Carland

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Having purchased a car from Carland at West Thurrock about 5 and half years ago I thought this would be a good place to look when it came to me looking for a new car this time around. However one thing I didn’t know is that in that time Carland has been taken over by a different company and although still has the same format things have changed in a big way.

Previously you had the option to use their in store touch screen computers to search for your perfect car and then locate it by bay number if it was available from that branch or by location if it was available else where. This at the time I though was a fantastic idea and could save you a lot of time as these places are quite large. This facility now no longer exists.

The only way you can find your car now is by walking around the building and looking at every single car to try and find the one you want. Some people may find this fun be when you have limited time because you have to be some where it can be a real pain. But with this being the only option that it was we had to do.

Within seconds of walking we were approached by a salesman who seems to find it very difficult to leave you to browse without them. If you do manage to get rid of him you can pretty much guarantee that within 2 minutes you will get approached again and again.

After finally giving in to one of the salesman I did agree to some help as by this point I had decided that the car I was possibly looking for was a nearly new Ford Focus. We looked at about 4 different cars that they had for sale some of which I might add were not worth the money as they were not in the best of conditions and when we questioned this were told it had not been cleaned etc. They looked pretty clean to me just not in perfect condition.

Eventually we came across one that had the new registration plate of 52 so I knew it was quite new. The only problem was it was slightly beyond what I had planned to spend but we took it for a test drive anyway. At this point the service I was getting was a polite efficient service; in fact I think we were on the road test driving within minutes of it being suggested. After a test drive I had decided this was the car I wanted. But now the difficult bit. The finance!

We were taken to an office where the finance was worked out for me and this was done with the information that they had already taken from me. I had my old car with me so they gave me a valuation on this but was a bit lower than I originally wanted. But when they think they are going to make a £10,000 sale it’s surprising what other offers they can come back with if you say no to them. Three times they came back with different offers before we reached the value I wanted.

Still one problem the interest rates on the finance were too high, I could get a lot lower from my bank unless of course they could beat it. The salesman disappeared four time before he finally came back with a an acceptable offer of an interest rate at just over 3%, this was about 2% better than I had managed from my bank. There was one catch I had to take it today!

Ok well I wanted the car so why not the agreement was that I would go back at about half 5 that evening to collect the car. It was now about half 2 so I had plenty of time to get the things done I had to and go back for it. During this time I received a call from Carland the member of staff had forgotten to take some details.

I arrived back at Carland as agreed at about half 5, I was given a seat in a lounge area where I was left to wait for about half hour before finally getting called into to see the person I had to too sign the paperwork and drive away. A half hour exercise at the most I thought, how wrong was I?

We did not leave Carland with my car for a further 2 hours. We had a load of paperwork to sign and the member of staff kept disappearing to make calls to the finance company, copy my documents etc. All of which was supposed to have been done before I got there. Bearing in mind we had a 4 year old child with us hanging around Carland for 2 and a half hours was not our idea of fun.

The member of staff continued to do this for most of the two hours in some instances was gone 20 minutes and we had no idea of why or where. Finally as I thought I would be given the keys no we now had to go through the warranty details another half hour. Although I agreed to take out a 5 year extended warranty it was purely because of how new the car is. But be careful they do try to add on plenty of extras all of which will cost you extra per month, in fact if I had accepted the extras I would have been looking at over £100 extra per month.

Overall the cars that I have purchased have both turned out to be good cars so I have no regrets in buying them. I would recommend Carland from that point of view just be prepared for the salesman who must be on commission judging from the way they pounce when you walk in the door. Make sure that you go into the extras such as warranties with detail they don’t all work out value for money but they will try to sell it to you. Also if you do decide to make a purchase be prepared for a long wait before you actually get that new car you wanted. review from Ciao