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We are due to go to France tomorrow evening, and after a very difficult year and losing my mum a month ago we are all in need of this break.

First problem about a 3-4 weeks ago our Laguna Estate started to play up and it did have a few other issues so last minute we decided to get a new car after a little bit of research we decided to purchase a Vauxhall Zafira 55 reg from Arnold Clarke when we went to test drive it, on driving I notice a warning light permantly on the dash board a orange triangle with skid lines when I asked the sales man he said it will be going in for a service as it had only just arrived.

We decided to go ahead a purchase this car and it was ready 5 days later on collection the light was still on and when I mentioned it again the salesman said"oh yes that should be on " We also found out this car does not have spare tyre etc and we have to carry a can for punctures again if we knew this before hand we would not have purchased it.

Also themileage on the car was 5000 more than we where told and we agreed to them filling it up with dieasel and a set of car mats.

A day later my dh gogled about this light and it turns out that this means there is a fault, on contacting Arnold Clarke they tried to tell us it would be ok til we come back from France, however my dh rang our local Vauxhall garage and asked them and they said it really should be looked at, so it went in on Thursday and the part was ordered Friday and delivered Saturday, rang this morning and confirmed it was being worked on and it was. My dh has just rang back and apprently they need the resetting code for the car which noone seems to have it is not in any of our paper work we have received, vauxhalls are stating 3 days to get one from them.

my dh is on his way to Arnold Clarke now so god help them but really should we be looking at some sort of compensation, we would ask for our money back but we had a tow bar fitted on Wednesday so we would be £250 out of pocket.

Sorry for the rant just need to get it of my chest. Big sigh, deep breathe.

Thanks

Karende

At a push we could delay or holiday by 24 hours but not 72.

Tell your local garage that to reset a Vauxhall just disconnect the battery for 'as long as you can', an hour should suffice. When you reconnect it, it will reset the ECU.

If you have them you'll need to reset your one touch windows afterwards:

Use the button on the door. Try winding the windows down. Then back up to the top. Then press the button to close again. This should restore the auto window opperation.

I hope you get it sorted out.

I know this is no good now, but I drive a VX Signum and on the VX message boards on the net there seems to be a lot of horror stories about buying Vauxhalls from Arnold Clarke.

I know this is no good now, but I drive a VX Signum and on the VX message boards on the net there seems to be a lot of horror stories about buying Vauxhalls from Arnold Clarke.                

?????????

Arnold clark Dont build the car...so its a little unfair to give them all of the blame. At the end of the day, cars are massed produced items and there will always be one that will go wrong.

 You could take it to any other Vauxhall dealership also, it dose not have to be an Arnold clark dealership as the warranty is with vauxhall if its under 3 years old.

 The best way to approach the dealership is in a friendly polite manner as screaming and shouting at them never gets anyone anywhere. My advice would be to ask for your money back if your not happy, speak to the dealer principle, not the salesman as he is the one who will make the desision regarding a refund. I used to be a slaesman for Arnold clark and i have to say they are one of the better dealerships to work for. No one wants bad press for anything at the moment so if your not happy with your purchase...take it back.

Bats

Quote: Originally posted by bats on 10/8/2009

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I know this is no good now, but I drive a VX Signum and on the VX message boards on the net there seems to be a lot of horror stories about buying Vauxhalls from Arnold Clarke.                

?????????

 

Arnold clark Dont build the car...so its a little unfair to give them all of the blame. At the end of the day, cars are massed produced items and there will always be one that will go wrong.

 You could take it to any other Vauxhall dealership also, it dose not have to be an Arnold clark dealership as the warranty is with vauxhall if its under 3 years old.

 The best way to approach the dealership is in a friendly polite manner as screaming and shouting at them never gets anyone anywhere. My advice would be to ask for your money back if your not happy, speak to the dealer principle, not the salesman as he is the one who will make the desision regarding a refund. I used to be a slaesman for Arnold clark and i have to say they are one of the better dealerships to work for. No one wants bad press for anything at the moment so if your not happy with your purchase...take it back.

 

Bats

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The issue is that if you go to France even with decent breakdown cover and it breaks down on something you knew before you went was a problem then you probably aren't covered.

I hope its sorted.  The lack of spare tyre is a pig - we bought an 08 plate Zafira without one on the back of a quote from our local VX dealer that the cage was £80.03 fitted - turns out they are more like £240 - so we too are going with a can of gunk!

If the light is still on I would try to go down the hire/courtesy car route - but make sure what excess you have.  We got a courtesy car from Pentagon and the excess was £1000 so we had to pay £15 to get it covered on our own insurance.

Christine

Thanks for all your replies.

We have our car back horraayyyyyyy! They managed to get hold of the code and we where able to pick it up after 5pm.

So glad it is sorted as the children really need this holiday too, I have had to nurse my mum most of this year so we have not been able to go away like we normally do and if we had to cancel France then I think they would definately not be speaking to me.

Right need to get packed now and start loading the car.

Many thanks

Karende

karende,

So sorry that you lost your mum. I really do appreciate the emotions of nursing a parent and of loosing them.  Here's to the car being sound and you all enjoying being together on hols.

Take it easy, let the emotions roll and don't feel you have to be the life and soul of the hols - give yourself some space to be a jelly.

Pj