LatterCars.Com: Buying a used car - my experience with Station Garage

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Buying a used car - my experience with Station Garage

Continued from "Buying a used car - my experience 1."

Note: Company not recommended. Have had numerous complaints about this company from various readers. Moreover the company website has been down for quite sometime. Calls to the owner were unanswered and I assume the company has closed down. However, I am still using the Volvo I bought from them and is still running fine.

After my disastrous day in Solihul and Birmingham, I was back on the Auto Trader site. I found a few Ford Mondeos I liked and within my budget. Unfortunately found out that the first two I had listed down had been sold. There was a private seller but he was still servicing the car and asked me to call up later.

While going through the various cars, I noticed one Mondeo with really low mileage and if I was able to knock down a couple of prices, it would be well below my budget. The used car dealer - Station Garage Coventry was in Balsall Common, about 7.3 miles from my house. As I couldn't wait, I just took a cab and set off for the place directly without calling. What really attracted me was their claim that their cars:

"come with 12 months parts and labour warranty. For your peace of mind, they are all HPI checked."

It is a good idea to go to a car dealer without calling so that you can look around at leisure. Even if you do call them up, don't tell them what car you are interested in as I learnt from some friends that they would "prepare" it for you before you turn up and you might miss a few things.

Anyway, I reached the place and Jonathan, the guy running the place showed me the Mondeo I was interested in. Around that time, my friend Ihsan turned up as well. Had a look at the engine which was tip top by the way, and took it for a test drive. It was OK but not that smooth. The clutch was stiff and the hand brakes were not working.

While looking around, I suddenly laid my eyes on this Volvo S40. The price was slightly higher than my budget but I was sure that I could knock it down a bit. It had only done 65K miles and took it for a test drive. That was it - I decided to buy the car. The car ticked all my requirements - including the extras, sports rims, air conditioning and CD player. Now was time for haggling.

As much as I tried, Jonathan wouldn't budge on the price. I gave up on the Volvo and tried to reduce the price of the Mondeo but it was "No!" again. As I was about to leave , he was willing to reduce the price on the Mondeo by about £99 pounds but I decided to look for another Volvo elsewhere.

When I came back home I had a discussion with my wife. We looked at other Volvo S40s available and found a few within the same price range. Some were cheaper but with a higher mileage. However, none offered a 12 months parts and labour warranty. Plus it came with 12 months MOT.

That was it. I called the garage up and informed Jonathan that I wanted to buy the car and would be back at the garage the next day. He told me that there was someone coming to look at the car as well. I doubted it as the car was no where listed on their stock list nor on the auto trader.

Later at night we decided to check out the car's history on the RAC site.That's when I started to have doubts. The report said "Details currently held on the National Mileage Register (NMR) indicates that there may be a mileage discrepancy on this vehicle". That set off a lot of alarm bells even though the estimated market value was higher at that mileage.

So called up the garage in the morning the next day and informed Jonathan about my concerns. However he assured me that it might be human error and had the service records to prove it.

To cut a long story short (it's already long) I went back and finally bought the car. The garage had the car serviced and replaced one of the tyres as well. After I had paid the money (via debit) and as I was about to drive away, suddenly realised that the car had no floor mats. And I wasn't getting any. A small thing but left me somewhat dissatisfied.

Anyway, that's was my experience with Station Garage Coventry based in Ballsal Common and here's my new ride: