Car Giant - thoughts on getting a car from there?

trinidadone

Car Giant is currently being advertised on my local radio. I had a terrible service from this company, but this was 20 years ago, has customer service improved since then, or is it still rock bottom???

tasticz

Hi trinidadone,

We just purchased a £15k car from cargiant last weekend.

We had a look at a couple of the cars and narrowed it down to two we liked then went to the reception to register and ask for keys. We were allowed 1 key at a time. Once we were happy with the inside of car, we went back to reception to ask for test drive.

They asked us questions such as if we wanted to pay all cash, finance or p/x any car. We were going to finance the car. We had to first fill in an application with the finance advisor and we went on test drive.

There was no pressure at all at any time. We did end up buying the extras just for peace of mind - I know on this forum we get told its not worth the piece of paper its printed on but hey!

It was our first time buying car from cargiant and I actually found it to be less hassle than buying at my local garage and the number of cars is just too much. It was like they had it all there ready one after another but no pressure.

They do not really make much profit on the cars themselves but it is the finance and extras where the money comes from. Some of the big cars they are selling are the cheapest on autotrader for its kind.

All in all 5/5 from me.

Edit: Experience may be dependent on the sales person?

CHR15

Their throughput is huge so there are bound to be lemons in there.
Not many will rush to leave feedback for a good experience, just in case it falls apart the next day but those who find immediate problems will be rushing to warn the world.

It's just a car so take the same precautions of reading all the documents/history and a thorough check over and test drive. Buying a second hand car you takes your chances, no matter where from.

Don't buy the extras (:)) , they aren't worth it, just buy the car.
If at all possible, avoind financing.

takman

tasticz wrote: »

Hi trinidadone,

We just purchased a £15k car from cargiant last weekend.

We had a look at a couple of the cars and narrowed it down to two we liked then went to the reception to register and ask for keys. We were allowed 1 key at a time. Once we were happy with the inside of car, we went back to reception to ask for test drive.

They asked us questions such as if we wanted to pay all cash, finance or p/x any car. We were going to finance the car. We had to first fill in an application with the finance advisor and we went on test drive.

There was no pressure at all at any time. We did end up buying the extras just for peace of mind - I know on this forum we get told its not worth the piece of paper its printed on but hey!

It was our first time buying car from cargiant and I actually found it to be less hassle than buying at my local garage and the number of cars is just too much. It was like they had it all there ready one after another but no pressure.

They do not really make much profit on the cars themselves but it is the finance and extras where the money comes from. Some of the big cars they are selling are the cheapest on autotrader for its kind.

All in all 5/5 from me.

Edit: Experience may be dependent on the sales person?

It probably went so smoothly and "easily" because you took out everything they were offering without question that makes them lots of money and commission. You went straight with their own finance without comparing the cost elsewhere and lapped up their overpriced extras paying the salesman lots of commission.

It would probably be a different story if you were getting your own finance at a better rate and buying only the extras you required from third parties at much lower rates.

bigisi

takman wrote: »

It probably went so smoothly and "easily" because you took out everything they were offering without question that makes them lots of money and commission. You went straight with their own finance without comparing the cost elsewhere and lapped up their overpriced extras paying the salesman lots of commission.

It would probably be a different story if you were getting your own finance at a better rate and buying only the extras you required from third parties at much lower rates.

Exactly - a car supermarket (or any dealer for that matter)'s wet dream! Someone with that approach to buying a car shouldn't be on a money saving site. :rotfl:

womble12345

I bought a passat from them about 10 years ago and looked at some Mondeos a few years ago. The test drive you get is very short and they dont allow you to go anywhere else. Also the Mondeos I looked at were quite beaten up, quite a few dinks in the bodywork, presumably they buy from a leasing company who's customers dont treat the cars too well.
The cafe onsite is OK.
All in all I am not entiely put off by the experience and would buy from them in future if they had the right car.

motorguy

trinidadone wrote: »

Car Giant is currently being advertised on my local radio. I had a terrible service from this company, but this was 20 years ago, has customer service improved since then, or is it still rock bottom???

My advice would be :-

• Dont assume they are the cheapest. A main dealer / regular dealer can and will discount whereas the likes of CarGiant add fees on
• The car may not be prepared to the same standard as from a main dealer
• The car may be Grade B or lower stock
• Their finance packages tend not to be cheap

There is good value to be had, and lots of cars to chose from but do your due diligence. Dont let them pressure you, and conversely dont let them ease you blindly in to a deal

tatinsin

Having just purchased a used BMW from CarGiant, I would like to share my experience from walking through the doors to paying and driving away.

CarGiant are a massive used dealership with a vast amount of cars on site. Situated in NW London, they are ideal to serve the immediate area demand and cover a vast amount of markets, you would be hard pushed to find more choice on a single lot. For this CarGiant is incredible, and hard to fault that.

