CarShop, Cardiff

Would like to thank car shop sales man Cardiff went and got me to sets of keys .and spent a fair bit of time with me discussing different cars that mite suite my wife's needs.he done this even though he know there would be no sale that day.when two other sales men didn't want to know.as soon as they knew there was was no sale.

After making an appointment 2 days before I was extremely disappointed to travel 2.5hours to be greeted by a filthy car. Covered in bird droppings and restricting our view through front windscreen on the test drive. After asking numerous times for it to be cleaned, so I could inspect it ,nothing was done. Masking tape was found holding wires up from the exhaust and overspray found on the rear of the car. An extra £100 administration fee added on if I decided to purchase the vehicle put me completely off ,as there was no mention of this in the auto trader advert.

As I am detailing my attempts to find a car as a lone female with zero experience of buying or driving (other than the one I learnt in) cars, I thought I may as well add this one to my selection of reviews.

I was at the end of my tether when I arrived at this place. I had never heard of them and knew nothing about them; I just wanted to walk around and look at the cars and see what I thought.

They had some cars on the forecourt but not many and on the door or a flag somewhere (I can't remember), it said that there were 1000 cars inside. I did think that it looked like a fairly small building to be housing a thousand cars (I did point out that I know nothing about these things earlier(!)) and I was intrigued.

I went in to be greeted by a lovely young man who asked me if I had an appointment... I was baffled to be honest, I just wanted to walk around and look at cars... "I hadn't" said I... "did I need one...?" Not to worry, I can help you out the young man told me and led me to a little table with a huge computer screen on it.

It was all very slick indeed. The young man asked me several questions about my budget and what type of car I might favour and any features I might prefer and even went down to how many miles I might like the car to have on the clock and what colour and year I might like it to be.

Naturally my specifications turned up one car which actually met my specifications and it was a 3 door which I didn't really fancy. There was one other car which was not in my budget although because I had said that I would be prepared to pay a certain amount over a certain number of years, apparently it was in my price range.

I wasn't thrilled about this but having had a couple of disastrous test drives elsewhere, I really wanted to take it out if only to prove to myself that I did actually pass my test and that I can drive!

The car would have to be brought round and so I waited for a little while only for the young man to come back say that he hadn't been given the right keys. That was all right; I wasn't in a hurry. Several minutes later, the young man came back utterly mortified and said that there was a car blocking the car I intended to test drive in and that car was flat and would have to be jump-started so they could move it.

Luckily for them, I have a sense of humour and found it rather funny. I agreed to have a cup of tea while I waited for them to sort it out and another young man gave me a token for the vending machine. I am sure I asked it for hot chocolate but ended up with coffee which I hate so this was already quite a comedy of errors so to speak.

While I waited, I looked it up in the Parker's guide (a wonderful little book with everything you could want to know about how much a used car should cost in it) and saw that the car was already somewhat over-priced for what it was. (A Ford Fiesta with a reasonable number of miles on the clock given its age but nothing fantastic) and figured that well, I would see what it was like.

Eventually, I got the car and went for a little drive with the young man and had a lovely chat along the way. He was so well-mannered and obviously cared about what he was doing. He drove the car to a quiet industrial estate so I wouldn't have to worry about the very busy road this shop is on and he was an excellent and careful driver so I felt perfectly safe in his hands.

The car drove quite nicely although as several other reviewers have noted, it is very difficult to tell how a car is going to be long-term from an extremely short test drive, but at the end of the day, I felt it was over-priced and out of my budget.

So far, I had had a fairly pleasant experience with these guys but things changed a bit at this point. The young man I had been dealing with was very new to the job (I had discovered this while we were having our lovely chat) and it seemed like because of this, the hard sell would be done by another, more experienced member of staff.

Essentially, I wasn't to be allowed to leave until I had signed on the dotted line. I didn't like that at all. A simple "no thanks" should have been enough but they wanted to know what was so wrong with the car that I couldn't buy it there and then, they didn't see how it wasn't in my budget when I had said how much I could pay and over how long etc etc Eventually we got down to "If we could get it down to XXX over XXX months, would you give us a yes here and now?" I still said I wouldn't because I am just not a person who makes decisions just like that and wanted to discuss it with my Dad anyway.

In the end, I had to make up all sorts of nonsense about why I couldn't give them a decision and pretty much promise to phone them that evening.

As I have said in another review of somewhere else, I know they have a job to do and I know that they work on commission but at the end of the day, it's quite an intimidating way of doing business. I don't really need a reason why I don't want a car or whatever, it's my right as customer to buy or not buy...

I was quite happy with the initial customer service but not happy at all with the hard sell.

And I still... haven't found a car...!

