Car Giant Review

bjcuomo

Hi, as the title of the post is review I thought I would weigh in on this based on my recent experience.
This place is relatively local to us so we thought it would be good to see a few different cars in one place. After doing some research I had an idea of what cars I wanted to look at so went on Sunday to view. It was busy but we were seen very quick and I thought it was a good system that you can get the keys and go look at the cars yourself. We were clear that we weren't going to purchase that day and they were all pleasant, no hard sell.
I booked a couple of test drives a few days later. First point, the online booking system is meaningless. They don't actually have appointments when you get there, it seems to just depend who is available. Secondly, the test drive is a waste of time, they only let you go round the surrounding industrial estate for a couple of minutes so unless there was something very obviously wrong you can't really get much info from it.
The whole experience was very frustrating and a waste of time. As we weren't 100% about what car we wanted they were very short with us and made out like we were wasting their time. Second test drive, I had to wait half an hour after my 'appointment' watching a load of staff idling around and people who had come after us going out for drives. When he eventually came back and I questioned this he actually told me that the booking system means nothing and that they wouldn't prioritise us because we weren't buying a car that night. Told me a test drive was a waste of time if we had already looked at the car (surely this is not the same as actually driving it?!) and was just totally unapologetic about the wait.
When we got to the car it turned out the battery was dead, at which point I lost my patience and told him to forget it. Again, he didn't even apologise and made out like it was for the best as that wasn't the car for us and we should look at 1.6 engine. Now considering we were looking at 1.0 I found this a pretty ridiculous leap. Then tried to get me to look at a load of random cars but I told him I wasn't interested as had been there long enough and would always want to do some research first.
All of this after the first test drive where the guy was downright surly and told us we shouldn't be test driving unless we definitely wanted that car and we should go to a dealer or autotrader...how can they run a business like this?!
I was so frustrated and disappointed by this whole experience. I was feeling really positive about them and intending to buy but now really don't want to give them my money. Such basic failures in customer service, while I'm not reviewing an actual purchase I think the fact they that can't even manage a test drive gives me no hope for them properly selling me a car.
I do think they offer some really good deals, though this may only be the case in the class of car we were looking at (1.0 city hatchback) but saying that the pricing does seem a bit random when you look at the differences in the same models. So, from a moneysaving point of view I suppose I can't totally rule them out but on principle being told that you are not an important customer is pretty unacceptable.
I have put my complaint in writing and will update if we have any further dealings but that's my input anyway!

bigjl

bjcuomo wrote: »

Hi, as the title of the post is review I thought I would weigh in on this based on my recent experience.
This place is relatively local to us so we thought it would be good to see a few different cars in one place. After doing some research I had an idea of what cars I wanted to look at so went on Sunday to view. It was busy but we were seen very quick and I thought it was a good system that you can get the keys and go look at the cars yourself. We were clear that we weren't going to purchase that day and they were all pleasant, no hard sell.
I booked a couple of test drives a few days later. First point, the online booking system is meaningless. They don't actually have appointments when you get there, it seems to just depend who is available. Secondly, the test drive is a waste of time, they only let you go round the surrounding industrial estate for a couple of minutes so unless there was something very obviously wrong you can't really get much info from it.
The whole experience was very frustrating and a waste of time. As we weren't 100% about what car we wanted they were very short with us and made out like we were wasting their time. Second test drive, I had to wait half an hour after my 'appointment' watching a load of staff idling around and people who had come after us going out for drives. When he eventually came back and I questioned this he actually told me that the booking system means nothing and that they wouldn't prioritise us because we weren't buying a car that night. Told me a test drive was a waste of time if we had already looked at the car (surely this is not the same as actually driving it?!) and was just totally unapologetic about the wait.
When we got to the car it turned out the battery was dead, at which point I lost my patience and told him to forget it. Again, he didn't even apologise and made out like it was for the best as that wasn't the car for us and we should look at 1.6 engine. Now considering we were looking at 1.0 I found this a pretty ridiculous leap. Then tried to get me to look at a load of random cars but I told him I wasn't interested as had been there long enough and would always want to do some research first.
All of this after the first test drive where the guy was downright surly and told us we shouldn't be test driving unless we definitely wanted that car and we should go to a dealer or autotrader...how can they run a business like this?!
I was so frustrated and disappointed by this whole experience. I was feeling really positive about them and intending to buy but now really don't want to give them my money. Such basic failures in customer service, while I'm not reviewing an actual purchase I think the fact they that can't even manage a test drive gives me no hope for them properly selling me a car.
I do think they offer some really good deals, though this may only be the case in the class of car we were looking at (1.0 city hatchback) but saying that the pricing does seem a bit random when you look at the differences in the same models. So, from a moneysaving point of view I suppose I can't totally rule them out but on principle being told that you are not an important customer is pretty unacceptable.
I have put my complaint in writing and will update if we have any further dealings but that's my input anyway!