Now, having spotted the cars I was interested in, I arrived at the premises at 10AM to view. There are different areas focusing on different brands and vehicle types, and as such, I will be reviewing area C who cater to Audi, BMW, Mercedes and other prestige motors (Maserati, Porsche etc). You are met by a salesperson at reception who will take your details and upload your profile via drivers license to enable you to test drive and build a customer profile. You are questioned on methods of payment and whether you would use the part exchange methods, and I chose part exchange with cash payment, and so cannot review the finance method. When you have identified your vehicles of interest, you are handed a details printout alongside a set of keys in exchange for your house keys, and are free to view the vehicle as long as you like. This is a fantastic way to allow you to familiarise yourself with what you want to buy and generally inspect the motor. I would mention that most of these cars in area C seem to be ex lease or ex business use, with a lot of them coming from trade auction (some even have Manheim Auctions paperwork in them at times), so it essentially is buyer beware. Buying a used car is likely to be your second largest investment in your life for the average customer, so do your research and ensure you have a budget to cope with unforseen repairs, especially on ex lease business cars. I enjoyed the car I saw and wished to proceed with a teat drive, which was allowed. Note, the salespeople at this point are not pushy, they take you at your leisurely pace whilst you are deciding. The test drive is short, coupled with a low speed limit around the industrial estate, and is more of a demo of what the car may feel like in daily use. You can't really notice any potential niggles as the time and speeds involved are low. I liked the vehicle and proceeded with obtaining a valuation on my car. I will be honest and say that I received a fair valuation, albeit lower than what I would have wanted, but then, higher than at smaller independent traders I visited. I agreed to the part exchange and proceeded through the paperwork. Now this is where it gets a little draining and I would say there is a need from CarGiant to adress this with their salespeople. You sit down and go over the sales invoice, final balances and a circus of trying to sell you warranty and supaguard. I advise you that the prices qouted for supaguard are ludicrous, given that you can purchase them elsewhere for £30-50 as opposed to the £249 CarGiant values it at. I assume this is becuase so many of the salespeople need their commisions paid and this is where they make their money. When I declined, the salesperson pursued desperate tactics to get me to purchase supaguard for the next five minutes. In sales, it is credible to understand when a customer says no, they have their mind made up, and producing a circus does not make the salesperson or company look good. When I addressed that I appreciate the salesperson will recieve commission if I buy, their response was they do not recieve commission from this. If that was true, you wouldn't be sweating it out trying to sell me Supaguard for what seemed an eternity. The same goes for the warranty, I would deem it unworthy of the paper it is written on, and instead purchase a warranty elsewhere if necessary. However, due to CarGiant raving about their multipoint checks of their cars, you would assume a warranty is unnecessary.

Once this whole scenario is over, you are moved onto area A where payment and collections is located. This also proves interesting. On top of the price of the car, you must also pay an extra £199 admin fee. When questioned what this was for, the response was for the paperwork of the vehicle. Do CarGiant not know everything can now also be done online, or that £199 for presenting me with a logbook and service history is a damn right rip off? Here, you are also charged a 1% handling fee for cash payments upto £7000, another extra £70 into CarGiants ever expanding coffers. Also, gone is the inclusion of free drive away insurance, you are know qouted to pay £22.50 for the five days worth of cover. The collection process involves bringing your car into their storage area, seeing x amount of people and waiting, lots of waiting, before you actually then pay and collect your keys. All in all, so much hassle, so many unnecessary upsales (that you should never take - the Supaguard is a definite no! - the warranty for me is superficial and deemed a waste of money, but may not be to everybody, but shop around!), so many extra fees and charges, and in the end I got a vehicle with one key, a computer read out of service history, its previous owner an ex lease company, but from what I could see so far, low verified mileage, no faults and above ok bodywork (minor scratch to front n/s panel). So I would say approach CarGiant with caution, there are good deals to be had on the right type of vehicle, but for most of it, I would say they are a rip off supplying MOSTLY high mileage cars for the prestige category, which inevitably will go wrong. The London premium is also a factor. Ultimately, it is your choice, but they are not cheap for what it is you are buying, yet the sheer volume they have mean you may have a good day and find a gem

Mercdriver

tatinsin wrote: »

Having just purchased a used BMW from CarGiant, I would like to share my experience from walking through the doors to paying and driving away.

CarGiant are a massive used dealership with a vast amount of cars on site. Situated in NW London, they are ideal to serve the immediate area demand and cover a vast amount of markets, you would be hard pushed to find more choice on a single lot. For this CarGiant is incredible, and hard to fault that.

