Carcraft
Reviews and Complaints

I went to Carcraft Leeds, thinking I could trust them from seeing adverts etc... not. I bought a 2005 Megane from them in April 2008 and have had problems with the car ever since. They conned me into taking an improved warranty with NAC (which I have to pay for every month). When phoning in to complain about the dudd they sold me and to get them to pay for repairs to the vehicle (sterring column) they said that their 2 year gaurantee/warranty they give - I forfeited by taking an extended/improved warranty with NAC. They also went on to say that if NAC won't pay for the repairs they would'nt either. I do not know much about cars but I am sure that a car as young as 3 years old should not have a complete failure on a steering column. If they did the 120 point check this should have been detected and repaired. I believe they knowingly sold me a dudd. DO NOT EVER BUY FROM CARCRAFT ANYWHERE IN THE UK.

myself and my wife purchased a vehicle from Carcraft (west midlands) around four months ago, as part of the deal carcraft agreed to settle an outstanding finance agreement we had with our previous vehicle. To cut a long story short (and it is very long) I have now recieved a Default Notice from the previous finance company telling me they are going to take legal action if the amount is not settled in the next few weeks. This is the latest development in what has become a knightmare. There have been several new settlemet figures which have been sent to myself which whenever I have phoned carcraft have told me cheques have been sent out to fincance company, non of which have been recieved. The customer service we have recieved from Carcraft has been pathetic to say the least. Just an example of this is over the weekend my wife contacted Carcraft customer service regards the default notice and was basically told that the whole accounts department were in a meeting and that no managers were in the office. We seem to have been palmed off at every available opportunity. I would like to know who i can contact officially (regulators for carcraft) and how I can go about clearing the bad credit rating and default that is down to carcraft and not myself. Any ideas anyone. Also if anyone is thinking of buying a vehicle through carcraft ensure that any previous finance is settled before you leave the showroom.

not given full information on parts and labour guarentee sold to me they give 2 years free i purchased 5 years at a cost of approx £1500 i thought with their 2 years my 5 years i have 7 years peace of mind an enquireing i now find this not so their 2 years is different policy to my 5 years so when it comes down to it i have really only got 3 years extra for the £1550 i have paid if you take into account their 2 years free so i think this insurance was mis sold to me as none of this was explained a point of sale and no paperwork shown to me about the 2 year free parts and labour i was only given leaflet about the 5 year policy .

We bought a SAAB 95 from Car Craft nearly a year ago. We thought we were paying the on screen price that was explained to us by the salesman (or fraudster) we however are paying an extra £16k this is shocking. The paperwork for the finance didnt arrive until over a month after we purchesed the car so we did not have the option to cancel this or take the car back. We are now locked into paying £27k for a £10k car with no way out. We have tried and tried to cancel the worthless waranty and the very expensice PPI but we NEVER get a response.
There must be thousands of people who have been misled by Car Craft and they must be stopped. Everyone with the slightest complaint should write to the ombudsman and the Office of Fair Trade and the more people who complain the more likely they are to be stopped and the more likely the conned people can get there overspent money back. I have read hundreds of complaints about these conmen on the internet so I know that if EVERYBODY complains to the correct people we can stop them conning anybody else.

My trusty old Rover 45 had failed it's MOT - so, needing a car pretty sharpish, I took a trip to CarCraft in Wednesdbury to see what they could offer.

Certainly, the ads promised great deals, competitive finance packages, the option to 'drive away in an hour' and so on. The salesman who greeted me was pleasant enough - although the initial sales spiel was a bit OTT (like one of those dreadful double-glazing demonstrations) - presumably designed to check out how likely you are to buy a motor that day (and to assess your IQ and level of knowledge before deciding on the most appropriate rip-off...sorry, sales approach).

It soon became apparent that the cars were at least 10-15% above the value of the web prices quoted online, although with the web price printed out you can apparently claim it on the forecourt. That's great if you know the car you want and are lucky enough to find it there when you call. Presumably ripping off people who don't have internet access is fine and dandy...

Anyway - I'll cut to the chase. After wandering for a couple of hours and finding little to take my fancy (and fending off several approaches from an over-eager and slightly spotty salesman) I took a good look at a Peugeot 307 - 52 plate. Sticker price was £5999 - which I felt was overpriced, but I thought, given the age of the car I'd check the service history to assess the purchase a bit more closely. I opened the glovebox and took out the documents. To my surprise, alongside the owners manual and service history were two other items: the previous owners insurance documentation including name, address and telephone number and, worse, the invoice from the garage that the previous owner had bought the car from (some 18 months earlier). And the price they had paid? £4100.

