Bill Griffen Motors

Hi,

I am looking at a car my for eldest, I see one at Bill griffen in South Dublin.

Has anyone experienced with them, I see lots of positive reviews on-line from google, but when you look at other sites they are not great. I know companies can pay marketing companies to generate reviews for them to help businesses, so wondering is this the case here.

JVince

They are in the business many years. But my own experience is that they lack good customer service and have a take it or leave it attitude.

So whilst probably dependable in that you won't be sold a dodgy car, I certainly would not pay any premium price for a car from them and also get any details such as recent servicing and what that entailed in writing

goochy

cars supermarket- cheap prices - big volume - not dodgy but dont expect main dealer service -

TheBody

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121771145#Comment_121771145

This is exactly my experience of them too. "Take it or leave it attitude" is the perfect way to describe them. I recall asking the salesman some question about a car. He went off to find out the answer but took ages to return. I eventually found him chilling out smoking with a colleague and he hadn't bothered to find out the answer to the question I asked.

I took my business elsewhere.

ELM327

If you treat it as a private sale (and get the car price accordingly) it's fine. Same as any large volume and or naas road dealer

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121771506#Comment_121771506

Highly unlikely to get it at a private sale price. They provide new nct, service, valet, warranty, consumer protection etc so it deserves to be priced higher than private.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121772037#Comment_121772037

Do they?

They never mentioned this to me when I asked as the NCT would be out in about 9 months from purchase.

Warranty says its 3 months, or 3K KMS unless you buy a separate one? I know its a similar set up to Mapfre or something

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121772131#Comment_121772131

Well the majority of their cars are imports which always come with fresh NCT, maybe for Irish cars they provide minimum of 6 months NCT or something along those lines? As for those 3rd party warranties, they are usually only valid if the car has been serviced before sale. I mean its usually a given that a car is serviced at the bare minimum when buying from a dealer

My point is more so that it’s unlikely to buy a dealer car at a private sale price, its just not really going to happen in most cases as your getting more prep and protection from the dealer.

goochy

their prices are low and you get more than you would get from buying privately - consumer protection etc etc. - they are a car supermarket - all about volume - you cant get annoyed if they arent all over you - its like going to TESCO

josephsoap

Bought a car from bill griffin motors last year and had a horrendous experience.

On the test drive the fuel light was on and the check engine light was also on.

There was a few small issues with the car which I pointed out to salesman and I was assured the car would be left 100%

what really annoyed me was as I live 3 hours from Dublin and you have to pay via bank transfer before collection, when I went to collect the car - there was hardly a drop of diesel in the car - they really do not care about their customers and none of the small issues with the car I pointed out before had been addressed

had I a bank draft in my hand I probably wouldn’t have drove the car off their street

it seems to be all about their margin - gurrier salesman - as said before take it or leave no politeness at all

to cap it all off I only had the car 2 days when the check engine light returned - the cars are very much sold as seen.

it just wasn’t feasible for me to return to Dublin with the car to get it check out - would be ok if you live closer to Dublin.

The was I was treated with them and the sight of the car sickened me every day - I had to trade the car and move on.

goochy

It's not great when there are faults in a car but regarding customer service u just have to realise that you will have to pay more to get it elsewhere

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121773511#Comment_121773511

You bought a car with check engine light on at the salesmans word! That was your mistake.

People without interest in cars don't seem to realise that you can clear a fault code at the press of a button without fixing anything. Of course it will come back if no repair has been made. It might go for a minute or a month before reappearing but you.can be sure it will come back. It was silly to take the engine management light issue so lightly.

Used cars dealers will spend zero on a car if they can get away with it so alot of them with clear the code and hope for the best when it goes out the gate.

From viewing bill Griffin adverts, the prices do seem very keen. I'd expect little room for bargaining with that pricing model.

josephsoap

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121773710#Comment_121773710

The check engine light was off on the day of collection - I’d imagine they just cleared the faults that morning.

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121773733#Comment_121773733

Ya i gathered that but if you buy a car with check engine light showing before purchase, you can be sure it will be visible again very soon after until you really dig into the circumstances and verify what repair was carried out. You would really need to be having the fault Independently checked and required fix identified where possible.

spockety

Bought a car off them last year. They were grand. Pleasant sales guy, no hard sell, take it or leave it but not in a nasty way.

I bought a car from Car Giant in the UK donkeys years ago, and it was similar. Huge stock, but almost like a private sale in terms of making sure you do your own research, check the car over, and anticipate the risks. Make it all about the car, not the dealer.

goochy

as i say its liking buying a car from Tesco , big volume places selling cheap cant afford or have time to be all over a customer - if a dealer is making a big mark up they are more likely to want to make a good impression on customer so customer buys into them and forgets about price

Clo-Clo

Better to buy off them with cash, trade in values will be awful when I tried to deal with them before.

In terms of a valet etc, my 10 year old could do a better job. In terms of service would need to check with previous customers what the quality is like.

It's a volume based model so they try to undercut other companies. Which was hilarious recently when trading in the dealer showed me a pic of a car they are trying to sell a few months and said if they couldn't sell at that price then a limited market for the car :-)

It is also the "price is the price", don't expect to get any real negotiations with them

Seen plenty of their cars around Dublin over the last few years(tags on back etc)

GPoint

they are more like an auction without having to bid for a car. They probably buy in uk at an auction and just re sell here . They contract service work to nearby garages and don’t expect high quality there, oil changed errors cleared and that’s all.

griffin100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121773747#Comment_121773747

Exactly why you need to treat it like a private sale.

I bought off them a few years ago. Car was at the cheaper end of the scale and was grand. Customer service is basic, I had to spend ages trying to find the car on the roof (their old premises I think) and then trying to get them to clear the area around it so it could be driven off for a test drive.

BraveDonut

Test drove a BMW with them a few years ago. Salesman said it had not been cleaned yet - no problem.

Drove around the block and came straight back as the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree with all the warnings - including a major drive-train issue.

Bye bye - not buying from someone who lets a customer test drive a car in that state

ifeelabreeze

Mother bought a Q3 from them a good few years back, no issues whatsoever but they're very much 'yeah look that's the price, do what you want with that' there's not much in the way of customer service but they were still pleasant to deal with.

FluffPiece

Bought a car from them about 7 years ago now and still have it. Do your own inspection and go with your gut or bring a competent mechanic/friend.

I will say that they claimed to have serviced the car but that was bullshit. I showed them the pollen filter as an example and got them to get it serviced along with the gearbox oil changed as it was a common problem on the car from what I researched. While that was a **** practise from the sales rep, I was able to spot and get it sorted so it's why you should bring someone with you if you can't tell yourself.

It's been going ever since and passed it's last NCT just on Thursday passing the 340k mark on the odometer.