Bill Griffin Motors - Feedback

mhackett102

A family member is looking for a new car and I came across this Fiat 500 for sale from Bill Griffin Motors in Dublin.

The family member has fallen in love with the car and is interested in visiting the garage to have a look.

First of all, has anyone ever dealt with this garage? If so, what kind of experience have they had? They claim that they are "One of Irelands largest and oldest car dealers" so that is reassuring.

Secondly, does anyone know what this kind of car is like? Especially with the 1.4 6-speed gearbox?

All advice is much appreciated, as we are planning on going looking at the car this week.

goochy

dealer in business good while but gets mixed reviews - <snip> think his son is also there now so he might be more pleasant - there seems to be a problem with what salesmen agree with prospective customers and then what bill agrees to when he finds out about it!

i like the fiat 500 , its basically a fiat panda in a more stylish body - panda is a good car to start with . not as sharp to drive as mini but not as common - i am 6'3 and another lanky mate and i were passengers in a friends 500 from dublin to antrim - really liked the car and we fitted in grand !

mhackett102

goochy wrote: »

dealer in business good while but gets mixed reviews - think his son is also there now so he might be more pleasant - there seems to be a problem with what salesmen agree with prospective customers and then what bill agrees to when he finds out about it!

i like the fiat 500 , its basically a fiat panda in a more stylish body - panda is a good car to start with . not as sharp to drive as mini but not as common - i am 6'3 and another lanky mate and i were passengers in a friends 500 from dublin to antrim - really liked the car and we fitted in grand !

Yeah I've heard a lot of mixed reviews from the garage.. And it's very skeptical the way that they wont offer warranty to cars which are over a certain age.

We may be trading in a car, depending on the price offered.

I forwarded on about 10 cars of similar size/price to her and she just fell in love with the Fiat. Hopefully this deal will work out!
I have never came across the 1.4 engine before, but she's coming from a 1.6 engine so the 1.2 may be too much of a step down.

Blue Punto

Was going to start a thread about this myself

Went here before Christmas to buy a car only to discover that even after I rang about my interest in a car & then drove from the midlands that the car was promised to a lady who arrived after me

When I queried this the son told me the car in question had been out on 2 test drives already that morning and both had reported gearbox problems.

After being left for nearly 20 mins with no activity I went up to their roof top only to find the car in question blocked in by 3 cars and with 2 flat tyres.

The son who was dealing with me was surprised to say the least to see me there and when I questioned him on the 2 test drives he said happened that day he changed his story to 2 people who looked at the car.

When I asked how they could find a gearbox defect by looking at the car he walked away.

On arriving back at the show room I met Bill himself who threatened to sack the salesman who spoke to me on the phone before my journey to Dublin(which was his son)Cant see that happening

Decided to give them another try today,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,BUT

After looking through their stock I had decided that I was going to buy either an Insignia or an Avensis they had in stock(Avensis was POA) as they are cheap but when I rang about the latter was told on the phone to just check the internet for the price as they were in the process of putting the prices of their cars and salesman did not want to talk to me.

This put the nail in the coffin for me and I didn't even bother going to the garage.

I went elsewhere and actually bought a brand new car as I got a great deal as I was buying cash (No finance)

My reasons to stay away being if that's how he treats potential customers imagine what his aftersales service is like.

Sad because I know this guy from people I know in Mondello

They seem to pride themselves on selling the most cars last year in their adds but with their current attitude I cant see that lasting

I'd steer well clear (forgive the pun)

Sobanek

Hardly charming, but I was interested, was able to take a look, was told about faults.
No room to haggle though.
Overall, a "meh" experience, but certainly not as bad as people say.

Blue Punto

Sobanek wrote: »

Hardly charming, but I was interested, was able to take a look, was told about faults.
No room to haggle though.
Overall, a "meh" experience, but certainly not as bad as people say.

It was bad for me on both occasions

If you buy here I hope you don't need after sales and I am saying that after their pre sales experience on 2 occasions

mhackett102

Presume the car was sold today as its been taken down from carzone.
We emailed them yesterday morning but got no reply.. But maybe for the better due to some of the feedback i've been hearing from them!

Anhow, it may be unlikely that theyll get another car in like it anytime soon, so we will probably deal elsewhere.

