CarGiant

oliverr

Alpha58 wrote: »

I wonder how many contributors have actually bought a car from Car Giant (or the Great Trade Centre as it used to be)? I have had five cars from them over the years and whereas the latest (in 2011) was made slightly annoying by the attempt to sell everything but the furry dice to hang from the rear-view mirror, the prices were always competitive and you are allowed to crawl all over the car to check it. Caveat emptor - and if you don't like the car or the £99 admin fee (which is very prominently displayed on the website) you always have the option to walk!

Couldn't agree more, my mum has had a trouble free car - and she's had it for over 2 years now. There's a car supermarket nearer us (Jefferies Farm) which actually has all the cars unlocked for you to go round and get in etc with a similar system to Cargiant but it's smaller (around 500 or so cars) that I got mine from. Less choice than CG though - more mainstream brands like Ford and Vauxhall where at CG there are more Beamers and Mercs.

And I agree, it's not as if they hide the £99 admin fee - it's displayed at numerous points on their website and on the info sheets stuck to the car's windscreen.

watchdog321

I just bought a car at Car Giant and was royally ripped off.

After we had decided on a car, the salesman told us we should buy Gardx to protect the car inside and out. We weren't at all interested in having Gardx and told him so. He responded that it came with a 'pack' bla bla bla. We said that sounded even worse - we didn't want to have to apply stuff on the car ourselves. He then specifically said that the 'pack' referred to a second treatment and that we could come back to Car Giant and have this.

This did interest us because we only live 2 miles away and tend to make quite a mess of our car both inside and out. We therefore accepted (still grudgingly) GardX.

I was therefore EXTREMELY disappointed that when we collected the car, we were
just given a GardX bag and told there was no second treatment. I raised a
complaint that I wasn't happy to pay for something that had been misdescribed,
and had to then spend an extra hour and a half getting nowhere. In the end I was told I couldn't take the car without paying for the GardX. As my wife was more than 9 months pregnant I had no choice but to oblige.

Lessons learnt - don't go to car giant and don't buy Gardx.

[Deleted User]

watchdog321 wrote: »

I just bought a car at Car Giant and was royally ripped off.

After we had decided on a car, the salesman told us we should buy Gardx to protect the car inside and out. We weren't at all interested in having Gardx and told him so. He responded that it came with a 'pack' bla bla bla. We said that sounded even worse - we didn't want to have to apply stuff on the car ourselves. He then specifically said that the 'pack' referred to a second treatment and that we could come back to Car Giant and have this.

This did interest us because we only live 2 miles away and tend to make quite a mess of our car both inside and out. We therefore accepted (still grudgingly) GardX.

I was therefore EXTREMELY disappointed that when we collected the car, we were
just given a GardX bag and told there was no second treatment. I raised a
complaint that I wasn't happy to pay for something that had been misdescribed,
and had to then spend an extra hour and a half getting nowhere. In the end I was told I couldn't take the car without paying for the GardX. As my wife was more than 9 months pregnant I had no choice but to oblige.

Lessons learnt - don't go to car giant and don't buy Gardx.

I would have told them to stuff the car and keep my money. Pregnant wife no excuse.

SLITHER99

I've bought two cars at Car Giant and worked there as a preparer. In general, at the time, I felt confident that there was enough checked out about a particular vehicle before it went out on the showroom floor to ensure it was running right. There were more than a few occasions where we'd see cars being thrown straight back onto the transporter as we wouldn't sell it.

Car Giant is about maximum turnover. If it's got four wheels and under five years old, they'll sell it! They usually get ex-fleet cars by the transporter load. In prep, we were responsible for making sure things like history is together, the RAC report is done and signed and all those other bits. It wasn't a mechanic role - any cars that needed a lot of work were rejected.

With that in mind, you get what you pay for. Usually slightly higher than average miles, but the service history is all in check and there's few nasty surprises. However, all cars are priced by head office and there is no wiggle room at all! The price you see is the price you pay for.

I have no idea what the Admin fee is for. If £99 is a deal breaker considering you're dropping a few £k on a 3 year old car, then I would suggest you shouldn't be buying a few £k worth of car in the first place. If I had to guess, £99 is to cover for customers who walk in with cash and take no extras - like me:)

Salesmen make little commission off the car sale itself. They make it from the finance, the extras and all the other crap you don't need. The two cars I've bought there were perfectly good runners, were both cheaper than I would have paid at a dealership or even some indie places and made both salesmen rather upset when I point blank refused either the finance or BS seat sprays or paint polish compound rubbish. You don't need any of it, don't buy it. Pay your money and leave!

If you're looking for a decent motor, usually directly from fleets, and you don't want to be ripped off by either a dealership or a three year old lemon from the auctions sat inside an indie dealership, I can't see how you could do worse?

As it happens, I do know (at the time) that a lot of Car Giant's rejected stock ends up at another fairly well known car emporium who seems to welcome those with bad credit and couldn't get car finance elsewhere. They don't really care what they sell!