Buying a Range Rover Vogue has always been my dream. I work hard and have now found myself fortunate enough to own a second hand one. The experience that I have had has been so bad that I no longer want to buy a Vogue and will have to wait a few years to get the sour taste out of my mouth before reconsidering it. From the first day I walked in, I was in the showroom for at least 3 hours, negotiating on a car that was apparently already sold. At the point I was told this I had already put down a £500 deposit on the vehicle. This was the first issue I had.
Buying a Range Rover Vogue has always been my dream. I work hard and have now found myself fortunate enough to own a second hand one. The experience that I have had has been so bad that I no longer want to buy a Vogue and will have to wait a few years to get the sour taste out of my mouth before reconsidering it. From the first day I walked in, I was in the showroom for at least 3 hours, negotiating on a car that was apparently already sold. At the point I was told this I had already put down a £500 deposit on the vehicle. This was the first issue I had. I was assured I would get the vehicle that weekend however fast forward four more weeks and I still didn't have it. Couple this with the worst level of communication from the Strugess team and you get a very angry customer. I would call them again and again and I would be told that Nigel is with another customer but I will get him to call you back, never to receive anything.
They then asked me to pay the rest of my deposit. My understanding was that the car would cost £47k. I had already paid £500 as a deposit and when my finance application went through they said I would need to put an extra £500 deposit in above my initial agreed £5000 deposit. In my head that comes to a balance of £5k to pay. To my dismay I was told to pay my balance of £6k. When I queried this they told me the price of the car was £49.5k as there is a cost associated with X guard, tyre cover and smart repairs. I naturally tried to explain that this was meant to be free and part of the agreement. I then had to renegotiate my position on the car and eventually Tim's boss came back to me and said that the final price he could offer was £48k with everything chucked in. Despite my terrible experience up until this point I was expecting to be looked after and maybe pay less than £47k but here he is asking me to pay more than what was agreed. When I threatened to pull out the deal and write a review on my experience he then said that he would try again to get the price down. Low and behold (after talking to a director) he got the price down to £47k. I then accepted to continue with the deal. I was then told that I was not going to get the car for Friday and it would now be Tuesday (the 5th week of when I accepted to purchase the vehicle). However they would send me a courtesy car for the weekend as I had a function that weekend also.
As there was a new price for the car settled a new finance agreement was sent to me to sign. To my horror under the description of the car section, it said the car had done 60k miles. I called to confirm this and it was true. I looked online (both auto trader and Land Rover approved used cars) and this car was very over priced for vehicles of this age, spec and mileage. This was the last straw, and I pulled out of the deal.
This was the worst experience I have ever had purchasing a car let alone from a prestigious and luxury car manufacturer. I have been let down by lack of communication and dodgy negotiation tactics. I have been let down time and time again by different levels of management which shows the culture is deeply embedded within the company. I have been so off put by this experience that I am now looking to buy a different brand of car and will come back to Range Rover in the next few years when I can get excited to buy my dream car again. read more