I think what you have missed is that they are a stack em high sell em cheap operation

With the numbers of tyre kickers they deal with then you can probably understand to an extent the frustrations of the staff, though they should never be rude.

If you want s dealer to make you a coffee and unlimited test drives then perhaps a main dealer would be a better bet

The cars will be sourced from the same ex fleet sources most of the time they will be a fair bit more expensive

You pays your money etc.

CarGiant used to make you pay a deposit before they allowed a test drive so as to put off tyre kickers.

bjcuomo

bigjl wrote: »

I think what you have missed is that they are a stack em high sell em cheap operation

With the numbers of tyre kickers they deal with then you can probably understand to an extent the frustrations of the staff, though they should never be rude.

If you want s dealer to make you a coffee and unlimited test drives then perhaps a main dealer would be a better bet

The cars will be sourced from the same ex fleet sources most of the time they will be a fair bit more expensive

You pays your money etc.

CarGiant used to make you pay a deposit before they allowed a test drive so as to put off tyre kickers.

I see what they mean about the bat signal now...

As I said I wanted to post a review as that was meant to be the point of this thread, not the kind of sniping that has appeared previously and patronising from you. I didn't want a coffee, just to try out something I was going to spend thousands of pounds on which I don't think is too much to ask.

I'm not a 'tyre kicker', if you read my post I was intending to make a purchase with them and just because they are a large operation this is no excuse for poor service. I found it particularly frustrating as all the print outs they gave us all mention how great their customer service is. I have worked in the service industry and while the main function of their job is to sell cars, I would always expect politeness too as that's a huge part of the job. It's not like they were swarming with other customers on a Friday night!

bigjl

I wasn't patronising you.

You went to a large car supermarket and left without a car.

You wanted to do multiple test drives in a day.

How many times do you think people have tried to do that in a place as big as that?

You don't don't go to Lidl or Costco for the buying experience, you go to buy. If you want a buying experience then Harrods would be much better.

Put simply your requirements would not be fulfilled by any Car Supermarket. In fact most dealers would view you as a potential time waster. Why not go to a main dealer and try and test drive several cars on the lot!

The tiniest obstacle was out in your way and you didn't buy, some of the staff being an !!!! wouldn't stop me buying the car I wanted. Unless I had no intention of buying that is.

Like many people you have not put yourself in their position, the test drive is pathetic anyway and only good enough to check that there are no obvious faults like non working AirCon or a slipping clutch.

I will let you know how my purchase goes, there are two vehicles on the short list to look at.

motorguy

bigjl wrote: »

I wasn't patronising you.

You went to a large car supermarket and left without a car.

You wanted to do multiple test drives in a day.

How many times do you think people have tried to do that in a place as big as that?

You don't don't go to Lidl or Costco for the buying experience, you go to buy. If you want a buying experience then Harrods would be much better.

Put simply your requirements would not be fulfilled by any Car Supermarket. In fact most dealers would view you as a potential time waster. Why not go to a main dealer and try and test drive several cars on the lot!