Im still looking for information on the Fiat 500 so feel free to mention it here if anyone knows a bit about them!

renofan

Have to say I'm another that isn't pleased with their services. A friend inquired about a car, told them he'd get the bus from Nenagh so as to drive the car home. I met him at Luas Red Cow and we went to Bill's only to be told the car was gone. Absolutely no manners on the guy we were dealing with.

jethrothe2nd

Likewise, I was not happy with the experience that I had, and I wouldn't be going back there. Having said that, he has been there for a long time, so he must be doing something right.....

mhackett102

I must say we kinda got the same experience as most of ye have got.
Sister emailed them on a Monday, and got no reply.
Called them three times Tuesday & when they eventually answered, they didnt seem to know much about the car but said it was still there. She said she will go out to their garage on Wednesday to view it.
Wednesday came, I told her to give them a call to make sure they still have it.. A different salesman answered and said that the car was sold on Tuesday.

Needless to say that we will not be dealing with them in future!!

TheDoc

I'll never understand how places like this continue to do business, I guess it goes to show how little research people do in buying cars?

A proper dealer will treat you like royalty, at the end of the day, your handing over serious money.

mhackett102

TheDoc wrote: »

I'll never understand how places like this continue to do business, I guess it goes to show how little research people do in buying cars?

A proper dealer will treat you like royalty, at the end of the day, your handing over serious money.

I remember a couple of months ago I was going to buy a Volkswagen from here as it was cheap and had NCT. I then came across boards.ie and I have never regretting not buying that car!

I guess it is really worth paying that bit extra for a car from a proper dealer.

supervento

mhackett102 wrote: »

I must say we kinda got the same experience as most of ye have got.
Sister emailed them on a Monday, and got no reply.
Called them three times Tuesday & when they eventually answered, they didnt seem to know much about the car but said it was still there. She said she will go out to their garage on Wednesday to view it.
Wednesday came, I told her to give them a call to make sure they still have it.. A different salesman answered and said that the car was sold on Tuesday.

Needless to say that we will not be dealing with them in future!!

often garages dont take email enquiries as serious as they should. it almost sounds like this garage is under staffed for the amount of vehicles they stock.

Majority of that garage's stock seems to be very competitively priced and it seems like they are going for high volume sales/ small mark up and as a result probably feel that if you dont buy it someone else will .... its a take it or leave it situation. It would seem the salespeople know the stock will sell and as a result dont need to treat people like "Royalty"....

tbh any garage/ person is going to sell to the person in front of them.......

the amount of times people needlessly say they will be " down tomorrow to look at the car" etc is endless. It ruins it for the genuine people like in this case...

mhackett102

supervento wrote: »

often garages dont take email enquiries as serious as they should. it almost sounds like this garage is under staffed for the amount of vehicles they stock.

Majority of that garage's stock seems to be very competitively priced and it seems like they are going for high volume sales/ small mark up and as a result probably feel that if you dont buy it someone else will .... its a take it or leave it attitude. It would seem the salespeople know the stock will sell and as a result dont need to treat people like "Royalty"....

tbh any garage/ person is going to sell to the person in front of them.......

the amount of times people needlessly say they will be " down tomorrow to look at the car" etc is endless. It ruins it for the genuine people like in this case...

Completely agree with what your saying, but my sister had called and was very interested. She had told them she was going to be trading in her car and that she will be leaving work early so she could get there in enough time to have a look at the car before closing time.

They do have nice cars and you'd have to admire them for how much cars they sell, but I wouldnt trust them as far as I would throw them after some of the stories I've heard.

OldmanMondeo

I I had a look at a few cars there over the last few months, 1 thing I have learnt is he shifts cars quick. So must be doing something right. Most cars I have looked at have had Dealer plate on them, ie windsor motors, Mike Tynon etc. He seems to get first call on trade ins with a number of dealers.

I did buy a car there, long time ago. Car was a Jap import, agreed a price, gave him a deposit and collected the car within a few days. Never had an ounce of trouble with it. That was back in 1998, he is in the same building with the same name since then. Better than most of the fly by nights around there.

I would ahve no issue buying a car from them, just check the car out fully first.

goochy

they dont offer a warranty on fairly modern stock and bill has a terrible manner so they arent a great dealer - getting alot of repeat business is the sign of a good dealer.

BooBoo1111

Hi all,

I'm looking for some feedback of Bill Griffin Motors as I am interested in buying a car from them. However the salesman had zero interest and enthusiasm in selling me the car and was reluctant to answer my questions (I think purely because he didn't know the answers) but its exactly what I want... Should I go for it?

Big Cheese

I have been looking at several cars here recently, mostly online and one visit. From what I can work out, from various forums here and my own small experience, is this: T

he cars are genuine cars and straight, they sell a lot of cars so for the most part the salesmen do not seem to know the details of most of them.