Leaving aside the obvious data protection implications of leaving a previous owners personal details available to any Tom, Dick or Harry - what really galled me was the arrogance of trying to knock out a motor a full £1899 more than it had sold for 18 months earlier.

CarCraft? CarCRAP more like.

Needless to say - I left sharpish and won't be heading back soon.

Yet another complaint for that bunch of cowboy know as car craft, I bought a 3year old fiat stilo from car craft on the 21 /6 /07 .Car was going well till may this year when iwent to start the car the inlett manifold blew so as i had the car for under a year and done only 5, 600 miles i got in touch with carcraft about getting it repaired, they told me the warrenty was with NAC, so i got in touch with them
They they told me to take the car to a vat reg gargage and fax the car service history to them, so i did
NAC then rang me and if i had any more invoices for the car, i said no thats all i got nac then told me that they ca, nt pay for the repaires as i had the car longer then six month with out a service, so i said i have done under 6000 miles and you have to have your car serviced in 6 months . What do these people class as a service oil change oil filter replaced top up other liquids all of witch a can do myself . So i got back to car craft customer services telling them the reply from nac and that i wanted to cancell my nac account as im not paying for a service when im not getting a service inreturn, there answer was you can only cancell within 30 days so i can you pay for the repairs within 3 months .So i put it in to a local garage and pay the repairs myself £700 only for them to tell that fiat don, t make inlett manifolds for a 2003 car anymore .So i am left with a car i can, t use but i still paying for, for the next 2 years
Please tell your friends / family not to buy a car from car craft and nac warrenty.

We bought a SAAB 95 from car craft September 07. We were lead to believe our finance payments would be £150 a month cheaper that they have turned out to be. We have complained to Car Craft and only had letters to confirm receipt of complaint and we have complained to The Black Horse who supplied the finance and have received nothing. Car Craft should be ashamed as we were conned by this finance agreement and would never have bough the car if this had been pointed out to us we are therefore paying £27k for a £10k car.

I would like to try and gather all the people conned by these used car dealers and try to publicly embarrass them and be compensated for all our inconvenience.

I purchased an audi a3 from carcraft for 18, 000 on sept 27th 2007 and have nothing but problems from start. After 2wks the lights went out, after 2mths the wheel bearings broke and the wheels needed balancing 1mnth after there was a thumping sound on the car as i built up speed. So i had my wheels balanced again didn't work, my steering wheel doesn't line up and then on may 23 2008 the cam belt broke on my car and audi say i need a new engine which will cost 4900 pound after i have only had the car 8mths and done 10,000 miles it is less than 4yrs old. I contacted carcraft to tell them i spoke to sandra gibbons head of complaints at rochdale she said that they would have checked the cambelt in their checks before they sold me the car but said you cant really see if a cambelt needs changing, but if the bloody ripoff merchants had checked it they would have foreseen it needed changing so basically. They sold me a car not fit for purpose.

I strongly recommend not to go to carcraft for anything!

I got a car from carcraft recently after being told on the phone i had been accepted for finance and was absolutely guaranteed to be driving home the same day. I was also told that the were hundreds of cars in stock within the price range £1, 000-£2, 000 and so i got a one way ticket on te train to liverpool, as i live in north wales thats a long way to travel. When i arrived i was lied to again, i was told that the indicated weekly payment amount shown on the windscreen of each car + about £10 would give m an idea of how much i would be paying. After having looked around (surprised that all the cars there are ridiculously over priced and the cheapest about 6, 000! Way above what i was told about there being hundreds of cars within the price range of 1-2 thousand!) I made my choice and after hours and hours of waiting i was told about 9pm that i would be paying £76 per WEEK for the car (way above what i was told earlier because on the windscreen the estimated weekly payment was £35!) At that time with having gone through all the stress and frustration due to being messed about so much and due to the fact i had booked work the same night after being told i would "drive away in an hour" which i had to cancel + the fact i had only got a one way ticket on the train there with no money to get home i accepted with the hope that after a brief financial review when i arrived home i would discover i would be able to afford it which i did for the first 5 months before i had to send it back and be left with more liability than the car was worth in the first place! I intend on taking carcraft to court as i ha been unlawfully pushed into purchase of the vehicle and i intend to claim the full amount of the car together with the cost of finance and interest totaling over 16, 000. I would advise anyone thinking about getting a car from carcraft NOT TOO as i have spoke to many other ppl that have that have encountered the same problem.

