Imperial Car Supermarket - www.imperialcarsupermarkets.co.uk

Don’t purchase a car from these people!! I had the worst experience buying a car from imperial! They don’t care about you once you’ve driven away.. be warned, below is my experience

17/06/19 I purchased a Volvo XC60 2015, when we inspected the car we noticed it had been damaged by a member of staff in another vehicle.The lady who was looking after us apologised and said the damage will be fixed, we just need to arrange a time that best suits us and it should take a day so if we brought it first thing we could pick it up later. I would just like to address now that we live 45 minutes away, so even though the damage wasn't a fault of ours we were happy to drive there and back. My husband arrived at 8:30 am handed the car over and told it wouldn't be ready until Monday and heres a courtesy car, not a problem my husband would leave early from work and exchange vehicles. Monday came and my husband left work drove to imperial to be told it would be tomorrow, Tuesday came got a call to say car still not ready, Wednesday came my husband couldn't take anymore time off work as he's self employed and was fed up of being messed around so I heavily pregnant put my 2 young children in the car and drove half way to Southampton to be told by my husband to turn around as the car was once again not ready. I emailed and called customers services to express my frustration , I told them I would like the car to be returned to me in the morning, I was reassured that, that wouldn't be a problem. Thursday morning came I called to get a rough time as I had a hospital appointment they said it'll be back by 10 the driver had left , this never happened after countless calls until 2pm to see where he was, he when finally turned up. I had missed my hospital appointment , my son had missed a day at childcare. The gentleman turned up with 3 of his sons, one of which was sick getting out of my car at this point you can imagine how distressed and upset I was, the gentleman told me he had been called in on his day off hence why he had his sons, I couldn't believe how a big company like yourself could be this unprofessional. We booked the car in on the 09/09/19, I emailed before to say our service light was on and could we upgrade to a full service and pay the difference, this was not a problem. The car was ready in a few hours it flew through with no advisories which we were obviously relieved about, unfortunately we didn't have the service book in the car so it was unable to be stamped. We have tried a few times to get the book stamped but no service team have been available or closed.

In a matter of weeks the service light came on again, frustrated I took it to our local garage as I couldn't drive all the way to Southampton. I explained that it had just been through a full service and it came back that there was no issues or work needed for the car.

The garage called me while they had the car to ask me when exactly I had a service so I got all the paperwork from imperial and went down to the garage , where I was told the oil was sludgy and had not been cleaned despite an invoice stating that you had changed and done the oil.

Another major fault which wasnt picked up was the break pads were worn down by 2/3mm which according to motor policy anywhere between 2-5 mm should be an advisory. I had driven less than 1500 miles since the mot how could they've worn down this much. Looking through the paperwork from imperial again they were ticked green and there was no written evidence of there level of brake pads. I paid the invoice from the garage for the work and I was told the reason the light keeps coming on is the EGR valve another problem that should've been picked up not just reset which is obviously what was done. I have 3 young children, if I hadn't of taken the car in for this light I wouldn't have known about the brakes so you've put mine and there safety on the line and this is something that I cannot forgive or will let you get away with.

The stress, upset and safety of my children hasn’t been a concern of imperial when dealing with my complaint

