Anyone bought a car from an Arnold Clark place?
Anything good or bad to say about them?

I tried to last year. Spent 90 mins haggling and thrashing out a deal on a new car with finance. The chap shook my hand and took my credit card to take the deposit. Then came back 2 mins later to say that he actually couldn’t do that deal but would sell me the same car for “only” £3k extra. We got up, walked out, and I’ll never step foot in one of their garages again. Total waste of time.

(Got the same car and finance from another garage the next day, for £2k less than the deal I agreed with AC)

I tried, I did try, to buy a s/h Skoda from their dealership in Inverness.
I didn’t in the end, the salesman was not impressive, quite off-putting and off-hand, tried to sell me what they had – a Rapid – despite it not being fit for the purpose (family with active pursuits, needed space and decent engine).

I bought the car I wanted from dealer (not Skoda) in Perth, Strathmore Motors, they were very good.

I’ve bought 2 pre registered cars from them, they were both good deals and I was treated ok by the staff. I can’t be bothered with the hard sell, if I see something at a good price that I can afford then I don’t generally haggle.

Bad experiences of them in Perth Mercedes and Harry Fairburn BMW – both Arnold Shark by another name.
The service is so bad at Kia Perth that I get Mrs J’s car spannered at Belmont in Edinburgh.
It would have to be a good deal to get me back into one of their show rooms.

I believe it’s quite a large outfit. It wouldn’t be so if it treated all its customers badly, or sold shonky cars.

Had good and bad experiences with them. I did think it depended on the particular dealership, but now realise is down to individual level

“30 day no quibble guarantee”
Their definition of no quibbling is different to mine.

There are other car dealers out there.

We use their rental all the time, it’s good. But I had nothing but weird experiences from them trying to buy cars. “I’m looking for a mondeo diesel estate, or similiar”. Walks me past a mondeo diesel estate, shows me a petrol fabia. Another visit, “I’m interested in proper big people carriers, Galaxy sorts of things, under £5000”. Shows me a Scenic for £6000. There’s a galaxy just down the row that he seemed not to be able to accept existed. It was like some weird joke tbh.

If the price is right you will get what you pay for. I would never get servicing done by them though

They are ok buying a car from them, just don’t ever let them touch it afterwards.

We were going to buy a s/h zafira from them. But of a nosey around the car revealed that it had been bumped at the rear. They had no interest in this revelation and wouldn’t repair or reduce the price. We walked and considered it a lucky escape.

2 one year old cars from them. No problems, but keep your head together. Their cars are competitivly priced but their finance was expensive and they’re reluctant to tell you ‘cost to borrow’ focusing instead on cost per month, so take a calculator. Ended up paying cash in the end. The biggest chunk of the salesman’s commission is finance, service deals and extended warranties, decide if you want them before you go in.

I wouldn’t on the ground the stickers they put in the back windows of the cars they sell are huge and ugly and look like they should say “Motorway Maintenance” any business that would do that to their customers doesn’t care enough about their customers 😉

They are referred to as ‘Arnold Shark’ around here. Not bad as far as car sales places go and they get through stock at alarming rates so must be doing something right but the mass warehouse type sales places generally skimp on the prep of the cars and if they do service them then your warranty may not hold out if something did go wrong.

I dont know how they are still going.

Everyone without exception i know that has bought a car from them has had aftersales issues.

I guess its because they busy their head in the sand and theirs so many of them that the great unwashed believe its either main dealer or arnold shark.

No doubts arnolds prices are cheaper than the dealer and it doesnt matter how much peoplemsay it doesnt ….money matters.

Bit like my neighbour who buys vauxhalls because they are cheap…and always has issues….if i was him id stop buying vauxhalls….but as he says they are cheap.

Guess its the age old chinese light syndrome. How many cheap shit things before you learn there are better ways.

Id rather jam my nuts in the car door than buy the car off that mob.

My local one Newcastle-under-lyme were perfectly good when I bought from them in April. Competive on price and werent pushy on finance etc. Showed full break down of there finance offer and didn’t mind me comparing it to others.

Like all big chains you will I’m sure find examples at both ends of the spectrum.
The big yellow sticker came off before I left the car lot.

I believe it’s quite a large outfit. It wouldn’t be so if it treated all its customers badly, or sold shonky cars.

If they’re like the large chains round Leeds they got big by buying small independant dealers rather than by being any good.

Probably the same story of know what you want and stick to it, if they can’t supply it, walk out.

