Select Prestige Motor Company, Ipswich www.selectprestigemotorcompany.co.uk

Buyer Beware when dealing with this company. I have never ever in my life came across a man that can roll so many stories of the tip of his tongue!

Having previously owned a vehicle like this many years back, i decided i would like another as a modern classic car to own for years to come.

Having sourced one in the models, spec and colour etc of what i wanted i decided to contact this company to ask some questions relating to history and condition.

The company website gave me some reassurance into making my purchase as it looked ever so professional and made the company out to be something it certainly wasn't.

Having spoke to the owner directly i traveled from Newcastle to Ipswitch to collect what was described as a concourse car in pristine condition and without fault.

on arrival things were different and looking pretty ugly if i must say but the stories continued and the rubbish rolled out fluently from the mans mouth!

to highlight a few issues read the following.

1. Paint and Panel

I asked "has the car had any form of body repair work in terms of panel damage, paintwork, dents or rust etc"?

I was told the car had original paintwork and was blemish free with the odd very light scratch that would polish out. I had never been painted and was completely free from defects.

upon inspection the car had scratches everywhere and when pointed out his reply was, its an old car.

It was covered in dents, they were not there when you called he said.

there was issues with rust throughout the vehicle and i was told that's just happened since it has been stood and will polish off lol

front lights were damaged, fog lights faulty and rear lights leaking water.

scratches in the glass etc etc all of witch must have happened on the forecourt.

2. Interior

This then led me too the interior that had some issues.

prior to my travel i asked if the interior had any signs of significant wear or damage.

upon initial inspection i soon noticed wear to both front seats and splitting to the drivers side.

Marks on the dashboard, major wear to steering wheel and damage to the headlining from water ingress.

I did ask if the car suffered from water leaks as they are prone to leaking from the roof. I was informed that both sunroofs, rails and glass did not leak water but the sunroofs did not work as they required a new motor. I was informed the motor would be replaced prior to collection and it wasn't.

so despite an absolute pig of a car we negotiated a deal with a minimal reduction as i had traveled a long way and was prepared to rectify the minor cosmetic details.

so i agreed to take the car and started to drive home limping to the nearest garage as they had not even put £1 worth of fuel in to set me on my way.

Traveling home was an absolute nightmare as i struggled with automatic gearbox issues and a burst turbo hose resulting in recovery.

At this point i decided to take advantage of my 3 month full parts and labour warrant as advertised on the website for all vehicles over £3000.

Guess what, that was a waste of time and energy as there was no such thing as a warranty. Following a massive argument on the phone the person I dealt with agreed to offer me £500 to offset the issues and pay this into my bank account and that didn't happen either. I chased this payment up only to be told the girl who does the payments had forgot and he would inform her to action it immediately. Months later and i still haven't got it!!

i was informed the car had one previous owner and when the V5 came through it had two!

Since my return home the car has suffered with the following issues

1, The full service history book doesn't belong to my 2004 car as it started in 2002 and has another vehicles details so no service history.

2, failed faulty egr valve

3, car listed with cruise control and it doesn't have cruise control

4, car sold with 12 month MOT that was debatable so following a vosa complaint and re inspection it failed on numerous things.

5, Faulty automatic xyz switch

6, Failed sunroofs front and rear.

7, water leaking through windscreen and heated screen element not working

8, water leaking through roof resulting in significant damage to roof lining and interior

9, water leaking through rear quater light glass

10, failed battery

11, failed ecu wiring harness

12, brake issues with discs and pads,

13, 2 tyres below limit and spare slashed

14, water ingress in front fog lights, rear upper body lights and rear bumper lights

15, split drivers seat and failed electrics i .e heating element

16, No air conditioning / climate control

17, smashed mirror glass and intermittent power fold closure on door mirrors

18, vibration through steering and body from roll bar issues

19, failed rear airbag and compressor

20, active cornering enhancement bypassed and gaffered up

21, seat belts don't retract

22, rotten chassis to body outriggers

i could continue with issues but i guess you get the picture and if you read other reviews you will see a pattern of company traits emerging here.

I would think long and hard before you chose these people as they will fill you with so many stories its unreal.

I am currently in the process of making an application to court to recover the cost of this car!!

Purchased a Range Rover sport from here on the 5th of February 2019.. £19,500

Upon originally inspecting the vehicle there were a couple of items pointed out that I was told would be sorted before collection.

1) front fog light bezel missing, was told it had been stolen from the forecourt. And a new one was already on order.?

2) Rear window rubber had got trapped and had become distorted, again was told this would be sorted.

Obviously only very minor items. Which did not concern me at all.

I insisted on a full service being carried out. Which was agreed to. And a new m.o.t

Also I really wanted piece of mind in having the timing belts replaced. It had not done the mileage to warrent this but it was over the recommended years, so obviously with a vehicle like this I really wanted it doing.

I even agreed to pay £500 towards the cost of having the timing belts done.

Anyway we agreed a deal.

About one week later I was told that the car was all done except for the fog light bezel, apparently it turned up wrong,

I said I was happy to collect the car as it was and as soon as the bezel come in I would call in and get it fitted.