I bought a BMW 335d in August 2018. I travelled over 300 miles to their Chertsey branch to find the car i'd prebooked an appointment to see looked like a skip. It had not been cleaned or prepared and there was even mud on the back seats. As i'd travelled so far and the salesman was apologetic I decided to take it for a test drive as it was the spec I had been after. Two mins into the journey we were forced to return to the branch as the tyre indicator was showing low pressure. All four tyres had to be inflated!! I liked the car but was unable to take it for a drive about 60mph as the salesman told me they did not have insurance to take it onto the Motorway. (this was relevant later). I decided to buy the car provided it was valeted. The garage agreed and sent it to the inhouse cleaner. It came back an hour later with the mud still on the back seats. Clearly the salesman was embarrassed so sent it back again. He apologised to me saying the cleaner told him they had no cleaning solution???. It came back again and was still not properly valeted but as I'd travelled so far and by this time it was about 3pm I agreed to take it. Id been there hours by that point. I paid and drove it away sometime after 4, but as it was rush hour I could not get above 60mph until about 40 miles or so from the garage. At 70mph the whole car began to vibrate so violently I can only liken it to a badly levelled washing machine on spin. The front passenger seat was vibrating so badly you could see it shaking. I had to continue my journey at 55mph and it took me 7hrs to get home. Contact with the garage that day and the following day, me using my own time and effort showed the telemetry or the car and the wheel balancing was all out. Bizarrely when the car was on the ramps at my local Kwik Fit, there was fresh tyre soap on the inside of all the tyres which had barely 3mm of tread on them?? They had obviously been replaced which the garage denied all knowledge of. I wrote a scathing review at the time and the manager of the garage rang me apologising profusely stating this was not the image their garage wanted to project. He offered me access to their trade account for tyre replacement for the life of my ownership of the car (obv I would pay for the tyres but would get them cheaper) so I was pretty happy with that and his apology. Well I now need new tyres and have spent three weeks trying to get Imperial Cars to honour their promise all to no avail. Ive spoken to countless people and emailed their customer car team who profess to get back to you within 48-72hrs...well two weeks later Im still waiting!!! No one returns calls and now they've had my nearly 24,000 pounds their obviously not bothered. It seems clear to me it was never their intention to honour their promise and allow me to get a few quid off tyres so I've now had to order them myself at the best price I could get. Buy a car from Imperial Cars and if there is anything wrong be prepared to fight to have your problems rectified like I had to. Don't believe a word they say and get everything in writing. I'm 53yrs old and have had numerous cars. This is the Worst |car company I've ever dealt with. My advice is go to Motorpoint. I've bought from there previously and wish I had this time

Test drive a car from here. Initially helpful to get you in it testing, no questions asked.

Thereafter tried all the tricks if the trade. Watch the admin fees too.

Wouldn’t go back here unless the car was 100% clean. This one was 90% so not bad.

Found a BMW via Autotrader and got in touch with Imperial via email. Very quick and courteous service to arrange an appointment the following day at Northampton. The contact stated that the car would be prepared for viewing and a test drive had been booked. This was a 6 hour round trip for me so was going to take a full day. On arrival, I quickly found the BMW. It had not been prepared for viewing as promised, instead it was quite dirty. I went to reception to ask about the appointment and they clearly had no knowledge of it, although all of my details were already in their computer system. No salesmen were available to show us the car despite a group of them standing outside smoking. Reception kindly arranged for another member of staff to unlock the car so that we could look at it whilst we were waiting. After an hour, a salesman came to help us and took it for a test drive. The car computer system stated it had enough fuel for 37 miles. The salesman drove it around the block and we swapped. He was unable to answer any of my questions on the car, stating he was new to the job and especially BMWs. The car was exactly what I had been looking for so we proceeded to a desk in the showroom. This was to be a cash sale. I had to answer a lot of irrelevant questions, and then sit through a bad presentation hard sell on their paintwork protection service. I asked about discount and was told that they have a team in their head office that check car prices daily so they know they are competitive and will never discount an advertised price. I asked them to at least waive the £125 (+vat) admin fee. The salesman said he would ask the manager and disappeared for 10 minutes. When he returned, more selling of their protection products and during this he stated that they were not prepared to waive the Admin fee. I thanked him for his time and started to leave. He then told me the manager always liked to say goodbye to customers and asked me to wait for him. I was polite but left without waiting. This wasn't an entirely wasted trip because on the way home I heard an advert for BMW approved used cars, stating that all cars come with a 12 month warranty. (Imperial give 3 months). When I got home, I had a quick search on the BMW site and found an identical car (both model and trim), 8 months younger and with less miles for less money. I was able to view and test drive this car the following day and successfully completed the purchase in a very professional way.

Took 2 BMW's on a test drive at the Northampton branch. Although presented online as being in excellent condition, and fully valeted, one car had lots of scratches on the inside of both front doors, along with dirt and grime on the centre console, and the second car was dusty and dirty inside. One car's flat tyre warning light came up on the test drive.

After the drives the financial discussion started. The online valuation of my p/ex was 9275 for the car in good condition. On the day they offered 8400, even though the car is in good condittion. The finance interest rate offered was 13.9% which is outrageous given the deals available elsewhere. When I said I didn't accept the p/ex valuation and questioned the 13.9% finance rate, I was told they could probably get me a better deal on the finance and they could increase the p/ex value of my car to about 9200. Their tactic seems to be to offer you a bad deal and see if you notice the small print.