They like to turn cars around FAST. If you agree to buy a car and say u will be back in 1hr, they will still sell that car in that hour if they can....to someone else.

They have no manners, no customer service, and do not honour warranty at all. If they say it will pass NCT, make sure that is in terms of sale...do not take their (or any dealer) word. Put any conditions in terms of sale.


There is value to be had from them though. But I am uneasy anout commiting to them. What car was it?

BooBoo1111

Thanks for the replies... Its a 2006 BMW 3 series.

I googled reviews but they were mixed.

I was waiting a good 15 mins for them to bring the car around so the sales man could have looked up the details quickly - there's no excuse for poor sales technique! There is no NCT on the car but they are doing it for me as a condition of sale.

26000 Elephants

BooBoo1111 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies... Its a 2006 BMW 3 series.

I googled reviews but they were mixed.

I was waiting a good 15 mins for them to bring the car around so the sales man could have looked up the details quickly - there's no excuse for poor sales technique! There is no NCT on the car but they are doing it for me as a condition of sale.

Read back over your posts again, and I'm sure that you will see that you have answered your own question!

You are uneasy and uncomfortable with them. Go with your gut feeling, and choose elsewhere. If they are treating you like this when you are buying, what are they going to be like if you ever have n issue that needs addressing?

The motor trade is very competitive - find someone who knows how to look after customers better.

mhackett102

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=94617199

There's a thread which I started myself regarding this garage. Might be worth looking at!

Larbre34

Bought a car there a few years back, bought an extra cover warranty and the aircon pump failed a few months later. It was a slog trying to get Bill to honour it, i ended up marching into his office and asking him how badly he wanted to spend a day in small claims court, so he got it fixed.

Also, they were very shoddy with the change of ownership, i didnt get a VLC back for ages, and again that took a tiresome succession of phonecalls.

All in all, not up to scratch, look elsewhere.

sdanseo

Looked at two cars here in the last 12 months - first experience better than the second. Asked a few questions, salesman quite friendly and welcoming, a brief visit.

Second time round, we were told a car we were interested in (€8k, not small money) was up on the roof - we looked round for ten minutes or more but still couldn't find it, and the place is a bit of a maze, when we came downstairs again and hovered around we weren't approached so we left. Definitely not a bad experience, but they could certainly have made a little more of an effort to get the sale.

NIMAN

To be honest, some would say thats not a bad thing.

I often get fed up when viewing cars as the salespeople are way OTT, hassling you for ages and then contacting you for days after it.

sdanseo

NIMAN wrote: »

To be honest, some would say thats not a bad thing.

I often get fed up when viewing cars as the salespeople are way OTT, hassling you for ages and then contacting you for days after it.

There's a balance, I work in sales as well and you have to find the happy medium between jumping on people the second they cross the threshold and ignoring them completely.

muloc

Been into Bill recently and same experience as most here. Left hanging around a lot, didn't ring back when they said they would. They are better value than most other places but obviously cutting corners somewhere. I'll be scratching them off my list.

savagethegoat

1500 for a 2005 car? I just got a trade in of 4500+ on my 2006....

<snip>

colm_mcm

You got €4500 for an 06 Saab 93?

savagethegoat

did I say that?

colm_mcm

You didn't, that's why I asked.

I take it you didn't trade in a Saab 93 then?

savagethegoat

no I didn't I referred to getting 4500 for a 2006 CAR as opposed to 1500 for a 2005 CAR

mgbgt1978

...without mentioning the Make & Model of car you traded in your post is fairly pointless.:rolleyes:

colm_mcm

I see. You know that some cars are more valuable than others though. Saab 93s aren't worth a whole lot these days.
I can get you a 3 bed house in Limerick for 30,000 if you like. Makes the €300,000 3 bed ones elsewhere look like a rip-off.

savagethegoat

it doesnt matter how much my car is worth, it's illustrating that a 2005 car must be worth more than that. That's the point and with a point, it can't be pointless now can it?

colm_mcm

How much do you think the trade in value should be in this case?

Stheno

savagethegoat wrote: »

it doesnt matter how much my car is worth, it's illustrating that a 2005 car must be worth more than that. That's the point and with a point, it can't be pointless now can it?

Plenty of 05 cars at that price tbh especially on a trade in

savagethegoat

plenty at 2500 too

doughef

So,

I bought a car from them last year.
Wanted to trade in my old car and was given an approx. trade in price as I didn't have the car with me.
When I brought in my car they offered 300 less for it when they seen it (bald tyres ,no NCT.. fair enough I thought)

I had a mechanic look at the car I was buying and he said it was sound so I bought it.
It was a UK import and they registered it. No hassle contacting them looking for the reg to insure it etc.
No hassle test driving and when I went to collect it it was ready and spotless.

