Phantom Motor Company - www.phantommotorcompany.co.uk

A humble Peugeot vehicle was bought by my wife and I in August 2022. The car had an MOT advisory that the brake pads should be changed, and the current MOT expired in October 2022. The purchase price of the vehicle was paid on the day it was test drove. We were promised that the car would have a fresh MOT when collected, that the alloy wheels would be refurbished, and that the brake pads on the advisory of the current MOT would be changed. The car was collected 10 days later (in early September 2022) the car was collected by my wife and I. The brake pads had been changed but that is all. The alloys wheels had not been refurbished not had the car been MOT'd. The salesman we spoke to was a different one that served us when we test drove the car. He wasn't really helpful and recommended a nearby testing station where the car would be MOT'd at their cost. A few days later, and 3 hours taken off work and the car had been tested - no advisories.

Fast forward to October 2022 and the water pump failed. Not their fault, and as we had taken the additional warranty the water pump and timing belt was changed. Very few independent garages will deal with their warranty company, which I found as I was trying to get the car repaired. Finally, Halfords took on and completed the repair. Fast forward again to January 2023 when the car overheated again when returning from visiting family. Another visit to Halfords followed and we were told that the water pump was intact, and that the leak to the coolant system was from a pipe that had been previously repaired, and the repair had failed. This part was only available, and fitted by Peugeot, The car was booked into Peugeot who did a full diagnostic. Not only was the coolant pipe leaking, but there was also an oil leak from the sump gasket, due to a damaged sump. The warranty company had been contacted prior to the visit to Peugeot so they were aware of the issue.

Peugeot could not get authorisation from Phantom to complete the repair. When this was questioned with Phantom's after sales service their response was "we would never agree to a main dealer repair". At their request the car was collected from Peugeot and taken to their showroom, at which point a salesman told us "I'm not having anything to do with it, you need to take it across the road to our garage". The car was taken across the road, and the keys were given to the person in charge. When the issues were explained to him, he couldn't understand why the repair hadn't been authorised. The car was put on to a ramp there and then. Numerous follow-up calls were made to the after sales department, we were fobbed off every time. So much so that after Phantom had had the car for 6 days and not even looked at it we informed the garage we were rejecting the sale. See the Consumer Rights Act 2015 - "A fault develops before the expiry of the first six months from purchase; and the fault has developed after the first 30 days from a purchase have passed. Then a consumer may elect to reject the car. However, the dealership of sale may be able to apply a reasonable deduction for use and this may reduce the total refund. Also, prior to exercising their right to reject, a consumer must give the dealership of sale a one-time opportunity to repair the car. If this one-time attempt to repair the car fails then a consumer may consider the final right to reject it."

Phantom have had the car 5 weeks now and save for a letter from the managing director, denying our rejection of the sale, there has been no communication. A claim for the full purchase price, and court fees, has been lodged with HM Courts Service - Money Claim Online. Phantom have rejected the claim stating that the car was as described when sold.

I wish I had read the other reviews of Phantom Motor Company before parting with our hard earned money. Be wary, be very wary of this company. The majority of cars the advertise for sale are high-end and in some cases, luxury motors. Our car was not but if your receive the same service after parting with a large amount of money then your woes will be compounded.

THE WORST company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with!

Beware if you are considering having dealings with this company! Not only is their customer service an absolute disgrace, but quite a few of the practices I witnessed are in fact illegal!

I shall keep my story short and to the point as I could go on forever.

I bought a Porsche Boxter form them in January. A day or two after getting the car home I noticed a puddle under the car. This turned out to be a washer fluid leak. Whilst I was having a look around the car, I noticed a few things that caused concern. Dirty air and pollen filters, wet at the bottom of the doors and soaking wet under the carpets. I had been assured by the agent that the car would undergo a specialist service and MOT before picked the car up. I took the car to a local specialist for a quick once over. Within 5 minutes the specialist pointed out several things which I wasn't happy with. A split CV boot, under trays missing, roof not closing as it should ( I had saked him about this when viewing, but he assured me it was normal). Most disturbingly though he pointed out that the car had been lowered significantly and had a non standard exhaust, neither of these had been pointed out and I certainly wouldn't have bought the car had I knew! This also wasn't declared on my insurance, meaning it was now void!

I decided to take the car back, I was after all well within the 7 days money back guarantee! When I got there I was past from pillar to post before finally ending up with a staff member who told me I couldn't have a refund. He told me it was my fault for not noticing and that the faults were normal for the age of the car. I manage to convince them fix the faults. It seemed that was the best I was going to get. They handed me the keys to a courtesy and off I went.

