Peter

Unbelievable

Where do I start with the poor experience? I saw a Skoda fabia Monte Carlo online which I liked the look of. I spoke to jack on the phone and said I was travelling from Southampton so could he advise me of the condition before travelling. He said it had one stone chip on the bonnet but otherwise immaculate. I left a £200 deposit as I couldn't make it up until the following week. The following week I drove to Bristol to collect the car along with my autel code and fault reader that does a deep search on the cars ecu control module. I arrived and from a distance it looked clean enough as you would expect. It was inside so just under artificial lighting. Firstly, I plugged the machine into the cars OBD port and every part of the cars system had lots of faults. I pointed this out to jack and he said he "knew nothing about cars". This was a very bad start as some of them were very serious and would have cost quite a lot of money to put right. I then decided to have a closer look at the bodywork and to put it politely, it looked like it had participated in the Monte Carlo rally!!!! The front wing had a big dent in it, the rear boot lid had a dent, every panel had a dodgy touch up paint job on it and pop marks (shopping trolley or car doors opening onto it) that would need taking out with a specialist dent remover/bodyshop. The alloys looked like someone had painted them with a pot of hammerite and a brush!! The bonnet had a lot of poorly touched up stone chips on it. I pointed all these out to jack and his reply was "I hadn't seen them". I find it hard to believe you would buy a car in to sell and not check or see them (You could have seen them from the moon). He then said "People are not fussy and just buy a car". I told him it was very tatty and I was going to leave it. He said "You won't find a cleaner one than this".lol. He then said "Well, I can't give you your £200 deposit back" and by this time I was just happy to get away and find a car that was in good condition and working order. Did I forget to mention the car stunk of cigarette smoke inside. I went back to Southampton, found a Skoda fabia Monte Carlo in Birmingham at a Skoda dealers for £250 more than he wanted for his one that had less miles, full Skoda history and a 12 month Skoda warranty and the next day I went to Birmingham and bought an immaculate, unmarked, as new model which I am really happy with. I would question this establishments reliability and code of trading conduct. I would strongly advise against this garage and having anything to do with them. THINK DODGY CAR DEALERS - THINK FAMILY CARS - BRISTOL. I have probably lost my £200 deposit but am just pleased that I didn't end up buying an over priced old banger. No matter what their reply is, I have just given an honest review based on my experience. BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!!