buying car from cargiant.co.uk (uk)

TruCal

Hi all,

Probably you're getting loads of questions like this, but I am wondering if anyone from boards bought a car at cargiant.co.uk and has some/any advice...

Basically, are they reliable, can I buy of them without prior engineer-car-inspection (have no idea who would I get such service from), are they ready to lower the listed price if I pay with bank draft etc...

I am also looking at cars on ebay, but they seem more "dodgy" than cargiant

Thanks for any info shared!

I

Kali

There is very little chance of getting a discount at cargiant.. basically they shift way too many cars very very quickly to worry about one sale... and their prices are already upto 10% lower than other uk car-supermarts.

When you ask about reliability do you mean the cars or the company? There is very little after-sales in cargiant (I think they sellan extra warranty?) but the cars will all definitely do what they say on the tin as they do a series of checks on them all (and you'll get this confirmed as a printout).

Note: Test-drives are short, you won't get a decent run in the car and the salesman will be beside you. So its best if you have test-driven a similar car before and know what to expect.

endplate

Kali you obviously had some dealings with them what did you buy or did you buy? Do you think they are worth looking at?

TruCal

After reading the "definitive guide for importing cars from UK" in this section, and seeing few happy customers who mentioned buying from cargiant, I think I'll go with them.

Thanks for your reply Kali

Forgot to ask - should I do the RAC / AA inspection? (How is that organised, do I pay a deposit in advance, then organise the inspection, then either withdraw the deposit or go and buy the car if I'm happy?)

Ty!

drdre

trucal what car are you thinking of getting?

Lex Luthor

I am considering Cargiant also in the new year, but feel by the time I see what I want, manage to get a relative to go around and look at it for me and then arrange my flights the car will be gone. They seem to sell the good cars very quick. The lack of any decent test drive would worry me though.

Do they provide a warranty? (Not that it would make much difference after you bring it back to Ireland). They have a cargiant.ie site so maybe they are trying to cater for the Irish market aswell. If I bought from them, I would definitely try to get a car still within a manufacturers warranty and valid over here. Their prices certainly are good and the selection is also good.

Moanin

Lex Luthor wrote:

I am considering Cargiant also in the new year, but feel by the time I see what I want, manage to get a relative to go around and look at it for me and then arrange my flights the car will be gone. They seem to sell the good cars very quick. The lack of any decent test drive would worry me though.

Do they provide a warranty? (Not that it would make much difference after you bring it back to Ireland). They have a cargiant.ie site so maybe they are trying to cater for the Irish market aswell. If I bought from them, I would definitely try to get a car still within a manufacturers warranty and valid over here. Their prices certainly are good and the selection is also good.

A manufaturers warranty is valid in any country in Europe.Basically if you import from Uk to Ireland and you have a problem which is still under warranty, a main dealer must repair it under manufacturers warranty

TruCal

drdre - I'm thinking of getting a Jag.

Lex - I will call cargiant today or tomorrow and ask em bout warranty etc, so will let you know what they said...

kluivert

You can book a car over the net pay a deposit and they will keep it for you.

see www.cargiant.ie for Irish customers

drdre

kluivert wrote:

You can book a car over the net pay a deposit and they will keep it for you.

see www.cargiant.ie for Irish customers

Thats a great idea, but what happens when you get there and you donot like it. Is the deposit refundable.

Lex Luthor

TruCal wrote:

drdre - I'm thinking of getting a Jag.

Lex - I will call cargiant today or tomorrow and ask em bout warranty etc, so will let you know what they said...

I saw a nice Jag X Type Diesel on there last week but would be worried about the lack of support for the car in this country and knowledge

Kali

endplate wrote:

Kali you obviously had some dealings with them what did you buy or did you buy? Do you think they are worth looking at?

Definitely worth a look, I've been there twice, and have test driven three Golf GT TDI 150s.. unfortunaly I didn't buy as I decided to put a dep. on a house instead.
Bear in mind they don't take credit cards... also if possible go on a weekday, as things can get extremely busy during the weekend and it can be hard to get a salesman to arrange keys/test-drive etc.

milltown

kluivert wrote:

You can book a car over the net pay a deposit and they will keep it for you.

This must be a new thing. I was on to them about two months ago and they said that a small deposit holds a car for three days (iirc) BUT...They don't take credit cards so unless you have a UK bank account there is no way to pay the deposit over the phone or web.

I couldn't justify making the trip over to find the car I wanted was gone so I bought here. The gloss would have been taken off the savings if I had to drive a car that was nearly what I wanted, but not quite.

kluivert

Lads

I find cargiants lack of payment faciliates to be a pain in the rear.

I would tend to look at these two supermarkets, they got a great rating from What Car Magazine

www.fow.co.uk - close to Holyhead.

www.availablecar.com - Right beside Nottingham Airport (Ryanair)

Both take credit cards so you can top up your card before you leave, just notifiy your credit card company that you might be making a large transaction on the card, for them to go ahead and authorise it otherwise they may think it was stolen, and stop the payment from going through.