I was happy with the deal but I was also left standing around initially waiting for someone to come to me and had to go looking for cars myself and found the one I wanted on the roof. It wasn't on the website and was way down the back and dirty.. probably just arrived which gives an indication of how quick they sell their stock.
All in all, if your not too precious and get someone to look at the car for you before you buy I would recommend them.

savagethegoat

colm_mcm wrote: »

How much do you think the trade in value should be in this case?

As much as you can negotiate for. If you can't get as much as you'd like , go elsewhere. as the OP did

mhackett102

savagethegoat wrote: »

it doesnt matter how much my car is worth, it's illustrating that a 2005 car must be worth more than that. That's the point and with a point, it can't be pointless now can it?

You've lost me completely.

I can get a 2002 Corolla for €2500.. I can also get a 2005 Focus for €2500.. Different cars have different values.

savagethegoat

yes, and 1500 is too low imo... it's worth what you can get for it.

Odelay

To value a trade in car based on the first two digits of the registration plate is absurd.

Sam Kade

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

I I had a look at a few cars there over the last few months, 1 thing I have learnt is he shifts cars quick. So must be doing something right. Most cars I have looked at have had Dealer plate on them, ie windsor motors, Mike Tynon etc. He seems to get first call on trade ins with a number of dealers.

I did buy a car there, long time ago. Car was a Jap import, agreed a price, gave him a deposit and collected the car within a few days. Never had an ounce of trouble with it. That was back in 1998, he is in the same building with the same name since then. Better than most of the fly by nights around there.

I would ahve no issue buying a car from them, just check the car out fully first.

Thanks Bill

mhackett102

savagethegoat wrote: »

yes, and 1500 is too low imo... it's worth what you can get for it.

Yes I would agree that €1500 is low to give for the car, you could get nearly €3000 (or more depending on condition) if you were to sell it privately.

But, your previous statement saying that you got €4500 for a 2006 car makes no sense as you are not even saying what make or model the car is! Unless it was also a Saab 93 then you cannot compare it to what @ab33 has said.

Its basically like saying that a 151 Nissan Micra is worth the same as a 151 BMW 520 because "they both have a 151 reg"

savagethegoat

Odelay wrote: »

To value a trade in car based on the first two digits of the registration plate is absurd.

so is that statement....noone has done that, not even me.

savagethegoat

mhackett102 wrote: »

Yes I would agree that €1500 is low to give for the car, you could get nearly €3000 (or more depending on condition) if you were to sell it privately.

But, your previous statement saying that you got €4500 for a 2006 car makes no sense as you are not even saying what make or model the car is! Unless it was also a Saab 93 then you cannot compare it to what @ab33 has said.

Its basically like saying that a 151 Nissan Micra is worth the same as a 151 BMW 520 because "they both have a 151 reg"

not saying that at all.

mhackett102

savagethegoat wrote: »

not saying that at all.

Unless you can clarify that you meant something else by this, I think you kinda were.. :rolleyes:

savagethegoat wrote: »

1500 for a 2005 car? I just got a trade in of 4500+ on my 2006....

you were being mugged

colm_mcm wrote: »

You got €4500 for an 06 Saab 93?

savagethegoat wrote: »

no I didn't I referred to getting 4500 for a 2006 CAR as opposed to 1500 for a 2005 CAR

Sam Kade

colm_mcm wrote: »

I see. You know that some cars are more valuable than others though. Saab 93s aren't worth a whole lot these days.
I can get you a 3 bed house in Limerick for 30,000 if you like. Makes the €300,000 3 bed ones elsewhere look like a rip-off.

Would it be in the Moyross area

PrettyBoy

savagethegoat wrote: »

no I didn't I referred to getting 4500 for a 2006 CAR as opposed to 1500 for a 2005 CAR

Odelay wrote: »

To value a trade in car based on the first two digits of the registration plate is absurd.

The idiotic Irish mentality that the thing that matters most on a car is the year that it was registered...

PrettyBoy

savagethegoat wrote: »

not saying that at all.

It's exactly what you're saying!

mgbgt1978

savagethegoat wrote: »

so is that statement....noone has done that, not even me.

That is exactly what you have done.
...and still we wait to hear what Make & Model of Car you are referring to.


edit; Prettyboy got in there just before me, but that simply reinforces the point that your post (#29) was complete nonsense.