# Arnold Clark cornering the market



## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-19456203

Arnold Clark buying more dealerships and giving us even less option than using the most useless company in existence.

It is getting near a monopoly in certain areas.

Not good.


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## Derekh929 (Aug 28, 2011)

Yes they bought the BMW dealers i used in the past and last twice i have called never returned my calls , great service not sales manager had been their for years , only lasted a short while with AC as we was a good guy


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

It was discussed before how Harry Fairbairn's standards fell through the floor as soon as the Arnold Clark took over. 

A lot of the good guys left quickly. 

How can such an awful company be so successful?


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## Spoony (May 28, 2007)

I'm confused how the competition commission has never looked in to it. I've got no choice for miles around bar AC if I want to go to a dealer


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## Mick (Jan 23, 2010)

^^^ agreed,

we have 1 vauxhall dealership, and thats it for about 15-20 miles, the rest are all AC garages


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## Derekh929 (Aug 28, 2011)

Kerr said:


> It was discussed before how Harry Fairbairn's standards fell through the floor as soon as the Arnold Clark took over.
> 
> A lot of the good guys left quickly.
> 
> How can such an awful company be so successful?


Have to totally agree, i have dealt with HF for 11 years and they lost the purchase of our Mini it was just after they opened the new Mini Garage over the road when AC took over never returned my calls and was rude about another deal i was offered so bought at another dealer


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

for someone who has such a terrible reputation, someone is certainly buying enough cars from them eh....

people need to stop buying and moaning and vote with their feet... still plenty of places to buy cars..... 

:thumb:


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## Derekh929 (Aug 28, 2011)

The Cueball said:


> for someone who has such a terrible reputation, someone is certainly buying enough cars from them eh....
> 
> people need to stop buying and moaning and vote with their feet... still plenty of places to buy cars.....
> 
> :thumb:


Cuey their used to be a garage close to us and the guy was brilliant always haerd people moaning about the deals and they would never go back, and then when they changed their car i asked where did you get it from you guested it the same dealer , oh but he made up for the last time LOL if the car had repair damage on one side when people picked up the car he parked them so close to the wall so could not walk round to check the car before bought it , master sales man :lol:


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## GT666 (Feb 1, 2012)

We use Tollcross Garage (they don't hold a lot of stock but buy in the spec you want). A lot of our clients now buy and sell through them and we get a lot of very good feedback (from buying Fiat 500 to Aston DBS carbon) 

AC is a bit like Primark. It looks like what you want. It's cheap, but the reality is the quality just isn't there.


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## mr kuryakin (Nov 20, 2005)

john r weir knew last year they were going to loose the merc franchise.so they had to sell merc and it probably not worth keeping the rest.


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## VW Golf-Fan (Aug 3, 2010)

Oh dear more Arnold Clark garages thrown upon us. :doublesho

They are the most useless company I've ever dealt with for cars (particularly the Vauxhall brand), so useless that they called me earlier this evening asking if I still had my Corsa (clearly don't update their records.)

When I told him that I no longer had it & had bought a Golf he went all quiet and said he was going to invite me along to some 'VIP event' for the Astra GTC as a valued customer. :lol: :lol:


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## Grizzle (Jul 12, 2006)

To be fair Weir's are awful, local merc garage is Weirs and they are useless at customer service or sales.


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## Guest (Sep 2, 2012)

Tbh we bought our IQ, now 7 months ago, from AC. We bought it from them after utterly rude and shocking service from the main dealership. On top of that, AC selling an almost identical car with mileages/years on the same line for a whole £2000 cheaper..its a no brainer where I'd take my next business.

Every dealership and every AC is different of course and even though AC's 'wash techniques' are questionable, the dealerships aren't anything to get excited about. So all in all, I can see why AC is still growing to this day. 

AC salesmen usually are there to sell a good car for as good as a price as they can, whilst taking a ok profit. The dealerships are there for one thing, mass profit with no consideration to the customer what so ever. We had a great experience from AC, even though we thought they would be the same as the dealer... very wrong!


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## Derekh929 (Aug 28, 2011)

Grizzle said:


> To be fair Weir's are awful, local merc garage is Weirs and they are useless at customer service or sales.