Mc-BigE

milltown wrote:

This must be a new thing. I was on to them about two months ago and they said that a small deposit holds a car for three days (iirc) BUT...They don't take credit cards so unless you have a UK bank account there is no way to pay the deposit over the phone or web.

I couldn't justify making the trip over to find the car I wanted was gone so I bought here. The gloss would have been taken off the savings if I had to drive a car that was nearly what I wanted, but not quite.

just checked their website and they do and don't take visa :
http://www.cargiant.co.uk/carsupermarket/whatdocs.asp

"Deposit and Final Payments
Payment methods that are accepted:

Debit Cards
Maestro
Switch
Visa Delta
Solo
Electron

Cash
Please note that payments in cash of over £5000 will incur a £25 handling charge

Cheques
Bank Drafts
Building Society Cheques
Counter Cheques

We do not accept the following forms of payment
Credit Cards
Charge Cards
Personal Cheques
Company Cheques"

Lex Luthor

kluivert wrote:

Lads

I find cargiants lack of payment faciliates to be a pain in the rear.

I would tend to look at these two supermarkets, they got a great rating from What Car Magazine

www.fow.co.uk - close to Holyhead.

www.availablecar.com - Right beside Nottingham Airport (Ryanair)

Both take credit cards so you can top up your card before you leave, just notifiy your credit card company that you might be making a large transaction on the card, for them to go ahead and authorise it otherwise they may think it was stolen, and stop the payment from going through.

nice one...any more or should I just google to get a list of car supermarkets in uk?

bbability

Have a look at the British Car Auctions website... http://www.british-car-auctions.co.uk

Mc-BigE

here's another site http://www.carsite.co.uk/

seems to be linked to ebay so buyer beware!

edited: they sell their cars using ebay, but not linked to them. good prices though

zilog_jones

Mc-BigE wrote:

just checked their website and they do and don't take visa

Erm, Visa Delta and Maestro are debit cards. It clearly says this. Most (all?) Laser cards here are Maestro too - will they except Irish ones though?

Mc-BigE

zilog_jones wrote:

Erm, Visa Delta and Maestro are debit cards. It clearly says this. Most (all?) Laser cards here are Maestro too - will they except Irish ones though?

Cheers, thanks for clearing that up, might be worth sending them an email regarding Irish Maestro cards

Kali

Mc-BigE wrote:

Cheers, thanks for clearing that up, might be worth sending them an email regarding Irish Maestro cards

If your card has chip & pin then you should be ok. There are no signed transactions in the UK anymore.

learnerplates

i'm going over to Cargiant on Friday to have a look and hopefully purchase, I'm not sure of the payment service though.
How can you get a Sterlng bank draft before you go if you do not know the final amount or even know for sure who the payee will be?

How does the sterling Telegraphic Transfer work?

Is the pick and deposit on a car required beforehand in order to get the car in a day or two? I hope to see a car on Friday and drive it back on Saturday!

Stephen

/drags up old thread - learnerplates, did you buy in the end?

learnerplates

Stephen,
Short answer no.
But this is too weird, I've just seen your post on this thread, a girl in work this morning came in in one of the cars I was thinking of buying in cargiant, un-f**king-real, what are the chances of that?

Any way, the good news is that a purchase and return of a car from Cargiant is achievable in a single day.
The cars are worth a look alright, miles were a tad high for my liking, most of the cars I saw had small scratches around the boot area (due to salesmen I presume), the selection is good, about 10 of every model you can think of.
For those of you who like BMWs the good news is that they're throwing them away, they were the same price as the Mazda 6.
The miles on nearly all the cars were above 70K, so the price changes the higher the miles, my reckoning was you'd save about 2000euro for every 20,000 miles extra you were willling to have on the car, so it's a a blancing act between high miles and cash.

Here's how to do it:
I got a sterling draft for most of the transaction and brought about 1000stg cash to pay for the balance.
8am flight to Luton airport with Ryanair.
Get a train ticket at Luton airport (a one day pass lets you travel all day by tube etc, 6stg I think).
Get the train to Baker St and then back out to Willesden Junction (you'll see it on the brown line).
Cargiant is a 10 minute walk from the station.

We were there by about 11am so we had all day to look around.

Stephen

Sounds good. This is still ages away for me (probably feb next year when my insurance is due). I plan to go and buy a car in cargiant, stay the night in a friend's place in nearby Acton, and then drive to the ferry the following day. Do the British authorities have any problems with foreigners driving cars due for export around?

learnerplates

Yeah I stayed with a Friend over there too, would have preferred to have driven back that night, very close to buying a beamer even though I hate them.

This is the thread, Definite Guide, you want for the legal stuff, it's lengthy but worth a read when you have 10 mins. I think you just need to have the Log book and have UK road tax.

Cargiant is worth to tease yourself if nothing else, the flights were only 70euro on a Friday, it a good day out.

Cargiant have an irish site too, cargiant.ie