Bought A car from cash shop broke down after three months customer service not helpful at all repair cost £1200 after paying £8000 for the vehicle no help whatsoever

I found it fine, cars reasonably priced, I knew exactly what I wanted and found the whole process fine, I would and will recommend.

Refund lies on car deposit

I was advised by the sales person that only £300 would be debited from me and that if I then decided against the car I would have this money back.

Less than 24 hours later I decided that I didn't want to purchase the vehicle as it wasn't the right car for me and I wished to continue searching possibly at a later date. Upon contacting staff at Car Shop I was then told that the £300 was a deposit and could not be refunded. This wasn't explained to me at the time, in fact I was told the opposite, that if I didn't want the car I would get the £300 back.

I don't see how you can claim that the company has done nothing morally wrong. If lying directly to a customers face isn't morally wrong then I agree. You've listened to what the staff have said and dismissed what actually happened. The sales man advised me that were I not happy with the vehicle I could have the £300 back. He even stated that the girls on the desk would transfer it. On the day I was willing to put down £11,000 as a deposit but was advised against it as that amount would be harder to transfer back to me than £300 if I didn't wish to purchase the vehicle. I put this to the sales controller and queried whether I would get the £11000 back if I'd put that as a deposit and he said yes. How is £300 different?

Just wanted to leave a review to comment on the great experience I had in CarShop Cardiff. The salesman was very helpful and informative, not at all pushy and made buying my new car a great experience. The manager was very clear and professional when I had a few concerns and quickly solved them for me.

I'm sure Ill go back there for my next car in a few years and would definitely recommend to everyone.

Recently purchased a Audi from the Carshop, the staff were able to help me choose the ideal car for me, going through all my requirements. With such a wide range of cars it was great that the staff could narrow it down for me so I didn't have to spend the whole day there. Excellent value for money.

Already recommended the carshop to friends and family and will continue to do so.

I bought a car here a few years ago and it was possibly one of the worst decisions of my life. Please heed my advice.

The moment I walked through the door I was met by a 'polite chap' who began to assist me in looking for the particular car I was after at the appropriate price. Initially, I was told that they didn't have this model at that particular price and would I consider something else. It was then I had a chance to browse their showroom, 30 minutes after I'd arrived.

After deciding to move on I was ambushed at the exit to suddenly be informed that the car I was looking for was available and it just so happened that it was at the top of my budget. I was assured it had only just come in and hadn't been cleaned blah blah... I was apprehensive at first, but against my better judgement I returned.

I was taken to the car where I was surprised to see it was in reasonably good condition, even though it had quite a disproportionate amount of miles for it only being 2 and half years old. I took it for a test drive with this 'polite chap' and all seemed OK, as much as you could wish for on any short test drive. I told them I would take a day or two to think it over, at which point I was pushed for a deposit to which I flatly refused.

I was finally allowed to leave the showroom and return home, where over the next 48 hours I was bombarded with phone calls from this 'polite chap' who had morphed into 'pushy chap' asking repeatedly if I'd made up my mind. I know these are car salesman but this did become borderline ridiculous. I was inundated with calls from 3 different people all posing as the ‘pushy chap’.

I returned their call when I had made up my own mind and told them I was going to go ahead with the purchase, at which point they wanted the deposit immediately, in case they sold the car before I’d managed to travel the lengthy 8 miles to the showroom. Whilst still possible, yet unlikely, I was not about to part with any money until I’d seen the revamped product on the showroom floor. It was agreed the vehicle would come with full service history, an MOT valid for 6 months as well as a 3 month warranty. I asked if I could have the car checked over first to which they assured me their HPI and 114-point check was of exceptional standard. I thought great!

When I arrived to inspect the vehicle and make the payment I was no longer sure which ‘pushy chap’ I was now dealing with. It was at this point I was introduced to the insufferable ‘Mr Irritant’ who was a whole new breed of a ‘pushy chap’. He proceeded to try and sell various extra covers and guarantees for the car, to the point where he was practically making the decisions for me by repeating ‘’yeah? Yeah? Let’s do that, let’s do that’’. He might as well have been taking my wallet out of my pocket for me, such was his aggressive approach. He also ‘advised’ that I could put the extras on my credit card and pay that off. Now losing patience, which I usually have in abundance, I made it very clear that I would only be paying the full amount for car with no additional covers/guarantees.

Once I’d paid for the car and ‘Mr Irritant’ was off my case, I was then taken to another room where I was introduced to ‘the apprentice’, where he was clearly only in the early stages of becoming ‘pushy chap’ status. ‘The apprentice’ then proceeded to try and sell to me various protective paintworks for my car. At this point I just told him I didn’t want anything else, I just wanted to complete the handover of the vehicle and I was tired of all these sales pitches.

