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

MariaVC

Hello, my Significant Other effectively totalled our car last week (we are waiting from the call from the insurance company re the loss). I have a courtesy car but only for another 9 days. And, being a rather busy doctor, I don't have much time to go trailing around private sellers and car showrooms looking for another car.

I'm also a member of Which and they mention Autoquake quite a lot in their Hot Deals section.

So I thought well, this might be quite a convenient way to get the sort of car I want. And I have identified quite a reasonable-sounding set of wheels on Autoquake. It's almost the same as our last car, so I would be happy with an RAC inspection rather that test driving it myself, as I know already that I like this make and model of car.

Now I noticed that
1) some of the problems other members have had might be circumvented by getting an RAC inspection. So I have ordered an inspection for Tuesday in Birmingham. Autoquake said they were cool with that, so far that looks ok.

2) Autoquake seem to read this forum and to respond to input here very quickly if things go wrong. So, I thought it might help things a bit if I joined up . Hope you don't mind ,everyone. It's been a very stressful week and I can't afford to have a lot of hassle with this purchase. And if getting an RAC inspection proves to be an effective way of dealing with this sort of online car buying, well, that might be a helpful contribution to the discussion.

So I will keep you posted

Ciao

Maria

PS is there any reason why newbies can't use smilies on here?

Brungle_2

I got a car from Autoquake on saturday was an absolute bargain. The Leeds branch is a massive warehouse with some porto-cabins inside all clean and tidy, drinks machines seating areas etc. Sales guy was nice to deal no pressure at all left us to look at car in our own time, went for a test drive no problem. Granted he was not an expert with the car but I didn't care I'd already done my homework. We had to wait a little when we got there but I didn't mind, it was a pre-order car that had been delayed a few times so another 20mins wasn't going to make any difference. Drove away with the car the same day.

I would recommend you decide what car you want exact model etc and check the autoquake site on a daily basis thats what I did then the car came up as a pre-order car, ie no pictures and limited information. The car I found was a very good price and an estimated arrival date about 2-3 weeks later. So I reserved it for £100 and they called me a few times updating me, I called them a few times. It was frustrating that the car was delayed by about 2 weeks in the end but having spent hours (and I mean hours) looking for something the same spec and price online and finding there was nothing anywhere as good value I just decided I should wait.

I'm glad I waited as the car is in excellent condition and worth every penny.

Even with the delay on the car and having to make a few phonecalls repeating myself each time I'm still very happy. Afterall I've got the exact car I wanted £1-2k cheaper than everywhere else for a little bit of inconvience.

Not sure what the moaning about the £100 deposit is for... its the whole concept the site works on if you don't like it don't buy from them. Personally I think its a great idea it stops timewasters and it secures the car, should you change your mind just get your cash back.

... and no I do not work for autoquake....

CarrieTaylor

Hi,

I'm a newbie, but don't have any links to autoquake, but I thought I'd share my experience on here for other people, as I've been researching car dealerships myself and find it hard who to trust.

The story so far...

Basically, I've put a deposit down on a Citroen C4 from the Birmingham branch, I'm based down in Hertfordshire, so am trusting the car to be in the condition to be as it is on the website. it's an 06 plate with about 42k miles on the clock. So for 4600 is very reasonable for the mileage.

I am a little apprehensive, as the pictures taken from the car are from april (you can see this on the radio screen). I don't know if that's because alot of the other C4's have alot less miles that this car still remains or what?
Hopefully it's nothing wrong with the car. And I hope that the car will be delivered valeted to the condition shown in the picture from a couple of months ago.

Anyway, so I've put the deposit down about mid-day yesterday, and am expecting the paperwork in the post to agree to the finance, then I send my ID/bill up for clarification once I received this.

I had an email from autoquake (Imran) saying that they'd tried to call (didn't have any missed calls but will give them benefit of the doubt) So I got my other half to ring them, basically they wanted to book an appointment for test drive and collection or for a delivery. I told them I've not received any paper work yet and asked if this was in the post. They said they'd be back in touch as he wasn't sure so would ring after they speak to the finance manager. This was at lunchtime today.

