Phil B

Avoid at all costs

Kenny of Haxston Ltd. claims to provide top rate service and ‘offer unparalleled quality’. This, I believe, is utter twaddle. Here is why… For starters, the one star is wholly for Kenny having the car delivered personally from Dundee to near Cambridge. Upon delivery and review of the paperwork, I was assured the fact that the V5 said the car was blue (when in fact it was a pearlescent white vinyl wrap) was fine and would not cause problems – which it did not. However, I later learnt when I sold the car, this was in fact illegal, and I had been driving, when the Police could have had the car impounded at any time. Speaking of illegalities, whilst Kenny was driving down from Dundee, in what was to be my car, he managed to get a speeding ticket. Which I only found out about when the change in registration came through months later. On the return journey, he then completed the brace of speeding tickets by getting another in the car I had part exchanged. Both tickets were passed on to the company and dealt with by them. Once the test drive had taken place smoothly and money had changed hands, I sat in the car for a while having a play with the iDrive system, putting the seat/mirrors in the right position etc. and when I turned the car on the dashboard lit up like Blackpool Illuminations. Check engine lights, low battery, FTM monitor, you name it, it came on. Luckily, Kenny was still sat on my road in the car I had just part exchanged. We had a chat and he assured me there was ‘just an electrical issue that normally sorts itself out’ – terrible take. Within months of owning the car, I had to replace the suspension springs, wheel speed sensor, nitrous oxide sensor, fuel pump and camshaft sensor. This cost me the best part of £1000. To his credit, he sourced the wheel speed sensor and NoX sensor. As it happens, the suspension springs the one previous owner had fitted, were not suited for the car (should have been on a 3 series coupé – not convertible, as the weight of the heavy roof system caused them to banana). My mechanic described it as a ‘Friday Car’. A term I had to google the meaning of, and it couldn’t have been any more accurate. That was not the end of the previous cowboy owner’s reign of shocking decisions. They, in their infinite wisdom, decided to install wheels with the complete wrong offset and were also the wrong size for the car – these wheels were listed as a selling point for the car, when in fact it was a major defect. I later learnt this when I spent £1300 on brand new wheels. 6 months down the line, around Christmas 2021, I was still awaiting payment of around £700. Months pass, promise after promise, excuse after excuse, he finally tells me that he had just found out that his business partner had been embezzling money from the company! This put a further delay on sending me the money I was owed. Other reason/excuse/BS for the delay was that he had ‘started a new business venture’ (something to do with fleet vans) – I do not know I was enervated of his ‘explanations’. More months of texting & ringing for daily updates go by – often getting messages ignored and calls declined – late March 2022 he got a bit fed up and said,” please stop calling me every day it is not going to change the fact I’ve no money and I have said before I’m not not going to pay you so just let me live my life”. It was November 2021 when the first bill was sent to Kenny for reimbursement, under the 6-month warranty he offered. At the time of writing this, August 15, 2023, I am still owed just shy of £100. Having purchased the car in mid-June 2021, with less than 9 months ownership, I sold it to a popular car purchasing company, incurring a big loss. The main cause of the loss was the cost of the vinyl wrap having to be removed – so the V5 would be legal. Another reason for the sale was due to the MOT expiring, and looking at its history, I was not confident it would pass. Before purchasing, the last MOT on the car was carried out by Kenny’s own MOT business ‘Robert Hally & Sons’… With the number of issues I faced with the vehicle, I am confident the MOT done by Kenny’s own company was a swindle to get the sale. Tread carefully – or avoid generally – when purchasing from Haxston Ltd. Check paperwork and car history carefully – a hard lesson I have come to learn, so for that Kenny, I thank you.