Son brought a car from them has many issues and despite emailing and phoning no contact he has been trying since Thursday no one has come back to him

Son brought a car from them has many issues and despite emailing and phoning no contact he has been trying since Thursday no one has come back to him

I went to collect my Jaguar F Pace from Hilton Garage in Hilton near Derby around the middle of March 2021. I was a returning customer after five years, and despite the fact that I now live in Yorkshire, I went back to Hilton Garage, as the Mondeo I had got from them 5 years before had been a reliable car without many problems. It was during Covid that I purchased the Jaguar, and because of this I was not able to go and give it a test drive in advance of buying it. “What could possibly go wrong” was my thinking at the time given my history with Hilton Garage. The guys in overalls brought the car out and strategically parked it between two other parked cars so that I would not be able to look at it properly from the sides. One of the guys in overalls looked at me with raised eyebrows and gave a little shake of the head as he got out of the car. The young guy who was selling it to me was full of the joys of spring, and I thought to myself, what a nice young kid, and so confident. I noticed that there were a couple of chips on the windscreen, and when I mentioned it to the young salesman he almost gleefully told me that I would be able to get that fixed on the insurance and not to worry. I really wanted the car, so I let it go with regard to the chips. When I got home and had a really good look at it I noticed that three bolts from three wheels were missing. There was also one hub cap missing. So I had drove away illegally in the first place. I spent £50 getting some bolts off Amazon, and £28 on a new hubcap from same. Over the course of the next week the front two tyres started to deflate spontaneously. I thought I had slow punctures, and it was at this time I started trying to interact with Hilton Garage on the phone. It was at this time I became aware that they are more difficult to get hold of when you have problems than they are when they are trying to sell you a car. Eventually they said they would pay for the tyres when I had them fixed and then never answered the phone. It turned out the problem was with the valves, and while the mechanic was fixing the valves he pointed out to me that there was a problem with one of the nuts on the front left wheel. It didn't tighten and kept rotating. I took it to someone to fix it, and it needed a new hub. In fairness Hilton Garage did pay me back for the £392 that cost. A couple of other things also became noticeable in the early weeks. The passenger door shuddered when it was closed which indicated that it was not attached as well as it should be. The driver's side window was also an issue. If I let it wind all the way down, something happened electronically, and it would not wind back up until you had stopped the car, turned off the engine, got out, locked it, and then unlocked it and got back in. For two years I have had to remember not to let this window wind all the way down. A few months later the turbo went. I had a good six hours on the side of an A road waiting for the RAC. Took a month to get fixed, and in fairness the warranty covered around £1900 and I paid over £300, but no car for a month. This April on Good Friday I broke down on the M6, as the engine started clacking and then cut out. I initially thought I better send it to Jaguar to fix it this time. After a month they quoted me £13,000.00 for a new engine. I sent it somewhere else who have taken 3 months to tell me £8,000.00. I have this thing on finance at £454 a month for five years and it has lasted me two years. I sincerely believe that Hilton Garage took advantage of the Covid restrictions to knowingly sell me a piece of junk. I think they acquired it from someone and turned it around quickly without bothering to fix the obvious issues it had. I don't think they are worried about bad reviews, as they are doing so well as a business it does not impact on their profit margins. They talk about "duty of care," which they stole from the health care industry, and have since proven that they don’t care at all. If you look at how they answer the bad reviews on websites it is obviously a standard copy paste message along the lines of how they will go above and beyond to fix the issue, and not rest until the customer is happy, leaving no stone unturned. It's my perception that they then close the laptop and do nothing, because they don't have to. Whenever I pass through Derby, because I am down there a lot, I see their sign on the Pentagon Island, and it makes my blood boil every time. I now have no car, and have to decide if I should try and find eight grand, or send it back to them and stop paying the £454 a month. Do not buy a car off these people. If you must, get The RAC to look over it first. I was naive, and they took advantage.