Buyer beware
Thatcham Motor Company (TMC) apparently specialises in good quality, low mileage cars. If you are lucky and there are no issues with the car then you will be ok of course but if there are problems, beware, because the helpful, smiling car salesman will rapidly reveal his alter-ego! He will say/do nothing without the boss’s say-so and of course the boss is never there when you call!
We bought a low mileage Toyota Verso 56 reg from TMC, £4000, one lady owner, excellent condition, 12 months MOT, FSH etc. The 10 minute test run did not reveal any issues but within one week the car broke down. TMC referred us to the Momentum warranty that came with the car. This turned out to be totally worthless (but that’s another story – see TrustPilot reviews about Momentum!). TMC refused to repair the fault claiming that we had damaged the automatic transmission by the way we drive, a “fact” confirmed by their “independent” engineer i.e. the local garage guy who we believe does all their servicing, MOTs etc.
At considerable expense we had two independent inspections done on the car – one by a main Toyota dealer and one by a certified independent automobile engineer. The fault was traced to the ECU plus associated parts that control the gearbox, and, importantly, it was confirmed that we could not have caused the fault by the way we drove the car. It would cost over £2000 to repair.
After advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau and Local Trading Standards we tried to return the car under the 30 day rule (Consumer Protection Act). TMC didn’t want to know. We were in the process of resorting to the Small Claims court procedure but were advised by a retired solicitor friend to try Barclaycard first as I had bought the car using my VISA card. To my surprise Barclaycard stepped up to the mark and offered to pay for the repairs, which we accepted. It was not an entirely painless process as naturally they required a detailed chronological list of all the events including copies of all the correspondence.
All-in-all I spent many, many hours writing letters, emails, making phone calls etc and a lot of money in travel expenses, recorded delivery costs and the car inspections. The bottom line I suppose is be very careful when dealing with TMC. It might pay to have an AA inspection done on the car and definitely have a good, long test run. Don't waste your money on a Momentum warranty. As I said if you buy a “good un” obviously you won’t have any hassle with TMC, but if you get a “bad un” don’t expect much in the way of customer service!
31. August 2019
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