Can back you up on that when changed last car arranged test drive on C Class went to garage for aranaged test drive booked , drove 45 miles and got told they had a problem they have been trying to contact the sales man that was on holiday as he had the car , 1 hour later car ready to go son with me and they bashed his head on the door LOL. then when i came back , the sles mine said to em on the way out , was you realy going to buy one? , then one of my clients walked in a and said to me had i got my new motro yet and siad are you going for the C class or the BM , well the salesman was all over me , you guessed it bought the BM


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## Dohnut (Feb 4, 2011)

Evans halshaw is even worse, which is something I didn't think was even possible. In the end I didn't buy from them. The price on the car is not what they want you to pay, adding on fees for petrol, £95 for an HPI check, admin fee (for paying cash). Why is that stuff not included in the original price?! Rip off. Also heard of friends going to pick up the car and being told there is only one key, or it had more owners than they were told it had. All sorts of underhand ********. They seem to think at that stage you won't cancel as the finance is arranged or whatever. 

I've never found arnold clark cheap at all, usually a good bit more expensive than local competition. I have a complete distrust for them, and have only bought 1 car from them. First and last. Didn't have any problems to speak of but it wasn't a pleasant experience, I hate the over-friendly routine and pally-ness of car salesmen so over the top and false, puts me right off. I always get a feeling that I'm about to be shafted I can't put my finger on it. Lastly, last year around November time they were doing a £300 extra off any car with this stupid voucher you had to print out. The idea was, you did the deal and then with an 'Aha!' you produced this voucher and got a better deal. Cynical-ometer going crazy. Sure enough, I went round about maybe 6-7 ACs in total, and had all sorts of experiences from saying we can't give anymore discount on that car, can offer you £300 off but will take £300 off your trade in, handing me the voucher as soon as I walked in, or just having print outs laying on the desk and them bringing it up during the routine. Basically all totally pointless.


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## Bill58 (Jul 5, 2010)

Seven of my last ten cars were bought from Arnold Clark and in general have been happy with the service.


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## Steve Burnett (Apr 21, 2009)

I'm selling my Mercedes just now and I now know I'll be all the happier knowing I won't have to deal with Arnold Clark. Never here good things about them and I've never wanted to deal with them!!


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## robtech (Jan 17, 2011)

lets face it arnold twats is what it is a business to make money not your best friend.he has been allegedly ripping folk off for 50 years and even the queen likes him. so its tuff titty if you dont like whats happnin,,as he pays way to much dish to the state for anyone to stop him


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## Bigstuff (Mar 2, 2012)

Been browsing BMs recently. If standards in Fairbairns (owned by AC) anything to go by i fear for merc buying scots:speechles.

Tatty ex lease cars going out as approved used. Sat in a 118d msport in kirkcaldy and seat bolster was worn through. Salesman assured me it had been prepped:doublesho


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

Bigstuff said:


> Been browsing BMs recently. If standards in Fairbairns (owned by AC) anything to go by i fear for merc buying scots:speechles.
> 
> Tatty ex lease cars going out as approved used. Sat in a 118d msport in kirkcaldy and seat bolster was worn through. Salesman assured me it had been prepped:doublesho


Forget all the hype about BMW AUC cars.

All the dealers source the cars from the same locations and lots fall well below what people assume you are buying.

People automatically assume a BMW AUC car will be top condition, full service history, no accidents and this is so far from the truth.

The mark up premium is just not worth it.


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

I have bought a couple of cars from Arnold Clark and can say first hand the company is completely and utterly useless from top to bottom.

I've still got a load of emails that would embarrass them badly.

In 2009 I bought a Citroen C5 2.0HDi that was 3 months old(2k on clock) and to say the problems were endless was an understatement.

Sadly near home and work there was only two Citroen dealerships and both were Arnold Clark.

In the 18 months I had the car it spend something like 16 weeks in the garage with recurring problems or worse still, damage caused by the monkeys at Arnold Clark.

It was utterly endless and speaking to anyone from any of the dealerships they were all as thick as mince and not a clue what they were on about.

Not a single skilled person between them all.

I ended up having to get trading standards involved who were helpful.

They also told me that Arnold Clark is the most complained about company they have to deal with. They have endless complaints about their conduct and lack of care.

Ended up that Arnold Clark offered me forecourt value back for the C5 as long as I picked a car from Arnold Clark stock.

This was really hard work as the vast majority of cars were rough. All the nearly new cars were all from the hire companies and were already looking worse for wear after a few months.

I had decided on a hot hatch and wanted a Mazda 3 MPS. Looking at cars that were only months old, after looking at 6-8 cars which all had issues I stumbled across my current BMW 335i coupe.

The car was a good one and the car was being sold through the dealership of behalf of an employee so I got to meet the current owner.

