Great for cars - poor for service (Evans Halshaw)

Member Name: mumof2boys

Product:	Evans Halshaw
Date:	20/10/09 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Huge Range of cars, fair prices

Disadvantages: They seem untrustworthy

I have always had really old bangers of cars, and my last one just kept going wrong over and over again, it was costing me a small fortune and I finally decided enough was enough and that I should buy something more reliable but first things first I wanted to find a decent apr on a loan as didn't fancy getting ripped off going into a car show room and paying for there finance.

*** Who are Evans Halshaw?***

They are a car dealership, with over 150 dealerships throughout the UK; they sell used and new cars and have a huge range of choice.
If you go on www.evanshalshaw.co.uk you can search any make and model, specify your distance, price range and more specific requirements, however if you are interested in a specific car you can call them up and if you are a bit risky buy it. Now I will go further into this later, But Evans Hals haw can obtain any car from any of their dealerships as long as you put a deposit down. I had to put a deposit of £100 on a £4000 car. But I will go into detail with this under "My Experience"
You can find your local dealership using their website, and also see any special deals that they currently have ongoing.

***My Experience***

When I was in the market to upgrade my car I needed to be careful as I only had £4,000 to spend. Now I wanted a reliable car, it had to have 4 doors not 2. And it had to have fairly good mileage and be in a decent state. I also needed something with a big boot and that was spacious for me and my husband and 2 small sons who are both under 4. After many hours research of looking online for a car I was looking for a Honda HRV or Honda CRV. Now everyone has their own opinion on a car model but everyone I know who always commented on cars never faulted a Honda. They have high quality engines and they are built to last longer than some other types of engines and car models.

Now I had already decided I didn't want to buy private, I know you pay a little bit more when you go through a garage but you do get some reassurance as quite a few garages have to give you a 3 month warranty.

So me and my friend went browsing round some of the car garages, and came across Evans Halshaw, she had bought her car there too and had not had any problems so she recommended them too me. But looking around the car lot I noticed everything was well out of my price range. I felt disappointed so I went to speak to one of the sales staff, and they did not approach me when I was browsing the cars or try and hard sell me anything. Which was surprising as I was sure I was going to get hounded as soon as I was setting inside the place.

I told the sales man that I only had £4000 maximum to spend and that I wanted a Honda HRV, He took all my details and said he would call me later in the afternoon.

***The Phone call***

As promised the sales man called me back, and in that time I had been on the Evans Halshaw website and found a few Honda HRV's within my price range but they were at the other ends of the country.
When he called me up he picked out the same car as I had seen on the internet, he said that he could get it up to the Blackburn dealership if I wanted it. That it was in good condition and gave me all the details such as mileage and number of owners. It all sounded good to me.

However I was buying a car that I had not seen, now of course if he had not mentioned certain things they would rectify them, But Evans Halshaw are a big car company they are not going to sell crap. So I gave him £100 Deposit and he said he would get the car sent over to Leeds.
I can't remember how long it took, I think it was a few working days and I got a phone call to say it was there. I was so excited! So off I went to pay for the car, I had not tested or even seen. Some people were amazed by this, but sometimes you have to take the risks if you want to get what you want.

***The car***

I was happy when I saw the car, although it had a few issues that had not been mentioned, there were a couple of small dents, no CD player, and only 2 months MOT. So I said I want a CD player putting in, I want the dents taking out and there was no way I was taking a car with just 2 months MOT.

So I went off to the sales office, They arranged a time for my car to go back in, to get the dents taken out, to have the MOT sorted and to have a CD player put in, Ok I thought, with a 3 month warranty Il go for it and paid for the whole car.

I also purchased a special deal with them where you pay £215 for 2 services and 2 mots. I thought this was a good idea at the time but I have had the car since May 08 and have yet to use any. I went to my local garage for the MOT as it's done in about 20 minutes. Although I am going to get my service done with them although I have my doubts about how much they actually do, I will tell you more about this shortly.

I went back twice to the garage and both times the guy was not around to sort out the dents so I couldn't be bothered going back a third time, but on the 2nd time we went they gave us a new set of tyres as my husband said that it was one of the things we had been promised, even though we hadn't but we had a small puncture and the sales boy just did as he was told.

They put the CD player in, but what a huge disappointment, it was an old thing and the volume control didn't even work, it only had one setting. But I have CD player from my old car which is tons better anyway but still disappointed that it was not tested, So I am still driving around to the same volume, it's just a bit loud from time to time.

The main thing I wanted them to do was my MOT, and this was done efficiently.

***Reliability***

So I have had the car since May 2008 and its not broke down once and its now Mid October 2009. Last week I got the timing belt done as it was due at the Honda Garage as I don't trust Evans Halshaw to do it properly, especially as looking at the service book, they stamped it but there was no signature when I bought the car. My dad and my husband's Dad think they properly didn't service it at all and the sales office probably just stamped it when it was sold.

***Untrustworthy***

There is a side to Evans Halshaw which I don't trust and this is about the servicing of vehicles mainly, from what I mentioned above and also when this guy sold me the car he didn't say he would put 12 months MOT on it was only when I insisted. If you are selling a car from a garage as big as them, MOTS of 12 months should come as standard. I would not trust them to do my timing belt anyway.

***Overview***

Would I buy a car from there again? Yes I would! But next time I expect I will spend a lot more money on a car so will definitely want to see it first. And I would want to see the service book.

Summary: Always check MOT and Service history