Customer reviews of Ideal Car Centre

By Becky on 14 October 2024 | Verified purchase

Would definitely recommend anyone looking for a car to come here. The previous garages I had been too were very rude, made you feel uncomfortable and just unprofessional. Came here and it was the complete opposite. Paul was very friendly and informative and just let us look around the car without feeling pestered, unless we wanted to ask him something. The most relaxed I’ve felt when looking for a car as I didn’t feel pressured or bothered by any staff. Ended up coming away with a lovely car which I’m hoping lasts me a long time!! Would definitely come back in the future - thank you!!

By Andrew Frengley on 10 September 2024 | Verified purchase

iDeal Car Centre is not particularly easy to find in Little Hulton, but it's worth the effort. TBH it lacks many of the charms of a franchise dealership, presenting more as a fortress than an open site you might meander around kicking a few tires, but that said, they more than make up for all the fluff by providing good honest down to earth service centred around well selected and prepared cars at good prices. I am more than happy with the Golf I purchased. And just to be certain, this is not the same place as the similarly named car seller in Wolverhampton.

By Anonymous on 16 March 2024 | Verified purchase

great communication. very honest and genuine people to deal with. car as described. bought remotely. back in ireland happy with my purchase

By Anonymous on 16 March 2024 | Verified purchase

Great service and a lovely car!

By Anonymous on 12 March 2024 | Verified purchase

Professional and quick service,

By Dave on 10 November 2023 | Verified purchase

So, there was a list long of things my 3 series required including brakes which were in a bad way and so I left appropriate negative feedback. Consequently, today a representative from Ideal Car Centre called me on my mobile several time shouting at me and my family (as I was driving with handsfree on) for leaving a negative review, which is my right as it was an honest and factual review of my dealing with this garage who were extremely unprofessional and I can prove it. I am going to police and reporting this individual for harassment as he was very aggressive and wont stop calling and emailing. He also accused me of "extortion" and threatened to take me to court for "libel and slander". He would not let us talk and just yelled over my wife and I the whole time. From the start this was a bad deal.

Reply from Ideal Car Centre on 10/11/23

Unfortunately this review is not a genuine review. Mr Herrera has been caught by both Google and Autotrader attempting to leave multiple fake reviews and as such the matter is now with our solicitors. The police did contact us to inform us they agreed with us and would support our claim against Mr Herrera for libel. Whilst Mr Herrera did indeed purchase a car from us his version of events is completely incorrect and is in fact his attempt to blackmail us and extort money from us. Shortly after purchase Mr Herrera contacted us with bogus ‘issues’ and threatened to post negative feedback all over the internet if we did not meet his demands including paying him some £600. Although we acted as we should and tried to help the customer, he has since posted false negative reviews on every site possible (some multiple times) as we refused to be blackmailed. Unfortunately we have now had to involve our legal department to resolve this. Mr Herrera called to enquire about one of our cars, wanting to purchase it over the phone. We described the car in detail to him and stressed he should not leave a deposit over the phone unless he was 100% happy with our description and certain he wished to buy the car. He decided he was and insisted on leaving a deposit to buy the vehicle and received an order form confirming everything via email. As Mr Herrera insisted on paying for the car on collection we even agreed to forgo our normal process and allow him to do so as he had not seen the car yet. Mr Herrera then came and viewed and test drove the car. He confirmed it was exactly as described and that he was happy with the condition and that everything worked and the car drove exactly as it should. He paid for the car and even signed a handover form confirming that he was happy with the condition of the car and that it drove as it should and the car functioned exactly as it should. Subsequently we received an email from Mr Herrera with a list of ‘complaints’ and demanding that we pay him for work to be carried out otherwise he would ‘flood your facebook, trustpilot, autotrader etc sites with negative feedback’. His complaints included the condition of the tyres, which he was told about prior to sale, including two being worn low, and he also viewed prior to completing his purchase and informed us it did not matter as he was having all 4 tyres replaced with all weather tyres on his way home. Also a ‘scary vibration’ from the wheels balancing which Mr Herrera confirmed was not present on either the test drive or his journey home but only appeared AFTER he had all 4 tyres changed so therefore was caused by his tyre fitters! Also complaining about the service history when it was not advertised with any and he was informed it had none. Another complaint was regarding the condition of the brakes which Mr Herrera claimed needed replacing all round, despite confirming that the brakes performed exactly as they should and the car had been independently inspected by two garages including the AA which both confirmed the brakes were not overly worn and functioned exactly as they should. Mr Herrera tried to claim £600 from us for the brakes, yet we priced them including all parts and labour at under £200. We even offered for Mr Herrera to bring the car to us to have the brakes looked at and for us to contribute towards them purely as a gesture of goodwill, but as soon as we declined to pay him £600 he started posting negative reviews everywhere. Whilst we have sold Mr Herrera a very nice car which was exactly as described and he signed to confirm he was happy with the condition of it, he unfortunately felt the need to complain. Whilst we made every effort to resolve his complaints and help as best we could we do not feel it is reasonable for customers to blackmail us with threats of false and unfair reviews.