Only things that got to me was they replaced the front tyres with cheap Fullrun tyres, the rears were very low and the brake fluid service was due and I had stipulated all this must be done.

Three times they phoned to say the car was complete and ready to go and three times it wasn't. On the third occasion a went through each detail to clarify all work had been done and they confirmed it was.

I travelled 150 miles to collect the car and my insurance was due to switch over on collection.

Turns out the front tyres had been replaced only. I was furious and was stuck as my insurance already moved over and this was at 6pm at night with no way of contacting my insurance company.

I had to fight for weeks with the assistance of trading standards, who were still involved since the C5 episode, to get the service carried out as per agreement and had to drive at my expense down to Harry Fairbairn in Glasgow.

The rear tyres were finally ordered and sent to Aberdeen to be fitted. It was the Ford dealership on the Lang Stracht and I asked countless times if they were fine to fit 19" low profile runflat tyres which they seemed angry that I asked.

I waited and the car was brought around for me to go home. I gave the wheels a quick inspection only to see lever marks and gouges in the wheels.

I was utterly furious but the manager did accept liability there and they which was impossible not to since you could see the bright fresh damaged finish on the alloy.

Again I had to be forceful to get the repair done to my standards and given the wheels were in great condition before, I was right to expect a top job.

I demanded that they were powdercoated by a well known company and this was agreed.

I collected the car 2 days later only to see from 30 yards the colour of the wheels was what I'd manage to get out of a can on spray paint. Not only that they had painted all four for a "better colour match".

The manager realised it was best to get out my way. I was about to explode with not only the crap workmanship, it was the downright lies and deceit. 

Worse still the area Arnold Clark manager came out to the flat to pay me a visit, he was happy with the work and said I didn't have reason to complain.

Back to trading standards and the finance company.

The finance company sent out an engineer to examine the wheels and he agreed they were awful and completely unacceptable.

He also went on to tell me many horror stories about Arnold Clark and that the sheer volume of horror stories is scary. Way out of proportion to the cars they sell or any other dealer.

They keep him busy though!

Arnold Clark had to be forced into a corner yet again by the finance company and trading standard to do the right thing.

After 6 months of constant fighting I finally got the car to the condition it should have been before I picked the keys up.

I had been dealing with senior management and not just local branch managers.

They are all bloody useless and to get anything done I needed the finance company and trading standards to remind them on countless occasions what they were doing was in breach of consumer rights. They had to be forced into a corner to do anything.

Having dealt with 5 different garages and senior management there is a deep rooted lack of skill, understanding, arrogant, ignorant attitude that is beyond repair.

Never again in my life will I ever go near any company owned by Arnold Clark.

I strongly advise everyone else to do the same.


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## Guest (Sep 4, 2012)

This all comes down to the garage and personal experience tbh. Some think there idiots some think dealers are.


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## allan1888 (Aug 29, 2009)

To be honest any Arnold clark branch I have dealt with have been utterly hopeless. Especially the idiots at Harry fairbarin they couldn't even put a number plate on properly. the best one was when my GF's Volvo s60 was in for it's first service earlier this year at another of their dealerships she got a phone call telling her that her gearbox had failed due to a hole in the casing and would cost £1500 for the part then their labour cost on top. It was only when Volvo said they would send a technician in to see the part at fault the gearbox was suddenly fine and the hole in the casing repaired itself.


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

When I was waiting in the Lang Stracht Ford dealership I was within hearing distance of the service desk. 

In the short time I stood there I was alarmed. 

Some old man had his Fiesta serviced and they take the time to break down the service costs. 

He was charged for 7.5l of oil @xx per litre. 

We all know dealers have huge profit margins on oil, but to charge for 7.5l in a Fiesta was ripping it way too far. 

Or the old women who put her car in for a service and MOT. 

The guy explained the car was a heap of junk and was well beyond even thinking about repairing to MOT standard. 

They still carried out the service and charged her for it. 

Any place with any decency would have said that before charging £200 for a service when it was so blantantly obvious.


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## GT666 (Feb 1, 2012)

Having been 'behind the scenes' in several branches I have never seen one branch that is operated ethically or professionally. They focus on sales and have no structure for aftercare, so when things go wrong (and they often do) it becomes a long, stressful process for the customer...just like Kerr described. Only some people don't have the knowledge or tenacity to keep fighting them 


I actually reported to a manager that a seatbelt was not bolted into the chassis. He said "let the customer bring it back when they notice." If they are still alive!!! I said and he shrugged.

They would spray cars without any masking or preparation and it seemed like most of the staff would cut corners every way they could. Management didn't seem to notice or care...

