Autoplanet - Southampton

My car broke down the very next day and they did nothing. I tried to complain and I am still waiting for the results. never buy a car from these people.

I was stupid enough to buy a car from this unscrupulous company in 2007, I paid £7000 for a 3 year old car and almost £1000 for a warranty (I know saw me coming).

I was a little worried about the tread on the tyres but was assured that everything would go through a full check and anything wrong with the car would be sorted before I picked it up a week later.

First problem I noticed was that items I had placed in my boot had black marks on them, putting my hand on the boot floor left black marks on my hand lie it hand been painted. I went back to autoplanet and to my surprise they admitted that they had indeed painted the carpet in the boot to make it look better!!! and that this was normal practice, but atleast they replaced it with one that wasn't covered in paint.

A couple of months later I got a flat tyre and took it to get replaced, at this time I was told that the remaining tyres were in very bad condition and needed replacing at a cost of £450. Other problems included, annoying squeak coming from the alternator and vibrations in the car when braking. So I went back to the Autoplanet and turns out that the vibrations were because the brakes needed replacing, bearing in mind I had done well under 1000 miles by this point and even though I had a warranty none of these issues were covered and they took no responsibility another £500 cost to me.

The final thing that happened was after 4 months of having the car the handbrake failed rolling down a hill and hitting another car not a lot of damage but a claim on my insurance, and yet again they would take absolutely no responsibility.

At this point I had enough with the car and sold it to one of those cash for cars places for £4000 less then I paid for it, I had only had the car for 7 months and only just finished paying off the loan this month.

My advice is to stay well clear of this company, I have now learnt my lesson but at a high price, the staff will tell you anything to sell a car. With them the right car for you is the car that they want to sell you they don't care about happy customers they just want your money and then to forget about you, avoid at all costs!!!

Overall 0/5 they don't deserve the 1 star you have to give.

I bought a Fiat Panda for my wife yesterday, from Fiat Autoplanet in Southampton. I bought it over the phone, which is a bit chancy, but this was a 60 plate 2010 ex demonstrator with 2000 miles covered, bought from a main dealer, so I was fairly laid back about it. Before sealing the deal, I stressed that I was buying over the phone, and could I expect the car to be like new, as expected. I was assured that it was.

On arrival and inspecting the car, I found a small dent in the front wing. I was assured by the salesman that he had not seen it. Impossible to know whether this was true, but either way, the car was clearly not as described. By this point I had been travelling for over five hours by train, having been diverted due to cancellations. I was tired and just wanted to start the long drive hometo Yorkshire. The salesman knew this and suggested that his "dent man" could come in and sort it out. Predictably, this turned out not to be an option as the dent man was not available. In what I thought was a reasonable solution, I suggested splitting the estimated repair cost to me of £90 - £100, so I would accept £45 and have the dent sorted out myself. This was refused. I asked to speak to the manager, who also refused. They kept harping on about the deal I had been given. In my view, this was irrelevant, the car was not as described. I was offered the opportunity to walk away but given the circumstances, they both knew that this was not a realistic option for me. They would only offer the £20 they said the repair would cost them to have done. By this point I was pretty exhausted and accepted. It left a bitter taste in what should have been a pleasant buying experience. I have bought many cars for both myself and my wife over the past thirty years and, frankly, it was a shock to get this response from a main dealer. It was never about the money, but about putting right a misdescription, whether knowingly or not. This was a simple matter that could easily have been resolved. Even when I asked for a printout of the HPI report, it was like extracting teeth, because "it costs us £5 for these". This seems unlikely because a thirty second internet search shows that as a private customer, I can get three checks for £9.99. This statement probably held as much truth as the figure the salesman showed me as "that which the car owed them" My advice is to avoid like the plague. If you must and I mean must use them, go through the transaction as if you are dealing with a back street, fly by night operation because that is how they conduct business. They are clearly far more interested in extracting every penny out of every transaction than in having satisfied customers. The salespeople are slick, but not customer focused by any stretch of the imagination and would probably take some pride in that description. Such is their mindset. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to go back there with a problem. I say this because I have dealt with some very good dealers over the years who take the long view and value their reputation. This was like turning the clock back twenty years to the bad old days. At least Arthur Daley was likeable. I give one star rating only because zero is not an option (it should be)

I went to Autoplanet in Southampton yesterday to look for a new car and enquire about a part exchange.

The experience I had was terrible.

Rude staff. Very uncommunicative. The salesman dealing with me kept wandering off leaving me just sat there.

Tried to make me feel stupid and would not let me leave without buying the car that THEY wanted me to have.

When the salesman realised he was losing me, he accused me of lying about not knowing the value of my car because he could see I had looked it up on the internet. How he knew this I do not know but his tone was extremely accusatory and I actually felt very uncomfortable at this point.

When I said I wanted to leave, he brought in the big guns and sent his boss to deal with me (who, to be fair, was a lot friendlier) but they tried all sorts of tactics to stop me leaving without buying the ONLY car they bothered to show me.

Would definitely not do business with them. And as a woman, I felt extremely intimidated and like they were trying to take advantage of me.