Car Dealership Review Website

sandieb

Does such a thing exist?

I am looking to buy a used car (2014) non-locally and wonder whether there is a website I could check their credentials on, so to speak?

Something along the lines of Trip Advisor or Checkatrade!

Thank you.

(I've Googled and searched on here but must be missing something somewhere):)

colino

You can google under the "traders name +review" and see what you get. Unfortunately, there are a couple of things to consider. More people make a point of being voluble about a complaint, of any kind, but even more so when it is about their second highest expenditure. Therefore even honest review boards are traditionally skewed to give a negative impression, as fewer people are likely to go to the bother of letting strangers know they thought the service was as expected, good or marvellous.
Now with easy access to the net, it is even more difficult to get an accurate assessment as owners, employees or others can easily swamp review sites with less than candid impressions of enterprises.
Better to go to traders who are local and are personally recommended.

Strider590

If one existed, then by now it would be taking money from dealerships to print them good reviews.

sandieb

Thank you for your response Colino and I take on board what you say. Having found an excellent local plumber via Checkatrade I thought something might be available for car dealers! Naive but there you are.

The car I am looking at is with a Main VW Dealer .. Yes I did Google their name and there were 3 reviews which were not good but these were for servicing rather than purchase.

Just trying to get a broader view .... almost impossible! Thank you, though.

Horizon81

I don't know of any, the nearest I can think of is the good garage scheme but that's just a joke of a scheme where you're unlikely to ever find a bad review and it should be renamed the Forte Lubricants Marketing site. Buy local so at least you won't be posting on here in a few months saying "x is broken on my new car and dealer says bring it in to look at, but it's a 100 mile round trip".

On a side note Checkatrade is equally not to be trusted. Do you ever see a bad review on there? It's been on watchdog. EDIT - just seen your post about finding a good plumber. I'd put that down more to luck than judgement.

forgotmyname

Review websites are 10 a penny, But any good reviews are likely to be spam from the garage themselves or friends/family of the garage.

All the review sites are open to abuse.

terric

I've found http://www.motorcodes.co.uk/garagefinder/ to be very useful recently. It has info about used cars, but is mainly a garage finder - why don't you get some of the best reviewed in your area and give them a call, see if they can recommend a good local dealer?

DKLS

Try googling the name of the dealer. E.g try googling the term "Keighly trade centre" for a good example of a very bad dealership.