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

funkycoldribena

I just dont get why people put deposits down over the phone when they havent seen the car let alone test driven it,theres thousands and thousands of cars out there, if it goes-so what!

sue113

terryya wrote: »

Nothing to do with this been your first post but so far you have nothing really to comment on. You haven't even seen the car never mind driven it. All car companies are great when they're trying to get your money.

Fair enough, the car may be great when you get it but surely that would be the time to post a glowing report on here?

In answer to this I would like to point out that most people's problems have been with customer service issues, as I have said all questions I have asked have been promptly answered. Surely i said that my experience SO FAR was a pleasent one?!

As far as there being plenty of dealerships in Lincoln, yes this is true, but NONE of them with the car that we wanted.

Deposit - refundable, dont see a problem at all!!

Im just waiting now for the delivery date and time to be confirmed and we're rolling!

Sue
x

r9shp

I purchased a VW Passat TDi from Autoquke in April and was pleased with the pre-sales service. HOWEVER, I started to experience problems with my brakes the other week. Had a technician look over the car and to my dismay he found the following :

1. The rear pads had less than 3mm on them and discs badly worn/corroded. One side was on bear metal.
2. The front pads seem to have been changed with non genuine parts but again the discs again are badly corroded.
3. Leak found on the O/S/F Shock which has been there for sometime

Alarm bells started to ring - had they really carried out a multi-point check on this car ?

Autoquakes website quotes :

Brake pads and discs We road test the car to check for reliability and stopping distance. We do not permit less than 3mm of wear remaining on a brake pad to ensure you can stop safely when you need to. Brake discs should always last to at least the next current service and will pass the MOT standard at handover.

The car is not due a service for another 7k miles as it had a long life service at 70k and the MOT is not due till Dec 2010.

Its been over a week since I sent Autoquake an email as per there request with pictures. I had to chase earlier in the week and resend to another contact. I have today emailed them to be advised the issue is with the manager.

My car is in the drive and has been for a week as its not safe to drive...but they dont see any sense of urgency to respond.

SO BE CAUTIOUS WHEN YOU BUY.....

Ill update the forum once i have more info....would be good to get Autoquake to respond to the thread !

jimbob100_99

I bought a Seat Toledo 56 plate from them on Thur 13th may and was happy with the car as it seemed to be as described.

However this wedneday on my way home from work i had smoke pouring out from the engine bay.

To cut a long story short... The gearbox is knackered at a cost of £1900 to repair. After numerous calls to Autoquake they are having the car back and giving me a refund, as i have pointed out to them that the gearbox should of been tested with there so called 141 point check....
I do not believe the car had a 141 point check as there was surplus engine oil around the filler cap also tyre pressure was down...

All in all not impressed with there customer service and have not even had anyone say sorry for the inconvienience.... I have had to constantly phone them to get this dealt with fast as i need a car for work.

They do no seem to be bothered that nobody has checked the car for the 141 safety check.
Just glad it was not the brakes that failed.
They have mis-sold me this car and i will be contacting trading standards next week to report this incident.

Good Luck if you buy a car from them!!!

lilibut

:TI looked on this website and a couple of others before commiting to anything with Autoquake. I have to admit I was extremely dubious of the company after seeing what people were saying.

On the morning of our viewing we got a phone call to say that they had just discovered the windscreen had a crack in the A-Zone. Therefore we could not take the car away even if we wanted to taht day because they would have to replace it for saftey reasons. We still saw the car and were very impressed by.

Autoquake agreed because of the short notice we received about the windscreen that the £100 deposit we had put down to view the car would be fine to keep the car reserved till the following week when the windscreen would be replaced and we could take the car home.

On the day we purchased the car the windscreen had been replaced properly.

My impression of autoquake is good... I wouldn't say excellent because of the following we didn't get a receipt for the windscreen replacement???? Once we took the car outside we realised there were 10 more miles on the clock compared to the week before, they told us the windscreens are repaired on site???? The car had not been valleted again like they said it would be - it was a bit dirty especially in the boot???

However compared to anything else around the car we got was a really good deal. Also you have to think would Autoquake be selling their guarentees for cars that they knew they'd have to fix - answer no they no more than likely they will make money on the guarentees because their cars are in good condition. (We didn't purchase any guarantee).

roly31je

I bought a volvo from Autoquake recently, paid and had it delivered before even seeing it (didnt want hassle of going all around the country looking at cars I probably wouldnt buy ) then after I took delivery of the car I had an independant look at it who said there was nothing wrong with the car. ( except Brakes slightly worn and would require looking at next service). So no big problems as far as I know.