Finally, I was introduced to ‘Mr Feeble’ as to better describe him. By this point I’d already paid for the vehicle and was now due to sign the relevant documents for the handover. It was at this time ‘Mr Feeble’ dropped the bombshell that the car did not in fact have full or even part service history. Additionally, the car had an MOT valid for only 5 months; ‘Mr Feeble’ had explained that this was their error (an obvious oversight caused by their sole interest of getting me to part with my money with the expense of any customer care), but there was no recompense. I was then told I’d have to bring the car back the following week so they could conduct the MOT, causing great inconvenience without so much as an apology. They were happy to take all of my money and even try and sell extras before supplying me with any of this information!! By this point I’d just had enough and stupidly signed the dotted line to which Mr Feeble told his joke that I’m sure many, many customers have heard before and since - ‘you’re signing your life away’. He wasn’t quite right but he wasn’t too far from the mark either due to the amount of aggro, stress and inconvenience this vehicle would cause me until I was finally rid of it.

I then went into the Carshop showroom on that fateful Saturday to finally take ownership of the most fault ridden car you could possible imagine. I sat in the car for the first time since the test drive and I thought it had been cleaned immaculately, but then I started to notice there were bits of tissue stuck to various parts of the interior and inside the air vents. It was a slap dash job considering the amount of money I’d parted with. The real insult to injury was when the car ran out of petrol when I was driving to the filling station which was 400 meters away. I called Carshop but there was NO help from them once I was out of the door and my money was in their pocket. After I’d walked to the petrol station to buy a jerry can and put fuel in the car, I eventually got the vehicle home and discovered that I was totally drenched. Carshop hadn’t even bothered to ‘air’ the car once they’d cleaned the fabric interior and so it was still extremely damp.

After leaving the car to dry for a couple of hours I found a mobile phone I did not recognise wedged in the seat. I set about trying to find out who it belonged to until a series of explicit messages came through from somebody’s boyfriend detailing their escapades from the night before. After vomiting into my mouth and swallowing it again a call came through on the mystery phone asking for a ‘Mr Feeble’. I returned the phone at my earliest convenience, without as much as a ‘thank you’ from ‘Mr Feeble’. But I was set upon again by ‘Mr Irritant’ asking if I’d thought about purchasing the extra cover. At this point I felt like giving him a thunderous right hook to the jaw, but being the gentleman that I am, I kept my composure and left.

After dealing with this absolute circus of a company, for the first 4 months I was happy with my purchase and it seemed I’d made the right decision. Wrong. After around the 5th month (conveniently out of warranty) the cylinders started to miss fire to the point it became too dangerous to drive, it was consuming oil at an unusually rapid rate, the exhaust needed replacing and the electrics were faulty to the point I was replacing various sensors on a regular basis. Considering that the car had been predominantly used for a short commute on a day to day basis with no long journeys taken in this time whatsoever, this seemed absurd. The first time I took it into a dealership garage they discovered the car needed a new timing chain, spark plugs, coil packs and countless other components. My first bill was nearly a grand! By the time I managed to get rid of the car 11 months later I’d almost bought it again with the amount of money I’d spent on repairs to keep it on the road. The garage informed me that the car was in one hell of a state and looked liked it had been for some time. It turns out the information I was fed about the HPI and 114 point check by the ‘pushy chaps’ was either total BS or I was lied to. They sold me a duff vehicle AND they knew it.

I will NEVER deal with this company again, the deal driven nature and commission hungry culture this company has formed means that customer care has gone completely out of the window. A typical car salesman’s reputation is no secret, but these ‘pushy chaps’ take it to a whole new level. They were clearly very sly and were in the knowledge that they were selling me something that was only fit for the scrap yard. Once these greedy imbeciles had my money there was no such thing as aftercare and the whole process from start to finish was a complete nightmare. I inform anyone looking for a new car to give Carshop a wide birth

Please heed my advice and STAY AWAY from these underhand scumbags.

I requested a test drive online and was called by someone in a call centre to book the test drive. I told him I didn't want to buy the car today, just wanted to test drive it to help me decide which model to buy from a short list of 3.

After taking the bus to the showroom, a salesman took some details from me and I told him the same; that I just wanted to test drive the car. After speaking with a colleague he came back and told me I couldn't test drive the car because I didn't want to buy it today. I told him but that's the make & model I'm interested in buying. He refused, telling me "I don't want to waste my time on a busy Saturday if you have no intention of buying the car today". What happened to fostering a good impression with a potential buyer?

Have since read loads of negative online reviews of Carshop tactics and know I have had a lucky escape!

I will take my custom and hard earned cash elsewhere.