The tiniest obstacle was out in your way and you didn't buy, some of the staff being an !!!! wouldn't stop me buying the car I wanted. Unless I had no intention of buying that is.

Like many people you have not put yourself in their position, the test drive is pathetic anyway and only good enough to check that there are no obvious faults like non working AirCon or a slipping clutch.

I will let you know how my purchase goes, there are two vehicles on the short list to look at.

I have to agree with you on this.

They are a massive sell sell sell operation with a massive customer throughput and on that basis alone if i was going there it would be to BUY i specific car, not to have a mull around and ponder different cars.

We bought our 370Z from a local car supermarket and it was around £3,000 cheaper than any other we saw on Autotrader across the entire country of the same age.

We did buy the car in spite of the salesman though, not with the aid of the salesman.

I'm not the worlds biggest fan of Car Supermarkets as i've expressed previously, but if you are going to put your head in the lions mouth, then you need to have your homework done beforehand and if the price and condition are right, buy on the spot. Cars still in manufacturers warranty are safest as it means you need never go back again!

Minrich

CG (i think thats the one) send their buyers to many auctions and fly about in a helicopter. They just have to buy stock and don't act like the other dealers. If they are at the auction they will outbid every other dealer as they just need numbers . They then leave and go to another auction site and do the same. They used to be regular visitors to Manheim Colchester. Dealers hate it when they are at the auctions . They also source cars from many other places , they have been known to sell 4/500 cars in a weekend. They are the cheapest by far and keep to their prices plus the £99 admin (unless you find an issue that needs repair) it may be the first time they even look at the car thats sitting at their sites. If you want all the BS that. Ones with franchised dealer showroom type stuff you definitley pay for it. I would advise to buy from them as a private buyer more than an auction.

Hoof_Hearted

I've been there a couple of times to look and I really dislike the way they operate. If I am spending thousands, I want time to properly examine and test out the car, so I would never buy from them. I don't think they are that cheap either when you add on £100. I was looking at Civics and medium-size dealers are definitely cheaper in the 3-4 year old range up to 30,000 miles.

JK-sussex

Had 3 cars from these people.
1st,nissan note excellent car 2 years no faults,replaced as written off due to flood damage,
2nd,vauxhall meriva (actually a very useful car) I knew these can suffer from steering total failure,so I purchased the lower cover warranty,steering failed after 10 months and warranty paid for most of the repair.
Kept for 3 years and traded it back to cargiant,good price.
3rd, audi a8 Quattro. also bought the full warranty,next day it broke down,went into limp mode,engine management light on,had it towed back via AA and cargiant fixed it inconjunction with audi.
when being towed AA man said it really needed a good run at speed to clean out a diesel filter so its not really cargiants fault.
Kept for 3 years and no other faults.


I don't like the idea of the very short test drive around the industrial estate,not enough time to find any niggles but overall I am happy with their service.So do your research at other dealers first.
Beware they like any other carsales place will want to sell you extras,only buy what what you want and a firm polite No is the answer,also check finance rates if applicable.
Overall a good experience over 9 years. Jk.

vikingaero

JK-sussex wrote: »

Beware they like any other carsales place will want to sell you extras,only buy what what you want and a firm polite No is the answer,also check finance rates if applicable.

The extras of GAP and Warranty are FSA/FSCS controlled products and as such are subject to a cooling off period. I bought both to get a small discount but cancelled them both after delivery and got a full refund. The only one to watch out for is paint protection.

Geoff_Audi

Most of the Car Giant Reviews are totally meaningless - you can't compare to a Main Dealer.
They basically just sell Thousands of Cars at just over Trade Price with little done to Vehicles.
I just bought a Two year old Audi to replace the Golf we bought same place Six years ago.
Massive Choice & you can Drive Away same day so go on the Train!
Buyer Beware & Homework & you get what you Pay for & Save big time.