In January 2019, I bought a car from Airton Garage Tallaght. It was a 2008 BMW 520D. I was assured…read morethat there were no issues, apart from the tyres that were still legal, but needed changing soon. I accepted the car as such.
After 2 weeks, I discovered some oil drops at two different locations underneath my car. I immediately informed Airton of this issue. They indicated it may be an overflow of a recent airbox replacement/repair and asked me to continue driving, while keeping an eye on it. When I got this advice, the mechanic in the background shouted to 'not take this car in for a repair', which made me a little weary.
The car kept on dripping oil, so I went over again, asking them to have a closer look. After a few weeks I could come by, they had a look for a few days and said all was fine and they repaired the airbox. I picked up the car and continued driving it. I did notice more drops over the course of a few days, so reported it to them again. In the meantime, I needed a headlight replaced, so had the car checked over by Frank Keane BMW (30th of March 2019), as a car check was an option with BMW First. They noticed three leaks in total. Seeing as my original complaint was that I saw at least two distinct places where the leaks we ere seemingly originating, this did make sense. There is a leak at the dipstick, exhaust manifold and turbo. The next time I went over to Airton, I showed them the report and Mick (who I dealt with all through this), was aware of the dipstick, but had failed to notify me of this (he kept saying the issue was with an airbox. Furthermore, I did report at least two leaks after two weeks, so one or all leaks must have existed when I first reported it. Mick tends to disagree and says it is general wear and tear. Granted, I do drive a fair bit, but if
he had addressed the issue upon me notifying, he would have a point.
Again, two distinct oil leaks seem to exist from the very start. The oil leaks were bad enough for my workplace underground garage to put down some carton to catch the oil. In July, I went over again to get the oil leaks looked at and repaired. Mick seems to only want to address the dip stick one, which, again, he only admitted to once I had proven it with the report. Mick has taken a picture of the report from Frank Keane, which I mentioned earlier. Suffice to say, I still am waiting for the repairs to materialise. He has promised to call me back a few times, but no luck so far. Every time I go over, there is no possibility to book the car in, I always have to wait until the next week and hope he will then contact me. I have now waited a further 6 months after he said he would contact me for a repair. I don't think Airton really want to repair the car and hopes I will go away. I have checked and there is no way to email them as the WhoIs information has no details and there is no email address on
the website as far as I could find.
On top of that, I was led to believe he was part of SIMI, which gave me some confidence. I mean, if issues arise and there is a dispute with the garage, I am covered by SIMI, right? Wrong..... I reported the issue to SIMI and they had no record of Airton being a member. They promised to take appropriate action. See attached picture of the logo used on invoices.
I think it is safe to say, I will not use Airton again for future car purchases and leave the reader to draw their own conclusions on the above.