Chasingcarsuk Avis 3

I recently bought a nearly new Volvo EV from Ben. I cannot overstate how nice he was to deal with. He went out of his way to ensure everything went smoothly for me. He sorted out some wear and tear damage at his own cost, helped with my transfers when picking up the car and was welcoming with a coffee. The car was as described, competitively priced and there were no issues post purchase. 100% would recommend.

After 2 days of my car breaking down unable to use and not getting anywhere with the local garages/mechanics in the area I found Chasing Cars. After 25 minutes of the phone call there was a mechanic at my car!🎉 My car did have to be towed, as suspected! And 2 days later I got my car back not only purring like a kitten but washed too!! The owner, Ben stayed late so I could finish work and get a lift to his premises to collect my car! I’m so very happy with the service I received and very grateful for such a fast turn around! I would highly recommend Chasing Cars for all their car needs! Thank you to Ben & his team!

Purchased a 25 year old car from them/him (Ben) about 6 months ago (make and model I already own and know very well). Being a spare car, it’s covered very little miles but had problems from the start despite their “exacting standards” and pride towards their “restoration service”.

Arrived to see and potentially buy after a long drive up to garage. On arrival seller couldn’t find V5C despite knowing I was coming up just under a week prior. No heads up either.

On the surface, well presented car for 25 years old. Watched like a hawk when inspecting. Some non-original equipment added (floor mats, sill protectors, exhaust, suspension, lights) (originals missing) and a couple minor equipment problems with the car (like front seat). Some trim looked the new rather than refurbished. Did a test drive and tested as many of the moving parts and equipment as possible. New V5C request seemed to be applied for there and then. Paid for car via bank transfer to Ben/the owner as credit card not accepted (yet it’s a business, advertised through business with business license plates on). Ended up driving home on dealer plate from dealer being told this was ok which later found out is a No No.

On drive home windscreen washer jets stopped working (worked on test drive) which was discovered to be a dodgy repair/bodge job. Shortly afterwards driver’s window stopped working after a total of 4 uses.

When home, later found that after removing some trim (something that I couldn’t do during the inspection) the sill work was extremely poor - they had been replaced but not protected (i.e. painted with anything) and garage had put new replacement plastic trim back on over the bare metal then any exposed area had been painted to disguise. New (but non-original) door sill protectors had been stuck back on (in 2 cases they’d stuck these on over the old ones). The plastic trim is partly held in place by an adhesive strip which wasn’t replaced with a new one so they used plasterboard screws and screwed this into the bare metal replacement sill. This negates any repair as screwing into areas that aren’t meant to be screwed into nor protecting the bare metal means it’s just going to rust again (and had). For a professional garage that “prides” it’s restoration services, this workmanship is a joke.

Evidence of the garage’s “quality” workmanship further presented itself in how their license plates had been put on. While the front screws into the plastic bumper, the rear plate has dedicated screw locations to hold the plate on but the guys had ignored this and screwed again into the metal (further areas to rust) to put their named plates on. Furthermore, the plastic wheel arch trims get riveted in (easy and inexpensive) but despite having new wings fitted and painted (the paint job wasn’t brilliant also like the rear tailgates) they decided to screw these in with plasterboard screws (which will cause those areas to rust).

Other points to note were the poor top mount repairs - one side was an obvious repair which I had to enquire about (rather than it being openly advertised but in defence wasn’t the garage’s work/doing) and the other was hidden by the battery and only apparent when the battery was removed (the garage had this done). Also interior fixing had been removed (why I don’t know) and either put back wrongly or not put back at all which had caused issues with the front drivers seat.

I couldn’t actually drive the car for over a month due to the V5C issue…waited for the seller’s application to go through (was told 3 days) only to phone the DVLA weeks later to find no record of any new V5C request had been submitted. Literally about to submit my own when seller says he’ll submit a new request. Eventually get new keeper V5C after over a month of waiting to tax and insure (and drive) the car.

Oh, the reason for the battery removal was because the car suddenly died one day on the main road (bearing in mind the car had done about 500miles in my possession, 300 of which were the initial drive home) because after investigation the wrong battery was in the car.

So, overall could be described as a pig in a poke from Del Boy! As my first car purchase from a “professional” dealership and garage (my 4 others were from private individuals) I was really disappointed in the poor workmanship and dishonesty regards the true condition of the car. Yes the car is 25 years old but I’m proficient enough to work on my cars in a “right” way and have kept them on the road so they have last for years so I know what’s correct and what is not. I would have expected a lot more from so-called ‘professionals’ with “exacting standards” who also do restoration work allowing something of this rarity with evidence of poor workmanship to pass through their hands….they certainly are “car sales with a difference”.