By Ian V on 10 November 2023 | Verified purchase

Bought my new car through ideal car centre. I must say they are a great team. They are honest and very open about what they can and can't do. Very smooth transaction. I noticed a noise coming from the wheel the day after picking up my new car popped back to ideal spoke to Leon then Andy. They were happy to sort out the problem no arguments or quibbles the car needed a new set of brake pads job done without any fuss. I would highly recommend Ideal car centre to anyone looking buy thier next car. Thank you so much to all the team. See you next time I'm looking for a change.

By David on 10 November 2023 | Verified purchase

Bought vw golf from Ideal Car Centre only to find out a day later the car had a clutch problem. The warranty would not cover it because they said it was wear and tear. So I took it to a garage that ideal car recommended turns out the whole clutch had collapsed! Ideal car would not pay for this so I had to find £526 out my own pocket to fix which I thought this was wrong after only driving the car 10 miles

Reply from Ideal Car Centre on 10/11/23

Whilst we are sorry to hear that you are unhappy with your car or the service, we would point out that you purchased a 12 year old Cat D Golf for £1,490 which had covered almost 90,000 miles and obviously a clutch can go anywhere between 40,000 miles and 140,000 miles and would not be covered under any warranty as it is a wear and tear item as you were made fully aware when you signed for the warranty. More importantly, you claim the clutch collapsed, yet you confirmed to us on the phone that the car was driving as it should and you were able to change gear properly etc, there was just a vibration through the clutch. This simply means the flywheel could have some dirt on it or be partly worn and this kind of vibration is entirely to be expected on a car of that age and mileage, but it obviously hasn't failed yet and therefore would not need changing yet. Unfortunately you had the repair completed before discussing it with us, yet despite this we did offer to try to speak to the warranty company to try to get a contribution for you our of our goodwill. Whilst we are sorry that you are unhappy, I think we did all we could here as you chose to have a wear and tear item replaced which had not yet failed and wasn't covered under warranty, and then turned down our offer to try to contribute towards the repair. We have also tried to contact you since to discuss it but you have not returned our calls or messages.

By Bernadette J on 10 November 2023 | Verified purchase

My son bought a corsa 2015 from Ideal Car Centre last November 2nd day overheated told to go to local garage he got a quote for £480 dealer stated the warranty only covers costs for £400 or less some warranty that however having overcome that problem the MOT due last Feb the MOT failed stating it was dangerous to drive so for that to pass its mot £400 driving away from the MOT station the car had a rattling sound underneath now it turns out a bar underneath the car needs replacing as yet to be fixed my son paid £5,700 for this car and the dealer does not want to know should the dealer reply to this review stating it’s all lies I can assure you it is not Trading standards needs to get involved with this dealer it seems the public have no rights when buying a used car from a dealer any suggestions would help.

Reply from Ideal Car Centre on 10/11/23

We are sorry to hear that you are unhappy, however we sold a car to your son who confirmed he WAS happy with our customer service and his dealings with us, we did NOT sell a car to you. Unfortunately your review is not at all accurate and does not contain the truth. As you are fully aware your son's car developed a minor fault with a fuse which caused the fan not to come on leading to the engine potentially overheating. Your son was advised not to drive the car until it was repaired for free under warranty, but he continued to drive it anyway. He acknowledged this and acknowledged it invalidated his warranty and that he was liable for any further damage to the car caused by this. Despite this we still repaired his car for free. You even complained to the finance company who had an independent report commissioned on the car and found your complaint was groundless and that as a dealer we had done everything we could or should. Whilst we make every effort to keep all our customers happy, in this instance I am afraid we did everything we could have done and could not do anything more. Your son who actually purchased the car and is our actual customer did indeed confirm to us that he was more than happy with the service received.

By Peter W on 10 November 2023 | Verified purchase

PAID 8k to this garage for a Nissan Duke only for the battery to be completely dead after a few uses. Had to spend just over £100 to get the car back on the road, money I could not afford. I waited 4 days first for The Ideal Car Centre to get back to me and offer help. I rang and was promised a call back from the manager which did not come and also sent 2 emails on their website which were ignored. After getting bus to work a few days after just paying cash for a 8k car, I had no choice but to have a local garage come out. The battery was completely dud and a new one had to be fitted. So thanks for nothing IDEAL CAR CENTRE. The bill is on its way, let’s see if you can redeem yourselves!!