Customer reviews of Ideal Car Centre

By Michelle D on 01 September 2018 | Purchase not verified

A waste of time. I travelled nearly an hour to view and test drive a car (I rang beforehand to make sure it was still available and that I could test drive it). When we arrived, it was sat at the back of the indoor showroom with many other cars in front of it. It was so cramped it was a struggle to really look it over. I asked to test drive it because I really liked it but was asked if I test drove it, would I buy it? I replied yes, if I was still satisfied after driving it. He proceeded to ask many more times and then came round to 'figures', that they normally talk figures before test driving?! Who on earth would talk figures and say they would buy a car without even driving it? He basically couldn't be bothered to get the car out. He just made it needlessly hard work. There is nothing prestige or helpful about this company. I'm sure if the car I wanted was 50k, he would have been a lot more helpful!

Reply from Ideal Car Centre on 02/09/18

We are sorry to hear that you were unhappy with your experience. Unfortunately you turned up without your part exchange and wanted us to assume we could offer you the same amount as other garages had and then got upset when we stated we needed to value the car ourselves and would need to see it to do so. We stated several times that we were happy for you to test drive the car but that it was best done once we could value your car as any test drive would be pointless if we could not give you what you wanted for your car. We also asked to take your details (which we need for a test drive) and the details of your car but you did not want to give them and stormed out. You also looked round the car fully with it inside including looking in the boot and did not once ask for it to be pulled out or state that you could not look round it properly. Once again we are sorry you were unhappy but unfortunately we could not help you if you would not co-operate with us or even give us your details.

By Trev P on 13 August 2018 | Purchase not verified

Live in Yorkshire but this garage had a rare-ish car I wanted, a Jag X Type 4x4 estate, so went to look, liked it, so bought it. Got back as far as Ripon, and going round a tight mini-roundabout heard a grinding sound. Wasn’t there when driving normally, or even parking, just on a tight turn at more than very slow speed. Recreated it in a quiet car park and videod it. Sent the video to iDeal. who rang me first thing next morning, said take the car to my local garage and see what’s wrong. They diagnosed a wheel bearing, but also found a couple of other things that had been missed. Their mechanic rang iDeal’s mechanic, we sent some pics, and iDeal sorted the lot. Our garage fixed it, iDeal arranged for the warranty company and iDeal to pay between them. No hassle, no arguments, a pleasure to deal with. Any garage can sell you a good car, but the ones I’d rush back to are the ones that when something isn’t quite right – sort it. Which is why they get 6 stars from me. Thanks guys.

By David H on 08 August 2018 | Purchase not verified

Prior to purchasing car, there were many conditions set out by Ideal car centre which I had to meet- Deposit £500 No credit card accepted No debit card accepted I could only purchase car on Friday morning(I was 200 miles away) Full payment had to be made before Tuesday as it was end of month. The Vehicle after purchase- Chip and crack in front windscreen Car shuddered dangerously and violently at 70mph, this was a scary experience to be honest as it was extremely bad example of wheel misalignment. Bad 2 uneven tyre wear on one side. 2 bald tyres. 4 x brake pads worn almost down to back plate, warning lamp on in setting. 4 x badly scored brake disks , back 2 disks have a lip on them. Dead battery on remote key fob. Rear BMW badge embarrassingly fell off car. Annoying rattle from dash. Engine is amazingly very dirty. No car service history, I was promised this but no phone call. 2 NON run flat tyres were put on by garage alongside the 2 run flat tyres, making car potentially unstable.

Reply from Ideal Car Centre on 19/09/18

Unfortunately this review is not a genuine review and Mr Herrera has been caught by both Autotrader and Google attempting to leave multiple false reviews. It is now with our legal team. 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 as we refused to be blackmailed. Unfortunately we have now had to involve our legal department to resolve this. We contacted Mr Herrera to attempt to resolve any genuine issues, and even offered a gesture of goodwill. He refused our help and threatened bad reviews if we did not meet his demands.

By Jo C on 22 June 2018 | Purchase not verified

Great Car, great price and all round great service. Impressed with ideal Car Centre, would recommend.

By Nic H on 16 February 2018 | Purchase not verified

Bought a car in Dec 2017 ( new years eve) all paper work was done quickly and I collected the car that day. After driving away the EGR valve had a fault and the car went into limp mode. A fault that could not have been predicted nor covered up prior to the sale. I returned the car back to Ideal to the manager and colleague and they couldn't do enough to ensure the fault was repaired and dealt with in a very quick manner. Can't thank them enough for the speedy way in which the issue was dealt with and the contact he made with us while it was all going on. obviously there was no costs to us and we had the car within two days of returning it. Despite the time of the year this repair was pushed for us. The car runs like a dream. Great customer service. Would recommend this company to anyone.

By Leighton W on 31 January 2018 | Purchase not verified

Great friendly service and very helpful turned up at the showroom at 11am and was driving home in my new car 2 hours later

By Alan M on 09 October 2017 | Purchase not verified

pleasant experience, vehicle exactly as described at a very good price. Quick and easy transaction.

By Christopher P on 14 September 2017 | Purchase not verified

Car was as described and in great condition when picked up, Great service, effortless

By Alex M on 18 August 2017 | Purchase not verified

Don't ever leave a deposit. £250. I was talked into it by the salesman on the phone, telling me the car would sell before it even came in. I asked him questions about the car that he and he said 'if there are any faults with the car' when it get's in and the would happily refund the deposit. It took two weeks for me to be able to see the car, when he told me it would be in the following week. It was hard to get a date to see the car, we arranged dates and they kept putting it off. Two weeks later and I finally got to see the car, and the service book had no stamps. The car had being in and the salesman didn't even give me the curtsy to phone up and talk about the issues with the car when it came in. Personally I would say no service history is a rather large fault with a car. He said it was not classed as a fault with the car. Hence no refund. The contract states I get it back less costs to sell the vehicle in future. Lets see what happens. Don't use.

Reply from Ideal Car Centre on 18/08/17

Hello, we are very sorry to hear that you are unhappy. However we sell cars unseen all the time and never have any issues as we describe our cars accurately. We did insist on several occasions that you not leave a deposit unless you were absolutely certain you wanted to purchase the car as deposits are only refundable if the car is not as described or any major faults were apparent on test drive. You purchased the car knowing it had not arrived into stock yet, and were informed once it was in and we then prepared it for you and kept you informed. You agreed yourself today that the car was as described as it was in good condition and we had never suggested the car had service history or advertised as such. However as you were unhappy with this we still agreed to let you cancel the sale. Once again we are sorry you are unhappy, however the car we sold you was exactly as we described it to you.

By leslie w on 11 June 2017 | Purchase not verified

No major issues with the service offered but Ideal Cars lost my business by offering a derisory amount for my part-exchange. I have been offered between £800-1,125 by five local dealers for my car, but only £500 by Ideal Cars. Another customer looking at the same car also pulled out as a result of a low part-exchange offer. So disappointing that a dealer can be so greedy.

Reply from Ideal Car Centre on 12/06/17

Hello, we are sorry we were not able to help you, however we did not actually value your part exchange as we hadn't seen it. You asked for a rough value over the phone which we were unable to provide but told you the guide value was £500. Unfortunately as you wanted double this figure we were not able to help. You then offered a low figure on our car which we were unfortunately also not able to accept. If you are still looking for a car and are still interested in ours then please call us to arrange an appointment to come back and discuss a potential deal. Kind regards