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A fool and his money etc...ect....ect.
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Visint friends in Manchester, it was decided a trip to the trafford centre was in order.
Not a fan of shopping, I wandered around the local area and came across the carcraft site adjacent to the trafford centre.
They had 3 year old chevrolet sparks for £7,500!
You can pick them up pretty much anywhere brand new for £6,500.
They had 2 year old fiesta for £9,000!
And the best of the lot...
A 1 year old basic Nissan Micra was £10,000.
The sales team whre nearly all yound lads with no clue about the vehicles.
All they 2 pushy men kept telling me was they could get the price down if I did it on finance.
And yet, there where mugs in there sitting down and signing up to vastly inflated cars on insane finance deals.
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Whilst people are set on self financial destruction there will always be wide boys ready to take money from them.
If it wasn't expensive finance houses fleecing people it would be some other form of snake oil sales leech.
Up to a point you would expect it to be the older folk who get conned like this, but after a lifetime of getting kicked in the cobblers regularly as most of us have maybe we can spot the waddle hear the quack and realise its a duck.
I'm genuinly puzzled why the young get fleeced though, invariably they are festooned with internet linked devices (i couldn't possibly operate) and make out they are 'streetwise' and know all, yet they appear too stupid to check before buying the type of people they are getting involved with.
Same sort of people are idiot enough to borrow money @ 2000%+, you really can't help them until like alcoholics they admit they have a problem.
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Carcraft are like DFS, the only thing they sell is a myth that what people are buying is affordable, i.e. the price doesn't matter, the monthly outlay does. If you can afford £150 a month thats what they will sell you, it just happens you get a car or sofa as part of the deal.
If you walked into Carcraft with no trade in and a cash buyer they probably wouldn't speak to you for long, or if they did they would try and advise you that its better to keep your money for a rainy day and take out a loan with them.
Only been to Carcraft once about 15 years ago. It was like Ikea or a casino. Once inside finding the way out is impossible.
Edited by daveyjp on 11/07/2013 at 19:19
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I visited the local branch of CarCraft in Grays-Thurrock. This was about 12 years ago.
I would never go there again! I only wanted to have a quick look at their cars, that's all, but, on arrival, you have to have a meeting with one of their "Advisors". I was asked what sort of car I was interested in, what car I had to trade-in and how much I wanted to spend. I was then given a really hard-sell to persuade me to take out their finance and, as it turned out, this was all they were really interested in. When I explained, with great difficulty, I hasten to add, that I have never borrowed money to buy cars in my life, the "Advisor" appeared to lose interest in me.
I, once again, asked it I could look at the cars, and was quite prepared to just walk out this time if my request was refused. The "Advisor" reluctantly lowered the chain which prevented access to the sales area, and, finally, I was able to do what I'd gone to CarCraft to do in the first place, i.e. just look at their cars.
Quite honestly, I wish I hadn't bothered! The cars I saw were very poorly prepared for sale, many with visible stone chips, and that was just relating to things I could see. The mileages were high as were, of course, the prices!
I would never, ever, go to CarCraft again and I wouldn't advise anyone else to go there, either.
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The cars I saw were very poorly prepared for sale
AFAIK cars they sell are as they get from the auctions literally,they only clean them when they are sold,i dont think they even service the motors before or after sale,cheaper to buy from auction (scrub that) private
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Carcraft are like DFS, the only thing they sell is a myth that what people are buying is affordable, i.e. the price doesn't matter, the monthly outlay does. If you can afford £150 a month thats what they will sell you,
Agreed!
Wven the manufacturers are in on the game now with new cars, "just addt fuel" to name one, pay a deposit, pay a monthly fee limited mileage, pay for damage ang give us the car back in 2/3/4 years. One of the interesting things with one deal from chevrolet 5 years % is that you are tied to them for 5 years, servicing parts and repairs, for cars that lose 40-50% in valie in the first 12 months, not a criticism, but a comment,
Everyone wants everything now and cheap!
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They run 'we buy any car'.
Anything decent gets put on the forecourt, the rest goes to BCA under the 'CC Trade Sales'
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Maybe all the above is why Renault are doing so well with the Dacia brand in Europe?
Press observations suggest buyers like them because of the relative honesty of the product & pricing?
I realise it will take another 20 years before the British buying public eventually catch on, but maybe folk are getting tired of being overtly fleeced?
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I don't see why there is this need to protect fools from their own stiupidity.
Sorry but I think there is a need. Why should a non car expert granny on her own have to be taken to the cleaners by spivvs like these guys, so yes vulnerable people with no help do need protection. Just because people dont know much about buying cars doesn't make them fools !
Personally I would do battle with these sales people as a sport, but thats just me.
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Roly, i think the average granny i know wouldn't stay in the same room as the spivs in question, grannies usually have large helpings of common sense.
I've visited the local car supermarket (not the company in question but similar practices with newer cars) and 2 minutes in the company of their leeches is as much as i can stand, even the security guard on the entrance gate was equally jobsworth/programmed, you must be made of stronger stuff than me.
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Roly, i think the average granny i know wouldn't stay in the same room as the spivs in question, grannies usually have large helpings of common sense.
