READ HERE WHAT SOME PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY ABOUT

ARNOLD CLARK AUTOMOBILES LTD


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My son had the misfortune of doing "work experience" with Arnold Clark. Work
experience my ass (pardon the French), all he got to do was sweep floors, empty
bins and tidy cupboards..

after numerous complaints about (lack of) service to Arnold Clark with little
response I sent the following email in December. I have still heard nothing.
Is this par for the course?

Well I sent you an Email some two months ago expressing concern about ‘Lack of
Service.

Four weeks ago (On a Sunday) I was contacted by Carl Parle who assured me that
he wanted to see what could be done about my concern about a lack of service.

Three weeks ago (On a Sunday) I phoned Carl Parle to ask if he had been taking
the Mickey when he said that he wanted to sort my concern out. He hadn’t done it
earlier because he was on holiday and had left it to a colleague to sort out.

Two weeks ago I went to another Nissan dealer who sorted out my problem
immediately. At the same time the person who dealt with me remembered that I had
previously purchased a car Rover GSI from Arnold Clark in Aigburth (Citroen Main
Dealer) and had not received a good service.

One week ago I received an advertising letter from Liverpool Nissan with your
‘Once a year car sale’ . A couple of days later I received another advertising
letter from Liverpool Citroen. Now I know that you are taking the Mickey.

Frankly I don’t believe that SERVICE is an issue for you. 

My next car will be purchased from someone other than Arnold Clark probably.



Ps My daughter received a letter from Arnold Clark about your once a year sale.
Maybe if you spent more time servicing your customers and less sending letters
you might get repeat sales. Then again maybe I’m wrong

I had a Fiat Punto. It was knackered. Gearbox jumping out of gear, rear wheel bearings howling, engine leaking oil in 3 places, white stuff in oil, rusted holes in the floor. The car was fit only for the scrap yard. I cleaned up the bodywork with some polish, cleaned the wheel trims and tyres and gutted the interior. On the face of it, the car looked quite nice. I had bought it at an auction for £300 some 3 months previous. We went to Arnold Clark in Crow Road and thrashed out a deal for a 1998 ‘S’ Rover 214Si. 28,000 miles on it and very nice. I wangled £1000 trade-in for the Punto so our deal was £2300 to change. Key point here. I paid with my credit card although this also took a bit of discussion to avoid them charging me 2.75% for the privilege. Basically this meant the Rover was costing me £2300 + £300 (Punto at auction) total £2600. I was pretty pleased with my deal until the following morning. When I started the wee Rover, the tappets were so noisy that I suspected someone had put a diesel engine in there. I called them up and they arrange for it to be inspected at my local Arnold Clark Rover dealership in Kilmarnock. When I collected the car, they told my that this noise was normal for a Rover of that age and such low miles. I was not happy so I paid for the AA to do an inspection. The report I got from the AA said that the inspector was very concerned about the level of noise from the tappets and did not accept this to be normal. I presented the report to the dealership manager at Crow Road and asked for the problem to be fixed. After 10 minutes of nonsense, I said “Are you going to fix this?”. His exact answer was, “No, goodbye now” and he walked away. His name is David Ewart.



I called my credit card company (Morgan Stanley) and told them my story. It took a while but they eventually asked me to check my warranty slip and they decided to claim Arnold Clark on breach of contract. They send me a report that I was to fill in and send back. Also I was to get a quote for the repair of the car. I went to the Arnold Clark Rover dealership in Kilmarnock and they still said it was normal but if I wanted to get rid of the noise, I’d have to replace the engine. I got a quote off them for £2380 which I forwarded to my credit card company. Within 6 weeks, they sent me a cheque for £2380. I never got the engine fixed. I went straight to Arnold Clark in Garscube Road and traded-in the Rover for a 2000 ‘W’ Ford Focus. They gave me £3000 for the trade-in. After you try and work out all the sums, I have basically got a 2 and a half year old Focus on the road costing me only £1600. I did take me 6 months from the time I bought the Punto at auction. This is my total financial outlay from this whole story. Oh and by the way, the Focus has turned out to be a brilliant car.



