Arnold Clark Sucks
READ HERE WHAT SOME PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY
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by the RAC due to the fact the ignition coils have gone twice. The first time AC
reluctantly changed a couple of the coils, last week when I was towed in by the
RAC for the second time.
Arnold maintained there is nothing wrong with the car???
Also any time the car is in for its service I am 100% sure they syphon out the
petrol!! 5.9.2003
going into 2 branches of Arnold Clark over 20 times during a 2 year period as a
result of some damage sustained during the first service which they carried out.
Being a company car I was unable to dispose of a car which regularly cut out
whilst in motion reducing steering and braking ability my wife and our 2 infant
children were exposed to numerous life threatening situations before I had the
car replaced early by her company.
As the only franchised dealers AC has the market sewn up whilst he stitches up
vast numbers of customers and fleet operators. The technical incompetence (I am
the director of an engineering company) and unbelievable rudeness of almost all
staff beggars belief that the business is still in operation.
On the second last visit to AC the Vectra was being kept in (incidentally
whilst my wife had a ford KA- which was provided with a half tank of fuel
according to the document – reality was the light was flashing!).
So after several hours ‘discussion’ on the telephone I was driving home on the
M8 when the traffic slowed. I was hit hard from behind by a new C5 driven by an
employee of which company??????
Yes one of AC managers was having a chat on the phone during heavy rush hour
traffic. The saga which ensued involved Strathclyde Police visiting the company
for failure to provide insurance after an accident.
Once they admitted liability (due to CCTV evidence and no other reason) their
insurance assessors deemed the car a write off before learning that it was them
that had caused the damage. Once they knew it was their fault they attempted to
get me to accept a repair by an AC body shop, then when I refused and got the
car independently assessed they too agreed it was an insurance write off (The
back doors couldn’t close and the steering wheel was at 30 deg off center to
drive the car in a straight line.
I cannot condone but can just about comprehend the firms greed but when it risks
the lives of customers and other road users is in serious question their
Reponses of a shrug of the shoulders I am afraid it upsets me somewhat.
I too believe that something quite sinister is behind this companies ability to
avoid prosecution, or at least publicity if they are being prosecuted. 5.9.2003
nowhere near this price. He is overcharging through hidden costs. Get a
calculator and work it out for yourself - see? 5.9.2003
garage not knowing the correct process to transfer a cherished registration, I
could not collect my car on the agreed date. Instead they released the car to
me without road tax. In addition, when I got the car home, I realised that they
had managed to get the digits the wrong way round on the number plate. I
telephoned Kirkcaldy branch to advise of the error with the vehicle number plate,
but the sales rep did not seemed concerned. I was alarmed because, no doubt my
insurance would be invalid having a different number plate on the vehicle and
further more, I thought that the rest of the documentation was wrong i.e. the
vehicle registration docs, road tax etc, so I asked the rep to check that it was
only a typo mistake on the number plate. Thankfully it was!
I arranged to take it to a local Arnold Clark branch in Grangemouth, Scotland
where they changed the plates and on arriving home, I noticed that my car mat
was covered in oil from the mechanic's oily boots and the lettering on the
number plate is offset to the left hand side which looks stupid!
On contacting Grangemouth branch, they told me to bring the mat in and they'd
clean it. They advised that due to the computerized machine used to produce the
number plates, my number plate (cause it's not standard i.e. cherished
transfer) would be offset to the left. I noticed all the cars in the show room
had the number plates centered and the number plates consisted of the car name i.e.
Saxo etc
By this stage I was so annoyed that I telephoned Kirkcaldy and asked them to
re-produce the number plate on their machine (which centers the lettering on the
plate), send it to Grangemouth where I would ask them to fit and asked them to
send a new mat for the car too, just to give them more hassle.
The experience of (paying a lot of money) buying a brand new car has been
totally ruined. The Arnold Clark customer care is non existent and it's a laugh
to think that Arnold Clark's slogan is "promises delivered", it should read
"nightmares promised"!! 15.9.2003
looking at buying a Land rover with FULL SERVICE HISTORY. It transpired that it
was not with them at that time, but when the negotiation over the trade in
price for my car was taking place, it was never taken into account. It was
assumed by them to exist, and I think I would have 'paid' for it and never got
it. It's probably a well used sales ploy 15.9.2003
Just about to buy a car. Sorry Arnold, after reading the comments on this site I
won't be visiting any of your garages 15.9.2003
hiya, well, after buying a car from AC last month, and them messing around with
not being able to fix the faults, i managed to take revenge!
In my local Toyota dealer they have free internet access in their posh coffee
area. So i did the only thing that was commendable-put your website as the
homepage :-). So every time a customer wants to use the net while waiting for
their car to be repaired/sold they will see your site :-)
doubt it will be there though but it was satisfying 15.9.2003
Prices are clearly the only reason anyone buys from this guy. My 2 stories go like this...
A good number of years ago I purchased a 2 year old XR3i from Armadale Branch. It was an X-Lease card from them, so had been WELL looked after and had all the service history down to the last spark plug. After about my first year and about 12000 miles i returned it to the branch for its first MOT.... needless to say it FAILED... front and rear brakes needed fully replaced - Drums, Disks, Shoes... the LOT. All of which were classed as CONSUMABLES and not covered by my, additionally purchased, extended warranty. I refused to pay and took the car straight to another garage and traded it in... vowing NEVER to do business with them again.