After talking to citizens advice, they advised that the car was not as advertised due to the modifications and the last service not being carried out by a specialist. And I was entitled to ask for a refund within 30 days which I did by email, a week went by with no response. I emailed again with a read receipt, again no response.. even after being read! I called their aftersales several times, no answer. In the end I had to send a letter recorded delivery to get a phone call from an agent. He again argued that I should expect a car that age to be modified! I protested and he said he would call the following day, he did not! I eventually go a call back 5 days later.

By this time I had made an even more disturbing discovery. The courtesy car I had been given, not only had No tax, it had No MOT and was even on the wrong number plates at the registration had been changed on the day I received it. The car was completely illegal ! They now decided I was entitled to a refund!

Three days later they sent someone with the car I had traded in to pick up the courtesy car and issued the refund. Only they returned my old car with no logbook or folder of paperwork and receipts to I had supplied with it. The young lad was also expected to drive the courtesy car back illegally!

Not only was this awful service where I was told untruth to from the start, gaslighted and ignored. The company put my life and the life of other road users in danger in an unroadworthy vehicle!

STAY AWAY!!!

I always think twice before leaving a negative review, but in this case I do feel it is warranted. If you do buy from this company get the additional warranty they try to sell you, its worth its weight in gold.

I bought a Mercedes Coupe from The Phantom Motor Company on 24.11.2021. Issues straight away which were reported. Then more issues which were reported on 24.12.2021 via email.

I received a reply from them on 05.01.2022:

“You are covered with a 12 month warranty, so if you ring law data, and give them your registration number, they will direct you to the nearest garage to where you live to get a quote for any work. Once you have a quote, email us, and id the quote sounds reasonable, will will tell them to Carr on with the work, and we will pay the invoice”

Reported 26.11.2021:

*Car would not lock (Now resolved, needed a new remote battery)

*Driver's side air bag warning light is on - now resolved

*Only 1 key fob was supplied - now resolved

*Front & rear parking sensors not working

Reported 22.12.2021:

*Drivers side front suspension has a loud squeak when driving and this is slowly getting louder.

*Stop/Start of the engine (so when stationary) does not work

*Only 3-wheel nuts on the rear passenger side wheel (one is missing)

*Brakes judder slightly when braking.  I was informed that the brake pads had been replaced on the MOT

Additional issues:

*Passenger side electric seat stopped working along with the heater

*Reversing camera stopped working

I run a few companies and spend a lot of time on the road, so I have found it hard to be able to schedule in for the car to be inspected and be off the road for the day so in my own error I held off getting the car checked out. The vehicle got to the point where I knew I had to get it sorted so I finally booked it into a Mercedes specialist who spent a full day going through the various issues (and I was charged £150 for the privilege by the garage). There were 9 pages of fault codes, they informed me the car had been accident damaged and that the suspension "squeak" was actually a damaged wishbone and the brake pad issue was actually warped discs.

Once I had the report back I contacted Phantom to get the car repaired. I emailed them and was told to bring it in and they would make all of the repairs that I had emailed them (I had sent the PDF's of the issues and fault codes the garage had given me).

I have just collected my car today (15.07.2022) and Phantom refused to repair the wishbone or the warped disks because I have been using the car for the last 6 months. This was refused by a company director. It does not matter that I reported it within a month of the purchase – they are saying this is fair use. I raised the issue with the chap giving me the keys back and showed the emails etc but was told it had been refused by the director. I told him I appreciated it wasn't his fault and I wasn't going to waste either of our time arguing about it. They did repair everything via a 3rd party warranty that I PAID FOR, no doubt making some money out of the repairs.

I am not expecting a single thing from Phantom, just giving a truthful review of my situation. In addition to the long list of vehicle issues, the actual customer service has also been very poor, with zero communication throughout the time the car was being repaired. Even reporting the issues I had to get my assistant to ring over and over as no-one responds to emails or answer machine messages. Even when I first bought the car, they told me to come in on a Wednesday and it wasn't ready for me and still needed to be MOT'd, so just an hour and half drive wasted in rush hour traffic.

Whilst they were repairing my Merc I was given a courtesy car (for the 2 weeks and 2 days they had my vehicle), a Passatt, which had wheel/steering wobble on the motorway, poor brakes, heaviest steering imaginable, no working air conditioning, no working reversing sensors, stank of cannabis smoke and was generally an awful car to drive.

I did want to post the email that was sent to them but there is a restriction on characters which is a shame. I know this is a large company and errors do happen, but the fact that the director (who had reviewed my email) chose not to fix an issue that was clearly their fault when it had been sold to me speaks volumes about how their business must operate from top to bottom.

