Carcraft Complaints

Several years ago, back in 2004, I was looking to buy a new car. My Ford Capri had decided enough was enough and it’s daily 80 mile round trip from Newport to Bristol was too much for it. Being the ‘over the top’ person I am I looked to a BMW Z3 for my second car.

No sense letting the grass grow eh?

So, armed with my Parkers guide price for each model dating back to 1996, and the average mileage to expect for the year, I looked around a few garages for a Z3. One such garage I looked at was the Carcraft centre in Newport. Now, before I went I researched on the Internet (as I do) and read an awful lot of negative comments about Carcraft. Many of the comments said the same thing; their cars were over priced and well over average mileage.

I thought I’d give them a chance anyway.

I went in and was immediately set upon by this car dealer who wouldn’t let me enter the warehouse until I’d given him my name, address and phone number. No matter how much I said I wasn’t interested, he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Reluctantly I gave him the info he wanted and proceeded to look at the cars.

They had a few BMW Z3 models, one in particular I quite liked the look of however the price was high for the age and it had some damage to the drivers side front panel.

When I inquired further I found the Mileage was 20,000 miles over average for the year. I figured there was some room to barter here, with the mileage and the scratches to the bodywork.

I approached a salesman and explained my position, how I’d researched the value of the car and the average mileage, then told him what I thought the car was worth.

Do you know, he didn’t even reply to me. He just turned his back and walked away. I couldn’t believe how rude this guy was. Not a word. He wasn’t even a junior, he was a senior salesman as I’d been told I needed to speak to him if I wanted to discuss the price.

It seems what I’d read on line was true. Carcraft sell high mileage cars for extortionate prices. They rely on people struggling to get finance in order to rip them off with their ‘offers’.

Has anyone else had any experience with Carcraft? I’d love to know if my experience was a typical one.

I later bought a Z3 from a garage in Bristol, £3,000 cheaper than the one in Carcraft, no damage and with over 30,000 less miles on the clock.

Darren Jamieson

Darren Jamieson, aka MrDaz, is the Technical Director and co-founder of Engage Web and has been working online in a career spanning two decades. His first website was built in 1998 and is still live today.

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