Margarite B

Absolute con artists

We part exchanged our vehicle for a Mini Clubman fromCars2You in mid March. Having bought a vehicle from this garage before, we considered them to be a tried and trusted local garage. We were due to pick up the car on the Saturday after the car had a few nicks/dents repaired. The plan was for C2Y to clear our outstanding finance and we took Out the necessary finance to purchase the new vehicle and the extra finance to cover the difference in values of the cars (stay with me!) We we’re also encouraged to take out their warranty on the vehicle. We were then contacted by Cars2You to ask us if we could collect our vehicle on the Friday as the were ‘closing the unit for a deep clean’. We agreed. Upon our arrival, the premises were open sufficiently to allow us to complete the exchange of vehicles but it was far from business as usual. This was not surprising as it was just before the lock down due to Covid. We were told that finance was cleared on our vehicle, signed the necessary paperwork and log books etc. By coincidence, a rear brake light needed replacing the day after the purchase. Living close by, we thought it would be easy enough to pop rounds to unit and workshop to get bulb replaced as it was covered in warranty. All units were closed and my husband made several attempts over the next couple of days. It was on the Tuesday they my husband was advised by staff at a neighbouring unit that Cars2You had gone into liquidation. Initially, we were fed up that nothing was said as they must have known what was happening when we collected the vehicle. It then dawned on us to check if the finance had been cleared on the vehicle we part exchanged - it hadn’t and we were clearly told by the finance company that we were liable for the £9500 outstanding. Cutting a very long story short, we then spent a very stressful 10 days attempting to contact the complaints e mail for Car2You, Financial Ombudsman, Companies House, Action Fraud (crime number obtained) local police (not Interested!), legal advice , Auto Trader (Cars2You still advertising vehicles for sale through them) and the AA who vouch for them as a trusted dealer. To our surprise, we received a response from the company’s complaints e mail (same surname as registered owner of company). We were told that the company had folded and they did not have the money to pay our finance. They offered to sell the vehicle in our behalf - no thanks. We eventually met one of their mechanics outside their closed units who handed out vehicle back (clearly had been used with cigarettes, lighter and gun shield left in vehicle and 70 miles extra on clock. We were just glad to get vehicle back. We are now handing our original vehicle back to finance company but again have to pay another £1500 to clear all credit. We actually consider ourselves fortunate as we were beginning to try to get our heads around having to pay nearly £9500 back to finance company. I cannot tell you how stressed we were. As an aside, Companies House informed us that Cars2You has not gone into liquidation and were still trading. Cheers!!