A
Anonymous
Guest
Hi guys,
I have been looking around for a nearly new RCZ in pearlescent white for the past couple of months. Found a low mileage example in York at a main dealer. Relatively high spec and the only thing missing was the JBL HiFi. My wife likes the feline pack and this particular car had the quad exhaust but did not have the side stripe or black mesh grill fitted. It is surprising how many dealer demo cars I have seen that have the feline pack fitted but then scrimp and save on other important options such as the satnav and xenons.
So here is my story of yesterday's test drive!
I spotted this particular car two weeks ago, great spec but I suspected something might be wrong when I noticed that the car being sold did not have the correct photos on Autotrader's website. This particular dealer had two identical cars to the same spec, one diesel and one petrol however they had used the photos of the petrol car on both adverts in Autotrader. So I phoned them up to query this which ultimately ended up with us agreeing to go up to test drive. The car was advertised with 2k miles on the clock at nearly £24k. We had the finance agreed already and I was going to put a £7k cash deposit down. If the test drive went well we could have taken it there and then, my wife being happy with an early Xmas present and the dealer happy as they would have another sale to add to their end of year figures.
So now the bad news. Got back from the test drive and everything was just fine, nice car to drive etc but we then spent ten minutes taking a closer look at the car, unfortunately in the rain as they didn't offer to take the car into the service bay. I know, I know never view a car in the rain, but what could be wrong with a dealer demo car? And we had spent 4 hours driving from Reading to York. So given that we had made that effort to drive up and see the car and we had the finance in place, what could prevent the dealer from winning the business?
Before I describe the issues with the car, one other thing I must have spoken to the same sales guy at least 5 times over a two week period and then he tried to call me at least another 5 times to make sure we were still coming up. We turn up and were greeted by who I thought was the sales guy but it turned out to be another sales guy! So there was the sales experience broken before we had even walked into the dealership. Now on to the car.
My wife use to be a fleet manager and knows her way around a car, I am meticulous with how I look after my cars and so between us if there was anything wrong then we would find it and we did.
Three very badly kerbed alloys, which given their machined finished would be difficult to fix properly, one of the tyre walls had been damaged where it had obviously clipped a kerb. The front lower spoiler had been damaged on the left and right side, looks like someone had taken a speed hump to quickly, anyway two large chunks had been taken out of the spoiler and would need filling and respraying. Finally the side skirt had been damaged and in fact split. It looks like the car had either been jacked up incorrectly or had been dropped off a kerb. So with a new tyre required, three refurbished alloys, front spoiler needing repaired along with the side skirt I estimated at least a grand worth of repairs and to top it off there was obviously no guarantee of matching the paint perfectly given that it was pearlescent. And the mileage on the car, 4500 ! Twice what was advertised.
So I think our decision had been made for us in terms of not progressing with this particular car but we thought we would see what they say about this. Their first response was 'what damage?'. Then once we explained they said that you are to expect damage on a demo car. Fair point but when you take out a demo car you sign an insurance form, so if the damage had been incurred on previous test drives then why hadn't they been fixed prior to our test drive ? Turns out the car was being driven by a dealer employee who had moved up the ladder from a Citroen C1!
Now the negotiating, we were expecting some money to be taken off the car but they offered a couple of hundred to refurb the alloys and get the other work done under their insurance but they would not discount the car at all. Now given that stance and the fact we couldn't see the car in the dry and the fact of the damage to the front and side skirt who is to say there wasn't other damage underneath the car. I am also willing bet that I would have found some scratches on the bodywork as well.
So there you have it, one RCZ with twice the advertised mileage, wrong photos possibly to hide the damage, damaged alloys, broken sales relationship as we walked into the garage, no admission to there being anything wrong with the car and a sales negotiation with no interest at all in discounting the car to try and negate the issues highlighted above. All in all a very poor sales experience which led to us us getting up and walking out leaving us without a car and them without a sale.
Now I am sure that not all dealers are not the same so we are happy to play the patience game and I have already found another suitable car which we will look at after Xmas.
I hope you don't think I was being too fussy here, but the whole buying experience was ruined here and to be honest our walking away and not buying that particular car was a great relief and our best decision of the day!