Do not buy from this garage!!!!!! Read other reviews as well, i wish i had. car had multiple faults after purchase. Been back to the garage 5 times and still issue with suspension and they lost my locking wheel nut. Now the director and service manager are ignoring my emails and messages. When i received the car the lettering was not level, oil level was low, wheels needed balancing, service book not filled in correctly, key thob did not work and they didnt tell me a problem with log book until i had paid. I had to re-order and claim the money back. There were lot more issues but not enough room to type on here. Now i am having to get repairs out of own pocket and chase though trading standards. Very poorly run company with incompetence at all levels. This has been going on since may. update 19/9/2018: finally got a reply from the director after i put this review up, asking to remove the reviews. He told me that he would try and repair my car but only if i take it to his garage, which is an hour drive, and would not give me a courtesy car or time frame for repair, leaving me no way to get home or return to collect unless i paid for a taxi. I stated that the car had been 5 times already and that it was obvious they could not fix. When i purchased the car i was told by the salesman that the warranty covered being able to take to local garage. This is not true. The director is now refusing to refund any repair out of his garage. In a email he even called me 'silly'. I now feel that my only option is to get the repair done and ask trading standards to investigate. this has turned buying my dream car into an absolute nightmare.

I bought a performance model Audi from this place in late April, the sales guy was pleasant/helpful and not pushy which is always a bonus.

The experiance from walking in the showroom to handing over the keys was pretty much faultless, can't knock the guys for that.

Days after taking the car home, and driving no less than 50 miles (bad weather and work commitments) i noticed a humming noise and a knocking noise. As i work across the road from an Audi dealer i got it booked in straight away, diagnosis was a shot wheel bearing at a replacement cost of £550. Rang Phantom and they did offer to fix the wheel bearing, but using non

approved parts which i declined. I'm not buying a performance Audi to

stick budget parts on it so i was out of pocket. 

The knocking noise still persisted after the wheel bearing was replaced, so it was rebooked in at Audi. Audi said a software update was applied for the fuel pressure and everything should be fine, as soon as i started the car after collecting the noise was still there.

Car rebooked in at Audi as the knocking noise really doesnt sound healthy.

The car has now been sat in an Audi dealers work shop for over a month, with the engine stripped down and finally i've been told that it requires a complete new engine at an eye watering cost.

Not to mention after getting the car home the 2 front tyres had slices in the side wall, and when i took it to get 2 replacements the day after purshase the rears were also down to the cords and illegal. Nearly £600 for tyres a day after purchase. Was told there was a spare key until after the paperwork was signed, then told it came with just one, but when checking on the cars computer there was 2 programmed so again down another £300 getting the spare deactivated and new key cut.

In summary im set to be down by around £10k by the time the engine is replaced, just to make it driveable.

As with all used car dealers, once it's sold they would'nt care less so it's pointless trying to get any kind of reimbursement back towards a car that shouldnt have left a showroom in the condition it did.

Try to take the review down and sales reciept will be sent to review centre to validate this purchase.

On the 26th of April 2014 I purchased a motor vehicle from Phantom Motor Company of Wigan.

I Paid £8'500 for what I believed was a great car, the sales staff

were polite and friendly I drove the car for 5 weeks covering just 500

miles during this time I had to top up the coolant twice.

I decided to take the vehicle to a local garage where upon being checked it was determined one of 3 faults were possible.

1 head gasket,

2 piston liner split ,

3 cracked cylinder head, (please see attached file)

I spoke to Phantom Motors and they totally disagreed with the first

independent inspection they emailed me offering me £600 as full and

final payment to basically wash there hands of the problem I of course

refused.

I then made various attempts to resolve the issue with Phantom Motor Company to no avail.

I contacted the finance company and eventually the car was collected

by Phantom motors which they had for approximately 7 weeks during this

time I spoke with a member of there sales staff and I was informed the

problem was a faulty water pump the vehicle was eventually returned to

me with a supposedly new water pump fitted along with a incorrect

suspension part which was not my primary complaint after a long battle

with third parties and a £700 bill for independent inspectionsI went to the Financial Ombudsmen, who decided in my favour I won my

dispute with the help of the F.O.S the car is waiting to be collected

by a main ford dealer for a complete engine overall the independent

report I paid for found the the vehicle unfit for purpose at time of

sale If your are thinking of purchasing a car do not deal with Phantom

Motor Company of Wigan they have no morals and definitely do not

care about customer after sales.

It's taken me 12 months of stress, distress, and inconvenience to beat Phantom Motor Company