Jon L

ND61 LEF. Price £4,495 agreed £4k

Re Light Blue Mini, ND61 LEF. Priced at £4,495 agreed offer at £4,000. Thet agreed a price and then didn’t like the deal anymore – he then gazumped me. Initially we contacted them by text for information. Immediately they're accusing us of not being real buyers as we would not speak to him (passive aggression – my daughter was quite taken aback). I called for my daughter and arranged a test drive. To begin with he seemed like a nice chap – big on honesty, feedback, customer service but challenging me all the time and telling me how much he knows about cars – it was weird. Tells me he’s sold 600+ Minis, so he must have sold thousands of cars right? Only 52 reviews and most this year. Seem odd. Off for a test drive and the hard sell he’s focussing on my daughters for some reason. Apparently, they are the decision makers, quite patronising actually. My daughter was offended when he suggested that I was paying for her car (she earns her own money). After the test drive I spotted some damaged lights on the car (he said everything was perfect), he was not really interested and tried to minimise – I think he’s been on a sales course. I also queried in the process his three month warranty. In fact this is not a warranty, it’s a promise from him to fix the car if he feels it’s defective. On our test drive he explained that one women had broken her engine (how??) and he did not honour. A real warranty is a legal document, not a promise. Following the test drive I asked him for his best price, he said it was the sticker price. I declined so he asked me to make an offer (I would advise you to push hard on price). I said £4,000 and he then declined and I left. Two days later and very oddly, he then emailed my 20 year old daughter with the letter “y”. We came to learn that his written communication was odd and quite provocative. I texted him and said that the offer still stood but otherwise it was over (ie don’t contact my daughter). He immediately phoned and we agreed a deal at 4k, but he still wanted me to explain how I thought I knew so much about cars??? After arranging to pick up the car, pay deposits and so on he later found that another buyer was interested and I was effectively gazumped. Completely went back on his deal. I even had a full HPI done. The whole experience with them was a complete waste of time.