I hired a 2010 Range Rover Sport TDV8 HSE from AVIS Prestige a few weeks back and absolutely loved it. I was in the market for a new car and had shortlisted myself to two very different cars.

On the one hand I had been looking at a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S (2005 997) and on the other a Range Rover Sport TDV8 HSE. Having hired the Range Rover I did really love it and then when this weather hit that pretty much tipped me over the edge and into Land Rover territory. I further justified it to myself as being a far more practical car than the Porsche.

Anyway, I then went onto the Land Rover UK website and used their used car finder to locate some cars in my area that fit what I was looking for. I found 3 TDV8 HSEs that were around 3 years old with 40kish miles for around the £30k mark. The lowest mileage of these actually turned out to be just a shade under £30k and was at Stratstone Land Rover in Cupar here in Fife.

I called them and asked a couple of questions about the car and then was convinced by the dealer to give them £500 to hold the car for me until I could get up to see it. Due to the current weather conditions it was going to be difficult for me to get up there but it all sounded good so I went ahead and paid the £500 with the agreed proviso that they would return my money if I wasn't 100% satisfied when I saw the car.

I also got the business manager Rob Allan to propose the finance for me so that we could have all the paperwork good to go when I got up there to see the car. This is where things started to go wrong.

Firstly we agreed a deposit and then Rob came back later to say that I needed to pay a larger deposit. Then after that when I said I didn't want to he came back and said that the original deposit was okay.

That night I had a look at the monthly figures that I'd been quoted and things looked a bit odd.

The car was £29,994 and I was being quoted the following:

Deposit : £1,000
47 Monthly Payments : £665.89
1 Final Payment : £7,605

When I worked out the APR from this it looked like I was being charged 14.5%.

I then e-mailed the garage to say that I wasn't going ahead with the deal based upon the figures that had been presented.

Rob then got back to me to say that the OTR price for the car was actually £31,319 and not the advertised £29,994 from their site and the Land Rover site. The difference accounted for a year's road tax, a warranty and administration charge.

At this point I contacted Stratstone again and asked why they had added an extended warranty and if this could be removed so that I could add later if I decided to do so. I asked if this would be okay as long as I did it in the first 12 months of my Land Rover warranty. I was told that the car only came with a 3 month warranty and that I would have to pay an additional £800 to cover the car for 12 months from the purchase date.

Obviously at this point I queried why I was paying for a 12 month warranty when all Approved Used Land Rovers come with a minimum 12 months fully comprehensive unlimited Mileage Warranty for Land Rovers up to 5 years old and up to 75,000 miles on the speedometer at the time of purchase.

Rob Allan the business manager then told me "We don't put our cars through the Approved Used scheme as it costs £1,300. If you want us to do that the price of the car will go up by £1,300."

He then advised me that "the Land Rover warranty doesn't cover as much as the warranty we are offering you for under £800. Things like catalytic convertors and the CD changer are not covered by the Land Rover Warranty."

Alarm bells were ringing with me as I've never experienced this type of thing when buying used cars from Volkswagen, BMW or Mercedes-Benz.

Then upon further investigation I found online reviews of Stratstone's Land Rover garage in Bury and could see that the average rating is only 1 star from people who have purchased vehicles from them.

I've obviously backed out of the deal completely and asked for my £500 deposit to be returned. They have advised that I will have to wait a few days as "the admin girls need to be here to do a refund."

I then received a call from Trevor Elliott at Stratstone. He said "I am under a lot of pressure to sell this car as I have already told the director that it is sold and we could have sold it twice over in the last week. I tell you what I'll do, I'll give you a full Land Rover warranty free of charge to give you piece of mind".

I told Trevor that I couldn't buy a £30,000 car from somebody who I do not trust and that I am not buying the car.

This whole experience has really left a bad taste in my mouth. It was my first ever experience with a Land Rover garage and will likely be my last.

I am also going to report this incident to the relevant governing body to hopefully protect other people from this type of misconduct. The car was clearly advertised in the Land Rover Approved Used website and clearly wasn't an approved vehicle.

Has anyone else experienced this type of thing before? Perhaps naively I hadn't expected this from a main dealer.

Regards

Daniel Webb Daniel

There are good dealers and bad dealers - thanks for the write up it will help others in the future. 2005 Zambezi TDV6 - Gone but not forgotten
2009 Alaska TDV8 - Gone and much missed.



WINNER - 2009 �Idler Of The Year� Award
Runner Up - 2009 �Just Doing What It�s Designed To Do� Award


DO NOT CLICK HERE!

So much of that first post screams "Cowboy".

It sounds as though they are just trying to squeeze more money from you. If the car was advertised at 29994 then surely they are bound to sell it at that price.

I think you did the right thing by walking away.

I hope you do not get any hassle trying to get your refund.

I phoned Stratstones in Cupar having seen an RRS advertised in the LR Approved Used website. When I enquired about the car I was told the advertised price was ex-vat even though this was not mentioned in the ad whereas other cars were shown to be specifically excluding vat.

Needless to say I bought elsewhere. FF 4.4 V8 Soooo looking forward to this bad boy
Ex 2006 RRS SC - garbage
Ex 2016 135i M Sport - dream car
Ex 2003 RS6 Avant - piece of cr*p
Ex 2014 320d X Drive, M Sport Touring - ok I guess
Ex 2007 RRS TDV8 - bloody loved it
EX 2007 FL2 XS - not so bad

Last edited by Bradders on Sun Dec 05 2010 12:13pm. Edited 1 time in total

Quote:

It sounds as though they are just trying to squeeze more money from you. If the car was advertised at 29994 then surely they are bound to sell it at that price.

A common misconception

They can advertise it for any price they want, if someone offers that price they have the right to refuse that offer.

Sounds like very sharp practice to me. Have you considered reporting the dealer to Land Rover customer service? Just as an aside, although it sounds like they are going to return your deposit, it's always worth
remembering that under Scottish law there is no such thing as a Non-Refundable deposit. Many companies will
try and say a deposit is Non Refundable but, in Scotland this is not true. 2013 Discovery HSE Luxury - 3.0 SDV6 - Santorini Black
2013 Evoque 5 Door Pure Tech SD4 - Orkney Grey with Panoramic Roof (Mrs E's new baby)

GONE - RRS - 3.0 TDV6 HSE - Santorini (2010)
GONE - RRS - 2.7 TDV6 HSE - Java Black (2007)
GONE - Porsche Boxster S - 3.2 - Black

I am in the process of writing a complaint letter to Land Rover Customer Service. Does anyone have an e-mail address I can send it to?

Cheers

Daniel Daniel