Westerham & WJ King (Sidcup)
I'm in the (what's turning out to be long drawn out) process of *trying* to buy an LCR, using my current wheels for part-ex. The two dealers I've visited so far are in my area, and both received either good feedback in other older threads or recommendations for others on SCN. Current car is in very good nick, low mileage and loaded with extras (for the model). Story so far...
Westerham
Test drive: They've got an LCR available for test drive (
http://tinyurl.com/b6doe), no problems booking it on a Sat either. The sales guy put a few quid of juice in it and just threw us the keys... "see you in half an hour or so"
Nice touch!
Offer: They gave us a cost to change offer, which was a reasonable (not great) price for our current car, but it was the standard RRP for the LCR. Fair enough, we start negotiations from there then... I gave him the pensive thought look and left. Called back two days later to try and talk him down a little and he just maintained that he made an excellent offer and will not budge even a quid on the offer!! WTF?? I asked him to call me back if he changed his mind about the offer... that was 3 weeks ago, no call.
W J King (Sidcup)
Test drive: Booked a test drive over the phone and asked if it could include driving the 3 or so miles back to our place to make sure the front splitter can clear all of the outrageous speed bumps in our area that I can't be avoided. They said they'd arrange it and called me back to confirm it was OK. Turned up for the test drive and the guys turned into a couple of plumbers, sucking through their teeth.. "Oooo, I don't think we can manage that, 'X' shouldn't have promised you that" then they told me they'd get the other sales guy to drive the LCR to our house one night after work to show us it was OK.... never got the phone call. Anyway, took standard test drive, the guy didn't know anything about the LCR but loved his CTR, so I just ignored him in the end and left as soon as we got back to the stealers.
Offer: I went back last bank holiday Monday, to get a cost to change offer from them... well, to cut a long story short, I've called back twice over the last two weeks to get the offer (speaking to the same guy each time) and the excuses have ranged from "The rosta was changed and I was forced to take my day off so I couldn't call you 3 days ago" all the way through to "Our manager has changed and I did have an offer from the old manager but didn't tell you, now I'm going to try and get a better offer from the new manager who should be here in a 30mins, so I'll call you back in a few hours" - that was on Tues, it's now Fri. Again... WTF?? I want to buy a car for crying out loud!!! I'd like to meet this W J King, because they own a stealership of every car make between Blackheath & Dartford!
Not impressed...
For those of you who've actually managed to read all the way to end of my rant without falling asleep, thanks & sorry, venting feels better. I'm off to New Southgate tomorrow to see if they can give me a cost to change offer in under two weeks... I guess I can kiss the Seat motorsport package goodbye too!