Close escape

[Graham Butcher]

Back in April last year I had the misfortune to have my car written by someone else, this started a massive car hunt for a replacement and some may remember I posted some photos of a white Superb which looked odd, and I thought that it might have been hiding something, I post these photos again here.

 

To cut a long story short it was, at the time I had a loan car and the insurance company indicated that they wanted me to accept their valuation of my old car, and they wanted the loan car back. I'd driven well over 1,000 miles looking at other Superbs, and none of them lived to what I was looking for. I spotted this white one on Autotrader and as all the good cars had been snapped up within a day or two of being listed, I phoned the instant it appeared for sale, was told that the car had not been prepped yet so was not ready for viewing, so I decided to put a deposit down to hold it so when it was ready, I had first refusal, as long as the deposit was refundable, I was told yes.

 

When the car was ready, I was called to view it. Off I went, with my son to London, when we got there the car was soaking wet from where they had just washed it, the inside was not prepped to any real degree, the car had its chrome trim put back in place and was hanging off in places, the windscreen has massive cracks in it, doors and bumpers had dents and scratches and the tailgate was very noisy in operation. The photos used in the listing never showed any of these, apart from the chrome trim was missing.

 

I rejected the car, and then they refused to refund me as promised, I had a feeling something was wrong at the time, so I paid the deposit with my credit card for the extra security. My bank got my money back for me. I did some checks on the car while I was waiting for it to be prepped and discovered that they had actually used photos of the car, taken a year earlier, just prior to its MOT in March 2022 and the car had a fresh MOT on it when I saw it, that had already alerted me that this car was dodgy, and guess what, the dealer still has this same car on sale today and is still using the 2022 photos of it in the listing.

 

I'm so glad my spidery sensors were working when I placed that deposit and not used my debit card, which I would normally have done.

 

Tomorrow, 1st of June I'll have owned my current Superb for a whole year, and while it had 140,000 miles on the clock, it has proven to be a pretty good car overall, all the major items timing belt, water pump, brake discs, pads etc had been done, yes It's had a few minor issues since I got it, but is to be expected on a high miler. It passed the MOT again and breezed through the emission test, so all looking good.

 

Edited 1 June by Graham Butcher

[leolito]

What a story ... I would have thought in the civilized island these things do not happen, as opposed to us in "sunny" southern latitudes ... 🙄

I guess this is also "globalization" at play 🤪

[Graham Butcher]

39 minutes ago, leolito said:

What a story ... I would have thought in the civilized island these things do not happen, as opposed to us in "sunny" southern latitudes ... 🙄

I guess this is also "globalization" at play 🤪

Yep, I was gob smacked when my son told me that this dealer still had it listed for sale. When I asked if they were going to replace the windscreen, they said, claim it from your insurance company, sure I'm going to commit fraud for them, 🙄

[Gammyleg]

14 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

Off I went, with my son to London

It wasn't in Alperton by any chance?

[Graham Butcher]

2 minutes ago, Gammyleg said:

It wasn't in Alperton by any chance?

West Drayton. 

[Gammyleg]

1 minute ago, Graham Butcher said:

West Drayton.

Ok, maybe a cousin then.😄

[Graham Butcher]

3 minutes ago, Gammyleg said:

Ok, maybe a cousin then.😄

Possibly, there was a dealer in that area advertising at the time, but their offerings were beaten up and clearly visible on the photos 😁

[numskull]

I bought the 280 IN Chelmsford, Graham, from George Kingsley Prestige and Performance.😁

[Graham Butcher]

1 hour ago, numskull said:

I bought the 280 IN Chelmsford, Graham, from George Kingsley Prestige and Performance.😁

Was that Chelmsford or Colchester, they are in or at least, they are now in Rowhedge, Colchester.

[numskull]

🤪 Yeah, that’ll be Colchester, Graham!! 🙄

[Graham Butcher]

Was that your first L&K?