I will keep you updated on our quest to find a diesel RCZ :beer:
I have been looking around for a nearly new RCZ in pearlescent white for the past couple of months. Found a low mileage example in York at a main dealer. Relatively high spec and the only thing missing was the JBL HiFi. My wife likes the feline pack and this particular car had the quad exhaust but did not have the side stripe or black mesh grill fitted. It is surprising how many dealer demo cars I have seen that have the feline pack fitted but then scrimp and save on other important options such as the satnav and xenons.
So here is my story of yesterday's test drive!
I spotted this particular car two weeks ago, great spec but I suspected something might be wrong when I noticed that the car being sold did not have the correct photos on Autotrader's website. This particular dealer had two identical cars to the same spec, one diesel and one petrol however they had used the photos of the petrol car on both adverts in Autotrader. So I phoned them up to query this which ultimately ended up with us agreeing to go up to test drive. The car was advertised with 2k miles on the clock at nearly £24k. We had the finance agreed already and I was going to put a £7k cash deposit down. If the test drive went well we could have taken it there and then, my wife being happy with an early Xmas present and the dealer happy as they would have another sale to add to their end of year figures.
So now the bad news. Got back from the test drive and everything was just fine, nice car to drive etc but we then spent ten minutes taking a closer look at the car, unfortunately in the rain as they didn't offer to take the car into the service bay. I know, I know never view a car in the rain, but what could be wrong with a dealer demo car? And we had spent 4 hours driving from Reading to York. So given that we had made that effort to drive up and see the car and we had the finance in place, what could prevent the dealer from winning the business?
Before I describe the issues with the car, one other thing I must have spoken to the same sales guy at least 5 times over a two week period and then he tried to call me at least another 5 times to make sure we were still coming up. We turn up and were greeted by who I thought was the sales guy but it turned out to be another sales guy! So there was the sales experience broken before we had even walked into the dealership. Now on to the car.
My wife use to be a fleet manager and knows her way around a car, I am meticulous with how I look after my cars and so between us if there was anything wrong then we would find it and we did.
Three very badly kerbed alloys, which given their machined finished would be difficult to fix properly, one of the tyre walls had been damaged where it had obviously clipped a kerb. The front lower spoiler had been damaged on the left and right side, looks like someone had taken a speed hump to quickly, anyway two large chunks had been taken out of the spoiler and would need filling and respraying. Finally the side skirt had been damaged and in fact split. It looks like the car had either been jacked up incorrectly or had been dropped off a kerb. So with a new tyre required, three refurbished alloys, front spoiler needing repaired along with the side skirt I estimated at least a grand worth of repairs and to top it off there was obviously no guarantee of matching the paint perfectly given that it was pearlescent. And the mileage on the car, 4500 ! Twice what was advertised.
So I think our decision had been made for us in terms of not progressing with this particular car but we thought we would see what they say about this. Their first response was 'what damage?'. Then once we explained they said that you are to expect damage on a demo car. Fair point but when you take out a demo car you sign an insurance form, so if the damage had been incurred on previous test drives then why hadn't they been fixed prior to our test drive ? Turns out the car was being driven by a dealer employee who had moved up the ladder from a Citroen C1!
Now the negotiating, we were expecting some money to be taken off the car but they offered a couple of hundred to refurb the alloys and get the other work done under their insurance but they would not discount the car at all. Now given that stance and the fact we couldn't see the car in the dry and the fact of the damage to the front and side skirt who is to say there wasn't other damage underneath the car. I am also willing bet that I would have found some scratches on the bodywork as well.
So there you have it, one RCZ with twice the advertised mileage, wrong photos possibly to hide the damage, damaged alloys, broken sales relationship as we walked into the garage, no admission to there being anything wrong with the car and a sales negotiation with no interest at all in discounting the car to try and negate the issues highlighted above. All in all a very poor sales experience which led to us us getting up and walking out leaving us without a car and them without a sale.
Now I am sure that not all dealers are not the same so we are happy to play the patience game and I have already found another suitable car which we will look at after Xmas.
I hope you don't think I was being too fussy here, but the whole buying experience was ruined here and to be honest our walking away and not buying that particular car was a great relief and our best decision of the day!
I will keep you updated on our quest to find a diesel RCZ :beer:
.to be honest you have not done the homework on used/demos rcz the world is your oyster.My advice is SPEND more time on the net then on the phone.i leased my rcz i spent the best part of 2 months on the net and the phone finding the best price really to get the best results you have to do the homework.