Lawtons of Tadcaster - www.lawtonsoftadcaster.co.uk

I am writing to make potential customers of Lawton’s of Tadcaster aware of an opposing view to the ‘Testimonials’ on the Lawton’s web site. My wife and I viewed a number of cars at the Lawton’s site with a view to purchasing a Ford C-MAX Titanium X. One particular car caught our eye as it had a reversing camera as well as all of the other extras. The car was only 9 months old with just over 7000 miles on the clock.

We examined the car carefully (my wife prides herself in finding any imperfections) and after a test drive purchased the car. We picked up the car the following week however my wife commented to the sales staff that the car had not been cleaned or valeted which we thought unusual. However no comment was offered by the salesman.

On arrival at home we washed the car and to our dismay found a considerable number of white stone chips all over the front of the car, a chip in the bonnet and 3 stone chips in the windscreen. These had either intentionally (or accidentally) been masked by a thin layer on the car. The chrome grill surround also had multiple fine scratches. This came as a serious blow to both my wife and I as we believed we were buying a car that was in a condition commensurate with the age and mileage.

We immediately reported this to Lawton’s, who asked for the car to be returned for repair. The front of the car was subsequently re-sprayed and the grill surround replaced and the 3 windscreen chips addressed. However the bumper had not been replaced correctly and the chip on the bonnet had been touched up but was still very noticeable.

On driving the car I heard a random but continual noise and vibration coming from the engine compartment.

Lawton’s again asked for the car to be returned for repair to the bumper and noise/vibration. The noise/vibration was linked to the headlights being removed due to the earlier bumper removal and refitting. Lawton’s were unable to resolve this as the software required to investigate this was not available from Ford. The car was subsequently with the Garage for 3 months (however I was given a basic Fiesta courtesy car).

I have written to the Managing Director of Lawton's who admitted that the service we received had been poor however we feel that we have now been left with a substandard car.