I buy all my Apple products from Apple because if they go wrong I always get first class service sorting out the issue. I don't buy from Curry's because time after time they fail on aftercare. No retailer is perfect but an ability to promptly resolve issues is worth paying the extra £ or travelling a bit further I think.

With something as expensive as a car there is nothing that could persuade me to ever by a car from AC...it just wouldn't be worth it. Yet despite this reputation they are cornering the market....it's the Primark approach...sell it in bulk, sell it quick, sell it cheap and if it falls apart after 5 mins just fob them off til they give up complaining.

In Hamilton there is CCS (I think it's called), a small independent who is actually trading standards approved because of the quality of the cars and service. I know a few people who never look anywhere else now & go back there. Also there's Tollcross Garage that we use and many of our customers now. You have to look a bit harder but there are alternatives to AC out there. The downside of course is they don't hold a big stock and might have to buy in what you want, so it can take a little bit longer than walking into a car superstore place.


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## Guest (Sep 7, 2012)

GT666 said:


> I buy all my Apple products from Apple because if they go wrong I always get first class service sorting out the issue. I don't buy from Curry's because time after time they fail on aftercare. No retailer is perfect but an ability to promptly resolve issues is worth paying the extra £ or travelling a bit further I think.


I agree that AC are there to get a sale, even though I bought our car from there but I disagree on the above.

So you are saying you would rather buy a tv (for example) direct from Samsung, rather than just buy one in Tescos or Asda, even though its hundreds cheaper? Buying direct isn't always the good and safest way to go.

Our experience with Western Toyota was shocking to say the least. Rude and arrogant salemen and service staff that lacked knowledge and any customer service skills. After we sat down with the salesman, he offered 4.5k for our old car, when AC offered 5.3k. After I said theres no way we'd accept that, the saleman go up from his seat and walked off. This left us sitting in the chairs, confused and very hurt at his rude way of dealing with the situation.

Arnold Clark aren't great, I'd admit that easy. But it comes down to the sales peoples experience and knowledge on the appointed subject.Our chap from AC was awesome, young lively guy that knew not to rip us off and not pushy, unlike Western Toyota.

It works both ways I believe, every dealership is different. All dealerships can't wash cars for example, but we all know that and just accept we'll correct the car afterwards. It shouldn't be the case but sadly, it is.


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## Bill58 (Jul 5, 2010)

You could start a thread like this on just about every dealership out there and get a similar response. They sold over 200,000 cars last year so they must be doing something right.


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## kev999 (Feb 16, 2007)

Its simple,STOP BUYING CARS FROM ARNOLD,then they might notice somethings wrong with their dealerships when nobody is entering their showrooms,as previously said theres plenty of other dealers out there.Its not even worth going to the papers with your horror stories as their right up arnolds rusty sheriffs badge with the amount he spends on advertising with them.


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## Nanoman (Jan 17, 2009)

AC makes bugger all selling cars... they make a fortune charging you £60+VAT per hour for an apprentice that get's paid NMW to service it... not to mention they charge more than Halfords prices for oil that costs them peanuts because they buy in bulk. I couldn't believe the mark-up from 'cost to group' to 'retail' for oil when I was behind the scenes.


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

Bill58 said:


> You could start a thread like this on just about every dealership out there and get a similar response. They sold over 200,000 cars last year so they must be doing something right.


Yes they are.

They buy all the competition so you have little choice.


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## R0B (Aug 27, 2010)

Utterly clueless monkeys,swore i wouldnt use em again after a couple of crap times with bran new cars and havent for my last 2 cars and wont again.

More than happy to pay more(not stupidly more) to go elsewhere and never use these clowns again.


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## 47p2 (Jun 17, 2007)

Bought a car from AC in 1980, told it would go through the workshop and be ready on Thursday afternoon. Called them Thursday and was told it was still in the workshop and would be ready Friday. Collected it late Friday afternoon as it was getting some 'small jobs' done whilst in the workshop. Took it straight from AC to a mated pit and checked it over, 23 different faults were found on a car that had been in the workshop for almost a week. I went straight back next day and told them to give me my old car back and the deal was off...That certainly made them sit up and listen, courtesy car and every single fault repaired in 3 days...


JRW are no better, it took their Inverness branch 4 days to diagnose a faulty Maf on my W140 and they gave me a nice invoice for £650. When I spoke to a mate who worked for MB Glasgow he said the Maf would be the first thing to be checked and the bill would have been around £200...

