911costmeawife
New member
- Joined
- 22 Jul 2019
- Messages
- 2
Another warning about Specialist Cars of Malton (SCoM). I have tried to shorten the tale as the whole saga was long and painful.
I recently bought a car from this dealer (John Hawkins). The dealer offers 12 months tax and MOT as well as a 12 month warranty.
I put down a deposit on the car in early April and asked for some cosmetic mods. I paid for these mods upfront and then sat back and waited for the car. I gave my existing car in part ex and the dealer agreed to settle the finance on my existing car, which was due by 09/06/19, to the amount of £26k
The 911 was eventually ready, several weeks after the dealer said that it would be. I picked up the car and drove it away. It had my private reg number fitted as part of the deal.
By the 09/06/19 the dealer had not cleared the finance on my part ex and the finance house started to pursue me for this. The dealer told me several times that he had cleared the finance and eventually that his bank had made an error in transferring the money. I was beginning to panic now and engaged a solicitor to pursue the dealer for breach of contract. I even visited him to demand the return of my original car as he hadn't paid for it and therefore it wasn't his to sell. At this point he stated that he had sold the car. The finance was paid off the following week but as the payment was late it was short by just over £300 which I had to pay for myself in order to clear the finance and close the account.
During this time I also checked with DVLA and to my horror found that the 911 was declared as SORN, was not taxed and still had the original number fitted. I tackled the dealer about this and he said that "he had lost the paperwork in the post". I had been driving around in a car which was not taxed, was on the wrong plates and therefore my Insurance was not valid. How can any dealer allow that? I took the car off the road and got it taxed by contacting the DVLA. I obviously had to pay for that as well as paying to get the V5 reissued.
During this time I managed to contact the previous owner of the 911 to find that Hawkins was selling the car on commission for the him and that the previous owner still had the V5! The story about "losing the docs in the post" was clearly a lie (amongst many).
At this point Hawkins had not told the previous owner that he had sold his car even though he had had the money I paid for it for over a month. When the previous owner contacted Hawkins and asked him how much he had sold the car for, Hawkins told him he had sold it for £2000 less than he actually had.
As of now SCoM owe me just over £600 for the tax, V5 reissue and the overdue finance settlement. I have asked them for this but to no avail. I doubt that I will get a penny even though Hawkins contracts to sell cars with 12 months tax, a clear breach of contract. As for the much vaunted 12 month warranty, it's not worth the paper it's written on (actually it's not written anywhere as Hawkins doesn't "do" paperwork, I wonder why?).
Anyway, that's my story about Specialist Cars of Malton. The worst car buying experience of my life. "Buyer beware" eh?
I recently bought a car from this dealer (John Hawkins). The dealer offers 12 months tax and MOT as well as a 12 month warranty.
I put down a deposit on the car in early April and asked for some cosmetic mods. I paid for these mods upfront and then sat back and waited for the car. I gave my existing car in part ex and the dealer agreed to settle the finance on my existing car, which was due by 09/06/19, to the amount of £26k
The 911 was eventually ready, several weeks after the dealer said that it would be. I picked up the car and drove it away. It had my private reg number fitted as part of the deal.
By the 09/06/19 the dealer had not cleared the finance on my part ex and the finance house started to pursue me for this. The dealer told me several times that he had cleared the finance and eventually that his bank had made an error in transferring the money. I was beginning to panic now and engaged a solicitor to pursue the dealer for breach of contract. I even visited him to demand the return of my original car as he hadn't paid for it and therefore it wasn't his to sell. At this point he stated that he had sold the car. The finance was paid off the following week but as the payment was late it was short by just over £300 which I had to pay for myself in order to clear the finance and close the account.
During this time I also checked with DVLA and to my horror found that the 911 was declared as SORN, was not taxed and still had the original number fitted. I tackled the dealer about this and he said that "he had lost the paperwork in the post". I had been driving around in a car which was not taxed, was on the wrong plates and therefore my Insurance was not valid. How can any dealer allow that? I took the car off the road and got it taxed by contacting the DVLA. I obviously had to pay for that as well as paying to get the V5 reissued.
During this time I managed to contact the previous owner of the 911 to find that Hawkins was selling the car on commission for the him and that the previous owner still had the V5! The story about "losing the docs in the post" was clearly a lie (amongst many).
At this point Hawkins had not told the previous owner that he had sold his car even though he had had the money I paid for it for over a month. When the previous owner contacted Hawkins and asked him how much he had sold the car for, Hawkins told him he had sold it for £2000 less than he actually had.
As of now SCoM owe me just over £600 for the tax, V5 reissue and the overdue finance settlement. I have asked them for this but to no avail. I doubt that I will get a penny even though Hawkins contracts to sell cars with 12 months tax, a clear breach of contract. As for the much vaunted 12 month warranty, it's not worth the paper it's written on (actually it's not written anywhere as Hawkins doesn't "do" paperwork, I wonder why?).
Anyway, that's my story about Specialist Cars of Malton. The worst car buying experience of my life. "Buyer beware" eh?