Agree, but my overiding point is that society in general does need some protectiuon from illegal selling practices, as the lady from trading standards pointed out on the TV programme about these guys. It is so sad that we now live in a world of injury lawyers, payday loans and pressure sales spivvs !
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It is so sad that we now live in a world of injury lawyers, payday loans and pressure sales spivvs !
Now that is something i agree with you completely on.
Monkey see monkey do, those at the very top lie cheat and line their pockets nicely and get gongs for doing so.
Those of a similar dishnourable nature further down the food chain are simply copying what their heroes do.
Meanwhile decent honourable people who's word means something get p'd on from an ever greater height.
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Good friend of mine was recruited to to be FD of Carcraft (or something like that). He moved his familyup north, stuck it out for a while but realised that their business model was not moral (certainly it is legal) and that eventually they would pay for it. He left.
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Roly, i think the average granny i know wouldn't stay in the same room as the spivs in question, grannies usually have large helpings of common sense.
I've visited the local car supermarket (not the company in question but similar practices with newer cars) and 2 minutes in the company of their leeches is as much as i can stand, even the security guard on the entrance gate was equally jobsworth/programmed, you must be made of stronger stuff than me.
Would that be the one at Riverside GB?
Like you I went in once. Was looking for a cash deal on a 2yo Picasso, no trade in, and if I needed finance I'd have asked my bank. No real interest in talking to me about the cars or any deal. Sticker price was non-negotiable and extras were added faster than at a Ryanair check in. No proper warranty, just one of those insurance based rip off jobs.
Identical car was at franchised dealer with same sort of windscreen price, only this time negotiable and including the manufacturers approved used guarantee supported by the dealer.
In trhe end we bought a new Berlingo but that's a different tale.
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I don't see why there is this need to protect fools from their own stiupidity.
Sorry but I think there is a need. Why should a non car expert granny on her own have to be taken to the cleaners by spivvs like these guys, so yes vulnerable people with no help do need protection. Just because people dont know much about buying cars doesn't make them fools !
Personally I would do battle with these sales people as a sport, but thats just me.
Sorry but I consider you are plain wrong.
After all people have choice: they are NOT forced to buy cars at silly prices.. like they have a choice of supermarkets, PC suppliers,TVs insurance and magazines.
And your analogy about grannies is frankly misleading. Most grannies - if they need a car - are either savvy enough to know about cars or have enough marbles to realise they do need help. Age has some advantages.! And the nanny state is a waste of time and money. See drug taking as an example. £billions spent and drug taking continues to rise. And people get killed by impure Ecstasy.
And anyone but anyone who spends £1k on anything -let alone £5k - without doing any research is indubitably a complete and utter fool - or have more money than sense..
You can protect people from outright fraud but selling expensive cars to idiots is good business.. Except repeat business may be an issue.:-)
Next you'll be telling me these people need advice before voting. A choice of Government is far more serious than buying a car.
Edited by madf on 12/07/2013 at 15:16
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Even when you take someone knowledgeable with you there is still the aspect of honesty. When you get the car examined by a third party (motoring organisation) and the dealer agrees to have the problems found (by the MO) put right, get the agreement in writing. I did the aged person part for someone and the dealer, a supermart in rural Cheshire, delivered the car without the remedial work and then refused to do anything, asking for more and more letters and more and more detail until my protege gave in and had the work done privately at his cost. When I asked to speak to the general manager I was put through to a secretary who assured me with hand on heart that the guy wasn't there.
The moral in the story is - 'When someone loudly bespeaks his honesty it's time to count the spoons' - and don't go there again - and tell all your friends not to.
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If someone agrees to do work on a car before it's sold to me, I check it's been done before I pay a penny.
That's called common commercial sense.
Anyone but anyone who collects and pays for a car without checking the agreed work has been carried out properly is frankly a fool at worst or a naive and trusting person at best and is going to be screwed royally in this world.
As I said before up thread, why should we protect people who act like idiots.?
Sorry for the harsh words but I trust a car saleman as much as a politician or a lawyer- or those nice people who ring you up telling you that you have won a prize but will you send £25 for postage -or the person who has $millions in a bank in Lagos etc...
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When you have to remove the back wheels to check whether the brakes have been fixed and remove the engine cover and the timing belt cover it becomes a different ballpark. And, if you're a hundred miles from home ...
The dealer makes a big thing of winning the WhatCar dealer of the year prize a couple of years earlier...
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... the dealer, a supermart in rural Cheshire, delivered the car without the remedial work and then refused to do anything ...
I would be pleasantly surprised if any car supermarket, never mind that one in rural Cheshire, would be willing or able to do more than a thorough valeting and perhaps a basic oil change. It may be unrealistic of buyers to expect a good cheap deal (that is why they go to such places - and to have a wide choice of most marques) AND a good level of servicing. You buy the car pretty much as seen, plus perhaps the simple jobs I have mentioned. These days most supermarket stock is not yet due for its first service, so they don't expect to do any. If a lot more needs doing, that may explain why the car is a bargain - and you get the work done later by 'experts'.
Edited by Andrew-T on 19/07/2013 at 18:10
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