Dodgy car dealership - Auto Bristol

Money-Saving-King

RoninIV wrote: »

I have to say, it's shocking I could not find one good review about them.

There seems to be some here

https://plus.google.com/106000805001789944258/about?hl=en&gl=uk

and enough accounts to possibly be genuine comments & not from made up accounts.

[Deleted User]

It doesn't matter where you are buying a car..,. if you are spending thousands on a car.., get a mechanic to look it over first. Its not a great cost to make sure your money isn't going to go down the drain.

Bought a car, supposedly with an AA check done on it (but looking more carefully at the paperwork it was probably an in house AA like inspection.., no guarantee the inspection was worth the paper it was on), from a large dealership. Purchased a warranty. The car broke down, but had to pay £70 to the dealership to have the car assessed to make sure it was an unusual repair. If it was 'normal' wear and tear, the warranty wouldn't cover it. Of course, it was the dealership's decision as to which it was. The car was sold at auction for £750 within 10 months of purchase. We were lucky to get that. The car was falling apart in many ways.

Never purchased a car from a dealer again and always had car inspected by a reliable mechanic. They can check if the car has been clocked, if the engine is showing undue signs of wear, been repaired off insurance to make sure it gets through HPI checks, may be able to spot if things will need repair (no guarantee of this though but will spot obvious repair needs - can't guarantee the gear box will not need replacing 10 months later lol).

Will never buy a warranty again.., save the wasted paper.

I'd probably deal with the situation differently now after years on MSE!

RoninIV

I thought I'd give auto bristol a chance because they had the exact car I wanted a VW POLO 2001 In mint condition
BIG MISTAKE
We agreed I'd pay a little each month when I get paid so for the first couple months I have been doing that and now a family member has offered to give me their car free of charge.
I contacted auto bristol and said I no longer want the car and I do understand that my £200 deposit would be lost so I just want to receive the additional £600 I paid towards the car and PAUL said no...WHAT THE F**K

We agreed that if I decide not to buy the car my deposit would be lost and now they are trying to merge my £600 in with the deposit na mate. Ima see you in court.

I'm going in on Saturday to see them and the car and see what they are saying because I'm not leaving without my money or a court date.

I'd rather sell my soul than hand it over to them!

Mupette

RoninIV wrote: »

I thought I'd give auto bristol a chance because they had the exact car I wanted a VW POLO 2001 In mint condition
BIG MISTAKE
We agreed I'd pay a little each month when I get paid so for the first couple months I have been doing that and now a family member has offered to give me their car free of charge.
I contacted auto bristol and said I no longer want the car and I do understand that my £200 deposit would be lost so I just want to receive the additional £600 I paid towards the car and PAUL said no...WHAT THE F**K

We agreed that if I decide not to buy the car my deposit would be lost and now they are trying to merge my £600 in with the deposit na mate. Ima see you in court.

I'm going in on Saturday to see them and the car and see what they are saying because I'm not leaving without my money or a court date.

I'd rather sell my soul than hand it over to them!

So you bought a car, been paying for a few months, and now you don't want/need the car you want your money back minus the deposit.

would that happen in a car dealership anywhere else?

Its like me buying a book, reading half of it and taking it back to the shop for a refund because i dont want to read it anymore

JohnConnor

I wish I'd read these threads before buying my car from Auto Bristol but I think I need to post this to help future buyers steer clear of the place. I bought a BMW 3D from them last year which came with a so-called warranty, full service history and MOT. Looked good.
Test drive was marred by there being little petrol in the tank, so could not go far.
Anyway, an online check came back clear so I decided to buy it.
The car stopped working on day 2. I was stranded in an isolated road in the freezing cold with it snowing outside with no power to heat the car. The AA took just under an hour to arrive as I was turning blue, but couldn't fix it - it was an electrical fault and they got it running but it stopped again just after the AA man left. Another wait to get it towed away as the AA had several fallouts that day - as the weather conditions were so bad I was forced to call a private garage to come out quicker or I'd freeze. They took it to a BMW dealer who fixed the problem at my cost. I was far from home so had to hire a car to get home.
Bristol Auto's Paul seemed to 'forget' who I was or that he had personally sold me that car only 2 days ago. He had to look up his files. He then denied that the warranty was effective as the engine had not broken down. He denied that if a car fails to start on the first time it's driven properly 2 days after purchase that it is by definition not fit for purpose. He then said if I wanted them to pay for it I should have got it towed to them for the warranty to work, at my cost - from the across the country to Bristol! So the warranty will not work unless the car can be inspected by them at Bristol, and the engine has not broken down. He would not accept the report from an authorised BMW dealer.
I wrote to them to claim back my costs at least and had a reply from a lawyer representing them they they would be willing to settle the matter for £200 if I promised not to post an adverse review on them online! I asked them to send the cheque without agreeing to any gagging and have not heard back since. Total silence, no money, awful customer after sales service.
I also found out that the MOT may not have been kosher - the repeat MOT station was surprised that some things had been 'overlooked' at the last MOT. It's difficult to prove this though, but it's worth being warned that their cars should be thoroughly checked by a mechanic before you buy them. The 'service' was an oil top up only, nothing else had been replaced or serviced. Paul refused to let me have the service sheet until after the full payment had been taken, and so it was only later that I noticed that nothing had actually been done to service the car.
So far I have not seen a single positive review about Auto Bristol. It's not true that people only bother to write when they have had bad experiences, as you'll see from any product on Amazon.co.uk for example. I've looked through various forums to see if my experience was a one off but it's now evident that these guys are dangerous for selling bad quality cars, and serious con men. I am writing to BBC Watchdog as well.