I walked away - the two cars I saw were ex-fleet and had obviously not been treated well. Yes, the paintwork was shiny, but that's where it ended.

My advice - haggle like hell and proceed with caution, but only if you really must. I'm convinced there are better deals out there, on cars which are better presented.

THE WORST COMPANY EVER TO WORK WITH I HAVE JUST BOUGHT A BMW 520 SE THE CAR WAS FINE AT THE SHOWROOM AND IN 1 DAY WHAT HAS CHANGED THERE IS SOUND IN THE ENGINE / RIGHT SIDE OF THE CAR WHISTLE SOUND/ RIGHT SIDE OF THE CAR SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT/ DRIVE SHAFT IS CRACKED/ DRIVER SIDE WINDOW STOPED WORKING/ WHEN I AM REVERSING THERE IS A TERRIBLE SOUND COULDNT FIGURE OUT WHAT IT IS. IF YOUR READING THIS AND YOU WENT AND BOUGHT A CAR PLEASE DONT CRY YOU HAVE DONE IT YOUR SELF

Saw a car I liked the look of at the Northampton branch. I put the details of my part exchange into their website. It gave me a value, and I was then contacted by a very polite sales person who organised an appointment. I drove for 2 hours to get to the dealer in Northampton. I waited for a long time before I was seen to, while the sales people milling around were dancing, being annoying and calling me "buddy". Some other people I was waiting with found this equally annoying.

I was told straight away by the sales person that the p/x value they quote online bears no resemblance to what they would actually give you - this was before he'd even looked at it. I was also asked a series of questions such as "do you have a garage?" and "are you paying for the car from your savings?".

Anyway, I test drove the car and it felt very tired - there were nicks out of the dash and door trim and the engine felt thrashy so I said I wasn't interested. Then came the hard sell - they got an alternative car, it was a lower spec, but not as tired - , and the sales guy went off to "negotiate on my behalf" with his manager for the alternative car. At this point my kids had got bored and I decided I didn't really want the car as it wasn't what I was after, so I said I didn't want it and asked for my car keys back as they'd been valuing my p/x.

The manager then tried to sell me a 3rd car which I didn't want, and was holding my keys which he craftily wouldn't give back. I had to get stroppy with him to get them back. All in all, my trip to Imperial was a complete waste of time - other people waiting seemed equally irritated and I wouldn't recommend them. Under no circumstances should you travel there believing the part exchange quote they give you online.

My son and I went to look at a car we had seen on the internet in Southampton at Imperial. We were immediately welcomed by the person I dealt with who found the car for us and gave us all the details. The Mini Cooper was in an absolute fantastic condition - clean, tidy and polished and with low mileage.He  went through all the paperwork over a coffee and we left feeling very relaxed.

I picked the car up a few days later and even though the guy who did the transaction was extremely nice he did repeat an awful lot of information that we had already been through with him, especially re' Warranty. I thought this was wasting my time .

But thank you - I love my Mini !

Having seen a vehicle on the web site which was located in Southampton I phoned and it was brought to Fleet two days later,to say it was immaculate would be an understatement!! It was 'as new' and it was 4 years old.

The car was a VW Passat cc saloon in gold,cream/black leather interior,Auto.

I have to say it is the best car I have ever had.

I expected a bit of argy bargy but there wasn't too much,it was easily dealt with and it was no hassle.

The salesman was a top bloke,the manager was a good bloke too and the handover manager was good too.

They had had a busy bank holiday weekend and had sold 25 cars!!!!

Even the kids enjoyed it,a quality bank holiday day out! Well done me.

All in all I considered it a fair deal and was happy with it,can't say fairer than that.

Don't take my word,get over there and get buying.You won't regret it.

I planned my visit to the imperial car supermarket in fleet in advance. I spoke at length to the salesman on the phone and duly paid a refundable £200 up front to reserve the car. On arriving I was impressed at the amount of quality stock the company had together with the service and friendly attitude shown by all the staff. My bmw I purchased was and is superb. I purchased a years warranty and in all honesty I am sure if I shopped around I might be able to better the price , but I am both very happy with my purchase and the company ,and would recommend them to anyone.

Kind regards