The Car Shop www.carshop.co.uk Review

Overall Rating

Competitive prices
Large range of vehicles; generally from leasing fleets

Too many people involved and too many inefficient handoffs
Many bits missing from some cars - keys, service books, etc

I knew which car I wanted and it turned up at the Carshop in Swindon. I went for a test drive with the sales guy - he knew very little about the car [either the model or the history of that specific car] but was pleasant to deal with and spent about 2 hours with me. He and his controller gave me the usual "it'll be gone tomorrow" line to make me buy on the day - but I went awat to think about it. I did a second test drive the next day and decided to buy. Then I found out there was no service history and only 1 remote control key. After lots of talking we agreed a price reduction for the lack of a key and made the sale conditional on their getting the service history. It also needed an MOT and a service; and some scratches/scrapes to be attended to. We agreed a date about 10 days later to collect the car.

I checked up a couple of times and progress was limited. Also, either the sales guy, or the business manager [who deals with the money, warranty, etc] were away - and their stand-ins didn't know the story. The delivery date came and went with no service history found as they hadn't followed up. Eventually, a week later than planned, they did find the service history and I went to pick it up. To check the work had been done I was told I had to go to the collections department [in the other corner of the very large shed]. I noticed the scratches had not been fixed; but the service and MOT had been done. Back to the sales controller at the other end of the shed - and he agreed to have the scratches done after some delay. So finally, I took the car away after lots more paperwork.

In total, I dealt with a salesman, a sales controller, 2 business managers, and 2 people in the collections department. All were pleasant to deal with, but the sales guys did require a firm approach to get what you wanted.

I'm happy with the purchase - but only because I knew what I wanted and was not willing to be fobbed off with excuses [we don't promise two keys - it's reflected in the price, we prepare to retail standard which means there may be a few scratches, etc]. The business managers and collections guys were very helpful and not pushy.

So my advice is:
- make sure you know the model details before you go - the Carshop sales people deal with so many cars there's little chance they'll be experts on your model [this is even true for some main dealer salesmen!]
- be willing to take your time in deciding - don't get pressured into buying in minutes
- be willing to insist on keys, service history and minor repairs, or a price reduction if not