Sounds like AC's acquisition of JRW should work well for him then, I certainly won't be going anywhere near.


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## GT666 (Feb 1, 2012)

aaronfife said:


> I agree that AC are there to get a sale, even though I bought our car from there but I disagree on the above.
> 
> So you are saying you would rather buy a tv (for example) direct from Samsung, rather than just buy one in Tescos or Asda, even though its hundreds cheaper? Buying direct isn't always the good and safest way to go.
> 
> .


If I found another retailer that offered as good aftercare as Apple then I would buy there. It's not that it's direct from the manufacturer, it's simply that the after-sales service is worth paying the extra £20 rather than go to Currys etc.

I've never had a problem with Tesco after-care so I wouldn't be put off buying something there, but BT, Curry's, PC World & Vodafone are all on my list of places with awful customer service. No matter how cheap they are I simply will not use them. I have a busy life and I hate the stress of letter-writing and phoning trying to get companies to just do their job. When I buy something I want it to do what I paid for. If it doesn't work I want it fixed or replaced quickly. In my mind there are some places it just isn't worth buying from because any saving you make up from is cancelled out by the hassle you get afterwards.

Unless people adopt the same attitude about car buying AC will keep growing....


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## Guest (Sep 13, 2012)

GT666 said:


> If I found another retailer that offered as good aftercare as Apple then I would buy there. It's not that it's direct from the manufacturer, it's simply that the after-sales service is worth paying the extra £20 rather than go to Currys etc.
> 
> I've never had a problem with Tesco after-care so I wouldn't be put off buying something there, but BT, Curry's, PC World & Vodafone are all on my list of places with awful customer service. No matter how cheap they are I simply will not use them. I have a busy life and I hate the stress of letter-writing and phoning trying to get companies to just do their job. When I buy something I want it to do what I paid for. If it doesn't work I want it fixed or replaced quickly. In my mind there are some places it just isn't worth buying from because any saving you make up from is cancelled out by the hassle you get afterwards.
> 
> Unless people adopt the same attitude about car buying AC will keep growing....


Understandable but in this climate people want the cheapest deal they can get. End of.

I wouldn't go to THE cheapest to buy a car but wouldn't go to main dealer again. Everybodys different though and its good to share different opinions


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

Do you think one of the dealers has upset someone?

http://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/Article.aspx/2937037


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## johanr77 (Aug 4, 2011)

It's likely just neds they did the same thing in Altens a couple of years ago. Mindless numpties with little else to do in their lives but mess other folks stuff up.


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

johanr77 said:


> It's likely just neds they did the same thing in Altens a couple of years ago. Mindless numpties with little else to do in their lives but mess other folks stuff up.


There has been quite a few instances of mass car damage since I've been in Aberdeen.

A few months ago someone keyed all the nice cars down the street my ex stays at in Rosemount.

We were going to stay there but luckily there was no spaces left and we came back to mine.


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## johanr77 (Aug 4, 2011)

Whenever cars get vandalised where I stay it's just drunks on their way home, the usual stuff lifting up all the wipers and occasionally breaking a couple off, kicking off wing mirrors (usually mine).

In saying that there has been a rise in the number of cars getting vandalised in Aberdeen the last couple of years or maybe more folk are reporting it.


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## init6 (Mar 28, 2012)

Kerr said:


> There has been quite a few instances of mass car damage since I've been in Aberdeen.


Is that a confession?


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## Glaschu (Sep 16, 2012)

Two 10 year olds and a 14 year old responsible.....

http://m.stv.tv/news/north/191054-t...boys-charged-with-vandalising-nearly-30-cars/


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/...ealership-goes-into-administration.1385758466

More competition removed from the market.

I never bought anything from Verve, but I did look on a few occasions.

The prices of their cars at the VW dealers was far too expensive. They were seriously overpriced even compared to other dealers.


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## rf860 (Jul 24, 2011)

Kerr said:


> http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/...ealership-goes-into-administration.1385758466
> 
> More competition removed from the market.
> 
> ...


Not the slightest bit surprised about that. Verve have been going downhill for years, the last few years being dire.

Customer service and quality of workmanship was a disgrace when I used them.

Spoke to a salesmen who previously worked for them at another local dealership and he said all the 'good' staff were now gone completely hence the terrible service.

It's a shame though in some respects as they employed a lot of workers from the surrounding areas to their dealerships. Plus it means we've got no choice in a lot of cases to use Arnold Clark who are typically horrendous no matter what dealership you visit.