Customer service was poor to moderate though, have to say...but at end of the day if the car is ok then that's what counts. Don't send them emails they never reply, always phone.

9jaguy

Ok, I am new on this forum and actually registered because of this topic, I will like to share my experience of Autoquake. I saw a car that I liked, paid the £100 deposit as well as the 10% to reserve it for an additional 4 days on Saturday 26th June 2010. I had an appointment for Friday 2nd July to view and possibly buy the car.

While waiting for my appointment I did an independent HPI check and found the following........

• VRM currently recorded as having outstanding finance
• Data currently held on the National Mileage Register (NMR) indicates that there may be a mileage discrepancy on this vehicle.
• The V5 registration document issue date does not match the information provided by the DVLA

I have since asked them for an explanation but none has been forthcoming. Before I detected the problem they responded promptly to my emails but have refrained ever since, I have sent about 5 emails to them without a reply!!!

I have now asked for a refund of my deposit today and have been told it will be in my account in the next 3/5 working days. I still did not get an explanation for the issues raised above.

If you are dealing with this company be warned, the car you are buying may be cheap for now but end up very expensive on the long run, do your own checks and leave nothing for granted!

The mileage details below:-

23-Apr-2008 Franchised Dealer 13,500
06-Mar-2009 Trade Association 12,255
20-May-2010 BVRLA 47,113

Never knew the mileage on a car could go backwards....... :rotfl:

9jaguy

9jaguy wrote: »

Ok, I am new on this forum and actually registered because of this topic, I will like to share my experience of Autoquake. I saw a car that I liked, paid the £100 deposit as well as the 10% to reserve it for an additional 4 days on Saturday 26th June 2010. I had an appointment for Friday 2nd July to view and possibly buy the car.

While waiting for my appointment I did an independent HPI check and found the following........

• VRM currently recorded as having outstanding finance
• Data currently held on the National Mileage Register (NMR) indicates that there may be a mileage discrepancy on this vehicle.
• The V5 registration document issue date does not match the information provided by the DVLA

I have since asked them for an explanation but none has been forthcoming. Before I detected the problem they responded promptly to my emails but have refrained ever since, I have sent about 5 emails to them without a reply!!!

I have now asked for a refund of my deposit today and have been told it will be in my account in the next 3/5 working days. I still did not get an explanation for the issues raised above.

If you are dealing with this company be warned, the car you are buying may be cheap for now but end up very expensive on the long run, do your own checks and leave nothing for granted!

The mileage details below:-

23-Apr-2008 Franchised Dealer 13,500
06-Mar-2009 Trade Association 12,255
20-May-2010 BVRLA 47,113

Never knew the mileage on a car could go backwards....... :rotfl:

I received a call from one of the managers this morning who assured me that the car will be removed and the issues I raised will be looked into and resolved before the car is sold to anyone and I can see the car is no longer available on the website. I will update the forum as soon as I get any news from them. My aim is to share my experience, not here to knock or big them up, all I need is a reliable car for my wife!

9jaguy

9jaguy wrote: »

I received a call from one of the managers this morning who assured me that the car will be removed and the issues I raised will be looked into and resolved before the car is sold to anyone and I can see the car is no longer available on the website. I will update the forum as soon as I get any news from them. My aim is to share my experience, not here to knock or big them up, all I need is a reliable car for my wife!

The manager called me on Friday and explained the mileage issue as an admin error which I could understand from all the paper work provided but I am not sure if that can be changed with regards to the HPI check (any suggestions welcome).

I travelled on Saturday (yesterday 03/07/10) to pick up the car, the experience at autoquake itself? Not sure what to make of it, not perfect but I was not expecting too much, had to wait for about 1 hour to have a look at the car because it was 'being prepared', I would have assumed that the car would have been ready since I made an appointment earlier, never mind. A few people were a bit angry while waiting as well but I must also say a few were attended to pretty quickly so I guess it's about being lucky, if your car is ready or not.