Seeing as it's towards the end of the day and I've got only 3 days deposit to do the transaction by post, I'm getting worried that time will run out.

I've since emailed them again today to see if they can pencil me in for a delivery on Friday anyway as I've got the day off work for the plumber. Hopefully, the finance will be correct and I can mail the info back to them for this to happen.

I've not heard anything back yet though, so I shall keep you updated.

Carrie-Ann

motorguy

So we have noone other than newbies recommending autoquake.

Does anyone else (continue to) find that really odd?

CarrieTaylor

I don't think the comments I've read and my own are recommending autoquake. From my own point of view, I had been looking at car places for a long time, and this thread played quite a big role in me trying autoquake. So for people in my position that doesn't really comment on these sites, I thought I'd have my on-going experience heard, as people don't really buy cars too often, and when they do it's such a commitment!

CarrieTaylor

Anyway, an update,

Got a call from someone in the finance department last night (Scott Ward??).

Basically, my forms are now in the post and will arrive on recorded delivery on Friday. Which is a small shame as I was hoping to have the whole deal completed by the weekend. I don't know where this leaves the position of my deposit? As this will pass the 3 day mark, so even though I'm in the process of buying the car, what if it gets sold from under my nose?? So I'm going to ask them to keep the deposit on for longer, seeing as if not they'd only be refunding it anyway, right?.

There was a little sales pitch about GAP insurance for if the car get's written off. I didn't bother, will probably expect the warrantee sales pitch next, but I won't be interested. To be fair, with the insurance, as soon as my other half said that we weren't interested, it was dropped, so no hard sale.

I shall update once next step is taken

motorguy

CarrieTaylor wrote: »

I don't think the comments I've read and my own are recommending autoquake. From my own point of view, I had been looking at car places for a long time, and this thread played quite a big role in me trying autoquake. So for people in my position that doesn't really comment on these sites, I thought I'd have my on-going experience heard, as people don't really buy cars too often, and when they do it's such a commitment!

Carrie

You have to admit though, its very odd that you should sign up as a newbie, post on no other threads whatsoever and then jump in to a step by step guide of your buying experience with autoquake.

I predict it will be an 'alls well that ends well experience' with the salesperson treating you 'fairly' and 'as expected', with probably a few slight hiccups allong the way that were ironed out and that you would recommend them and deal with them again.

Which, if it does, will go against the grain of the more tenured moneysavingexpert members over the four years or so this thread had been running before it was resurrected by newbies.

CarrieTaylor

Actually,

I've had no hiccups so far :-).

It is understandable that you would trust a consistant posters word against mine, so would I, but that doesn't mean I have any association to autoquake.

Believe what you like (I can see you've made your decision already) but I think it's unfair on the fact that I'm a new poster for my experience to be totally disregarded!!

shillu

i bought a car in january, the customer service was dire the staff were rude the car i bought seems to keep having issues, just treat these people as you would any car trader dont trust anything they say, i have spent £320 on thing i should not have had to the bill was £1320 but the warranty covered the rest, i did not inspect the car aswell as i should as i was sold on there reviews of all their satisfied customers which i should have been more sceptical about. i would only get something from them if it was dirt cheap and i had someone who knows about cars with me, as all the things they say they will pick up in their 120 point check they did not and when i asked for it i was told it is private information for office use.

conclusion becareful they tell a good tale but they forget the tragedy at the end.

CarrieTaylor

Small update.

Had the paperwork through, which is fine.

Only thing that is lacking now is a little communication. I emailed autoquake after first applying for the car about some of the details about it, about if the recalls had been done etc?!? I hadn't recieved anything back regarding that, so have asked the person who is sorting out the finance part to let me know (seems to be the only person who replys)

It seems with autoquake, for smaller little questions that are about the car etc, no one is designated to look after these queries. This is leaving me in doubt over the quality in the car.

If they were to reply quicker (if at all) the sooner I can post my forms back to them. But the longer it goes on, you can't help but wonder why they are not answering any questions.