I've noticed in Aberdeen, there's not much competition between the manufactures (dealerships) - only one vw, BMW, jaguar etc etc


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

rf860 said:


> I've noticed in Aberdeen, there's not much competition between the manufactures (dealerships) - only one vw, BMW, jaguar etc etc


The other problem is that even the different brand dealers also have the same owners.

John Clark owns the BMW and all the VAG dealerships in Aberdeen. Buy an Audi or BMW and you're always filling his pockets.

Aberdeen is a very closed market for cars.


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## Scotty Pro (Nov 12, 2008)

Just seen this thread and I know its oldish but I bought my car from Uncle Arnie and I have to say it was a very good experience. OK, I drove down to Stoke to pick it up and drop mine off but I saved over 2 grand compared to what the dealers wanted round here.

I'm actually looking for a new car and I have a short list of which 2 are on AC's website, much cheaper than some of the other "dealers".


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## rf860 (Jul 24, 2011)

Kerr said:


> The other problem is that even the different brand dealers also have the same owners.
> 
> John Clark owns the BMW and all the VAG dealerships in Aberdeen. Buy an Audi or BMW and you're always filling his pockets.
> 
> Aberdeen is a very closed market for cars.


Yeah I knew that, means I've got to use specialist cars for any warranty or servicing work. I wasn't very impressed with them when I got my old car fixed there.



Scotty Pro said:


> Just seen this thread and I know its oldish but I bought my car from Uncle Arnie and I have to say it was a very good experience. OK, I drove down to Stoke to pick it up and drop mine off but I saved over 2 grand compared to what the dealers wanted round here.
> 
> I'm actually looking for a new car and I have a short list of which 2 are on AC's website, much cheaper than some of the other "dealers".


You're in the minority then! To be fair, I used seat Linwood AC a few times and they were decent right up until the scratched my car....

You'd have thought in the recession their would be a greater emphasis on customer service, but it's done the opposite. Probably because resources are being cut back and staff are under valued.


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## steve1975 (Oct 14, 2012)

Nanoman said:


> AC makes bugger all selling cars... they make a fortune charging you £60+VAT per hour for an apprentice that get's paid NMW to service it... not to mention they charge more than Halfords prices for oil that costs them peanuts because they buy in bulk. I couldn't believe the mark-up from 'cost to group' to 'retail' for oil when I was behind the scenes.


trust me they do make HUGE profits on used cars,i work at an AC dealership as a valeter,for instance taking a car in px for say £2000 and selling it for £5488.
ok theres VAT to come off that but there still doubleing up on most used car deals after vat,i admit they are expensive but popular at the same time so make your own mind up guys.
Also some of the 'prepped' used cars going out are 'sheds' as we just don't get enough time to clean them properly (2hrs tops) to fully valet a car from top to bottom just simply is not long enough.....


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## Nanoman (Jan 17, 2009)

steve1975 said:


> trust me they do make HUGE profits on used cars,i work at an AC dealership as a valeter,for instance taking a car in px for say £2000 and selling it for £5488.
> ok theres VAT to come off that but there still doubleing up on most used car deals after vat,i admit they are expensive but popular at the same time so make your own mind up guys.
> Also some of the 'prepped' used cars going out are 'sheds' as we just don't get enough time to clean them properly (2hrs tops) to fully valet a car from top to bottom just simply is not long enough.....


Not sure I'm going to get into a debate if you think they've got VAT to consider on trade-ins from general public...


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## khurum6392 (Oct 11, 2012)

Kerr said:


> Forget all the hype about BMW AUC cars.
> 
> All the dealers source the cars from the same locations and lots fall well below what people assume you are buying.
> 
> ...


that is so true ive bought and sold their cars and a lot of them in auctions have been in so many crashes the auctioneers always lie to you and the cars end up selling at retail value with 101 electrical and mechanical problems for independent traders its a nightmare they cant make money on them


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## cfherd (Jan 14, 2010)

mr kuryakin said:


> john r weir knew last year they were going to loose the merc franchise.so they had to sell merc and it probably not worth keeping the rest.


I'd be interested to know where you obtained such propaganda as I know for a fact that this is not true.


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## mkv (Jun 12, 2008)

The liquidators for Verve are in talks with an English based dealer to buys the business. This company are slowly making inroads into Scotland. They have bought 3 quite major and well established motor groups in the past 18 months, Taggarts, Shields and the Lomond group.


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## mirdif64 (Aug 23, 2007)

He's just bought Calterdon BMW in Inverness.
Rumoured to be moving to a new location, round the corner, next to Merc dealer (which he also owns)


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