Hello

I'm based in Ireland do don't have much first hand knowledge on the UK car giant company

So for the UK people on here :

1 Would you recommend them or stay a mile away from them ?

2 Are their cars inferior ?

3 Is car giant just seen as low quality ?

4 Where do they normally source the cars from ?

Sorry if this has been asked before.

Edited 14 May, 201214 yr by obi604

Carshop.co.uk is a similar site which is quite good and I know someone that has purchased one from there and said they would buy another.

Some positive comments on Car Giant here:

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/229449-looking-to-buy-whats-best-low-mileage-or-newer/page__p__2696130__hl__car%20giant__fromsearch__1#entry2696130

I bought mine from them and the choice is excellent, however they will try and sell you warranty, gap insurance and some kind of valet car protection ... if you can politely say NO to all three you will get a good deal.

A lot of their vehicles are ex-company ones. So you will find a lot of them are quite high mileage for their age. As someone else said they will try and sell you every single possible add-on however you can just say no to it all.

One thing they will stress is the "warranty" as the vehicle simply doesn't come with one if you don't buy one. When we were looking I pointed out that as a business there was a general duty of care and "warranty or not" if we purchased and the car immediately died or we found a dangerous fault it would be coming straihgt back to them - poor girl was most upset to admit that obviously legal rights are uneffected by not buying a warranty :-)

My brother picked up a 58 plate Civic for pretty good money. Mileage was OK, there were a few marks on the inside, however nothing that one new piece of trim and a new door card couldn't fix.

When comparing it to what the vehicles were selling for on Autotrader we felt we got a good deal. They wouldn't budge on their selling price, telling us they were as low as they could go.

We did however get £750 for a 51 plate Bora with over 100k miles and 2 bald tyres - which we felt was fair.

Carshop's cars are normally quiet good, I am not far from the Northampton one and they are very well presented.

CarGaint their place looks like a car park cars aren't 100% but as above if you are picky you can uncover a few Jems.

thanks for replies

Thing is im based in Ireland. So I need to get a flight over and then do the deal and get a boat home,because of this, I need to be 110% sure on the purchase before I even travel.

I bought my last car in the UK from a garage and all fine as he had scanned in the service records, MOT stuff etc and sent them to me so I could see all this info before travelling and do all my checks

I asked car giant for some service records for a car im interested in and tehy said I can only see them physically on site so a bit of a pain. Car giant seems to be a bit impersonal. Then if I didnt like something about the car, would be a wasted trip, if you know what I mean

Also on the warranty, no real point in me getting a warranty when buying a car in the UK as im a boat trip and a drive away from the place where id be buying it

I have looked at cars at car giant

I thought they were low quality with very marked alloys. Does depend on the brand though.

I believe they do not like giving test drives either.

Would not bother going too see them again personally. Look up the great trade centre it is their former trading name.

Given your costs I would think its tip much of a risk of a wasted journey

thanks for the advice solwood

all seems a bit suspicious i.e not allowing you a **decent** test drive when you are going to be spending thousands on one of their cars

Their location pretty much precludes a "decent" test drive and their "stack em high, sell em (fairly) cheap" business model means they don't need to care too much about all the courtesies - if you won't buy the car because you didn't have a good test drive, someone else will. If you want to test a car at 70mph, buy it from a dealer that is near a 70mph road.

Its a car warehouse thousands on die and hundreds of customers

Many of the cars are in warranty so that's your protection

At the time I was looking for a Mondeo estate all were in bad condition with no prep.

Consider trade sales. Stock seems better condition or MJA.

whats MJA ?

As I said the car shop has a few at the moment and the cars are presented in a good state. If you was interested in on then I would be happy to travel (Northampton Branch) to have a look on your behalf and get some "real" pictures and ask them for the docs ?

Rs939

First of all THANK YOU for the very kind offer, much appreciated, good to know there are decent people still out there. sent you a PM.

What a great forum this really is......when I get an offer from someone who dosent even know me to do this for me

Restored my faith..........

obi have you called John Mullholland and Mervin Stuart the 2 Skoda dealers in NI to see if they can source a car for you? They should be able to keep you in mind for any trade ins coming their way early etc. I know a main dealer is not going to be the cheapest but the money you'd save on travel would go some way towards it and they might be open to the fact you will take car and be gone back across the border unlikely to be seen again. I used to work in a multi franchised main dealers in NI and it was common for people down south to come get used vehicles cheap and do one with none of the normal perks added on. PDI/wash/valet etc.

I have indeed Fubar, thanks ; )

I have indeed Fubar, thanks ; )

Good lad fingers crossed you find the right one soon. If not I may be selling mine this time next year

Good lad fingers crossed you find the right one soon. If not I may be selling mine this time next year

; )

With me being so pedantic Fubar, it could be 2 years before I end up buying a car ; )

And will drive yee all mad in the meantime with all my questions ; )

Carshop's cars are normally quiet good, I am not far from the Northampton one and they are very well presented.

CarGaint their place looks like a car park cars aren't 100% but as above if you are picky you can uncover a few Jems.

I've been over there all the way from cheshire and they are a joke- a bad one-- stopped at the gate "have you got an appointment sir" wtf finally got a test drive, ran out of petrol at the gate, fifteen minutes to find some--- changing lanes on that nearby dual carriage way was dangerous as the car snaked(a 2 year old Merc coupe) back to base carefully!! rear tyre covered in oil, inspected? -don't think so -- the poor lad tasked to sell this crap was getting some stick from his "Superior" "would you buy it if we fixed the fault sir?" politely declined and drove home fuming -still fuming at these clowns--no wonder Ford's of Winsford have won car supermarket of the year approx four years running on this basis they have little competition but I understand MOTORPOINT are pretty good

Mja car sales I have looked and they have no Skoda

Google then.

Stock looks good