Arnold Clark Sucks
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Just thought i would share my option of Arnold Clark .Firstly they don't only rip
of "Joe Bloggs" but also there employees. My first car had to be scrapped after
they got there hands on it..2nd car got f*****D BY THEM 2!!!!!.99% of his used
cars are ex hire cars which are thrashed by customers and staff and they don't
even get serviced half the time or maybe if there 4 of 5,000 over. Do customers
get told that? DON'T THINK SO!!! They also treat there staff shite and you have
to a lot of dodgy dealing s to stay in a job. Needless to say i am looking for
alternative employment but not having much luck with Arnie Clark on my cv
third car bought from reg Vardy's and going great by the way !!! 27.8.2003
There are a few trade secrets that apply to ALL car dealers though!!
1. Ghosters - The will advertise a certain car or batch of cars at a low price just to get the punters in and when you visit them, surprise, surprise, there were only a few of those and they are all gone. It's now only the Metallic Paint and higher spec models available!!
2. De-VAT - When invoicing your car, you might find that the figures have been rolled back, to show the S.I.V (Stand In Value) the actual price of your car, compared to what you were offered, lets say £6000 is shown and you were offered £6500 at the time. This is done as dealers pay VAT on the price of your car, the lower the price, the less VAT! This is perfectly legal but the dealer should tell you that they will be doing this, when you sign up for the car. As when you come to collect and sign for it, your new car valued at £6500, is showing on the invoice as £6000.
3. How much you get for your car depends on what car and deal your looking at. Some cars may have bigger margins in them, or if the car has been sitting on the forecourt for some time, perhaps 90 days or more and has lost value since it was traded in, then these would be where you will get a better trade-in for your car.
If you are looking at a 0% finance deal, then you would probably end up getting the 'trade-price' for your car i.e., No over allowance, as most of the money in the car will be used to subsidize the O% finance. That is why sometimes the deal is only over 2or 3 yrs or requiring 50% deposit. It may cost the dealer for example £150 per £1000 borrowed. If the deal is over 4yrs, then the dealer has to pay the finance Co £600 for the deal. The money has to come from somewhere, so it's from the car's profit margin!!
4. If a trade-in needs mechanical work done, this all comes out of the profit margin between the cost and selling price, less the VAT, so a dealer may have only £800 margin in a car, some of which will be needed for an over allowance for a P/EX the rest for mechanical work, so perhaps only basic work will be done to the car, as they don't want to spend any money on it.
5 You get a warranty with the car but again, if they can charge you for it the will, if they are doing it as part of the deal, it will be a basic, crap one, as the money is coming out of the car.
6 Dealers love finance, the higher the rate, the more finance commission. When these 'We pay half your payment deals' are announced. The dealer is working with a higher finance rate to re-coup back some of the money being used to subsidies these deals!! 27.08.2003
My wife has a Ford Escort purchased from Arnold Clarke 2 years (R reg ex mobility) ago in Kilmarnock. Pretty much trouble free motoring for that time. However...... last week we had noticed a bad smell of petrol coming from the car. No matter where you put your nose there was the smell. Took it to A/C Kilmarnock " you need a new petrol tank" he said. Cost £300. Fine, fix it I said to the service guy on the phone when he called me.
We have a 10% discount card so the bill should have been £270. The witch at the service desk would not honour this as " you did not present it when we ordered the parts". "but I ordered it on the phone how could I present the card?" I asked, "well", she said, "you should have told us about the discount card on the phone". No talking to her. You know how robots are.
Got the car back yesterday with said new petrol tank. This morning my wife was taking my 4 year old boy to school, which he only started last Monday, when she noticed her petrol gauge jump from 1/4 to nearly empty. In her rear view she could see a woman in another car flashing her lights and trying to say something to her. My wife stopped the car (luckily she switched off the engine). The petrol was draining out of the tank. Luckily it was raining and the road was wet. It does not even bare thinking about that these useless bastards nearly killed my wife and my wee boy.
My wife phoned me at work, hysterical, I just went numb.
So I phoned them and they are sending out a "technician" to have a look at it.
Any suggestions on the course of action I should take. Short of finding out who passed the work as complete and switching off his lights I don't know what I should do. 28.8.2003
I bought 2 cars of Arnold. Perth
Never again-
My Volvo 340 cut out continuously - 'Oh, Volvos do that' I was told.
8 years later my Laguna 2,2 D's Alternator snapped off oh yes a day after the
warranty went.
Also Paper work was missing never got the service record as promised.
I thought it was just me but reading the Horror stories on this site I am not
alone.
As for the Papers who print full page ads for Arsehole Clark- We should all
print off these complaints and send them off to the papers concerned- See if
they still want to associated with this dire company 29.8.2003
The company that i worked for was taken over by Arnie and i wanted to share with
you my experience's soon as Arnie took over my wages were severely reduced, then
was informed that i would be transferred to another dealership that i had no idea
about. The area manager made it plain that he didn't like myself and that he was
moving me because i had the nerve to stand up for myself. I will never ever work
for that company again as long as i live. They totally rip off customers. One
customer that came into our dealership needed a new engine which i would have
expected to be carried out under the extended warranty that he had purchased. I
myself got in touch with the warranty company which is also owned by Arnie and
was told that the repairs were covered, but only up to the value of
£1700.00,which meant that the customer had to pay another £600.00 on top of the
£600.00 that he had already paid for the warranty. Once i had sent the invoice, it
was returned saying that some of the parts used!
to rectify the fault weren't covered on the policy even though they were
damaged by the faulty part that was covered. I was so shocked that i was
embarrassed asking the customer to pay so much money for something i would have
thought would be free under the warranty. I would urge people not to go near
Arnie with a barge pole. 29.8.2003
this year. I drove the car out and onto Royston Rd, it felt a bit strange but i
put it down to me not being used to it yet. By the time i reached Alexandra
Parade i realised that there was definitely something not right, so i pulled in
and inspected the car, the 2 back tyres were flat. 4 weeks later i had to fork
out £70 for a new down pipe exhaust. 6 weeks later my car was written off in an
accident (THROUGH NO FAULT OF MY OWN). I had taken out finance of nearly £5,000
to buy this car. My insurance paid out the book price for my car,£3,000. i now
find myself with no car and £2,000 in debt. How can you lose £1,500 on a car in
6 WEEKS? Fair enough you could except a loss of somethin like that after about a
year. BUT 6 WEEKS
"THANKS A LOT ARNOLD CLARK" .
WATCH THIS SPACE 29.8.2003
'company'.
I read some of the complaints and some of the major faults that have occurred on
cars have been shocking.
I bought a car (ZR+) in April and a few weeks later the driver side locking
went. Fair enough,
this sort of thing happens, and it was replaced at the expense of an
interior door panel when they tried to repair the locking. It got scratched
and torn when they tried to access the locking part. They told me straight
away that it was damaged and had ordered a new panel. I thought again, fair
enough, as they seemed to be dealing with it.
I am still waiting for the panel (about 3 months)
I have been back 5 times since the original locking problem occurred,
including being told twice that the panel was in when it wasn't and a load of
other stupid mistakes.
They basically concluded by telling me that the part was not available, and
the manufacturers could not promise it to me!
Anyway, I eventually went over Service Dept heads and spoke to management.
They have said that the manufacturers will be taking one off the line for me
but it may be another week.
If anyone is still reading this then my advice would be go straight to
management on things like this. I get the impression Service Dept would
have let this problem run on and on.
Hence my complaint to AC. (it doesn't surprise me that they replied by using
a group email too!)
Fingers crossed I never get a major fault with the car! 29.8.2003