After reading about various complaints about CarCraft, I thought I add my own complaint.
On Saturday 19/04/08, through advanced finance a vehicle had been chosen for me when I arrived at their center. I was then asked to phone their provider for car insurance, I was given a 7 day free insurance so I could drive my new car away, as they were faxed a copy of my cover note, I was told by the sales that when I get home I would beable to tax my vehicle...Wrong when I got home I went to my post office and after queing for 30 min I was told they did not accept photocopies of Insurance and it had to be original copes. As for the V5 supplement well the sales did not tell me that the vehicle had been registered as disabled, so a trip to the DVLA center in Sidcup.

I phoned the Customer Service on Monday, and was transfered to Enfield branch where I got the vehicle told them what had happened, and was told that they should have told me the background of the vehicle.Not very helpful I have written to Rochdale Head Office as of yet no reply.

TIP:
Make sure you ask background of the vehicle
Take your own Insurance details not Carcraft 7 day free insurance.

As of today 24/04/08 My vehicle still sits outside my house untaxed, as I await for my valid insurance certificate.

I was completely disgusted with the manner in which I was dealt with when negotiating a trade in for my car.
Initially, I was provided with inaccurate information relating to the car I was intending to purchase.
It was delivered to Rochdale from the Midland Site of Carcreft.
On arrival I asked for my car to be valued, but I was informed that there wqas no need for this as the valuation would be done, /and has been done, on the internet.After a period of six hours and when all that remaimed to be done was to pay the balance remaining., I was informewd that the car was under valued and that I would be required to pay an additional £1, 000.
When I asked as to what was the reason for this, I was informed that the original value would only apply if my car was in good condition and of l;ow milage with new tyres etc.
My car had a low milage, under 20, 000 for an 04 plate, and had new tyres, new wyper blades and reversing sensors. All addiotions and therefore favourable points.
It was obvious that the car had not been inspected or valued properly.
I should have been informed about this matter at the very start and not after six hours.
It should be pointed out that all the preliminaries had been completed. The Insurance details had been completed, arrangements had been made for the documentation relating to the vehicle to be sent to my home address, all the items in my car had been transferred to the car that I was intending to purchase and, six hours later the transaction was aborted.
I find that this whole business indicates tho me the unethical behaviour of the sales manager who was monitoring this situation. I found it also to be both unprofessional and somewhat underer hand.
I would have like to direct my disgust directly to the senior management of the Carcraft company, but I do not have the e-mail address or any manner by which I could contact the Chairman or a member of the Senior management directly.
To say that I find the whole business odious and contemptable is to put the matter very slightly.
I cannot find words to express my extreme dissatisfaction about it. Six hours of my life had been wasted. I had driven in unclement weather a total distance of 70 miles and, at the end of it, the whole situation had been a waste of time.
Melville G. Coombes

