Buyer's Guide: Car Supermarkets

Take one extremely snowy morning, one husband who has worked a twelve hour nightshift and one mother-in-law. Mix them all together and what do you get? A recipe for disaster, that's what! It was January when the old white stuff decided to hit the country with a vengeance, my mother-in-law decided to book a last minute holiday (yay, a nag-free fortnight was on the cards) so she gave 'instructions' to my husband that she would need a lift to the airport. Forever the dutiful son, and the price we pay for a peaceful life, he agreed to collect her at 7.15 in the morning after he had finished work. It had been snowing all through the night and, being that early in ...  Read the complete review

I bought a Toyota Avensis from Arnold Clark in East Kilbride in Sept. 08. I paid £7200 for it, which seemed reasonable at the time, and before picking it up was quite pleased. Not for long. I picked the car up, without the promised car mats, and then found that one of the tyres was well below legal tread limit and that the fan belt squeeled like hell. After a week i managed to get these things fixed, and again felt quite pleased. After 3000 miles, the car broke down, so i had it towed to Arnold Clark, thinking it best to go to them. They then informed me it would cost £185 to investigate and they wouldnt touch it unless i agreed. No choice but agree. Once they ...  Read the complete review

I saw a car advertised by FOW on Autotrader and as it was £1.5 - £2K cheaper than average in a rare desireable colour, made an enquiry. They won't accept import cars as part ex. The salesman went and checked the car and called me back with detail of everything I asked, eg bodywork, interior, tyres, missing key, etc. This turned out to be 100% accurate. I live a long way from FOW so negotiated a price over the phone. I left a holding deposit of £250 by visa and travelled up by train. The station is in the middle of nowhere! and its a 15 min walk along a dual carriageway embankment to get there, or call a taxi - 01606 863800 as the bus is rare and ...  Read the complete review

There becomes a time in every body’s life when they decide to buy their first car. I decided in August that due to work I had to buy a car, and went to my local Arnold Clark branch. This proved to be one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made. The first car £2000 overpriced so the financial company refused to pay, I was told to find another car at another branch to buy so once again I set off. I found a Nissan Primera at another branch and told them to situation they refused to phone the original branch whom I wanted to buy the car from I was then told in order for the branch to get the car I would have to sign a form so I good faith I did so. ...  Read the complete review

A white knuckle ride of a way to buy a car! We’ve just bought our first car…a Punto from a Car Supermarket – was it a risky thing to do? Was it a dodgy motor? I’ll tell you the story of our ‘careful’ purchase and you’ll probably agree with a friend of mine who commented ‘sounds more like Panto than Punto!’. Some of you will be horrified by our exploits as you probably know a lot more than we do. You are probably far less stupid than us but… One Saturday morning, a few weeks after passing our tests we set out to ‘Look’ and I repeat ‘Look’ for cars. Our first ...  Read the complete review