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Thread: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

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    WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    My son bought a used Astra from Arnold Clark 4 months ago. He had a puncture 3 days ago and found the wheel locking nut key was missing from it's pouch in the wheel brace bag, fortunately for him I have a family get you home RAC membership and the RAC mechanic managed to get the locking nut off and put his "skinny spare" on. My son got hold of the manager of the Arnold Clark branch he bought the car from after 2 days of calling the showroom, this afternoon, only to be told that it was not their responsibility to check if the key was present (my son should have checked for it??)

    It's the first car he's bought and he didn't even know the car had locking wheel nuts so I think it's rich of Arnold Clark to expect him to cover the cost of their ineptitude in not checking to see if the key was where it should have been prior to sending the car to the showroom. The car will have to go to a garage to extract the locking wheel nuts and have new nuts fitted at my son's expense.

    The car has a locking petrol cap, if my son found the key was missing the first time he went to fill up the petrol tank, I wonder if Arnold Clark would have told him the same thing.

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    Re: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    Put up his details on the forum and we can harass the hell out of him.

    DTS XXX XXX

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    Re: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    Sounds like Arthur Daley.

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    Re: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    My son bought a used Astra from Arnold Clark 4 months ago. He had a puncture 3 days ago and found the wheel locking nut key was missing from it's pouch in the wheel brace bag, fortunately for him I have a family get you home RAC membership and the RAC mechanic managed to get the locking nut off and put his "skinny spare" on. My son got hold of the manager of the Arnold Clark branch he bought the car from after 2 days of calling the showroom, this afternoon, only to be told that it was not their responsibility to check if the key was present (my son should have checked for it??)

    It's the first car he's bought and he didn't even know the car had locking wheel nuts so I think it's rich of Arnold Clark to expect him to cover the cost of their ineptitude in not checking to see if the key was where it should have been prior to sending the car to the showroom. The car will have to go to a garage to extract the locking wheel nuts and have new nuts fitted at my son's expense.

    The car has a locking petrol cap, if my son found the key was missing the first time he went to fill up the petrol tank, I wonder if Arnold Clark would have told him the same thing.
    Shouldn't he have some consumer rights due to that. i.e if your not happy with the product within the first 7 days you can take it bad or something... There must be something legal you can do about that....

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    Re: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    My son bought a used Astra from Arnold Clark 4 months ago. He had a puncture 3 days ago and found the wheel locking nut key was missing from it's pouch in the wheel brace bag, fortunately for him I have a family get you home RAC membership and the RAC mechanic managed to get the locking nut off and put his "skinny spare" on. My son got hold of the manager of the Arnold Clark branch he bought the car from after 2 days of calling the showroom, this afternoon, only to be told that it was not their responsibility to check if the key was present (my son should have checked for it??)

    It's the first car he's bought and he didn't even know the car had locking wheel nuts so I think it's rich of Arnold Clark to expect him to cover the cost of their ineptitude in not checking to see if the key was where it should have been prior to sending the car to the showroom. The car will have to go to a garage to extract the locking wheel nuts and have new nuts fitted at my son's expense.

    The car has a locking petrol cap, if my son found the key was missing the first time he went to fill up the petrol tank, I wonder if Arnold Clark would have told him the same thing.
    Sale of Goods Act...

    1) Goods must be as described
    2) Goods must be fit for the purpose
    3) Goods must be of merchantable Quality

    If not you are entitied to a refund or replacement

    That's the law in Ireland, I'm pretty sure it's similar in the UK...

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    Re: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    Quote Originally Posted by knightengale View Post
    Shouldn't he have some consumer rights due to that. i.e if your not happy with the product within the first 7 days you can take it bad or something... There must be something legal you can do about that....
    This was 4 months – not 7 days. By this time it will have been "accepted".

    Useful link.

    I guess what it comes down to though is the question – is a car defective if it is missing its wheel nut key, or is that part of the "acceptance"?
    Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story

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    Re: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    Quote Originally Posted by Alan Doyle View Post
    Sale of Goods Act...