I drove the car from Leeds to London (Nissan Note 1.5 DCI SE), nice drive with 2 issues on the road which I will discuss with them and get a feedback before sharing it here; I will not like to paint them in a bad light before I have given them the opportunity to respond. I will surely let you know after speaking to them today.

As per their warranty and GAP insurance, the guy that attended to me did not try to push at all, he just told me about it and its advantages and allowed me to make up my mind, was not a hard sell by any means.

What do I think at this stage? This is going by my personal experience, it depends on what you want, I needed a reasonable, reliable car at a decent price, I think I am getting a decent price but time will tell with regards to reliability, I was not looking for perfect customer service. My verdict at the moment is that you don't leave anything for granted, do your own checks, raise any issues with them and it should be sorted hopefully or at least get an explanation.

People are going to have different experiences with them but overall I think they are ok, for instance I saw different scenarios there yesterday, there was my case and others where we had to wait a long time to be attended to and there were others who were seen pretty quickly, there was a case of a guy who came from Sheffield, had an appointment and they could not find the car documents, another guy from Belfast who claimed the car has been repainted and was trying to cause a major furore at the gate, one of the staff had to come and lead him away.

On the other hand I met 3 other people at the post office near the site who were happy with their cars and getting the road tax done, different strokes for different folks. They need to tweak a few things and they will be fine, especially the validity of their "All our cars are HPI checked and have a 141 point mechanical inspection" statement. My experience would refute that statement as I had to get a brake light fixed while there as well as the other issues raised after doing the HPI check independently. If they could just make sure that statement holds true for all their cars, they will surely gain more trust!

I am sorry to have had to bore you all with my long story but like I said before I just wanted to let you have a non-biased experience of the company, I have nothing to do with them and nothing against them, just my experience, hope it helps. I will update you after speaking to them with regards to what I experienced on the way back home.

9jaguy

9jaguy wrote: »

The manager called me on Friday and explained the mileage issue as an admin error which I could understand from all the paper work provided but I am not sure if that can be changed with regards to the HPI check (any suggestions welcome).

I travelled on Saturday (yesterday 03/07/10) to pick up the car, the experience at autoquake itself? Not sure what to make of it, not perfect but I was not expecting too much, had to wait for about 1 hour to have a look at the car because it was 'being prepared', I would have assumed that the car would have been ready since I made an appointment earlier, never mind. A few people were a bit angry while waiting as well but I must also say a few were attended to pretty quickly so I guess it's about being lucky, if your car is ready or not.

I drove the car from Leeds to London (Nissan Note 1.5 DCI SE), nice drive with 2 issues on the road which I will discuss with them and get a feedback before sharing it here; I will not like to paint them in a bad light before I have given them the opportunity to respond. I will surely let you know after speaking to them today.

As per their warranty and GAP insurance, the guy that attended to me did not try to push at all, he just told me about it and its advantages and allowed me to make up my mind, was not a hard sell by any means.

What do I think at this stage? This is going by my personal experience, it depends on what you want, I needed a reasonable, reliable car at a decent price, I think I am getting a decent price but time will tell with regards to reliability, I was not looking for perfect customer service. My verdict at the moment is that you don't leave anything for granted, do your own checks, raise any issues with them and it should be sorted hopefully or at least get an explanation.

People are going to have different experiences with them but overall I think they are ok, for instance I saw different scenarios there yesterday, there was my case and others where we had to wait a long time to be attended to and there were others who were seen pretty quickly, there was a case of a guy who came from Sheffield, had an appointment and they could not find the car documents, another guy from Belfast who claimed the car has been repainted and was trying to cause a major furore at the gate, one of the staff had to come and lead him away.

On the other hand I met 3 other people at the post office near the site who were happy with their cars and getting the road tax done, different strokes for different folks. They need to tweak a few things and they will be fine, especially the validity of their "All our cars are HPI checked and have a 141 point mechanical inspection" statement. My experience would refute that statement as I had to get a brake light fixed while there as well as the other issues raised after doing the HPI check independently. If they could just make sure that statement holds true for all their cars, they will surely gain more trust!

I am sorry to have had to bore you all with my long story but like I said before I just wanted to let you have a non-biased experience of the company, I have nothing to do with them and nothing against them, just my experience, hope it helps. I will update you after speaking to them with regards to what I experienced on the way back home.

Sent a mail this morning with regards to my experience with the car and what needs fixing, expecting a reply.