I pass the garage everyday on the way to and from work so it was not a problem in the slightest to me, and it did not affect the running of the vehicle at all, just a minor cosmetic issue.

I collected the car on a Tuesday evening after work.

It was just getting dark. But I did notice straight away that the window rubber had not been sorted, I was told they will do it for me when I come back for the bezel, I accepted that

The following morning when I got to work and the sun finally come out I went to have a good inspection of my new car.

Upon starting the vehicle up it was showing service required.????

Apparently this had just been done.?

So I grab the service book.

It was filled in saying service, oil filters etc and timing belts replaced.. and stamped by select prestige motors.???

Strange because they do not have there own garage and I was told it was done at a garage in Ipswich.

Obviously this got alarm bells ringing,

So I decided to take the car to my local garage who I have used for years and asked them to check the car over and see if it had been serviced and if the timing belts had been replaced.???

Left the car with them for a few hours, because it’s not a 2 minute job to get access to the belts etc.

Upon returing to the garage I was met with very very unwelcome news.

Literally nothing at all had been done to the car, I was given photos of the filters etc which literally had half a tree in them, the oil filter was clearly years old and was actually leaking quite bad.

The belts were certainly not new, very difficult to say how old but they were not done around 100 miles ago.

So I got straight in the car and drove straight to select prestige..

Not best pleased at all.

Eventually I calmed down a bit and I was told that there had clearly been a mistake at the garage.???

I was then told I could take the car to any garage of my choice to get the work required carried out.

I was asked to get 2 quotes and then we will pick from there.

After a bit of recearch and speaking to a few people I know I was told about a Land Rover specialist garage in halstead.

I got a quote from them and one other garage.

The quotes were very similar.

But I wanted the Land Rover garage to do the work.

I called select prestige and told him the 2 quotes,

He agreed to the quote given and I got this in writing from him.

The car went in to the garage this Monday just gone .

I got a call Monday afternoon saying one of the rear tyres was in terrible condition and really needed replacing. And would have 100 percent been a m.o.t failure.

Also both rear brake pads were virtually worn down to the metal, because the rear callipers were stuck.

And 2 of the rear suspension bushes really needed replacing because they had excessive movement.

Obviously I wanted the car to all be totally correct and road worthy so I asked them to carry out the extra work.

Obviously if the car was serviced in the 1st place these other items would have been picked up on and hopefully rectified then. But obviously it was not serviced like I was promised.

I got a call today from the garage to say the car was all done and ready for collection.

So off I went to collect. I had a very good chat with the garage about the car and was told in no uncertain terms that a few of the items found would have been mot failures, and a few were advisories on a mot.

Yes the mot that was done for select prestige had nothing.??

Awfully strange.

So I paid the £2096 bill and drove straight to select prestige,

Provided him with all the information from the Land Rover garage and I showed him all the extra defective parts that were replaced on the service, tyre, brake pads, bushes etc.

Obviously I made it very very clear that I really was not impressed with the service I have got from him and all of these items should have been done before I collected the car.

Also amazingly still no sign of the fog light bezels or the rear mats that I was promised 3 weeks ago.

Anyway after quite a long conversation I was told that he will only pay the original quote of £1350, and he will not pay for the other items fixed. Even though a number of them were mot failures .

As you can imagine I was not impressed in the slightest and I refused to just accept his offer.

Why should I have a car for 2 weeks and have to pay over £700 on parts and labour to get it to a road worthy condition when it should have been done in the 1st place.

But he was simply unwilling to move on his offer.

I will just add that the sales man was fully aware that I have 2 very young children and he still decided to supply me with a vehicle in a un-road worthy condition.

3.5 tonne vehicle with literally no rear brakes and a terrible rear tyre etc.

Obviously this situation was a far from over and I will take it all the way to bring this back street garage to the cleaners.

If he just simply refunded the money I have had to pay it would have been the end of it and a strong lesson learned from me .

Watch this space select prestige motors..

Please please please do not get caught out bye this company like I was.

I bought an Audi A6 allroad from this company in August. The car has been superb and I would highly recommend these guys. After sales service has been A1 with a couple of minor faults dealt with under warranty very quickly and efficiently. Would buy from them again.

I brought my husband a 2013 plate Bmw from this garage,the service was excellent,i could not believe it when i went to collect the car it was shineing like the stars,not only that there was a lovely bouguet of flowers,the gentleman rang twice to see if eveything was ok,i would recommend this garage to anyone.

thankyou

I bought a car from here in April 2015, i pointed out the faults with it, and the guy told me he would sort them all. I called and said is the car ready, have all the faults been fixed? He told me yes. Upon collection the electric mirrors wernt fixed and he said he would had to have the car back to do that. Then we talked about the keys, and having told me there were 2 keys, he could only find one. When i said ok, well we agreed a price with 2 keys, i would expect you to fund the cost of the spare key, he was very unprofessional, accusing me of taking the shirt off his back ! He also told me the car would have a full valet, which it clearly didnt have.

