Hi,
I was just wondering if anyone on this board has had dealings with the Great Trade Centre, and if so, what your experience was like.
I'll be grateful for all comments, positive or otherwise.
Cheers,
Fiesta man
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I was gonna buy a car from em about 3 yrs ago. I decided not to when the guy told me cant have a test drive? Well unles i wanted to go backwards n forwards of about 10 foot. He did say that i could drive round the car park if i wanted to? But he couldn't move the 15 cars that were in front of it?
2B fair thou I THINK they have changed that rule now???
Dont quote me on it thou.
Bar that, they do have some very reasonably priced cars there. specially around the 3 yr olds. If ya dont mind cars that have covered 50,000 miles a year?
If thas any good for ya m8
Paul...
Cheshunt
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They let me test drive stuff. Admittedly not far, 2 or 3 miles maybe.
I have bought three cars from them - all have proved to be excellent buys.
And the buying experience was pretty good as well. Zero hassle, as much time to crawl over the car(s) uninterrupted as I wanted and no problem getting drives.
If it matters, I\'ve bought a Landcruiser, an XK-R and an Omega from them.
They do not, at least in my experience, negotiate at all on the price - not a penny - and a lot of their cars are quite high mileage.
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The GTC are fine BUT they don't suit all people.
Nearly all their stock is either "nearly new" ex-rental or pre-registered or ex-lease high(ish) mileage 2 to 3 year old stuff.
The vast majority of the ex-lease models all have full service history and often a print out from the lease company detailing all the work which has been carried out.
The thing is with the GTC is that it is up to you to check the car over thoroughly - they will not hold your hand. You need to make your own judgement on its condition, check the service history, check if it has all the keys etc. Most of their cars are fine but there are some dogs in there.
The upside is that you will find it quite difficult to beat their prices unless you go directly to auction and even then you might not save a significant amount extra. Their margins vary and of course it depends if you add finance, waranty etc. but I've seen a glimps of their computer system which lists the margins. The last car I bought there they had a £500 margin on but some thay make up to £1500.
As far as test drives are concerned they will now give a brief test drive as long as they think you're serious about the car. Initially, you swap your keys for theirs and you can crawl over the car in the compound on your own for as long as you like (an approach I'm very much in favour of).
One bit of advice is to use their website (www.gtccar.co.uk) to narrow down models before you go. Presented with 5000 cars on one lot it's very easy to get sidetracked and go looking for a 1.0 Yaris only to come back with a S430.
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