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

vikingaero

shillu wrote: »

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.

Wise words indeed. NEVER trust a car salesman. If they tell you it's raining outside - go outside and check.

The 120 point checks are a phallacy. They may check it, but it's whether they adjust, refill, or replace. Most dealers work on the principle that any item that is highlighted should last 3 months or 3000 miles which is at odds with what Joe Public expects.

shillu

Since my last post on friday my car has ended up in the garage again, the warranty should cover it the water pump has gone but I have breakdown with autoquake, and after a long weekend I had to wait 2hrs for someone to recover me when I was just about halfway on a 200mile journey on the a1 and its all good and well that I was covered but no one will compensate me for the aggrevation and the fact in the last month I have only had my car for 1week.

maninthestreet

vikingaero wrote: »

The 120 point checks are a phallacy.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

robocop79

pgilc1 wrote: »

So we have noone other than newbies recommending autoquake.

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

No. Are you simply trying to provoke a reaction by repeating a question that has already been asked (and indeed answered) before?!

Errata

I'm not a newbie, neither am I thinking about buying a second hand car. Today's Guardian has a piece about Autoquake which amongst other things says

And the disadvantages?


All car dealers need to be treated with a dose of scepticism, and this is no different. There is a long thread on the Moneysavingexpert.com that tells a mixed story. The company clearly expanded fast late last year and admits it could not cope with demand, with customer service suffering as a result. Early buyers complained of long delays to see cars in dingy yards. But since then, things appear to have improved, with happier buyers quoting some significant (£1,000-£2,000) savings.
It is telling that Autoquake clearly monitors the website and has sorted out problems that inevitably occur when you sell 800 cars each month. Buyers say they don't get the hard sell, but warranties are pushed hard.

tompa

Bought my car 5 weeks ago from the Autoquakes Leeds depot (a former tank factory). The building/setup was perfectly ok, some new portacabins in a massive warehouse.

Contact wise, didn't really have many problems, once or twice no reply but called back 5 minutes later and got through. If you use the number they call you on, it never gets answered so best to use their main number.

I looked at car a few months previously at Autoquake put the 10% down but didn’t go ahead with it. The guy who took me on a test drive was too keen on selling me a warranty before I had said yes to it. Also only went round a housing estate so didn’t really get above 30mph he said it would take too long on the main road as it was busy. The car looked in excellent condition and a good price (have some regrets now that I didn’t go for it), but at the time (march) there wasn’t much difference price wise between them and franchised dealers if you took the warranty and bargaining into account. Didn't have any problems getting a refund, phoned up to say I didn’t want it and 4/5 days later all the money was back in my account.

The car I bought from them was in good condition but as the previous posts have said don’t believe the 141 point check. From the photos the dash bulb light was on and I noticed a black hole on the tyre bolts (thought it was missing the cap). When I arrived to check it over the bulb still hadn’t been fixed, so neither the person who took the photo, or the person who drove it to the viewing areas bothered to flag it as needing fixing. It got fixed when the guy drove it outside for my test drive. Their mechanic works Saturday which was handy.

Decided to go ahead and buy it after a decent speil free test drive, you get the usual warranty and gap insurance sales pitch when you sign the paperwork, but you get that everywhere.

Drove off and fortunately it was hot so I turned on the a/c to cool down, it wouldn’t do anything but blow warm air ("Air-conditioning and heater: Stay cool - it's all been checked over"), looked at the manual couldn't find anything so took it straight back. They fixed it about 20 minutes (something about a flat battery and needed resetting). From returning to them and arriving home the manual/service history went missing, they sent me another one.

On the way home found the car has a rhythmic hum at about 75 -85mph on the motorway, thought it might be one of the wheel bearings (one of the wheels was badly curbed), have taken it to a garage who can’t find anything wrong and swapped the tyres round, but still has the hum, I don’t do much motorway driving so not a major problem but a bit annoying when you do.

When washing my nice 'new' car found that there was a rear wheel bolt missing (the black hole on the photo).

My previous experience of buying cars has been from a main franchised dealer, 6 months later at its service it needed £400 of work doing to it. Check out "Honest John" I was ticking off what he says can go wrong with your car model.

Next time I used an independent, this is when I got very familiar with the sales of goods act and learnt to make sure the car is stone cold before checking it out. I got all my money back but had to use the small claims (money claim online), they settled soon after they received the claim and it never went to court (Autoquake are a dealer so whatever they may say about being a ‘marketing company’ the sales of goods act applies to them too).

I looked at Carsite.co.uk but there prices, they say 10-15% off dealer prices where more like 5% off dealer prices, also the quality of their cars wasn’t great, went and had a look at one but who ever owned it had opened every door against a wall and all the car door edges where down to the metal and rusting. The RAC reports they provide give you an idea of the damage but you really need to see it as their photos are very poor compared to Autoquakes. Plus there on an airfield in the middle of nowhere with no public transport, only open weekdays and only accept bankers draft.

There’s a lot of luck in buying second hand car where ever you buy.

Would I use Autoquake again? Probably, I'm very happy with my car apart from the hum, and the buying process is very good. But it would come down to the price (I would have to save a lot).

I would try and buy locally first even if it cost slightly more, if you do have a problem it’s a lot easier to hassle them if there local than if there miles away. And I would seriously consider getting an RAC report on my next car where ever I may end up getting it, just for the peace of mind.

To their credit Autoquake give you a 7 day money back guarantee so you have time to get it checked out, but really you shouldn't need to.

Brungle_2

pgilc1 wrote: »

So we have noone other than newbies recommending autoquake.