Their customer service is shocking. They are complete rip off merchants. I know someone at work who traded-in his 2 year old Astra for a new Vectra and paid RRP for the Vectra. He felt that he had got a poor price for his trade-in and was told that due to mass production and the market being flooded, his Astra was not worth very much and would be going to auction. A week after he took delivery from Arnold Clark, Linwood, his old Astra was on the forecourt at Arnold Clark Linwood and priced at £2788 more than he had received as a trade-in.



Did you know that they still employ a salesman in their Lexus dealership in St. Georges Road, Glasgow who has a conviction for clocking cars.?

I purchased a year old SEAT IBIZA from a branch of Arnie's and an infuriating
fault with a radio/air con' console developed not long after I'd bought it.
To date it has taken seven attempts/visits for A C to diagnose the cause of the
problem over 4 months, and is still not fully resolved. Replacing faulty parts
seems not to be an option.
To make matters worse a door handle was broken by one of their mechanics on the
2nd visit, and after numerous attempts by them to order the replacement door
handle I've given up....I've witnessed every variation of door handle known to
man....wrong colour, wrong door (it was a 3 door car - I have a driver and a
passenger door so it can't be that difficult to work out).

I've finally decided to change the car to another make, and vowed never to buy
anything from A C as long as I'm on this earth or a SEAT as long as it's from an
Arnold Clark franchise. Nor would I encourage any person to make a purchase from
any A C franchise, life's too short to make such a mistake..

I bought a car from the Kilmarnock branch 3 weeks ago, they have had it back for
2 weeks, now they say nothing is wrong with it, I have a meeting with them
tomorrow(28.02.03) I am very dissatisfied with the catalogue of errors. 
HELP!!! NEEDED, ANY ADVICE FOR ME WOULD BE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED, 
I Intend going to trading standards and the media if no agreement is reached
tomorrow..

I HAVE BEEN TRYING FOR WEEKS TO COMPLAIN BUT GET CONSTANTLY IGNORED BY THE
BRANCHES AND THE HEAD OFFICE AND NOBODY CARES, NOT EVEN TRADING STANDARDS ARE
INTERESTED! I THINK YOU ARE RIGHT, ARNOLD CLARK SUCKS.....

I own a VW Bora - fantastic car - no problems apart form 3(!). The day after
each service at AC Crow road it has broken down! 1st time they didnt put
the oil filter on right and the oil leaked out, second time they left the
ABS disconected and the 3rd time they left a hose loose and the coolant
leaked out.

But this is the best one. My car was making the unmistakeable noise of a dud
wheel bearing. Took it in and they test drove it and the said "yep, its a
wheel bearing." Took them 4 days to fix it, went back and the useless girl
on the desk said "there you go, thats your brakes done." New pads, discs
and ABS sensors.??????????????????? All road tested for you. So off I
went,10 yards down the road you've guessed it, wheel bearing noise. Now
either the person who test drove it is stone deaf, or they didn't test it at
all. I wonder which. Oh, and they tried to charge £650 for brake work which
didnt need done. And got oil on the seats. Luckily it is a lease car and
they fought and got the money back. Total, complete and utter incompetence.
And those "daft wee lassies" on the desk are certainly that. Oh, and lets
hope I dont have any more troubles and you have to book a service 6 weeks in
advance to get a courtesy car. Fat chance.


Our story is an old but similar one. Bought a Proton from AC within 0.5 miles
we had two flat tyres and the electric windows would not go up - straight back
first of many times. Final straw, exhaust went 1 month out of manufacturers
warranty took it to quick fit who said the oxygen sensor was not installed
properly at manufacture. Drove 20 miles to Glasgow revving and roaring all the
way - surprise, surprise they told me it was fine even though I could see it was
not. Spoke to Proton who wouldn't touch it. Back to quick fit and soon £350
lighter traded it back to AC shortly after for another car - power steering
fluid leaking within 1 month despite full MOT being issued. Bought another 26
days exhaust went, again full MOT had been issued.

Also got shafted by AC insurance who never told us about loss of no claims etc..

i work for Arnold Clark and some of the things that go on behind closed doors is
shocking some services are not properly finished eg. pollen filters not fitted in
m.o.t's people rake through the cars dents and scratches caused by mechanics are
written on job cards as already being there all in all Arnie's a rip off!!!!!.

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