NetCars Car Loan Review

Overall Rating

In short; AVOID. I was lied to about the car they intended to initially supply, nearly ripped off with a poor quality car that went wrong the day of delivery, and it took them 4 months to cancel the credit agreement. It was a very distressing experience as I was left with a finance agreement totalling £23k for a car they never even supplied me.

I only went to Netcars as they assured me they could get me the finance I needed (all be it very expensive finance) and I had been refused elsewhere. I was after a car that was quite specific but they assured me that they would source a quality example once I'd paid them £125. I was very reluctant as it broke the golden rule of buying a car: never buy anything you haven't driven/seen yourself. But I was assured on many levels that they have a team of professionals who inspect the car fully before supplying anyting.

So after being told they had sourced a car and sending me pictures (which was a great spec, low mileage etc. etc.) I paid them their fee to proceed with it further. After investigating further I later realised that the pictures that they had sent were not relating to car that they intended to supply (I'm not sure they even had a car in mind at this time!). They had simply copied some pictures from the autotrader website from a mixture of two differnt cars and emailed them to me claiming it was one car- I had strong evidence that they didn't relate to the car they had now set up on a finance agreement! Following this I was then told that they refused this car on the basis that the paintwork was bad. The finance agreement was then instantly cancelled. Looking back now they were clearly using an example to get me to commit and pay the £125 deposit.

From there on they presented me with various examples which were the wrong spec and double the mileage of that of the first 'example'. Eventualy we agreed on a car but it took them weeks to take posession. Then when they finally got the car in, they wanted me to collect it without a log-book as they didn't have it. I refused to buy a car without receiving its log book so another week went past and they offered to drive it to me complete with log book. It seemed that after several weeks of suspicious circumstances/conversations I was to finally take delivery of the car. Then on the day of delivery the gearbox failed as they were driving it to me! They recovered it to a local garage near where I live who by coincidence I have used before. I spoke to the mechanic and his opinion of the car was that it was a very poor example and he explained clearly why; even recommending that it was a car to be avoided. After this I decided that Netcars was not a company I wanted to deal with anymore especially as I had been told from that start they they only deal in high quality cars. They promised me that they would find me another car but I felt I had nearly been ripped off with a bad quality car, so wanted my £125 back and the finance cancelled.

This is when things got worse. The DVLA had by now sent me the log book and after checking with the finance company, the finance had NOT been cancelled (despite them apparently being able do it instantly first time around!). So I was now in a position where I had a log book in my name for a car I never received, and finance on a car that I never bought. Netcars kept reassuring me that they were sending a cheque to clear the finance and they demandedI send them the log book back, and all the while the payments were due to start on a car I didn't have. This situation became very distressing as I had a £23k debt and no car to show for it, or even a log book. I kept calling the finance company who couldn't help as they had no payment from netcars to clear the finance and they couldn't do anything until they had received it. I kept calling Netcars back (including the owner) and eventually got my £125 back, but they just kept telling me they'd sent a cheque to clear the finance - i was being fobbed off. I spoke to the CAB and trading standards who sympathised but couldn't do much either other than help generate letters. I was stuck paying for a car I didn't have. I decided to cancel the payments for the car before they started and after three months of dealing very closely with the finance company the account went was so far in arrears they were then able to act. They started putting pressure on Netcars to clear the balance and have only now received a payment from them... 4 months later.

I can only guess Netcars were holding back to fix and sell the car to someone else thus allowing them to pay off the finance account they had set up in my name. But in the meatime I am left with my credit file ruined (or I could have paid the last 4 months paymnents for a car didn't have totaling just over £1,300). Hopefully I can get all of this removed from my credit file as its effecting my ability of gaining finance for a car entirely.

I feel very foolish for trying to buy a car without seeing it myself first, and even more foolish for signing for finance against it but its a lesson learned. I would never use netcars again.