a company reprensentative, and promoting your own company isn't allowed.

Autogreat

Hi,

OK, I'm yet another of those "suspicious" newbies who is adding a positive post!

Human nature is to complain, i.e., to make negative comments. Usually when things go well one doesn't normally make it well known so this post is to redress the balance - I hope this makes sense!

Anyway this is my positive experience of Autoquake:






Last summer I had been using the web to look at cars and get a feel for prices etc when I stumbled across Autoquake (and also Car Site UK, based in Bedford). Autoquake had one of the cars I was considering and, admittedly with a bit of trepidation, paid the refundable £100 deposit on the 20th Aug 09.
I duly received the acknowledgement emails and then had to wait several weeks as the car was not due in until the 12th to 17th of Sep. In the interim I continued to look on the web and indeed looked at/test drove other cars locally but nothing could match the Autoquake price even taking into account the trade-in price of my 11 year old car.

I then received a phone call from Autoquake on the 11th Sep requesting my choice of collection point, which was Leeds. One week later, having not heard anything since and as I was expecting to have received the web-link to the 40 photos of the car, I emailed Autoquake and subsequently was informed that the car had just arrived in Birmingham! This was a bit of a puzzle as I’d chosen Leeds but, as the car was from the Chester area I wasn’t sure if this was according to plan or a mistake. I duly informed Autoquake that the collection point was Leeds & was informed that “the car has arrived in Birmingham and will be transferred over to Leeds. Once the car is inspected the photo's will be uploaded. It will take 7-10 days we will call you as soon as the car is ready”. I was understandably a bit annoyed at this needless delay. On making my dissatisfaction known, cheekily, Autoquake suggested I could speed up the process if I could inspect the car at Birmingham! Needless to say I rejected this suggestion outright. To their credit Autoquake at least offered to take the photographs in the interim. During this process I was in communication with several persons at least one of whom thought I would have to pay the Birmingham to Leeds transfer fee of £55. Fortunately this misunderstanding was resolved and no transfer fee was paid.

I then received the web-link to the 40 photos of the car & the Log Book, current MOT Certificate etc. Yes, these can’t possible substitute for seeing it for real but give a very good indication of its exterior & interior condition and whether, in my case, it’s worth a trip from Edinburgh to Leeds by train and potential, I repeat potential, return trip by road.

Not having heard anything by Wed 23rd September I emailed them and received a reply stating that the car was now in Leeds and ready for inspection. As this was now mid-week the earliest I could inspect the car was now Tue 29th Sep and an appointment was made for 13:00. As there was a discrepancy of 3,500 miles between the predicted mileage and the actual mileage I had previously enquired if this could be reflected in the price. At this point it was also confirmed that the price would be reduced by £300.

Thus, on the 29th Sep at 12:45 I arrived at the Leeds branch. I’d no problems with the location/facilities which comprised of several portacabins inside a large warehouse type building in which the cars were also located. I was directed to one of the portacabins where I waited approx 20 mins. An employee informed me that none of their sales staff was available just yet but I was welcome to inspect the car to which I was shown. This then gave me ample time to inspect the car on my own, which I liked. Armed with a 3 page checklist I thoroughly inspected the car and it proved to be in first class condition inside and out with no obvious defects.
It was then time for the test drive – my only slight niggle here was that the engine was not cold so I couldn’t determine if there were any cold-start problems. The test drive was not limited in any way I comprised several miles of town driving and a lengthy stretch of a quiet urban dual carriageway where I could take it up to the legal limit of 70mph.
Thus, I decided to go ahead with the purchase and returned to the office to complete the transaction. This process took about an hour max after which I was on the way to the Post Office approx ¾ mile away to tax the car. When it comes to driving and the law I’m not normally a risk taker but on this occasion I drove illegally to the PO. (I took up the free 7-day insurance and was not hassled into extending the policy at the end of the 7 days). Thus, now all legal I took the car for an extended test drive of 220 miles to Edinburgh during which it performed faultlessly.

Since then the car has continued to perform faultlessly and in Oct 09 it undertook a return trip to London. Re my reservation about the engine being cold at the start of the test drive this has proved groundless with it starting first time, every time including after sitting in sub-zero temperatures for over a week. It has now clocked up 3,500 miles with no problems other than a blown tail-light bulb.

Frankly, I don’t understand why many members of this forum react negatively to this company/concept in such a knee-jerk manner. Other than (for me) the long distances involved it is little different from buying from a conventional used car dealer. If you live close to Leeds or Birmingham then I would heartily recommend trying Autoquake. For those like me you have to carefully weigh up the potential savings versus a bit of long distance travel or the cost of having the car delivered to your home.

I am a subscriber to the independent Which? Magazine and Autoquake is often mentioned in car related articles and has not attracted any negative criticism.