Weeks later after 2 times having the car, the electric mirrors were fixed, but still no key - he couldnt find it. I complained about the way the car was valeted, and we agreed he would make up for this by paying for the key himself. This is now mid July..... still no key. From July till September i had the run around from this guy, telling me oh, ive ordered it - it takes 7 - 10 days, oh the dealer didnt get back to me. So i called all the local dealers, and found out there was not even a key on order.....he seemed most shocked when i called him (from a witheld number) to ask which dealer they were ordered with, and when he replied telling me the one, i replied, thats funny because i called them, and they have no record of you, or an order for a key. So he lied, and then tried to cover it up. He then offered to pay me the money and leave me to sort the key out (why would you do that if you have already ordered a key !), especially as the dealer told me he would need payment up front"" Clearly this guy was hoping i would just 'go away' and get fed up of asking for a spare key.

Such a shame because the car is actually a lovely car, and he could have been very honest and up front, and i would probably go back for more business in the future. However after all this i would tell anyone....DO NOT BUY FROM SELECT PRESTIGE.....the guy is a liar, and dishonest. I note now that there are many other negative reviews about this place

I have now ordered myself a new key at 1pm in the afternoon, which will be ready....wait for it.............by 9am tomorrow morning. Fancy that.

I bought a used Volvo from this company a couple of months ago. I was informed it had a full service and MOT, that the car was in perfect condition with no advisories and tyres were in good condition.

A week after purchasing the brakes were grinding. Took it to my local garage who I have used for years, only to be told it needs brake discs and pads all round. The pads were completely worn and the discs were corroding. They would not accept that all brakes needed doing and paid for the front brakes to be done. I was disgusted as it had had a supposed MOT and Service the day before I bought it. e.g. a week previous.

Brakes were done, a week later same problem on the back. Other issues were the tyres being warped and having to replace two, and a crack in the windscreen.

It took over a week to get the first set of pads and discs reimbursed to me. I also had a service carried out as I had completely lost all trust with them. Car was serviced and it was in a terrible state. All filters were blocked and had to be done. The car never had any service of any kind!! In fact the company had defaced the service book by stamping it and filling it in. I even had the mechanic take pictures and I have the old parts in my garage! I have got 25% better fuel economy since the service.

I tried to contact the MOT garage many times and kept getting fobbed off and being told 'my dad meant to put the brakes as an advisory'.

The owner never responds to emails, texts or phone calls. Has now said its my fault I should have checked the car!! How professional!!!

The latest is being told they will email me (a week ago and still has not happened) an offer for the brakes and tyres.

The three month parts and labour warranty is not worth the paper it is written on and they expected me to drive to Ipswich with dodgy brakes and tyres so that they could do the work. This was after being told that if the car required work I could go to a reputable local garage as I lived 2 hours drive away..

They now state that they will calculate an offer based on the parts only and not the labour, then said will pay some labour. Last I heard they were getting tyre prices. Ridiculous, I have provided an invoice with the prices on, they want to find the cheapest possible seller maybe via the internet to get out of the cost.

I have threatened with trading standards and reporting the MOT centre to the ministry. The reply is they have found trading standards to be fair in the past. So they must be taken to court fairly often then!!!

BEWARE

I put a deposit on a car from this company with the understanding that if the car was not to my satisfaction the deposit would be returned. I asked specific questions regarding the car and if the bodywork had been repaired etc. When we viewed the car it was a total dog with a badly repaired, door 4 odd tyres, computer faults to name a few. After repeatedly asking for the deposit back and registered letters I took him to Small Claims Court where there is now a CC Judgement against them. Next step is the Bailiffs. My recommendation is to leave totally alone.

We purchased a used car, there were faults when we purchased it which became apparent whilst driving back from the dealers, whilst these were being fixed the bodywork was damaged.

We were also promised that the cam belt had been changed, which when we checked hadn't been done, we were only able to do this once we eventually were given the service book - 3 months after the car purchase, the dealer claimed he'd lost it, but did definitely have it - I suspect this was because it clearly showed in the handbook that the cam belt had not been changed.

To top it off,one of the rear doors stopped opening, when approached we were advised that this wasn't covered, under the 'Comprehensive Warranty' we were given with the car, which doesn't appear to be worth the paper its written on...

The dealer seemed friendly initially, but as soon as there were issues he showed his true colours.

I bought my 911 from these guys 9 months ago. It's an older car (2000) but it's been great. Select prestige have looked after it since I bought it including a service. I'm pleased with the work and the service I've been given.

Make sure he does not dupe you out of your hard earned cash.

This dealer should not be allowed to operate in this market. They took thousands of my hard earned pounds in exchange for what turned out to be someone else's cast-off that he was too stupid to spot when he took it in! I got all the fluff about it just needing a check over (by his 'engineer') and it comes with 3 months' warranty; so no need to worry.

Anyhow, several problems later and the weeks go by and he's still clueless about the issues. Car still not working and he wants nothing to do with it.

If you can't afford to go without a working car or pay for court fees, avoid this place. If you have money to burn, put it into some worthy causes but not this fellow's trouser pockets.

Word is spreading about his antics, so I doubt he'll be around for long anyway.