    1) Goods must be as described
    2) Goods must be fit for the purpose
    3) Goods must be of merchantable Quality

    If not you are entitied to a refund or replacement

    That's the law in Ireland, I'm pretty sure it's similar in the UK...
    SGA is a very grey area.

    1) Goods must be as described - if it is a red car with an MOT and wheels and that is how it's decribed then it's ok
    2) Goods must be fit for the purpose - If it's being sold as a car, the purpose of a car is to get from a-b etc. If it does that then it is fit for purpose
    3) Goods must be of merchantable Quality - everything is of merchantable quality if it clears number 1. i.e if a car is sold and advertised as a rust bucket fit for scrap then it is merchantable quality for someone looking to buy it.

    were the wheel nuts fitted as standard? if so they are part of the car and the item you have brought. It would have been the sellers responability to check it was there (I think)

    If they were added after, it is not part of the actual item being sold.

    FIT FOR USE - If the car drives etc then it is fit for use. A puncture or wheel replacement is not day to day use.

    Personally I think i would put it down to a life lesson, next car that is brought check evertything is there before parting cash.

    As for the car center, I am sure that they would not have sold the car knowing that the key was missing, it is something that can be very easily overlooked.
    Last edited by Lee Bartholomew; 26th-August-2009 at 06:44 PM.

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    Re: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    The car will have to go to a garage to extract the locking wheel nuts and have new nuts fitted at my son's expense.
    You might find that a Vauxhall Main Dealer would have a key that could at least take off the locking nuts without needing to apply brute force/drilling them out/whatever.
    Love dance, will travel

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    Re: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    Most garages have a locking wheel nut removal kit. £100 from Halfords if you wanted to do it yourself (no doubt cheaper on ebay).

    http://www.motorserv.com/shop_item.p...NlY3Rpb25pZD04

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    Re: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Bartholomew View Post
    Most garages have a locking wheel nut removal kit. £100 from Halfords if you wanted to do it yourself (no doubt cheaper on ebay).
    Thanks Lee, my lad took the car to Parks (Vauxhall Dealer) a few minutes from where he stays and they replaced the 4 locking nuts for 70 quid.

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    Re: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    Thanks Lee, my lad took the car to Parks (Vauxhall Dealer) a few minutes from where he stays and they replaced the 4 locking nuts for 70 quid.
    Will you send the bill to Arnold Clark?

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    Re: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    Quote Originally Posted by Astro View Post
    Will you send the bill to Arnold Clark?
    I've told him he should but he's not a pushy guy so he may simply write it off as experience, at least next time he buys a used car it won't be from Arnold Clark and he'll check to see if everything expected, is where it should be.

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    Re: WARNING !! Don't buy a car from Arnold Clark

    Brian

    I think you should send a letter to Sir Arnold Clark, addressed to him personally at Arnold Clark Automobiles Ltd, 134 Nithsdale Drive, Glasgow, G41 2PP.

    I happen to know that he does still take a keen personal interest in his customers' experience and obviously he wouldn't like to think that his company was being trashed on an internet forum, without the right of reply. His company is a long, long way from being an Arthur Daley outfit, and is in fact a winner of numerous awards, including the AM Awards Retailer of the Year 2009. Their mission statement (from their website) is "to offer genuine value for money and create high levels of customer satisfaction" (And no, I have no connection with them!!!)

    If you word the letter politely and invite him to comment on the situation, acknowledging that your son has had 4 months to notice that he didn't get the key when he bought the car, but that was down to his inexperience and the salesperson had both the experience and some responsibility in the matter at the time, you just might get somewhere - please let the Forum know if you go down this line.

    As Lee suggested, it probably wasn't anything malicious on the part of the original salesman to miss the locking wheel nut problem, it's easily done. I once had a blow-out at 2am on Shap Summit on the M6 - it was a hire car, and I hadn't noticed there wasn't a key for the wheel nuts - the car finished up being transported to Edinburgh Airport and left for the hire company to sort it out!

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