The billionaire Sir Arnold Clark, the founder of Britain's biggest independent group of car dealerships, has died at the age of 89.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-39554441
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I have had 1 service & bought 1 car in 50 years of car ownership of aproximately 40 new cars.
Bought 6 mth old/2,000 mile car - not as described & despite involvement of CAB got no redress.
Service - used wrong oil & billed for extras that were not needed - oil changed & extras deleted after 30 minutes arguing.
Sales & Service managers think that Business Ethics is a dealership on the outskirts of London.
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A Google for reviews is a bit of an eye opener.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Wed 12 Apr 17 at 09:05
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As a balance
My elderly parents bought their last car, a pre-reg VW Golf 1.4, in September 1999 from the AC dealership in Giffnock (SW corner of Glasgow, posh bit for the southerners), as it happened when I was up there visiting.
Sales process seemed OK no attempt to sell "extras", reasonable trade in / price.
I saw servicing bills over the next few years, both there and at the AC branch in Paisley when my mother moved there, looked OK, no silly extras crept on to the bill and on the few occasions I spoke to them they seemed helpful.
When the cambelt went at about 7 years old they rescued her from about a mile away & dealt with getting her home & getting the car sorted out in reasonable time and cost.
So, like most large companies I guess you get good ones and bad ones.
Incidentally we still have the car, my daughter now drives it.
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I could fill this page with horror stories of AC and to be honest I don't know how "hands on" AC has been recently in the business.
AC bodged gearbox on my Altea leaving me with a bill for a new gearbox and they denied liability.
My brother's pal is a Sales Manager with them and he would never put any of his own personal cars into them for servicing.
They have a very successful business model that has made them lots of money and in process has put many competitors out of business.
Huge rental fleet that comes onto the forecourt after 6 months where they make money before, during and after the process.
They have a huge apprentice training college that they own and operate. Get huge Govt funding for it but as part of the training, they work in their own dealerships and of course servicing your car that you are paying dealer rates for.
As they train more and more apprentices, supply exceeds demand so they can drive down the salary costs for their "mechanics"
So overall, many different ways of making money from different revenue streams and driving down their costs in the process. Personally I would have no issue buying a car from them if it was the right car etc but I would never darken their door afterwards!
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Sir Arnold Clark has died - Falkirk Bairn