Never ever buy the expensive polish and valet and watch what they add onto the finance. I had a deposit and trade in for the last car and bought an extra year warranty, I was wanting to pay deposit, warranty and hand over the keys, only noticed last minute that the warranty had been tagged onto the finance for my “benefit”.

guess its because they busy their head in the sand and theirs so many of them that the great unwashed believe its either main dealer or arnold shark.
No doubts arnolds prices are cheaper than the dealer and it doesnt matter how much peoplemsay it doesnt ….money matters.

More often than not around here, Shark are the main dealer

Sales people vary, but have had good experiences with them BUT….
As mentioned above, don’t let them touch your car, including cleaning or “polishing” it.

It’s a pre registered car and we’ll be paying cash.
They still sound a bit iffy though…

They must own an awful lot of dealerships and franchises. They appear to be gobbling up all the independents around here. They sometimes keep the original branding, and the fact that they’re owned by Arnold Clark’s is kept quiet.

A relative bought a new car from them, and got a great deal, but the salesman was a real shark and a bit of a pain to deal with. However, it was worth the hassle because of the price.

They’re the sort of place where they’ll be phoning every 5 minutes when they smell a sale, and they’ll hound you to close the transaction and put pressure on you due to ‘end of month targets’ and ‘another buyer’ etc.. However, once you’ve paid your money they’ll never return your call, and they’ll try to wriggle out of any problems. I wouldn’t go near them for after-sales service.

I wouldn’t touch them, have heard nothing but bad stories about their after sales ‘care’.

As a ballence to most of the commenters on here.

I got a car from their Kia garage in altrincham (a px they had in rather than a Kia). It was a reasonable price although I needed a car ready to drive away for the next weekend and only a morning spare to look(last car was an unexpected mot failure needing a lot of work) so couldn’t negotiate to hard. But the car was a reasonable price and so far seems good.

If the cars good and a good price then go for it although make sure you remove the god awful yellow sticker from your rear window as soon as you can.

I’ve bought several cars from them. First couple no problems. Then bought a Passat, returned it a couple of weeks later due to oil in coolant system. They were adamant it wasn’t the head gasket(sir we’re sure the previous owner has probably added oil by mistake), so gave it a flush. I returned it a couple of weeks later with even more oil in coolant system, offered another flush. It was only when I started to slightly raise my voice in front of other potential customers, they agreed to fix it. Week later new head gasket and new radiator fan. They also say every used car sold gets a service, this is a lie! AVOID!

We were going to buy a s/h zafira from them. But of a nosey around the car revealed that it had been bumped at the rear. They had no interest in this revelation and wouldn’t repair or reduce the price. We walked and considered it a lucky escape.

Believe me, I have spent the last three weeks being ferried around in a Zafira, covering hundreds of miles, and I’ve driven one as well, and I sincerely hope you bought something else.

Arnold **** is what they should be called. Google them and see how much hate there is for thm out there.

I bought a car and returned it withnin 24 hours due to the steering failing.

When I was buying it, I wanted to part finance it and they refused to give me the Apr. Too complicated to calculate it. Worked it out came to 20% ****

The yellow stickers are a good warning to other road users that the driver doesn’t actually like cars.

I have had one car from them, awful after sales experience that I didn’t repeat. Current Ms Duck is getting the same just now. I had to tell the service manager to change his tone to her recently,loudly…in the middle of reception…Issues with her immobiliser that despite being “fixed” happened again on a b road near Kirriemuir with no phone signal two days after she got it back. AC didn’t see why a recovery vehicle was their problem. Dicks.

Best place to go looking for cars & instant test drives

Half an hour in the showroom eliminates 95% of the cars on sale today

Obv never buy one from there

Mrs Pondo went to have a look round a few years ago -“we’d like a new Panda multijet please”.
“You don’t want diesel, you want the petrol one.”
“No, it’s the diesel we’re after, thanks, if you could kindly sell us one.”
“No no, it’s the petrol you want”.
So we bought a diesel one somewhere else, brilliant car – never been to a shop that refuses to sell you what you want before.

We used a big Arnold Clark site to nosey round a few cars to narrow down which model we wanted.
Then went to the Skoda, Seat and Kia dealers locally and did the deal….
The local Seat dealer (Morrisons in Stirling) has proved to be a star – one warranty issue on SC sorted asap, they even sent a refund for the re-gas we paid for without prompting. The service they agreed was done, even lending a car to mrs_oab for the day as it was siling it down and she was walking back into town to get train home etc.