Website for buying from UK?

ballooba

What websites are their for buying from the UK?

Here we have:
www.autotrader.ie
www.cbg.ie
www.carzone.ie

I have used Autotrader.co.uk but it's not the may west.

Anan1

I've found eBay.co.uk to be good, provided you know what you're doing.

spockety

I just bought from www.cargiant.co.uk

Fantastic place

kluivert

www.fow.co.uk

South of Liverpool easy access to the Ferrys

Spoc' - How did you get on over there, I was looking at car giant they have a good selection of stock.

Did you get to test drive.
Are they helpful.
Easy on payment (cash, cheque, draft)
What was your experience like, the same as buying from a dealer here.

I am looking at Ford Mondeo's in the above site. Its working out at a saving of €7500 after all expenses VRT Travel Time etc. Huge difference.

Here is a list of other sites car supermarket you will have to copy and paste into google or yahoo the link doesnt work - happy hunting

www.autoplanet.com; www.availablecar.com; www.bristoltradecentre.com; www.carcraft.co.uk; www.cargiant.co.uk; www.carland.com; www.thecarnation.co.uk; www.thecarpeople.co.uk; www.carshop.co.uk; www.dccookdirect.com; wwwdirectcars.co.uk; www.eddiewright.co.uk; www.fow.co.uk; www.gocar.co.uk; www.hiltongarage.co.uk; www.iscars.co.uk; www.jftc.co.uk; www.jwsandle.co.uk; www.millenium-cars.co.uk; www.mh2k.com; www.motornation.co.uk; www.motorpoint.co.uk; www.ronskinnerandsons.co.uk; www.stebbingscarcentre.co.uk; www.trade-sales.co.uk; www.virgincars.com

spockety

kluivert wrote:

Spoc' - How did you get on over there, I was looking at car giant they have a good selection of stock.

Did you get to test drive.
Are they helpful.
Easy on payment (cash, cheque, draft)
What was your experience like, the same as buying from a dealer here.

Hey,

They are based in London, easy to fly into Heathrow and make your way over. In fairness, I am lucky in that I have 2 bro's in London, so I was picked up from the airport, and had somewhere to crash etc, but even without that it should be very easy and straightforward.

Car Giant is a great place, even looking at the web site doesn't give you an appreciation for the scale of the place when you see the amount of cars on display in the flesh, it's flabbergasting!

You get a test drive, but it's basically just out the door, around the back of the industrial estate, and back again, about 5 minutes.. probably enough time to make sure there are no knocking noises and that the brakes etc feel good.

They are very helpful. I've never bought from a dealer here so I don't know what it's like, but in Car Giant they are not exactly aggressive or anything. They have a LOT of staff floating around to help you out if you ask them. The guy I was dealing with said they don't really need to be aggressive, cos when people come to cargiant they generally know what they're looking for, and sometimes it's like "shooting fish in a barrel".. haha. They sell 900 cars a week, which is pretty incredible. Also, being a supermarket type operation, there is basically no room for movement on the price,, what you see is what you pay.

A 200 pound deposit holds a car for 3 days, 400 for 6 days. But if you need to change your collection time, you can call them and it'll be held for longer no problem without any extra cash. They take a couple of days to prepare your car, do a 114 point inspection and fix anything they find wrong etc. I think they can do same day collection on some cars if you get there early. I paid by sterling bank draft that I got in AIB here. They do NOT accept Irish Laser debit cards. They do accept cash, but I wouldn't carry around that much to be honest.

All in all, buying from them was a positive experience, and I'll definitely be going back there for my next car, whenever that is!

J.

kluivert

J

Thanks for that.

I have aunts and uncles living in Surrey so cargiant would be on my list of places to check out. The place looks huge on the site, might fly over and check it out. Thanks for the info.

Dagon

Best place for cars in the UK - and you'd easily overlook it - are the UK online owners clubs. Those guys are real car enthusiasts, and look after their cars. Anything you buy from them, especially the registered club members, is virually guaranteed...

ballooba

Those car supermarkets appear to offer poor value with respect to the prices advertised by others in the Autotrader. High mileage on a lot of the ones I saw too.

spockety

ballooba wrote:

Those car supermarkets appear to offer poor value with respect to the prices advertised by others in the Autotrader. High mileage on a lot of the ones I saw too.

They are a dealership, not private like you see in the Autotrader.

The main advantage that I could see over and above Autotrader when importing, is that you can see literally hundreds of the same model of car under one roof in one go, instead of having to make your way all over the UK to view maybe two or three cars before having to pick one.

Each to their own though, I got a lovely car from cargiant, 2002 with 55k miles on the clock.

spockety

kluivert wrote:

J

Thanks for that.

I have aunts and uncles living in Surrey so cargiant would be on my list of places to check out. The place looks huge on the site, might fly over and check it out. Thanks for the info.

I was staying in Surrey too when I went over.

Word of advice, no matter how tempted you are, when going up to CarGiant, don't go through central London! Go all the way around the M25 and cut across either the M4 or the M40.. a fair few more miles, but far less stressful and will be a good bit quicker.

Tipsy Mac

spockety wrote:

Each to their own though, I got a lovely car from cargiant, 2002 with 55k miles on the clock.

Is there much movement on price in Cargiant for straight sales, if so would it be around 10 percent or is the price you see the price you pay and thats it?

daveg

Great thread. Don't know why this wasn't done sooner...

Spockety what car did you buy?

spockety

The price you see is the price you pay. I asked about moving the price and was given a flat negative response, almost with a bit of a chuckle. They reckon their prices can't be beaten by any other dealers, so they don't need to move them. Plus, they shift 900 cars a week, so it's not like they're desperate to sell ;-)

I got a BMW 325i SE

Moanin

www.allapprovedcars.com

www.autotrader.co.uk

Bought my A4 from a main AUDI Dealer who advertised on allapprovedcars.com