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

so what if I happen to be a 'newbie' to this site in terms of my post count... I joined the site in Jan 07 to discuss the gym loophole.

back on topic, I've had my car almost a month now and I have had no problems at all.

diamond

I had to put my tuppence worth in as I gave Autoquake such a hard time over something very minor. I don't want to hear any comments about being a newbie as I have been a member of this site for years now. I rarely post as I don't have any useful tips or time for that matter.

Anyway I have had my eye on a car for weeks and despite everything I read on here I was desperately waiting for the car to become available. I put my name on the coming soon list and waited and waited and waited for my notification email. One day I went to look at it (as I had been doing EVERYDAY) and it had been reserved! I was livid. I sent an email moaning about being unfair etc and that I had my eye on the car and that I was disappointed they had not emailed me. The next day I was emailed and called with apologies. They said that someone had reserved the car and was waiting for finance approval. I was told if the person was declined they would call me. 24 hours later I got the call!! :j well happy. So I went through the finance process on the phone and then waited 48 hours to find out if I was approved. Finally I was approved and received my paperwork to sign and return.

I have sent it off and and am now waiting to find out when it will be delivered. All in all mixed feelings. Elated because I really want the car, nervous because I hope it lives up to the pics!

To be honest I am a natural complainer and if something is not up to standard I will say so. With regards to their customer service they are not amazing but they are not the worst people I have dealt with eg Easyjet (say no more :mad:).

Eagerly awaiting delivery of my car, I cannot be doing with going all the way to Leeds to collect, I live in London. I will keep you posted on my experience.

tracer

just bought a car from autoquake so thought i would add my 2p to this thread......sorry its a bit long...

i spent a lot of time looking through their website, basically wanted a vectra c facelift model (think they started the facelift ones around 2005/2006. anyway seen some good deals but was always really put off by this thread and the thought that something didn't quite add up - too good to be true you know? anyway a friend of a friend tried it and was happy with their car so i went for it. reserved a 56 plate vectra, pics looked good, no problems listed , higher than average mileage but full service history to back it up.

once reserved you get an email explaining the setup clearly, they give you directions for getting there via car/train and how to get from the airport to their site via taxi/train. also it explains the buying process in detail.

i booked a flight from inverness to birmingham for £60 including taxes with flybe. i had planned using the train once i got to birmingham but my flight was delayed so i got a taxi to get from the airport to autoquake site (£30 + tip)

when i got there i was greeted by one of the crew ( there were around 3 sales/office guys on site who do the actual transaction and the rest i call the crew, you start off with them and they show you the car , go out with you on test drive etc. i spotted a few marks on paintwork which turned out to be nothing more than water marks/smudges even dirt in some cases and they were quite happy to get out the polish and clean it up. they were quite good humoured actually once you get a bit of banter going, can't say much more about them.

anyway i was pretty much there to buy the car, not look at it because, well, i had to get home didn't i ? very worst case scenario i coulda jumped on the next flight home, but the prices are so cheap even if i wasn't 100% happy with the car i could sell it on easily back home.

the sales guy then appeared. really nice guy , not pushy at all, basically they sell so many cars he just knows the process and gets on with it (ok i just read that back and it looks like a sales pitch but there were at least 3 customers still going through the process before me and 5 waiting to be seen after me so you can bet they sell lots. )

there were a couple of points i noticed, the tyres were worn although still legal,and there was what appeared to be rust on one of the pipes in the front of the engine bay. basically the car is sold as seen - take it or leave it. i was assured that if the tyres were illegal they would've been replaced, as it happens they are not that bad but i just wanted to point out what i felt about the car from looking at it and see what they could do about that points. the sales guy said that they had an optional warranty which would put my mind at rest over any other issues but i personally didn't want it. i had read the pdf file leaflet online and the things it doesn't cover leaves you with very little covered at all. plus anything the warranty deems to be wear and tear is not covered either so what is?? just my opinion. anyway with regards to the rust on one of the pipes in the engine, the sales guy took me round the site to try and see if any other vectras had the same problem , really can't fault the guy.

i was also offered GAP insurance which i declined.

i took up the 7 day insurance offer though, this is run by Aviva/norwich union and is free. the only snag is they have to give you a quote for full insurance which you can either accept or decline, this only takes about 10 minutes total, so i would recommend it.

paid for the car via debit card so no costs incurred (they charge for payment by credit card or cash)

loved the drive home, the car is perfect and a joy to drive, only problem i found was air-con not working, this will be a relatively cheap fix so its not a big deal to me and not urgent, although in fairness it should have been on their 141 point check.

all in all i got a real bargain with a big saving compared to local used car prices. i pretty much knew what to expect when i went there. i wasn't expecting a fancy showroom (it is just a yard with a few portacabins , i would compare it to a car auction but with fixed prices !? certainly not a forecourt), i wasn't even expecting much cuttings from the sales guys but i was pleasantly surprised on that point. the pictures on the website are very accurate, i didn't feel there was anything hidden, i think i got a gut feeling about the car just from the website. if you are local to one of their sites and thinking about it then go for it, you've nothing to lose (you can always walk away) . if you have a long way to travel like me then as long as you know what the score is and use a bit of moneysaving savy when making travel arrangements you can still get a bargain. but in both cases make sure you get an early appointment to give yourself plenty of time. i would also obviously recommend that you pick a car with pics/descriptions that you are 100% happy with before you even think about reserving it, that way you're off to a good start.

westwalesphysio

Have just reserved a car via the website. So far everything has run smoothly, i took finance via their company which was set-up relatively easily. Have found their customer services pretty good so far on each telephone call I have made. Am waiting on delivery of the car today - I still have the photos of the car o am hoping they match up. Will update once the car has arrived!