Car B

Car Buyer

Hello, after buying a car from Oxford Autosports LTD this is my honest, unbiased review. In February 2015 I purchased a vehicle in a trade sale. I took my car for part ex and was offered slightly less than the going rate but the deal given for the vehicle I was looking at was more than reasonable and I was happy to do this. I was very impressed by Aran and how welcoming he was, we were left alone to inspect the car without hassle and given ample time to think our purchase through. After the test drive and talking through figures I was happy to go ahead with the sale and left a happy customer. I had an hour and a half drive to get home and enjoyed the car and other than a few rattles and smells which I put down to it being a new car and me having to get used to it arrived home happy with my new car. 3 weeks later I was in Portsmouth for a training course and took the vehicle to have a service (it had an LPG modification). Within an hour of getting back I received a phone call from the mechanic telling me he found a few problems with the car. In short, the review from the mechanic was this: LPG fuel leak Petrol fuel leak Air leak Rear brake disks and pads needing replacing In his professional opinion the car was unsuitable to be used on a public highway and as such, would have left me uninsured if I was in an accident. He took the brake pads to a colleague who does MOT testing and showed him the brakes and in his professional opinion the car should NOT of passed an MOT which was done within the last 1000 miles. In my haste and to my own personal error I told the mechanic to begin works to fix the problems and make the car road worthy. In hindsight I should have contacted Aran at Oxford Autosports LTD and told him of the problems. After getting the car back from the mechanic and paying the bills I emailed Aran twice on his website email address over a few days and didn’t receive a reply. I then called him and left a message to which he replied within the hour which I was very happy about. He said that because it was a ‘trade sale’ and ‘sold as seen’ that I was not covered by any warranty and that I couldn’t expect anything back from him. He went on to saying that Range Rovers are unreliable and that’s why he does not stock them (although he had two other Range Rovers advertised on his site the same week). After being in contact with Citizens Advice they advised me to send a complaint letter followed by a letter before action if nothing happens. This was as the car was unfit for purpose and did not last for a reasonable amount of time. After sending the first letter I received a voice mail from Aran saying that my complaint had been ‘thrown in the bin’ and that he would see me in court over the issue. He stated that if I did not stop sending letters then he would begin proceedings with charging me with harassment. He then delicately ended the voice mail by calling me a derogatory name before hanging up. After getting this voice mail I sent the letter before action again with a copy of the statement from the mechanic with his review of the car. After getting a hand written letter through sent first class where he again refused to issue any reimbursement for the money I had to spend to get the car to a road worthy condition I decided that the hassle of going further to it outweighed the money I would get back from it. So what have I taken away from this? I now have a much better overview of the steps to go through after buying a car and finding a problem with it, call the person who sold you the car as soon as you can! I can also strongly suggest getting an AA inspection of any car before you part with your cash as they can easily come back to bite you in the backside if you’re unlucky. As I said at the start of this review, this is my own personal review on one car which Aran has sold. I can’t say or speak of anyone else who has brought a car and can strongly say that I hope nobody else has a problem with Aran, but in my experience it has put me off from buying from an independent car dealer and will from now on ONLY be buying from a franchised main dealer.