READ HERE WHAT SOME PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY
ARNOLD CLARK AUTOMOBILES LTD
I will never buy another car from Arnold Clark.
Thanks again for creating this site, and good luck to you in keeping it open. It
has made me feel better about the terrible experience I had with Arnold Clark.
Needless to say, I know other people who have been less than thrilled with them,
sadly you don't need to look very far.
Great site and your all right about Arnold Clark's.
They employ the dregs of the Motor Trade at all their branches.
I myself have been selling car's for many years
and treat all my customers with the respect that they are due.
I do have friends that work for AC's but i would never buy a car from them.
Most of his car's are ex lease cars or
ex daily rentals that have could have been driven by Hundreds of different drivers.
Yes they may have had one owner but if
that was Avis or Enterprise they they have had a few hundred drivers.
My advice is stick to the smaller players
or go for a vehicle which is not a fleet car. Don't go to Peugeot Edinburgh
and that's my top tip from the trade.
From: dissatisfied customer ()
You've all noticed the bright yellow Arnold Clark sticker that's slapped on your
back window when you buy it, right?
Well, here's a question for you: Is it still there? If so, WHY?
Rip it off, even if you have to pick it off in shreds with your fingernails
(actually mine came off in one long, satisfying rip). Why give Arnie free
advertising??!.
from Arnolds garages:
My friend works as a mechanic in one of the Dunbartonshire franchises - here are
a few dodges that they get up to, with the full knowledge of the service and
branch managers knowledge:
Cars in for full service including brakes - 99% of the time the garage will
charge customers for changing brake pads - these are rarely changed....all the
mechanics do is tighten up the handbrake cable and it seems like the brakes have
been worked on, They also put oily hand prints on the wheels and trims to make
it look like they have been worked on.
Similarly, when you book your car in for an oil and filter change advert will
usually stipulate top quality oil used as standard.....WRONG..! most of the
mechanics simply take the expensive oil, stick it in their locker and use the
cheapest 20/50 they can get their hands on, usually £2.99 from B&Q !!! Same
goes for the oil filter - they simply clean the old one with degreaser....and
it looks like new !!!
So next time you book in to Arnolds for a 49 point service, think hard before
you part with your cash !!!!
Ps - in the interests of fair play, this probably happens at most down market
garages !!!!
PPS - What are his adverts like using his daughter..??? double yuck !!!!!.
under
warranty took it to dumbarton branch at 4.45 pm they said they would have to
put it on their machine but i would have to pay for an hours labour even
although it would only take five minuets when i reminded them that it was
still under warranty they said it did not matter, when asked if i would get my
money back if the fault was covered i was told no they would fix the fault
but i would still have to pay for them to put it on the machine, if that's not
a license to print money god knows what is . what's the point of paying for
extended warranty if you still have to pay for them to find the fault
Clark's business philosophy. I purchased a car thru www.motorpoint.com. They
deal in imports, mine being a Seat Toledo from Ireland. Its worth mentioning
that Motorpoint are an excellent company to deal with and are head and shoulders
above the Scottish dealerships I have dealt with. All was well until the first
service. I live two minutes drive from Arnold Clarks Seat dealership and that
was the obvious place for servicing the car. However, they refused to take it as
the warranty had not been registered. To register the warranty they wanted £40.
I checked with Seat and all Arnold Clark have to do is see my registration
documents, fax a copy to Seat and follow it up with a phone call a week later.
Ironically enough Motorpoint who have provided an excellent service offered to
pay the £40 on my behalf. I would recommend that anyone considering buying a car
take a look at http://www.motorpoint.co.uk, and g!
I've Scottish Car Dealerships a clear message that they cannot get away with
their current disgraceful business practices..
I thought I was only one of a few who got a dodgy car from Arnold Clark.
Obviously not.
I bought a P reg Rover 600 from the Ayr Ford brand last September. It was a
nice looking
car and had full service history and a low mileage. I'd successfully run
£500 sheds as cars for about 5
years with little problems. A 70 mile a day commute made me decide to buy my
first 'decent' car.
I dutifully sold up my 20 year old BMW Alpina and bought the Rover.
I was less than 1 mile home when I noticed that 2nd gear wouldn't go in
without a crunch. I needed the car to
travel 100 miles home the next day. It was pre-organized and the BMW was
sold so I needed to use the rover.
I got to Edinburgh and while going across some traffic light the engine
management light came on and the car
cut out. This is in the 2nd day of ownership remember.
After about 30 minutes it started again. I called the branch when I got home
that night and complained to the
salesman who sold it to me.
When I heard nothing about the complaint I went into the branch and spoke to
the salesmen. He flatly denied there
was anything wrong with the car or the gearbox even though it sounded like
I'd dropped a cog or two on the pavement
when I came into the car park. He said he knew the previous owners and
basically asked me if I was calling him a liar and
was just a bit of a dick about it. Car was sold. Not interested.
I tried to reject the car and told them I wanted a replacement as this one
was knackered. They said they couldn't do this
as wanted to attempt a repair it (My Dad worked as a mechanic for years and
told me this is a standard stalling process to try to eat up
your warranty.
I contacted trading standard who helped me out as much as they could trying
to reject the car but the fact I had used it
means I had deemed it acceptable. I couldn't believe that just because I had
used the car they had sold me I had deemed
it acceptable. Unfortunately as I'd still been using it (as it was the only
car I had!) means that if I took them to court I
would probably lose.
So if you buy a car and there is a fault in it and you want to reject it
take it back to the dealer straight away, show them the mileage and leave
the keys on desk
of the showroom.
If you have finance call you're finance company and tell them what you've
done and explained the situation.
The finance company's don't like garages issuing finance on faulty cars and
will lend weight to you're argument.
Unfortunately I learned all this after the fact.
They did fix the gearbox problem but claimed there was no fault with the
engine management. Once the gearbox was fixed the car was
outside it's fantastic 30 day warranty and I guess they where happy.
True to form the engine management light was coming on all the time and the
car was cutting out on the way to work and spluttering constantly.
The fuel economy had dropped to that of a large HGV and I eventually stopped
using it to go to work. My 20 year old BMW was by far the better car.
I gave up in the end and traded it in for £3500, which is £1500 less than I
paid for it 3 months before.
Oh yes. The window stuck down on the M8 when I was going from Glasgow to
Edinburgh. I had to drive down the m8 with the drivers
window fully open in December. I had to cancel my might night out in
Edinburgh as I didn't want to leave it with the window open. I ended up with
a cold and BDS (beer deficiency syndrome). Not that any car thieves would
have got very far in that piece of shit anyway.
If you want to email me and ask me anything the email me at
[email protected]. I might be able to help.
Oh yes. www.arnoldclarke.co.uk and .com, .biz are all still available. There
must be more than a few people who miss-spell it..
late for me as I have also become a victim of A.C.I purchased a Nissan Primera
from A.C.Bankhead Edinburgh on 22/12/02.Ive had the car back with various minor
problems then I noticed rust blisters on the roof (SEVERAL) and on the tailgate
a few bigger ones, under both front doors are worst of all. I am very pissed off to
say the least as the car is only 4 years old and Haven't even made a repayment
yet as I ve only had it 3weeks.They have offered to repair it but point blank
refused to exchanged the car I've taken the car back to them and gave them the
keys and documents .I've spoken to customer services who said they would look into
it. am unsure what I can do next, any advise.
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