Dave E

Two cars and two nightmares

In December 2020, Sytner BMW Leicester sold me a 2015 Mercedes E63 AMG for £29250.00. The standard of preparation of this car was not brilliant, but I was prepared to sort a few small issues out myself. However, I discovered very soon afterwards, the car was using a lot of oil and needed a full engine rebuild. I asked them for a refund and the sales manager said that they could only offer part ex value. When I reminded them of their legal obligations, they asked me to get it inspected by a specialist, but when they saw the results, they insisted that it was returned to them for inspection. They ran me around for weeks, taking 2 weeks to collect the car and provide a courtesy car. Once they had inspected the car, 2 weeks later, they said that the car needed a full engine rebuild. The sales mgr said that he had approved the work, but I didn't want an E63 AMG car with a rebuilt engine, as this would de-value the car a lot. They took the weekend to consider their position and said that they would refund me, not including the wheel refurb cost etc, given that the wheels were not great when I took delivery, but the salesman had been asked to try and get me to take a replacement car instead. I said that I would try to work with them if they had a suitable car. I decided on a 2016 BMW M5 as this was the only car they had that was of interest to me although it was going to cost me an additional £4,250. I was asked to leave a deposit on the car, even though they effectively already had £29,250 of my money. They then said that the car would need to be transferred from another site and would take a couple of weeks to prepare. The salesman told me that they wanted to ensure that the BMW was “perfect”, given the previous issues with the Mercedes. I collected the car on May 18th. After all of the Mercedes issues, I wanted to check this BMW out fully and the day after I collected it i took the car to a local specialist, I discovered that they had “forgotten” to put the car through an MOT test. Not a great start. The specialist also mentioned that the car would need front brake discs and pads immediately. When I called them, the salesman said that it must have been an oversight and asked me to take the car for an MOT test and they would refund me. I took it for an MOT test and asked the tester to check the car out. He told me that it would pass its MOT test but the front discs were only 0.1mm above the minimum thickness and would need to be replaced very soon. It also showed fault codes on the passenger door handles. After speaking to the salesman again, he said that the discs had passed their inspections and were fine and the door handle problem would need to be investigated at some point, even though they had apparently already replaced a door handle on the car. I also had to chase my refund for the MOT, 2 weeks later. 5 weeks later this car broke down and had to be recovered to Knights BMW in Stoke. When it broke down, my first call was to Sytner. They were unable to even pass me on to somebody who could help me, so I called Knights, who are my local dealer, and they were absolutely superb. The next day, Knights contacted me to tell me that they had fully inspected the car and it needed a new fuel pump, a new fuel tank, 2 new door handles, a rear tyre and new front discs and pads, as these were down to the minimum thickness. Remember here that this is the car that Sytner told me would have to be “perfect”. Everything but the tyre and the discs was covered by the BMW warranty, but Sytner absolutely refused to pay for the discs and pads, likely because the cost was £1300 After a couple of weeks of back and forth, I contacted BMW UK. They quite rightly said that as it was a used car, it was not technically their problem, but would contact Sytner as they were not happy with this situation. Strangely enough, about an hour afterwards, Sytner called me and offered to “go halves” on the repairs. I turned this offer down. Another hour went by and they called me again. The salesman said that even though they felt the discs were fine, they would replace them at their cost, but I would have to take it to them in Leicester, so that they could “control the work that was carried out”. I read into this that they just wanted to do it cheaper. At this point I just wanted the car fixed, so took it to them and had the work carried out. I did of course have to pay for a tyre myself. It is shameful that a 560bhp car would be sold by a main dealer, with brake discs that were effectively at the end of their service life. So in conclusion, if you want a used car, go elsewhere. Personally I will never spend a single penny with the Sytner group ever again. They will try to get out of paying for any repairs that are not covered under the warranty. I would say that Sytner should be ashamed of their conduct, but get the impression that they don’t really care.