When i purchased a car from carcraft in december i specifically asked sales man to put me on a finance where i will pay for the car in september but when i called ge money and they told me im on the higher finance that was the 1st problem 2nd problem they put insurance on my account which i never asked for so they removed this for me after 2 mths i found a fault with the seat belt light called their nec guarantee people up (as i have 1 year guarantee on this vehicle) and 1 of the adviser helped me but when i called back they refused to help so i left it thinking its a minor fault and im not getting any help either then after 4 mothes i had a big problem my turbo went faulty called nec guarantee again and explained the problem and they refused again to help made so many calls to them also popped down to carcraft a couple of time just to confirm if this was covered got conflicting information then spoke to a manager from carcraft and he said (iv got all these managers names-will give if you want) this is covered and nec gaurantee that work for carcraft should cover this for you ... the number of times i called nec gaurantee some advisors were saying its covered some were saying its not covered they were very very rude and arogant they just didnt want to help me in any way spoke to a manager from there and he was even ruder and made nasty coments about me and my family so i wasnt willing to speak to these people again as i wasnt treated well so i went back to carcraft and they kepy saying you are covered you need to speak to nec gaurantee so basically i was messed around for a month or more being messed around ...because i work in leeds and i have to look after my daughter and father i had no car i spent £13500 on a car that didnt work and i was using the public transport to get to work and look after my dad i also missed my cabin crew interviews because of these people ...so i went and 1000 to fix part of my problem on the car (got new turbo, exugst sit contaminated have proof for this ) and drove the car to carcraft really upset i was in tears and i got to speak to a head manager called imy from leeds carcraft showroom where i origanally got the car from told him my problem and explained what i had been through and followed all the right paths but got no where ...imy made an offer to me and that was to swap the car because the car had many problem and i had been through many problems with the company so as a goodwill he offered this to me and i excepted the offer i at that time called trading standards and had made a note with them regarding this offer made to me and they have given me a reference number for this has been logged ... when i excepted the offer in august i also asked for a refund on the repair cost as i have the right on that too as i have a year guarantee on the car and imy said i can only offer an exchange of car but im not autherised to give you your money back so i said ok il take the exchange but i want my money that iv paid to repair the car and which was covered in the guarantee... so imy said thats fine il offer you the car but i will speak to john leigh (head manager of rochdale callcentre) to get autherisation to refund the amount i spent on the car...so i left it at that and also updated trading standards about this then after a couple of weeks john leigh called me on my mobile number and confirmed they were in the wrong and appologised for the inconvience and thanked for being patient and said i will allocate imy to get you your car swapped and the finance which is wrong and i know who missold the wrong finanace to you and i will deal with that salesman any way he assured me that the car will be swapped and the finance will be held and sorted out and the refund will be looked in to ... i was really happy and left at that ... so i walked away thinking everything will be dealt with its in good hand i put my trust back in to carcraft coz what distress they put me through before was really bacd and i had lost trust in them ... but any way i put all my faith in to these 2 people who were willing to help me ...after all the time i waited for the promised to be fulfiled i received a call from gina simpkin in january 2008 and she called me and said when can i come down to swop the car i said i can come down whenever you want but then i asked her have you sorthed out my repair refund and she said i dont know what your talking about ? then i asked her its took her 5 mothes just to swop the car and you dont know anything about the refund ? she appologised and said leave it with me and i will call you back regarding this she called the next day and said can i send the receipts and i said i will ( the number of managers i spoke to since i have had this prob have all advised me to keep the repair receipts ) so anyway and sent off the receipts then i waited for another month and an half for (car still not swopped) had no call from them so i decided to call them that was yesterday 27/02/08 asked to speak to gina simpkin was told 4-5 times she s busy eventually got through and quite bluntly she turned round and said we are not gona swop your car and we will give you the refund for the repair which they shlould give as i had a guratee on the car i asked her that the swopping of the car was already agreed and autherised by john leigh then why ? she said youve been driving the car and then i said to her what does that mean are u backing off with what you agreed and i had accepted said you cant do that ? she said we cant and that it was an error made by imy and john leigh i was quite shocked that they came out with this to my understanding as i work for a big company you cannot go back on your words if you offer something to a customer no matter what you have to give them that doesnt matter if it was an error she also said it was lack of communication between them now i dont see that i have to suffer for this and why i had to wait from august 2007 to today ? she said if a car is faulty within 6 months we can do sominthing about it but if its over that then what ever was offered was as a goodwill and they admit it was as goodwill what they offered and i excepted then when they took their time for no reason they are makeing excusses and saying were not gona give what you exceppetd in August ? i have spoke to gina simpkins manager and she said the same and she also said when i said are you not bothered you are going to lose me as a customer and that i am going to tell everyone in leeds and rotherham that youve broken a promise and she said it doesnt matter weve got customers else where ? i was quite shocked at there behaviour and at the response to my question? i have recorded these calls as evedense to prove they had made me a promise and that they admitted in the call 3 times they had promised me to swop the car but making excuses that they had made an error please please i have been waiting for a very long time to get this resolved and nothing has been done iv had no jusctice please help me with how can a big company like carcraft go back on their words aspecailly if they admitting to what they offered me and then saying no we wont give you it.

I got a car from carcraft after keeping me and my wife hanging around for hours after doing the paper work, i thought at last no hassle boy. Was i wrong. My car had a head gasket go i thought thats ok it is covered under the warranty which it was so my car went into a local garage to be repaired. I wanted a curtsy car all that carcraft said their isn't any at the moment my car is still in the garage after almost three weeks the work is done, but carcraft have not payed the bill. So the car cant be released the after care is rubbish their is no communication between care craft and the garage and between carecraft and me the car owner. When i phoned carcraft they took a long time to answer the phone over a hundred ring before anybody picked the phone up. I wouldn't recommend carcraft to anybody not even to my worst enemy i wish i never bothered but its to late for me so don't make the same mistake as me thanks to carcraft they have ruined mine and my family's xmas!