FOW

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Sat 11 Aug 2001 08:13
FOW - Gordon
I am thinking of buying a car from Fords of Winsford.Does anyone have any
good or bad experiences of this car supersite in Cheshire?
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Sat 11 Aug 2001 09:00
Re: FOW - Dai Watchalowski
Yes,
I know several locals (traitors !) who have bought from here. Its like anywhere else of hte ame ilk, take care with what you buy and you could be lucky, some prestige motors they get are good value.
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Sat 11 Aug 2001 20:36
Re: FOW - Mark
Hi Gordon

I have used them within the last two months; general observations are;

Look on their website before you go, there are best part of a 1000 cars there normally and if you are looking for something specific this can help narrow down the search;

When you get there go straight to the big building and get their stock list, this tells you roughly where each car is on site, they try to keep them together roughly by model etc but you will always find another lurking somewhere there.

Most of the un reg stuff is an Irish import so check the spec carefully,

Try and get there no later than an hour before they close, they get quite twitchy if you decide to buy 10 minutes before they close,

They only take small amounts of cash, if I recall about £200, the rest has to be cheque (7 days to clear) Debit card (best) or CC but with a surcharge of an extra 1.75% to them.

Dont bother pxing with them unless you have a total shed to get rid of their p/x offers are laughably low. I went there 3 weekends in a row prior to buying and each time as there was a different valuer in the car park I asked for a p/x price, each one was different each week for example

week 1 £2200

week 2 £2300

week 3 £2100

that was for a 97 P Vectra 2.0L DI LS with full history, new tyres, full mot and 100k on clock. I got £3850 on a private sale and could have sold it 5 times over. They said their p/x offers were equal to what it was worth at auction.

Also check the docs carefully before you sign anything and when you collect, I ended up with docs relating to 2 different cars.

hope this helps

Mark
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Sat 11 Aug 2001 22:48
Re: almost forgot - Mark
Gordon

nearly forgot to mention I found their own finance on the high side c15% much better deals around.

Also unless you are buying something that will need a warranty their "own" warranty did not excite me, remember in most cases if you buy nearly new there should be a manufacturers warranty left on it.

Also when I collected I found that the VED actually cost less than charged on the invoice, a bit of moaning on my part led to being given a chit to "collect fuel to the value of" from the nearby supermarket filling station.

Also they were vague about servicing carried our before collection, it seemed to be perfunctory from the description the salesman gave me esp with regards to used. I bought "new" and was told as the car had just had its PDI "elsewhere" there was "no need". Result v.careful inspection before I left the premises, but that just common sense anywhere you buy.

as ever

Mark
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