Now, having spotted the cars I was interested in, I arrived at the premises at 10AM to view. There are different areas focusing on different brands and vehicle types, and as such, I will be reviewing area C who cater to Audi, BMW, Mercedes and other prestige motors (Maserati, Porsche etc). You are met by a salesperson at reception who will take your details and upload your profile via drivers license to enable you to test drive and build a customer profile. You are questioned on methods of payment and whether you would use the part exchange methods, and I chose part exchange with cash payment, and so cannot review the finance method.

When you have identified your vehicles of interest, you are handed a details printout alongside a set of keys in exchange for your house keys, and are free to view the vehicle as long as you like. This is a fantastic way to allow you to familiarise yourself with what you want to buy and generally inspect the motor. I would mention that most of these cars in area C seem to be ex lease or ex business use, with a lot of them coming from trade auction (some even have Manheim Auctions paperwork in them at times), so it essentially is buyer beware. Buying a used car is likely to be your second largest investment in your life for the average customer, so do your research and ensure you have a budget to cope with unforseen repairs, especially on ex lease business cars.

I enjoyed the car I saw and wished to proceed with a teat drive, which was allowed. Note, the salespeople at this point are not pushy, they take you at your leisurely pace whilst you are deciding. The test drive is short, coupled with a low speed limit around the industrial estate, and is more of a demo of what the car may feel like in daily use. You can't really notice any potential niggles as the time and speeds involved are low. I liked the vehicle and proceeded with obtaining a valuation on my car. I will be honest and say that I received a fair valuation, albeit lower than what I would have wanted, but then, higher than at smaller independent traders I visited. I agreed to the part exchange and proceeded through the paperwork.

Now this is where it gets a little draining and I would say there is a need from CarGiant to adress this with their salespeople. You sit down and go over the sales invoice, final balances and a circus of trying to sell you warranty and supaguard. I advise you that the prices qouted for supaguard are ludicrous, given that you can purchase them elsewhere for £30-50 as opposed to the £249 CarGiant values it at. I assume this is becuase so many of the salespeople need their commisions paid and this is where they make their money. When I declined, the salesperson pursued desperate tactics to get me to purchase supaguard for the next five minutes. In sales, it is credible to understand when a customer says no, they have their mind made up, and producing a circus does not make the salesperson or company look good. When I addressed that I appreciate the salesperson will recieve commission if I buy, their response was they do not recieve commission from this. If that was true, you wouldn't be sweating it out trying to sell me Supaguard for what seemed an eternity. The same goes for the warranty, I would deem it unworthy of the paper it is written on, and instead purchase a warranty elsewhere if necessary. However, due to CarGiant raving about their multipoint checks of their cars, you would assume a warranty is unnecessary.

Once this whole scenario is over, you are moved onto area A where payment and collections is located. This also proves interesting. On top of the price of the car, you must also pay an extra £199 admin fee. When questioned what this was for, the response was for the paperwork of the vehicle. Do CarGiant not know everything can now also be done online, or that £199 for presenting me with a logbook and service history is a damn right rip off? Here, you are also charged a 1% handling fee for cash payments upto £7000, another extra £70 into CarGiants ever expanding coffers. Also, gone is the inclusion of free drive away insurance, you are know qouted to pay £22.50 for the five days worth of cover.

The collection process involves bringing your car into their storage area, seeing x amount of people and waiting, lots of waiting, before you actually then pay and collect your keys. All in all, so much hassle, so many unnecessary upsales (that you should never take - the Supaguard is a definite no! - the warranty for me is superficial and deemed a waste of money, but may not be to everybody, but shop around!), so many extra fees and charges, and in the end I got a vehicle with one key, a computer read out of service history, its previous owner an ex lease company, but from what I could see so far, low verified mileage, no faults and above ok bodywork (minor scratch to front n/s panel).

So I would say approach CarGiant with caution, there are good deals to be had on the right type of vehicle, but for most of it, I would say they are a rip off supplying MOSTLY high mileage cars for the prestige category, which inevitably will go wrong. The London premium is also a factor. Ultimately, it is your choice, but they are not cheap for what it is you are buying, yet the sheer volume they have mean you may have a good day and find a gem

Thank you, very detailed advice, but it could have been broken up into shorter paragraphs to make it easier to read. See above :beer:

Hoof_Hearted

Thank you for going to all that trouble to explain the process. I didn't like the place and there are some hard-driven cars, but you may find a good one. I don't like the fact that the advertised price is subject to ridiculous add-ons. Obviously, admin fee is just a ploy to keep the screen price low.

However, the most important issue is your paragraphing.......

AlluringAnil

2 cents from my experience:
Car Giant happens to be the biggest campus where we can actually compare different cars, makes and models and make an informed decision about which make and model to buy.
Usually I come back after spending a day there and shortlisting my next car to look online to compare the prices and offerings in the market.
I am usually able to get a better deal outside the Car Giant which I take.