John S

-ve. Not FSH - left with no car tax.

Decided to purchase a Freelander 2 from this garage, after discussing options with Zed who worked there. I was travelling for 9.5 hours/500+ miles to get there, so this was all done remotely. Finance was applied for and trade in value was agreed and confirmed when collecting. Funds for finance appeared to be released on application date, rather than vehicle pick up over a week later which wasn't what I had normally experienced. Drove down to collect the vehicle, convenient as was able to collect without a predetermined time. Zed wasn’t working, so we spoke with Ash. Ash gave us the key to vehicle to go and look at. MOT had recently been done, along with oils, Cambelt/pump kit. I was to pay 50% of the cambelt/pump. MOT had a warning about a tyre being near legal limit which was to be replaced. When arrived, this hadn’t been done, which Ash chased up as he had expected this to be done. Ash arranged quickly with Zed to get this done at a local garage if I didn’t mind taking the car there. We agreed that was fine. Vehicle had been described as in good condition, with only an issue about the tailgate boot handle. However, the vehicle did have some scuffs, and some rather interesting writing etched into the inside of the rear windows through the tint. My main issue was the vehicle was advertised as full-service history, which was confirmed by Zed on a telephone call. When looking at the vehicle service history, the last service was in 2018. No further history logged for 2019, 2020 and 2021. When questioning Ash about this he told me that people often went by the mileage, so it was still a FSH. I reinforced, this car was due a service every 12 months, or within 16,000 miles whichever comes soonest. My pal also pointed out the car had travelled more than 16,000 miles since last service as well, so it wasn’t even meeting that. So, they had described a car as having a full-service history, when indeed the car did not have proof to back this up. Fluids/oils had been changed when the MOT had been done for me collecting the vehicle. At this point, I took some time out to decide what I wanted to do as I only really wanted to buy a vehicle with a FSH. I went back in and said I wanted to cancel the deal and could they refund everything. Ash then offered to waive the 50% contribution to the pump/cambelt fitting. I took this under consideration and agreed to proceed. Ash, then asked about car tax – I explained I usually do this by direct debit. He said “oh we’ll put six months on for you” (witnessed by my friend who had came with me). I asked when this would be done – “within 10 minutes it will be taxed for you, I’ll do it now”. We went out to the car, settled ourselves into it and went to the garage 10 minutes later to get the tyre sorted. Arrived at the tyre place, only to find that there was no locking wheel nut key in the car, so they were going to have difficulty changing the tyre. Quick call to Ash, and it was agreed to remove with force the locking key from each wheel, so we had no issues on the way home. Tyre changed and off we went. On day of purchase (day 1) I checked the DVLA to see the car had been taxed and it was showing as untaxed. Called Ash again, who said it can take a little time at the weekend to do. I explained that we were travelling up the road, and could he send proof over of the transaction in case we were stopped. Ash agreed to send over a message with the proof. This proof never arrived. (day 2) I got home, the following night and left it until Monday to check the tax. Again, showing as untaxed, however I noticed it could take up to 5 days to show. Feeling more relieved by this, I left this. However, I checked the tax by the end of the week and found it still showing as untaxed. On day 9 I called and spoke with Ash again about this. He told me to email their sales email and he would check with DVLA on Monday morning. I emailed detailing what was needed. On day 10, I called Ash back in the afternoon to find out what had happened? He said he had spoken with DVLA, and the car had been taxed for one month, and if I wanted six-month tax I would need to pay them the fee. I was really confused, why now suddenly were they asking for me to pay for car tax, which was supposed to have been done 10 days ago? Through this call it also transpired there was a V62 application to get a V5 log for me as they didn’t have the V5. I called DVLA, that evening and spoke with a staff member there. Basically, the car had not been taxed and I was advised I needed by law to take the vehicle off the road. Because the V5 logbook was not present, they advised the dealership would need to physically go into the Post office to tax this vehicle with the relevant application. That night, on day 10, I emailed two emails to sales email, citing I just needed this car taxed as it was essential for my work to be able to drive. On day 11 – I received an email back to say they could tax it. I called, matter of fact to make a payment citing I needed proof of the transaction. I would be unable to tax the vehicle myself due to lack of V5. Proof of tax came through later that afternoon. So to summary, FSH was not full at all, in fact was incomplete. 1 key was present, but because I hadn’t asked about that, I had no leg to stand on. Damage to the vehicle was not as described verbally to me. They probably knew they couldn’t have changed the tyre because of the locking wheel nut key being missing, so sent me off to find that out for myself. Ash told me my car would be taxed within 10 minutes, led me to believe it had been taxed for a total of 10 days, then said I needed to pay for it. Placing me at risk of having insurance voided or fined for not being road legal. Would I recommend this group to anyone? No. My experience has been very poor. On the flip – I do like the car – so every cloud.