2 years ago i visited another local garage Machargs in Broxburn.... I purchased a 9 month old Fiat Brava, as I'd driven 2 previously on long term hires and they suited my usage and pocket, ONLY when the sales man handed over my warranty book did i notice the Arnold Clark badge on the front... i was a little upset to say the least.. but was assured that the garage was only part of the group by name only....so i took the car. After a month i returned the car as i simply couldn't get fuel into the thing without it spewing petrol all over me and the forecourt and taking 4 times a long as normal to fill ... the garage said they'd repaired the fault.....but alas the same occurred when i next filled up. i again returned the car a few week later and insisted that they at least attempt to put petrol in the car before saying it was fixed (as they hadn't even bothered the first time) so i was billed for £10 worth of fuel and again told it was ok....BUT this time it was explained to me as a SECURITY feature of the FIAT ???? and stopped people siphoning fuel out of the LOCKED petrol filler cap ?????
What i had to do was ANGLE the petrol pump at about 75 degrees and only press the trigger gently so that the fuel dribbles into the tank hence NO splash back... just looking like a Plonker and spending 10 mins filling up twice a week..!!!!!
Now I'm not sure if this 'additional security feature' is true but a security feature that causes fuel to splash all over you, your clothes, shoes and a garage forecourt i can do without..!!! My gut says i was fobbed-off as I'd driven the same model of car on 2 other occasions without the same happening......
I'm now convinced that the whole organisation is shi*e and would gladly warn anyone else NOT to have anything to do with them, any other garage even slightly associated with them... and ALSO their FREE insurance.... as they simply give you a Zero no claims and 50% discount for the first year, then it jumps up when the 50% disappears in your second year and you only have 1 year no claims..!!!!
These are just my experiences and know that there are loads of happy, trouble free, luck bastar*s out there who have never had a thing go wrong with their cars.... just hope that they never DO go wrong..... or you up sh*t creek....!!!! 15.9.2003
I know everyone is criticising Arnies but he can provide hours of fun on a
boring weekend.
Game 1 - Find the zero
You can play this at any garage simply approach any salesman and ask to view
their O% finance cars. The better the excuse for having none the higher the
points:
1 - Sorry, we don't have any at this garage.
2 - The advert is purely for example but we do have this car at very reasonable
rates.
3 - Sorry, we just sold the last one.
Bonus 100 point if you find a vehicle. (This has happened once so for but the
car was so bad no-one would have wanted it.)
Game 2 - Hunt the damage
A game the whole family can play visit any forecourt (preferably one of the
bigger sites) and the person that finds the car with the most amount of damage
wins. The prize is of your own choice. One rule for this is that the car must be
on sale, as accident damage car doe not count.
So far the best place for this game has been Machargs.15.9.2003
hello yet another Arnold scrap customer bites the dust
yes i have been ripped off too'
i was taken in by Darren at the kirkcaldy Volvo dealership
i bought a Citroen Xsara from the said salesman they had it
traded in against a new Volvo it was two years old metallic
green a nice looking car i thought took it for a test drive
it was a very smooth driver i paid cash for it two days on
i picked it up as the car was unmarked when i viewed it at
test drive i noticed a dent on the nearside rear wheel arch
and a scrape as well i pointed it out to the salesman and
i said that it was a fresh bump he said that it was there
when i first viewed the car i said that if it was not put
back to original condition then i would take the necessary
steps to see that it was carried out or i would demand my
funds back well reluctantly he said he would sort it so two
days later as agreed i picked the car up seemed ok took car
for a run oh by the way the mileage was 36000.the car was to
have been fully serviced. the car ran ok then it seemed to
miss intermittently. stopped the car as i am mechanically
minded i took the plug leads off one at a time and started
the car after i took of each one i 2 3 ok but number 4 was the one that was the
problem so i took the car back to the garage and told them that the car had a
intermittent misfire so the mechanic came out and looked under the bonnet and
connected a engine electrical monitor to the cars system it read that number 4
was misfiring come back in an hour the salesman said its probably a duff plug
or lead so came back in 1 hour thats it sorted the workshop foreman so at that i
took the car away ran okay for about two minutes then it started again went back
to the garage its still the same ok leave it with us for a day. phoned them up a
day later they said the cylinder head gasket had gone at number four cylinder
and water was causing the misfire they said they would need the car for three
days and i would have to pay for the parts as i had a years warranty which i
paid for 299 pounds it cost me i said the car must have had a misfire when they
road tested it of course they denied it!
so i stumped up the 250 pounds they required for parts got car back driving out
of the garage did not reach third gear when it started missing again reversed
back to the garage told the mechanic it was still the same he took the car for a
run came back took the car back in to the workshop leave the car with us we will
phone you when the problem is rectified two days later foreman called. the
problem was the cylinder head it had a hairline crack in it i would have to pay
for another part namely a new cylinder head cost 400 pounds i said no way that
car was never running right before i got it and i said that i would talk to my
legal guy if they refused to give me my money back after a bit of a tussle they
agreed to pay for the head got car
back running ok but has never really ran as well as a friend of mines who has a
Citroen Xsara i reckon they did not grind the valves in properly as a
compression check i had done showed the levels were not even took it back to
garage they said it was running ok and on looking at the print out said the
warranty was void because someone else had been at the car what a cop out i will
never be at Mr Arnold scrap yard ever again i eventually traded the car in for a
Toyota Avensis at struans of Perth great car and a years warranty with the deal
advise don't go to clark'y he's the dick turpin of the motor trade at least dick
turpin wore a mask well by for now
regards r d 15.9.2003
